I am in a homebrew pbp campaign that is fairly low level (we've been playing over a year, and I anticipate reaching level 3 soon-ish), fairly low magic (there's one magical item and a few potions owned by the group, total), and fairly low combat (we've had several combat encounters, avoided several others). We are moving into the wilderness, away from most anything resembling "civilization", and don't have the wealth to stock up on major magical healing supplies, and not too long ago, our cleric dropped from the group...
We are not completely bereft of healing, since I (paladin) have LoH. But, I was thinking of taking the Squire feat, from Knights of the Inner Sea, at level 3, and getting the Combat Healer Squire. This would give us some additional LoH's at next level (which if you read above, you'll realize could be a pretty long ways off), and would grant us a character with potentially very good Heal Skill (nobody else currently has any ranks).
My questions are, in such a setting, how effective is the Heal Skill at keeping PC's on their feet? Has anyone ever used it as their primary source of healing? How quickly does it become useless, or so minimally useful as to be without merit? Do the Combat Healer's abilities merit the expense (a feat, plus equipment and healing kits)?
The biggest problem with using the heal skill to replendish hp is that it uses up first aid kits at an alarming rate and that it takes too much time (not too much from a realism point of view but too much to be useful).
Ask your GM if it is possible to replendish the contents of your first aid kits with herbalism or such. And ask him if he would allow a trait or feat that reduces the time needed.
Note: You must expend two uses from a healer's kit to perform this task. You take a –2 penalty on your check for each use from a healer's kit that you lack.
When treating deadly wounds, you can restore hit points to a damaged creature. Treating deadly wounds restores 1 hit point per level of the creature. If you exceed the DC by 5 or more, add your Wisdom modifier (if positive) to this amount. A creature can only benefit from its deadly wounds being treated within 24 hours of being injured and never more than once per day.
Time: 1 hour.
Treating deadly wounds isn't a bad start if he can hit DC 20s. But heal skill really benefits in providing long-term care, and treating poisons, diseases, and the like(without having to have the specific 3rd level spell slots prepped). Our party is level 7 with low magic in the campaign. We typically skirmish whenever we can, ambush, and pepper with range at every opportunity before closing. When there are injuries, my rogue does a treat deadly wounds heal check first, and if people are in bad straits after that, they resort to what potions they have. If that's not enough, pull back for recovering.
Without that magical healing or 750 gp clw wand, you'll have to pull back and recuperate from time to time. If you're going to have extended time in the wilderness, invest in effective defensive camps. Set stakes or wires, dig fox-holes, pits, snares, and other traps, buy a few 25 gp guard dogs for the scent and help on guard duty, or build tucked away treetop platforms or the like to try and secure a safe-zone for recovering from hp, ability damage, and the like. Go adventure, leave the dogs, clear the site before resting, and post characters on watch. If the site is disturbed before you return, there's a sign that you need to be on your toes through the night.
I would say adding another character, even weaker level, especially with healing, is definitely worth a feat. The economy of action boost is always welcome.
Yeah, that's all pretty much where I was having read the skill thoroughly, but never utilized it in more than a passing fashion in previous games. I guess my main question would be: Short term/Long term what would be the best use of my third level feat? Squire or Extra Lay on Hands?
Long term, I would definitely say Squire. But, I have to keep in mind how long term the long term is... it might be another year before I see a positive return against the ELoH feat potential. That's not a complaint, by the way. I love the low-magic, slow advancement, heavy roleplay setup of the campaign!