Hello everyone.
This sunday i ran a game beginning on the higher levels, 11 to be precise. I consider myself quite capable as a GM, having manned the captain's chair for the better part of 15 years. I have quite extensive experience as a player as well, so the level holds nothing new for me.
Or so I thought. One of my players got a nerd-on from the Psionics from Dreamscarred Press, but because this clashed with my plans for the campaign, I couldn't allow him to play a Psion. We looked over the options and I allowed access to the Vitalist.
I like the concept of the Vitalist a lot, a healer who drains his enemies to heal his friends and who isn't forced to depend on spells to keep everyone going is a great idea. The collective is interesting and flavorful and it looks very balanced, especially when giving it a thorough read.
Then we had 1 game session with a lot of combat. The group is level 11 and I wanted to challenge them, since I didn't had to worry about the healer running out of juice.
He healed everything with a mad efficiency that would put the cleric to shame. Using his collective, he is able to not only use a heal spell (power) at range, he can also spread the spell over several targets. So when he had 4 allies who where somewhat hurt and in need of aid, he cast his heal and gave each 25 points of healing, taking the last 10 for himself. This cost him 11 power points of his 166 for the day and didn't even required him to move from his spot.
I don't mind this in the class, it isn't really overpowered, but it is rather bothersome to actually challenge the group with combat, even though level 11 isn't that bad concerning the wonky abilities that show up later.
The player got bored with not having any challenge and that after just one session of using his abilities. He is now ret-conning his Vitalist into a Fighter, leaving the group without a healer.
My point: Be careful when allowing a player to make a vitalist in the high mid-level range, it has more bite than it seems to. Do not be afraid of it, it can be handled, but you should plan for it when making your campaign.
This wall of text was brought to you by the surgeon, of rockets ;)
Design Manager
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The thing about the Vitalist is that he does a type of healing other classes generally aren't actually good at; in combat healing.
Clerics and druids are more like "rock face and then duct tape everyone together after the fact"; the Vitalist sacrifices that capacity for face-rocking, implosions, etc. in order to be the guy for keeping the party out of the danger zone in the fight.
Another thing to consider is that in the OP's post the Vitalist spent 11pp on that trick; that's his maximum he can spend, so the OP is literally describing the best possible move the Vitalist had available. There nay have been som shenanigans going on with the Power Points as well; the Vitalist has 106 PP at 11th level and would have to have a Wisdom score of 32 to have 60 additional pp.
Even then you're talking about the Vitalist basically having 15 uses of that ability and then being done for the day; a Cleric of the same level will have over 25 spells of various levels that can all be assigned to an offensive or defensive function and converted to healing as needed, along with probably around 5-6 uses of Channel Energy which will each be worth about 21hp to each affected party member. So the Cleric's Channel energy is basically as effective as the Vitalist's best move, with the Vitalist's advantage being that he doesn't need to take a feat like Selective Channeling.
Long story short, the OP's example isn't an example of a class to be wary of; it's an example of a relatively inexperienced GM getting worried because he doesn't understand how something works, and how that fits into the overall balance of an adventuring day. It's also an example of how playing a healer who's super focused on healing and doesn't leave enough room in the build for debuffs and options can get boring (a flaw of the build, not the class). That little Vitalist trick he mentions wouldn't be enough for the party to recover from a single fireball at that level; if he did it twice that'd be close to 1/5 of a Vitalist's total capabilities for the day spent on recovering from one or two offensive spells. The Vitalist is good, but no more so than any other class. He just does what many classes do out of combat, in combat, which can be a little flustering to a GM who feels like he isn't getting anywhere when the fight ends and the party is at or near full health. Remember that health isn't the only resource to gauge; and that at levels as high as 11 the enemies should be more than just additional beatsticks; they should be throwing AoE's, debuffs, lockdowns, etc., and even the beatsticks should be swinging for substantially more than 25 points of damage. They have Power Attack and other abilities too, generally anything the party has. You want to see healing so good it gets boring, try a Life Oracle. They're the PFS legal class that gets to do most of the things the Vitalist does, only faster and with better proficiencies and offensive power (barring a pair of very specific Vitalist builds that are damage focused).
Finally, some people who believe the Vitalist is overpowered.
Have you guys taken it to 15th level where your Vitalist can do all that you said it can and place themselves safely across the world (or across the planes at 19th)? With nothing to stop them except Null Psionics or save or die effects? It's insane. There has never been a precedent like this ever. With good reason. Imagine a wizard using Clairsentience and blasting fireballs through it. Or a Cleric sitting in his temple and buffing the party who are deep underground.
I find it laughable the playtesters truly tested the Collective ability out. Also, you can have more than one Collective, imagine 2+ Vitalists. Imagine the enemies?! It becomes a game of battleship after that. Vitalists change the entire structure and theme of the game once you introduce them. Unless you fabricate some contrived reason why there is only a few of them in the multiverse.
The only way to balance this class is the following:
1) Take away their ability to use Collective beyond Medium range.
2) Make sure they also need line of sight and effect to their collective allies.
3) State that targets can only be in one Vitalist collective. If they enter another, they exit the old one.
Now you have a balanced Psionic Healer class.
Since no one told you in the other thread, I guess I'll just tell you here.
1. Vitalists have a limited number of power points per day, they might be safe, but the party might be dead.
2. Vitalists are a class focused on spending those power points to replenish a parties HP resource. HP is a resource that any class in the game can reduce.
3. There are options to suppress and eliminate the party members that the collective can't help with. Sure the party will almost never die of HP damage, but at level 15 HP damage is the absolute last thing to worry about.
4. Buffing and healing your party from safety might sound cool and could be useful, but it's hardly something overpowered like Simulacrum, which was 2 levels earlier for arcane casters?