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A Witch can take a Hex that lets them Cure Light Wounds everyone in the party, one time every day. That's like 5 extra healing spells. And then, you're still a Witch.
A Cleric can Channel to heal everyone standing around for 2d6 (at 4th level, it gets better as you level) a handful of times a day. If you're into Roleplaying 'Gather that we might ask my God for a blessing...', that could be fun.
Either could also cast healing spells.
I'm told a Life Oracle is a mega-healer, but I can't really describe why.
What other roles can you do while healing? The Witch is sort of a tricksy wizard. The Cleric is a sort of a fighter. Search for 'Reach Cleric', see if that sounds like fun. (It's a Cleric that carries a long spear, and prays during his own turn, but uses the reach to stab enemies during the enemies' turn.)
Smarter people than I will be along with better suggestions, soon. :)
Take fey foundling for +2 hp per die of healing.
Get selective channel
Pump your con through the roof: you want more HP than the fighter.
Use shield other on the party tank. Split the hit dice. channel both of you for extra HP. It effectively doubles the amount you heal with a channel.
The Oracle is a pretty good healer. They are really good when they specialize, but even playing a standard enabler or controller or combat oracle, they still get every cure spell on their list of spells known, so they can always have it available. Clerics are also pretty good, but I like the Oracle better when I need to fill the healer role, but want to fill another role, like controller or combat as the main role.
Other options are Witch or Bard. I don't have much experience with the Witch, but from what I know they do well in the healer role, and can cast other spells as well. Bard is a lot better as a secondary healer, as enabling is a much higher priority for them than healing, but they have some good healing abilities.
Though really, you're not too far from the point where all you really need is CLW on your spell list, so you can use Wands of CLW, which will probably be the majority of your healing, so any of these would work.
+1 all the above advice.
Also, make sure the party is splitting the loot with an extra share for party funds. So in a party of 4, split gold 5 ways. Use the party share for buying wands of Cure Light Wounds, potions, etc. This should never come out of your share and don't let the party convince you otherwise. To do so would drain your personal gold supply, making you weaker for something everyone in the party will need at some point.
For what you need and your playstyle, I would suggest a gnome fire cleric. You get lots of aoe fire spells, all the gnomish trickery, and the ability to heal as well as any class in the game.
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2qd13?Best-Area-Blaster-is-a-cleric-to-sarenre# 1
I haven't had the chance to play one yet, but it is on my list to try.
it depends on how much healing you anticipate doing, and the party's building/playing style (how much healing you'll need to do in combat versus how much you can do between fights). i often play 'the healer' but that's almost never my sole or even defining role... though i'm playing a heavy-hitter in a highly optimized party right now that routinely fights APL+(4 to 6) and our healer is super specialized (and just heals his ass off every fight)- he's enjoying it just for the challenge of trying to keep everyone alive in the super demanding combats (and in fairness we have above average WBL, so he has early access to a couple of breath of life scrolls). here are a few of the builds i've used and enjoyed:
- cleric summoner. make an evangelist (the archetype); use feats like augment summoning, superior summoning, and sacred summons to be effective; after dropping a couple summoned creatures, use perform buff to buff all of them plus the party, use channel to heal all of them plus the party. can't dump Cha but other stats are negotiable (so you can either pump Wis and include some control/Save or Suck spells, or invest in str/dex and use a longspear/combat reflexes build).
- oracle blaster. a blackened flame oracle; heavy emphasis on Cha (take 'face skills' and UMD); get cures for free; spend feats like a regular blaster; spontaneous caster, so blast (in armor) as you like, throw combat heals when necessary, use CLW wand for out of combat healing and carry scrolls for status removal (definitely want a party fund to supply wands/scrolls for this build).
- healadin. a hospitaler paladin; high Str and Cha (pitborn tiefling, if possible); heavy armor and greatsword; take fey foundling feat @1st- rest of feats focused on damage (power attack and arcane strike ASAP); try to get as many people to attack you as possible (charge in recklessly and hit hard) to take advantage of swift action healing, if/when others need combat healing use channels (with fey foundling and the tiefling favored class bonus your LoH on yourself will be sick); when you get spells use for combat buffs (use wands/scrolls as above for healing/status removal).
2-handing a weapon on your turn then quick-drawing a shield a shield for the enemy initiative is cheesy. I know there are people who will argue tooth and nail that it is RAW.
I like the buckler and the 1-handed weapon option. You get the AC from the buckler as long as you don't 2-hand the weapon. So you have it when you are casting - which you can do while still wielding the buckler and weapon.
Archer cleric with the Reaching metamagic is fun. I am playing one now. It is feat intensive.
Just beware. As much as you plan to wade into combat I have found there is always someone in the party falling unconscious that needs healing. You will probably spend a lot more time casting spells than making attack rolls - especially as you go up in level. By end game all those combat feats will be wasted.
Do you want more of the same (barbar)? If so go pally. They heal just fine.
Also a GREAT healer is a wand of cure-light-wounds. Oh sure in-combat healing is pretty meh, but that opens up other classes like druid.
hmmm... i've never actually played an oradin... the first thing i'd say (and this is just general advice) is that you don't want that many odd stats- you're never gonna increase most of them, drop them to even numbers (with the same bonus) and use the extra points you gather to raise one or two up to the next highest even number. normally i don't suggest high Con for pallies (your hp come from LoH) but in this particular build its important to have decently high hp early on (if you have 3 bonds active an AoE will damage you when it goes off, plus deal another 15 hp at the beginning your turn because all 3 bonded creatures were effected).
in terms of feats- fey foundling would be useful just for the bonus when healing yourself (and the whole point of this build is to be healing yourself a lot). for damage/combat... if you want to play a kitsune i'd think about using a polearm- you're going to have a little trouble keeping up your damage per hit, but with your Dex you can up your damage per round by increasing your attacks/round instead through combat reflexes (and a reach weapon will help you do that). after those 2, power attack really is essential for your damage (and a perfectly valid reason for keeping your Str at 13).
personally, i wouldn't worry about a shield- i'd never suggest just being irresponsible about your AC but as a pally you're actually best off keeping it sort of mediocre... the most efficient healing comes from you being the one getting attacked and if your AC is too high things will quickly pick a juicier target.
finally- remember rule #1: have fun :)
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Just beware. As much as you plan to wade into combat I have found there is always someone in the party falling unconscious that needs healing. You will probably spend a lot more time casting spells than making attack rolls - especially as you go up in level. By end game all those combat feats will be wasted.
Slightly off topic, but
And in between those two levels? The Cleric is a strange mix between the two directions, which intersect in a very bad way: The Standard Action. Unless a Full Attack is involved, both the martial and spellcasting require the round's standard action, which means you have to choose which half of the character to use. It's especially bad if you play a character through a wide range of levels - all those martial feats and abilities you took early on have to look on sadly while your character spends most of their time in battle casting spells.
Fortunately, there's a build that gets around this limitation: a Reach Cleric
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Alchemist, Grenadier archetype, with a high int and dex can be a fun healer. Going about the alchemist as a two-weapon bomber with Spontaneous Healing, healing Touch, Infusion, Fast Bombs, Strafe Bomb, and Healing Bomb. Spontaneous Healing and Healing Touch gives you the equivalent of fast healing 5 per round for x rounds times your character level which can be use on allies as a standard action, advised for out of combat healing. Infusion is to allow allies to consume your CW extracts, advised for out of combat healing. Healing Bomb allows you to use a CW potion/extract as a ranged heal on the primary target hit and does its minimum healing amount to those in splash, advised for in combat healing.
The Grenadier archetype's Precise Bombs and Directed Blast along with Strafe Bomb and Fast Bombs are there for healing convenience. Directed Blast will allow you to use the healing Bomb as a directional cone. Strafe Bomb is included for a directional line heal if needed. Precise Bombs is obviously there to deny certain targets. Finally, Fast Bombs so you can perform multiple heals in the same round or do some heals and some actual bomb damage.
a polearm cannot be used within 5'. there are a number of ways to deal with that...
- 5' step: just take a step back and attack.
- spiked gauntlet/cestus/armor spikes: these are all weapons that a pally is proficient with and that they can have ready while fighting with a polearm- something moves within 5' attack with one of those.
- catch off-guard: use the haft of the polearm as an improvised quarterstaff (that allows you to attack with it within 5', though only d6, but then you'll still threaten out to 10' which may not be the case if you attack with a option 2)
- take it like a man: you getting attacked makes healing easier so ignore that attacker (besides healing yourself) and let someone else kill it while you try to get other people attacking you too :)
I've been struggling to come up with a fun healer character. A battle cleric or oracle sounds like the most fun, but I don't want my martial capabilities to go to waste as I run around healing people. A reach cleric sounds like an awesome solution, but my friend just played a reach cleric in a recent one-shot and I don't want to looks like I'm copying him. Any other ideas?
Race wise I'm highly considering Kitsune because I love the lore of them and wish to gain expertise in playing that race in general.
Fun, fun race. I make it no secret that kitsune are my absolute favorite race in Pathfinder. Change shape is a *lot* of fun; arguably the best roleplaying racial trait in the game, when handled by an experienced player.
I'm thinking heavy armor, maybe a quickdraw shield from what I heard of them.
I'd go with Light armor, bumped up to Medium when you are able to afford Mithral armor. As you mentioned, Dexterity is one of the kitsune's strong points. Why would you limit it with a low Maximum Dexterity bonus?
What I'm unsure about is feat progression and a good weapon. I believe a falcata (not sure how to spell it) was recommended for the build. The strategy was to use the weapon as a 2hand and then at the end of turn draw the shield.
Remember that if you're going Oradin, you aren't designed to be a strong combatant. Using a shield is a good idea, however, because it has high synergy with the Holy Vindicator prestige class, the linchpin of the Oradin build. I hate to say it, but Weapon Finesse is probably your best bet here.
Some things to consider:
Since you're playing the Kitsune, you get access to an extremely helpful Favored Class Bonus:
Select 1 weapon and reduce the Oracle's nonproficiency penalty with that weapon by 1. When this penalty reaches 0, the oracle gains proficiency with that weapon.
This means that if you're willing to go Oracle 4 / Paladin 2, you can pick up proficiency with any Exotic weapon you want. Specifically, you can grab Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Curved Elven Longblade. This means that you could, theoretically, make a Weapon Finesse built with your Oradin that utilizes the mother of all finesse weapons, and you don't need to spend one of your precious feats for it!
Because you would be relying on the Oracle's Channel Energy revelation to get into the Holy Vindicator prestige class, this does lock you into the Life Mystery, however.
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Play interesting character you actually want to play. Buy Wand of Cure Light Wounds.
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My vote is still for alchemist as a healer. True it is not as optimal as an oracle or as armored as a cleric. I will say though what it lacks in those regards it makes up for in skill points, lack of need to be up close, and versatility of style when it comes to healing. The ability to perform an AoE heal be it in a cone, line, or circle radius is a very useful option to have. Mind you there form of ranged healing also does damage to undead instead of needing to chose one or the other like a cleric.
My only concern is will this build be a strong enough healer as it lvls up? I have only played a lvl 5 barbarian so far as past experience goes so I'm trying to make sure it'll be effective throughout the full campaign.
It depends on A) how much you like healing and B) how much you like dealing damage.
I don't have too much experience in this regard, but its safe to assume that your oracle isn't going to be winning any DPR medals. That said, with the proper focus you'll do fine. You're going to want a decent Strength, a good Dexterity, and a good Charisma for this build. Constitution, in my opinion, isn't as important because you'll have tons of ways to heal yourself.
I would plan my build out like this:
O1 - Life Mystery, Lifelink Revelation (Weapon Finesse)
O2 - Bonus Spell
O3 - Chanel Energy Revelation (Any feat you want)
O4 - Mystery Spell (+1 Strength from Level Advancement; Exotic Weapon Proficiency from Favored Class Option)
P1 - Smite Evil 1/Day, Other Paladin Goodies, (Power Attack)
P2 - Divine Grace, Lay on Hands
H1 - (Alignment Channel or Elemental Channel)
So you need to take either Alignment Channel or Elemental Channnel at 7th level in order to qualify for the Prestige Class. Ultimately its up to you which one you pick up; I prefer Alignment Channel (Evil) myself because it'll be the most relevant the most often.
You get one free feat to do what you want with in the build. You'll notice that feat-wise, you aren't really focusing on healing. You're more focused on staying relevant in combat. Luckily for you, Power Attack and Weapon Finesse are all you really need in this regard. Going forward, you'll want to think about feats that increase your healing ability, such as:
Extra Channel (You only get 1 + your Cha per day. Two extra uses is helpful.)
Ultimate Mercy (This is an awesome feat, but you need to be a 3rd level paladin in order to qualify. Basically, whenever you use Lay on Hands on someone and your mercy isn't applicable, you heal an extra +1d6 points of damage.)
Extra Lay on Hands (For obvious reasons.)
Extra Revelation (There are two very strong revelations that you don't have the Oracle Levels to select; Safe Curing and Enhanced Cures. I recommend picking up at least one of these with your 3rd level feat.)
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If you want to have fun don't be a heal bot. A battle cleric or oracle is a good enough healer for all levels. Besides, healing isn't a normal combat action, and if it is your party is playing mechanically poorly. Combat is for combat, out of combat is for healing wounds.
Any class that can UMD a CLW wand is a good enough healer at 4th level. What your party is looking for is a healb+##~ from the sounds of it, and since you are the new guy you get to be it. While I'm the last person to say you should "play how you want" without regards to the party, in this case you should give them exactly what they need and not necessarily what they want. If they are struggling enough that they think they need a healer then you should roll up a bard. They get CLW access and make the party better. Or you can be an evangelist cleric, you lose the ability to ditch spells for cures,and get diminished access to channels, but you gain bardic performance and keep full progression on the cleric spell list. For the evangelist you even build for a primary combat role, since your class is inherently awesome at spells and bardic support no reason why you can't also be good in combat. Be so awesome that you shame them into wanting to play good builds instead of ones that beg for a dedicated healer.
The best healing is preventative. Give support that they need which is killing the enemy faster and providing proactive support rather than reactive healing (which doesn't even come close to keeping up, its a downward spiral to death).
If you want to have fun don't be a heal bot.
You know, I said that too at one point. And then last year I had a player who told me that she built a healbot for my campaign. (Cleric of Athena; Defense and Glory Domains). She's still playing her cleric and she loves it. The trick is to design encounters that deal high amounts of damage to party members; in other words, make encounters where waiting until out of combat to heal is too late. I regularly design monsters that chunk my players for over half their health in a single strike and have the defense to weather two or more rounds of combat.
In other words, a dedicated healer is valuable to a party if the GM makes it valuable to the party. Its all about encounter design.
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I second what Notabot said. Particularly the bit about Evangelist Clerics. You can still heal you allies if they really need it, but you give such awesome buffs they'll rarely need it. The Evangelist Cleric, as the love-child of a Bard and a Cleric, has the best buffs in the game. This works particularly well if your party is heavy on martial PCs.
I introduce my Evangelist Cleric, Magda, to the other players by informing them, "I'm a terrible healer, so don't get hurt and expect me to patch you up!" That said, I still carry enough cures to save them: one big in-combat cure, one medium in-combat cure, a few positive energy channels, a CLW wand, and several Open spell slots (esp. 2nd and 3rd level) for condition removal.
An Evangelist Cleric makes an acceptable healer at all levels (you're still a Cleric!), a terrific party buffer (Bard/Cleric mix!), and can easily be a powerful melee combatant (Clericzilla). My 9th level PFS Evangelist has 93 HP and typically attacks +20 to hit for 2d8 + 27 damage: comparable to, but slightly less than, a dedicated martial PC.
i second what alexander said... it really comes down to encounter design (and play style). i'm in a campaign right now where we're all pretty optimized (its a spectrum from fairly optimized to super optimized)- my 7th level alch/barb/2hand fighter has hit for over 200 damage in multiple sessions (on fully buffed tetsubo crits, set up by our 2WF kukri fighter with Butterfly's Sting)... we regularly get into fights with CRs 4-6 above our APL and if it weren't for our Aasimar Life Oracle working his ass off every fight there's no way we'd make it. last session we got into a real serious fight and in the 1st 3 rounds i lost about 75% of my HPs each round... but each round he'd drop a quick channel (4d6+2d6 phylactery+ 7 because i have lesser celestial totem) and an empowered cure serious wounds (his magical lineage spell; [(3d8+7)x1.5] +7 again from celestial totem) and i kept fighting.
now, i recognize that this is not a typical style of encounter design/game play, but i don't think we should be dismissive every time someone thinks their party would benefit from a dedicated healer either...
that said- in most typical games a dedicated healer really isn't necessary, as long as you have at least one character who can save someone in an emergency and heal people in between encounters (and you're not carrying any dead-weight). and there are a lot of ways that you can meet those minimum requirements and still tailor your character to what you want to play, many of which have been mentioned here already: bard, inquisitor, druid, battle-cleric, blaster-oracle, paladin with UMD, etc...
I'm continually amazed how people STILL equate "healer" with "hit point restoration specialist." A combat healer is very worthwhile, because of their ability to cure status effects! Cleric and Oracle can do this through spells (the Restoration line, Remove Curse, Cure Blindness, etc), and a Paladin through Mercies. The hit points really aren't the problem, since (as gets pointed out daily) that's best dealt with out of combat, if possible. Even so, a healer can prevent the odd untimely death there as well.
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I'm continually amazed how people STILL equate "healer" with "hit point restoration specialist." A combat healer is very worthwhile, because of their ability to cure status effects! Cleric and Oracle can do this through spells (the Restoration line, Remove Curse, Cure Blindness, etc), and a Paladin through Mercies. The hit points really aren't the problem, since (as gets pointed out daily) that's best dealt with out of combat, if possible. Even so, a healer can prevent the odd untimely death there as well.
I'm not really sure that people are missing that...but still, most healing is hit points. Almost every non-insignificant fight...
I'm looking back at recent games, and I think the parties I have been in have taken more damage through failed Will and Fort saves than anything else. Remove Fear, Remove Paralysis, Lesser Restoration as mentioned etc are all good ways to prevent a party member from being ineffectual. One failed fear save is as good as "you are no longer part of the fight, unless this takes the remaining party members 15 rounds".
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I'm looking back at recent games, and I think the parties I have been in have taken more damage through failed Will and Fort saves than anything else. Remove Fear, Remove Paralysis, Lesser Restoration as mentioned etc are all good ways to prevent a party member from being ineffectual. One failed fear save is as good as "you are no longer part of the fight, unless this takes the remaining party members 15 rounds".
Agreed.
I seem to recall a 3rd party Psionic based healer that is based off a more lifesteal kind of effect. I had been planning to make one and it completely slipped my mind, I'll have to go track it down now
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Assuming Third Party products are allowed, have you checked out the Expanded White Necromancer from Kobold Press? The class has some pretty strong healing potential!
In addition to the base whaite necromancer class, there are class archetypes, including the The Necrotic Healer, which, according to one reviw "offers perhaps one of the most heroic and self-sacrificing examples of the "healer" role ever, taking the standard White Necromancer's self-sacrificing healing abilities and running full tilt with them to make characters that take on the wounds and ailments of others."
Basically, this archetype tones down the undead aspect of the base class to almost zero and instead focuses almost entirely on healing.
You can get the individual white necromancer release above, or you can pick up the class as part of the upcoming New Paths Compendium which combines all of the New Paths classes into one print or PDF book.
If you are looking for a fun and interesting alternative to the standard, run-of-the-mill healer, please check the white necromancer out! :)
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Marc, I admire your creativity and you write some solid stuff, but I can't recall the last time you posted anything that wasn't a blatant ad for your own products.
well... if it's appropriate to the question at had then it would be silly of him not to mention it when topically appropriate.
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Marc, I admire your creativity and you write some solid stuff, but I can't recall the last time you posted anything that wasn't a blatant ad for your own products.
Hey there Makarion! I actually post PLENTY of things that have nothing even remotely to do with a product. As Talcrion points out, though, I do sometimes mention a product (even if I had nothing to do with it) if it seems like folks in a thread might like it.
In this case, I just though people in this thread, who are looking for interesting and fun alternatives to playing the typical healer after all, might be interested. No ulterior motives, I promise!
Thanks for the nice words at the beginning of your post, by the way :)
Alchemist, Grenadier archetype, with a high int and dex can be a fun healer. Going about the alchemist as a two-weapon bomber with Spontaneous Healing, healing Touch, Infusion, Fast Bombs, Strafe Bomb, and Healing Bomb. Spontaneous Healing and Healing Touch gives you the equivalent of fast healing 5 per round for x rounds times your character level which can be use on allies as a standard action, advised for out of combat healing. Infusion is to allow allies to consume your CW extracts, advised for out of combat healing. Healing Bomb allows you to use a CW potion/extract as a ranged heal on the primary target hit and does its minimum healing amount to those in splash, advised for in combat healing.
The Grenadier archetype's Precise Bombs and Directed Blast along with Strafe Bomb and Fast Bombs are there for healing convenience. Directed Blast will allow you to use the healing Bomb as a directional cone. Strafe Bomb is included for a directional line heal if needed. Precise Bombs is obviously there to deny certain targets. Finally, Fast Bombs so you can perform multiple heals in the same round or do some heals and some actual bomb damage.
That sounds like a blast (pun intended) to play! Which book is the Grenadier archetype in?
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The OP hasn't defined "fun", so I'll make an RP suggestion: play a character with a head full of rocks.
Example: cleric with an INT of 7. Roleplay *all* of your blown checks (which is like almost all of your checks, clerics being famously inept and all), and the rest of the players will be on the floor in spasms.
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With all due respect to Makarion :)
We're very excited to report the New Paths Compendium from Kobold Press is now off of preorder, in stock and ready to start shipping (there are PDF, Print and PDF/Print bundle options)!
Thanks!!!
With all due respect to Makarion :)
We're very excited to report the New Paths Compendium from Kobold Press is now off of preorder, in stock and ready to start shipping (there are PDF, Print and PDF/Print bundle options)!
Thanks!!!
*chuckles* A man's got to make a living, eh?