Hey everyone! So I'm preparing a character for the Skulls and Shackles adventure path. The party will consist of a Shark Shaman, a Viking Fighter, Gunslinger, Inquisitor, and a Songfilch (played by me). As you can see our party doesn't have a cleric or healer. I had given my character a background of a barber surgeon way before finding this out and managed to get a 14 in Wisdom. With that background I had put a point into heal and profession barber. So today I had found out we have no healer and that it's pretty much my job. My DM said I could come up with some homebrew rules that we could decide on to make my job as a healer easy. I saw some homebrew rules for alchemy a few minutes ago while searching. Can you guys help me come up with something like this?
- take the Brew Potion Feat (houserule it to bypass the spellcasting prerequisite)
- pay 50% of market price in raw materials
- Substitute casting of the spell with a Craft (alchemy) check.
- keep potion formulae in a recipe-book akin to a wizard's spellbook.
If anything I might just do that and have that be my level 3 feat when I reach it.
I a past campaign, I used healing to embalm the dead after combat. My character's idea was that eventually everyone would be blessed with intelligent undeath, and that in the mean time it was important to preserve the body. I thought of it as a non-magical gentle repose
Your party does have an Inquisitor; unless he is evil he has CLW on his spell list and can always use a wand. Inquisitors aren't great healers but they can do it.
Using Heal skill as a healing method is perfectly valid and can easily work in a campaign that allows the party to camp for long periods in order to recuperate. A fast-paced game might not let you do that. Heal skill should never really work in combat except to perform first aid. You could houserule first aid to heal 1 HP of damage for every 5 you beat the DC by.
If the heal skill is the main method of healing HP damage though, then I would be inclined to suggest a house rule that reduces the DC of the treat deadly wounds application. I would suggest saying that the DC is equal to 30 minus the subject's constitution score, so high-CON characters are easier to heal. Also say that each 5 points you exceed the DC adds your WIS bonus to the amount of damage healed, instead of only once. Your front-line fighters will be easier to heal this way.
That may still seem high, but remember that you can take 10 on this check and there are items you can use to improve this. An ordinary healer's kit plus surgeon's tools adds a +3 to your check. Your GM might allow masterwork surgeon's tools or magical tools to do more. Healer's gloves stack with this bonus for another +5. Get another party member to aid you for an extra +2. If you have all those things you can take 10 and get a 20, even with no skill ranks.
As far as making potions without magic, the Master Craftsman feat (core) does allow a character to craft magic items without magic by making a craft check instead. Your GM could houserule the feat to allow craft (alchemy) to be used to make potions. You would not need the brew potion feat if this was the case. Don't worry about not being able to cast the spell; this is only a small obstacle in item crafting. Your DC to create a potion of CLW would be 11 without the spell and you can take 10 on the check. The other houserule to add here would be to allow multiple potions to be brewed in one day; assume instead that in a day's work you can craft up to 1000 gp worth of potions.
Peet
Your party does have an Inquisitor; unless he is evil he has CLW on his spell list and can always use a wand. Inquisitors aren't great healers but they can do it.
Using Heal skill as a healing method is perfectly valid and can easily work in a campaign that allows the party to camp for long periods in order to recuperate. A fast-paced game might not let you do that. Heal skill should never really work in combat except to perform first aid. You could houserule first aid to heal 1 HP of damage for every 5 you beat the DC by.
If the heal skill is the main method of healing HP damage though, then I would be inclined to suggest a house rule that reduces the DC of the treat deadly wounds application. I would suggest saying that the DC is equal to 30 minus the subject's constitution score, so high-CON characters are easier to heal. Also say that each 5 points you exceed the DC adds your WIS bonus to the amount of damage healed, instead of only once. Your front-line fighters will be easier to heal this way.
That may still seem high, but remember that you can take 10 on this check and there are items you can use to improve this. An ordinary healer's kit plus surgeon's tools adds a +3 to your check. Your GM might allow masterwork surgeon's tools or magical tools to do more. Healer's gloves stack with this bonus for another +5. Get another party member to aid you for an extra +2. If you have all those things you can take 10 and get a 20, even with no skill ranks.
As far as making potions without magic, the Master Craftsman feat (core) does allow a character to craft magic items without magic by making a craft check instead. Your GM could houserule the feat to allow craft (alchemy) to be used to make potions. You would not need the brew potion feat if this was the case. Don't worry about not being able to cast the spell; this is only a small obstacle in item crafting. Your DC to create a potion of CLW would be 11 without the spell and you can take 10 on the check. The other houserule to...
By far the best advice I have read. I'll definitely do what you said. I'm sure my GM would be very understanding and allow this! Thank you very much!
You`re quite welcome.