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One of my players took the Augment Healing feat (from Complete Divine). If you don't know of it, basically it adds +2 points per spell level of all subschool Healing spells. So a 3rd level caster casting cure moderate wounds would be able to heal 2d8+7 points of damage. Pretty nice feat for the "doctor" of the group.
It has recently come up regarding the vigor group of spells (from the Spell Compendium). These are spells from the healing subschool, but instead of healing all at once, it is over a duration (usually 10 rounds + 1 round/level up to a different max duration depending on the spell level).
I am not sure how the feat would work with the vigor spells. If you apply the bonus every round, vigor would heal 9 points a round instead of just 3. If you only apply the bonus to the first round, it seems kind of a waste as often times the spell is cast before combat begins.
I want to allow some kind of bonus for this group of spells due to the feat, but I want it to make sense and stay balanced. Any suggestions?
Well the Vigor spells already heal more than the normal cure spells (granted over time). I think the easiest thing to do would have the extra healing happen at the end of the duration on the final round of healing. I guess another option would be to let the caster choose at the time of casting for the extra healing to happen on the first round or the last round of the spell. A little bit more powerful, but I don't know if it is game breaking.
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Personally, I would add 1 hp of healing per round (since the spell heals over time) until the total bonus of the feat had been exhausted. Because the healing duration is level-based and so is the feat's bonus, you're never going to end up with more rounds of healing than you have bonus to distribute.
Hmmm.. That is a tricky one, I think the bonus should be spread over the duration of the spell. Basically, give it just +1 point of healing each round. I don't have my books handy, and not sure exactly how the vigor spell works or the duration, so I can not say if this would be the proper fix, but it does seem that +1hp/round would not be way to over balancing. Just my 2 cents.
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I don't have my books handy, and not sure exactly how the vigor spell works or the duration...
Basically the vigor spells grant fast healing for a number of rounds equal to 10 + caster level. I think that they max out between 20 and 35 rounds depending on the level of the spell. Lesser vigor gives fast healing 1, vigor gives fast healing 3, and greater vigor gives fast healing 5.
When I was on the spot last time, I quickly made the ruling that I would allow the duration to go an extra number of rounds equal to the bonus granted by the feat. Since this was only a first level spell at the time, it works out fairly well. But thinking about the higher level spells, I don't know if allowing fast healing 3 to go on for an additional 6 rounds is right either -- hence the question.
Thanks everyone for the responses so far.
This actually was asked of Wizards. See the 3.5 FAQs first page on feats (pg 21 of 84) for the Sage's interpretation.
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This actually was asked of Wizards. See the 3.5 FAQs first page on feats (pg 21 of 84) for the Sage's interpretation.
Thanks for the information. The sage said "the easiest way..." is to add all the additional healing on the first round. I feel that usually isn't very effective and I feel that the feat is wasted in that case. I much prefer the suggestions here to spread it out over the duration of the spell.
Keep in mind that whatever solution you come up with will also have to apply to Extended versions of the Vigor spells. Therefore, limiting the total benefit to the maximum allowed by the feat can be pretty important. (That is, if you just allow a flat +__ bonus to each round's amount healed, the Extended version gains a vastly more powerful benefit than the wording of the feat would imply.)
Basically the vigor spells grant fast healing for a number of rounds equal to 10 + caster level. I think that they max out between 20 and 35 rounds depending on the level of the spell. Lesser vigor gives fast healing 1, vigor gives fast healing 3, and greater vigor gives fast healing 5.
Not to nitpik or anything but vigor is fast healing 2, and greater vigor is 4. (Spell Compendium p.229) Just in case anyone is trying to work out the math. The problem with the augment healing feat still remains. A very good question.
I think Wizards solution is quite good myself. Get rid of the extra math right at the beginning, it's simply not worth the extra complication to the game to work out the bonus over time - this is just not that entertaining an aspect of the game to justify adding complications. Adding extra rounds to vigour increases both the complication of the spell and also makes the feat and the vigour spell more powerful, and its already a pretty sweet healing spell. My players usually use it after the fight as waiting an extra minute for the bonus hps is usually a no brainer - the rogue has to take 20 on the room in any case and the healing can be taking place while he is doing that.