Advice for a new GM & a party w / no healer

[Shadesofgray]

That's right- the current group has no healer (it's comprised of 2 sorcerers, a fighter, and a ranger).

I don't want to go easy on them but I also don't want any of my newer players to get frustrated if their character does die.

Now come level 7 I can make or suggest that one of them take the leadership feat and have a cohort who is a healer but I'm not sure what to do until then.

Any suggestions on how to handle this issue?

[Ethermagus]

You could always give magic items that can be used for healing, say a gift from a guildmaster or a concerned grandmother.

Another option is to have a healer NPC go with them. Perhaps the local adventurer's guild requires that young adventurers have a chaperon until they are deemed capable of taking care of themselves. Of course the guild would charge a fee for this service.

It's sometimes hard to get a player to be the healer; that's a fact of gaming. Perhaps you could even bribe one of them to do it.

Good luck in your adventures!

[Are]

Pathfinder works just fine without a dedicated healer in the group. If you add a wand of cure light wounds as treasure reasonably early, that is probably going to be all the healing the party will need for several levels (combined with potions that they could either buy or find as treasure). The ranger can use it, since cure light wounds is on his spell list. By 7th/8th level, the ranger could also simply prepare some cure spells in his spell slots.

You should definitely not force anyone to take leadership. You can suggest it, but don't make anyone take a feat if they don't want to. That's a sure-fire way to make a game "unfun". If you really feel that they need the extra healing, you should make sure that the party knows a healer in town that they could go to for healing when necessary (but who wouldn't go out on adventures with them).

[thepuregamer]

I say tell them that running away is a viable tactic.

Also the ranger can use a wand of cure light wounds out of combat. So they aren't entirely screwed on the healing.

Also, they could take(or you could give it to them for free) the feat godless healing from pathfinder campaign setting. once per day as a move action, it allows them to make a dc 10 concentration check when their hp is below half to heal d4+(1 hp per lvl). It is not a huge boost so it might be ok to give it to them for free.

They can also use heal checks to heal a certain ammount of hp once per day.

[Leonal]

My group (lvl 8) recently bought 20 wands of cure light wounds (they have a cleric, but he likes to do stuff which doesn't include healing unless absolutely necessary). And, as mentioned above, running away when low on hp helps save lives.

[Grant Evans]

A very creative way my DM did was having an Alchemist NPC who was willing to prepare infused extracts for a much lower cost than healing potions and sell them to our party. It means everyone can have a couple of potions for use without breaking the bank.

[Cathedron]

My group hasn't had a healer in a very long time. It sort of balances itself out. The thing is, if you control and kill your enemies, they don't hurt you as much and you don't need to heal. If you do things right, healing is what you do AFTER a fight.

Don't do anything different, says I. You'll probably find that things go a little better.

[cwslyclgh]

allow them to find or purchase a wand of cure light wounds perhaps even allowing them to buy the first one at a discount, pr be given it as a reward or something), the ranger can use it. as they get higher levels allow wands of cure moderate or even cure serious wounds to become available.

[xAverusx]

Cathedron wrote:

The thing is, if you control and kill your enemies, they don't hurt you as much and you don't need to heal. If you do things right, healing is what you do AFTER a fight.

This is perfectly said.

Expect shorter combats with this strategy. With some practice, the team might kill a majority of enemies before they even make it to melee.

Anything that surprises the group will be difficult though...

[Sylvanite]

That group can unleash some serious damage. It's just going to come down to "can we kill you before you kill us?" I think that if that group is a good damaging fighter, a good damaging ranger (archers often need less healing and do as much damage as melee anyhow, he should go that route!), a blasty sorc, and a controlly sorc..........then they will be absolutely fine.

The cure light wounds wand is the best treasure a low level party can get. +100 to all the people who have said it already.

[Shadesofgray]

Thanks so much for all the input everyone. I guess I'll be giving them a cure light wounds wand for sure. And we shall see if they use the fleeing option to their advantage.

[EWHM]

Here's the thing-in pathfinder, at least prior to the heal spell, even a cleric with the healing domain can RARELY outheal the DPR of a level-appropriate foe anyway. Accordingly, they heal a lot less in combat than players familiar with previous editions may be used to.