Roaring Viking's page

Defensive casting forestalls attacks of opportunity. So, can you defensively cast if you cannot perceive the attack of opportunity (or the attacker). For example, if your are blind, the attacker is an unsensed invisible attacker, etc? How would you prevent the attack of opportunity from happening if you cannot see it?

The less diverse the party, the less diverse the solutions that are available to it. Can you go without a rogue or other skill class? Sure. Magic can solve lots of problems addressed by skills if you carry the spells to solve the problems. That means you are spending money on it for magic items or are not carrying combat/control/buffing spells.

The same is true of other roles to a certain extent. It is easier to go without a healer if the party bails out of combat at the first sign of trouble and has the spells or items to cover an exit.

The real question is can you go with just UMD healing. Um, sorta. The fact is that a channeled-healing, spontaneous cast healing cleric can cover a multitude of sins when things go sideways. They are not a great source of coverage for other fixing spells (paralysis, blindness, remove curse) in combat because it is guesswork about when to take them. The cleric has little advantage over UMD/scrolls for that.