In an upcoming campaign, I am considering playing a Cleric who focuses on healing. I am looking for suggestions on how to get the most healing out of my Cleric…or another class if there is one that does better at healing.
First answer: don't. You tie your hands really. A healing focused cleric is reactionary. What this means is that you do next to nothing while the party is fighting; knocking the standard party to 3 on enemy down from 4 on enemy.
Second: If you really want to go this route, go healing and Protection domain. Healing gives you free empower on all your conjuration(healing) spells and Protection gives the party a buff and you a free cloak of resistance.
Invest in feats like extra channeling and selective channeling so that your channel energy becomes useful. Ask if your GM will allow the Rapid Metamagic feat(allows spontaneous casting to cast spells using metamagic normally). If so, take that and Reach Spell. That way, you can use your heal spells at a range of close for a spell level higher. It may seem unnescessary, but only moving at 20ft means that you may not be able to get where you are going fast enough to save a party members life.
Investing in Armor Proficiency: Heavy isn't a bad idea either. Protect yourself first so that you can protect the party.
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If Third Party stuff is allowed, you might want to check out Exalted Domains from Super Genius Games.
LINK.
If you take Healing as your exalted Domain, you get some very nice abilities etc that makes your cleric very healing focused :)
Take healing as a domain (as others have said) for free empowered cure spells at 6th level and see if you can take Augment Healing feat from 3.5 for +2 hit points healed per spell level of the cure spell.
You might want to look into the oracle. An oracle of life can heal the heck out of the party.
My suggestion is: Don't focus on being a healer, solely. At least mix it upp with buffs, and preferably offensive buffs or stuff that protects other things than hit points (remove fear and the like).
Selective Channeling is a must. Extra channeling can be useful. Decent Cha (14+), if you go buffs you don't need a top wisdom.
A couple of you have mentioned going with buffs. Which buffs should I take? If I do not focus on healing, as you suggested, what Feats should I look at?
You might want to look into the oracle. An oracle of life can heal the heck out of the party.
This. They get some healing type spells(restoration type ones) a spell level earlier than clerics, all "cure" spells are instantly added to spells known at the approp levels, the channel revelationlets you play wiht the channel enrgy, combat healing(cures spells dont provoke in melee), and the ability to add your whole level to cure spells means at 10th level your "throw away" cure light does 1d8+10 for a first level slot. Then you pick spells you want to use for the ones known a buff here, searing light there. It is a spontaneous caster class with all the benefits and drawbacks of that. Be human and add extra spells known for your favored class option to broaden your spell casting options.
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My favorite heal build is an oracle of life with the life link revelation, a high con modifier, the fast healer feat, and shield other and sacred bond as spells.... it's pretty cool. You basically only have to heal yourself and you get a bonus for doing so. You might also take a level in fighter to get heavy armor and shield and such... your the heal tank =D. The enemies can't kill your party with you healing them and they can't kill you because you have a huge AC.
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If your going to focus on healing.
1. Make sure you have somthing else you can bring to the party.
2. Live Orical works better. ( Alows you to focus on one stat only. )
3. Healing in combat or out of combat IMO. Is a wast of divine spell power. Bring wands and potions for healing dose a much better job, and cheaper then casting a spell.
4. Wand and scroll DC's are junk. Use them for healing and restoration only.
5. Divine spells like hold person, curse, blindness, comand, mass comand, and the list gose on. Are better they prevent damage.
Divine casters are not healing battery. They are very powerfull casters. IMO divine casters are as good if not better then arcane casters.
One trick ponys don't work in small groups.
Two is the least amount of jobs one character can do for a small group.
Over lap of abilitys is a good thing.
Example
Oricle of battle (15 point buy)
Reach weapon for melee damage starting Str 17. check
Diplomacy +6 and sense motive +2 for socal skills. check
Trait vagabond child (disable device) traps +4 Perception +2. check
(20 point buy)
Half-Elf Cleric/5 of Sarnarae
Str 14, Dex 10, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 17, Cha 16
Scimitar
Breast Plate
Light shield
Feats: Skill Focus (Heal), Selective Channeling, Reach Spell, Extra Channeling
Skills:
Special Features: Healing Domain (Restoration sub domain), Glory Domain (Honor Sub domain), Channel Energy 8/day, 3d6 healing
Thoughts: Glory increases the save DC for channel energy by 2. Restoration sub domain allows you to cure dazed, fatigued, shaken, sickened, and staggered 3 + cha mod per day. Honor grants a subject another save vs enchantment (charm) or enchantment (compulsion) effects , and can be activated to grant you another save. Can only be used once per effect, though. Remember that you can switch your scimitar to your shield hand and back as a free action. The Skill Focus heal will allow you to treat deadly wounds easier.
In 3.5, I played a cloistered cleric of Pelor/Radiant Servant of Pelor. Very good at healing, very good at hurting undead. I saved the party on more than one occasion. Even took out the BBEG at 20th level: a lich that had disintegrated one PC, Prismatic Walled the swashbuckler (he got planeshifted), and petrified another. I got lucky and natural 20ed my attack roll to touch the lich on a mass heal and the lich natural 1ed on its saving throw.
But being a one-trick pony can be both boring and counter productive. Remember to prepare useful spells, and only convert them to spontaneous healing if you need to. With Channel Energy and the extra healing spells from the healing domain, you should be OK.
In 3.5, I played a cloistered cleric of Pelor/Radiant Servant of Pelor. Very good at healing, very good at hurting undead. I saved the party on more than one occasion. Even took out the BBEG at 20th level: a lich that had disintegrated one PC, Prismatic Walled the swashbuckler (he got planeshifted), and petrified another. I got lucky and natural 20ed my attack roll to touch the lich on a mass heal and the lich natural 1ed on its saving throw.
But being a one-trick pony can be both boring and counter productive. Remember to prepare useful spells, and only convert them to spontaneous healing if you need to. With Channel Energy and the extra healing spells from the healing domain, you should be OK.
I created something similar, but went straight cleric. I had so many ways to heal and could utterly destroy undead. Never got to play her.
EDIT: When you can, pick up the phylactery that increases your channel energy by 2d6.
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The Miniatures Handbook from 3.5 has the Healer class. It gets some pretty good spell-like abilities like Remove Fear. At about 3rd level, a healer doesn't provoke opportunity attacks when casting healing spells. Also, healing spells get a bonus to hp healed equal to the character's CHA modifier. Get Skill Focus (Healing) as a bonus feat at 2nd level.
I'd also second the Life Oracle as a better 'healer' character than a cleric.
Primarily, the oracle uses Cha as his primary stat. The benefit here is that this allows you to be exceptional in social situations, giving you an additional role to play and thus not being subjected to the sole status of a walking hospital. You can use traits and feats to add a few Cha based class skills and you can have all the social skills needed to be a very effective party face. Plus oracles get more skill points each level, letting you do more and various things.
Also, since you will gain many good healing/restoartion spells via the bonus spells, you don't really need to use any of your regular spells known for healing. You can thus use them for buffs, debuffs, offense, etc.
The benefit for the oracle is that as a spontaneous caster he can call upon any of his spells when needed, whereas the cleric cannot do this (except for cure spells). Thus, if your party needs a restoration or a Heal spell, you can do it right then as long as you have spell slots available of the appropriate level. The cleric has to actually have the spell prepared, or must wait a day to do it.
But really, being able to have an additional role to play aside from just a healing battery is important, so that you can have more to do and can enjoy the game more. And also to free up your other party members to focus on other things.
So I'd personally suggest a Human Life Oracle, taking the human oracle favored class bonus for extra spells known. Pick up some traits to add say Bluff, Perception, and/or Use Magic Device to your class skills. (Or use the Cosmopolitan feat to do this). Focus skills on some social skills and your spellcasting skills. You can pick up heavy armor proficiency with a feat if so desired to give extra defenses. Focus on being a primary spellcaster, and use your feats to this end. Some metamagic feats would be good to have, as would spell focus in say Enchantment (for Hold Person, Grtr Command, etc.), or even Augment Summoning and pick up a summoning spell or two.
The oracle of life is a great suggestion! Whoever suggested that should get a medal and a whole bunch of groupies! <_<
Anyway, the advantage is that the oracle gets its fair share of spells known, and between the automatic cure spells and the focus bonus spells, you hardly need any of your regular spells known to use on healing stuff.
And while you don't get any abilities (except spells) that aren't focussed on healing, those abilities are quite nice (you can get channel energy, an ability that lets you add your whole level to cure spells, and other things) and mean that in addition to requiring only a few spells known for your healing, you don't need too many spell slots to heal, either - especially if you add some cheap Happy Sticks (wands of cure light wounds)
That means you can devote a lot of your spell power to things other than healing.
You can do the divine spell-slinger thing, using your magic directly on enemies. You can focus on charisma almost as well as a wizard on intelligence, so you'll have great DCs, and the cleric spell list does have some nice direct offence spells.
You can also do a decent battle medic. One thing clerics are good at with their magic is buffing themselves, and oracles aren't that much different with their cleric spell list. Invest in some str and con, maybe a bit in dex, and while you're not quite as focussed on cha that way, you can still do nicely enough.
You could also become an oracle with a different focus instead. It would mean using a few more resources on healing (since you don't get those nice healing-focused revelations), but you can excel in other stuff and still do a decent job as a healer. If you want to do the warrior, the oracle of battle is simply devastating, and there are foci to make you a decent spell-slinger, too.
The oracle of life is a great suggestion! Whoever suggested that should get a medal and a whole bunch of groupies! <_<
You are gonna get killed by the Maenads after going all Charlie Sheen so there is no reason to become a groupie. :)
What levels are you looking to play this character at, what materials do you have available, what is the rest of your party like, etc?
I am assuming we will be started at 1st level. I have the Pathfinder PRD, my friend who will be running has the book. At this point, I have no idea what the rest of the party will look like. I will likely being creating my daughter's character. She is 7, so I was thinking of giving her a Fighter. I am open to suggestions on this as well. The other player is 9. I was leaning healbot to try and cover a lot of missteps I am sure we will make.
I should have said that to begin with. Obviously, it does change the dynamics significantly. The GM will go easy on us, no doubt.
For the record, I am 40, 280 in dog years.
The oracle of life is a great suggestion! Whoever suggested that should get a medal and a whole bunch of groupies! <_<You are gonna get killed by the Maenads after going all Charlie Sheen so there is no reason to become a groupie. :)
Seeing how long it takes them to kill Charlie, I think I'm save for another century or two.
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I should have said that to begin with. Obviously, it does change the dynamics significantly. The GM will go easy on us, no doubt.
For the record, I am 40, 280 in dog years.
The youngens makes the Life link oracle of life even better! =D you can absorb their damage so they can learn good tactics and bad tactics without being traumatized by character death =D