Bard as healer?

[Parable]

hey everyone, just wondering if anyone has been in a party or seen a bard be a decent healer? Group is going to be starting Rise of Runelords with a Ranger, Druid, Summoner and Bard...or so it seems as of right now. I had thought about running a DMPC healer, but kinda want to avoid it.

[Kierato]

Parable wrote:

hey everyone, just wondering if anyone has been in a party or seen a bard be a decent healer? Group is going to be starting Rise of Runelords with a Ranger, Druid, Summoner and Bard...or so it seems as of right now. I had thought about running a DMPC healer, but kinda want to avoid it.

Looks like you have plenty of healers to me...I've played with fewer.

[Sylvanite]

Healing is best outside of combat anyways, so those classes will be fine as a group. Also, don't bail your group out by offering DMPCs that are dedicated healers. If the group chooses to focus their energies elsewhere, let them play that way and reap the benefits as well as the punishments for that kind of group composition. As it stands now, a few wands of cure light wounds and your group will have plenty of out of combat healing.

[Marius Castille]

I ran a bard in a 3.5 campaign and while he focused on buffs (IC, haste) and tactical support (dispel, displacement, hold) during fights, he used the occasional cure critical wounds if someone took an especially bad hit. He also carried a bandolier of wands (cure light, lesser vigor)and scrolls (revivify) and eventually picked up a staff of life. In a group with a cleric and a druid, he did the bulk of out of combat healing.

Not sure how this translates to a Pathfinder game, but I imagine you still get a lot of mileage out of Use Magic Device.

[Dorje Sylas]

Ouch, with that group you should not need much in combat healing. Ranger will eventual get a pet, Druid gets one, Summoner gets one or dumps summons, Bard buffs all. Painful pet moshpit style group. Nothing like critter spam to spread the damage around.

The Druid, Ranger, and Bard can all pass around Wands of Cure Light to Serious Wounds... which any of them could help craft if one person take Craft Wands when available.

Looks like your group is covered and has more redundancy then a typical party which relies on a single healer.

[Cheapy]

I had a bard who was te healer for a while. It works fine if the party chips in for the wands of CLW.

[TheLoneCleric]

Cheapy wrote:

I had a bard who was te healer for a while. It works fine if the party chips in for the wands of CLW.

Basically you have to carry healing for about the first 3 levels or so. After that CLW wands, scrolls, and potions will carry you the rest of the way. The only time you need to pull healing out is emergency in battle healing. Focus on casting defensively and recovering injured party members.

[LoreKeeper]

Parable wrote:

hey everyone, just wondering if anyone has been in a party or seen a bard be a decent healer? Group is going to be starting Rise of Runelords with a Ranger, Druid, Summoner and Bard...or so it seems as of right now. I had thought about running a DMPC healer, but kinda want to avoid it.

I think you've run into the trap of thinking that "real" healers are necessary in a party. Rangers, druids and bards all can use wands of cure light wounds, nothing more is needed.

[Symar]

If you *really* want more healing, you could check out the Songhealer archetype in Ultimate Magic, as well.

[Elven_Blades]

I think your current group makeup has all the healing it needs. In said group, i would recommend everyone preparing a little healing (for the prepared casters), and just take the cures at each level for the bard. As everyone has said so far, and is also the norm for most of my groups, wands handle the brunt of the out of combat work, save your spell slots for emergency in combat healing.

That being said, there are some pitfalls to not having a cleric (or caster with cleric spell list, such as the Oracle). Firstly, you don't have access to restoration and greater restoration, so some high end debuffs and afflictions will be exceedingly difficult to deal with. Also, you don't have access to most forms of bringing a character back from the dead, aside from coming back as a (dice roll to see what your are now). If your characters aren't fond of playing non-standard races, or like some players i know only play one race ever, they might be unhappy to learn that their big front line guy is now a kobold. Of corse, these things depend on the players, and some roll with that kind of punch better than others.

Hope this gives your group a few thoughts to help em with their decisions.