Ranged martial with healing


Advice

Silver Crusade

Hey all!

A friend is running a level 5 two-shot (core/base classes, starting gold for our level is 10,500 if I read the chart right), and said the game would wear us down (no time for rests to regain spells, abilities, etc).

I've been messing around, and was hoping to build something that can do a decent amount of healing (not really caring about buffs) without rests or too many items, but also be decent in a fight. So far I've made:

Cleric 3/Fighter 2, focus on bows.

Alchemist 5, focusing on bows/the bombs for damage.

Zen Archer Monk 3/Cleric 2 (though I think I'm losing way too much healing power there).

Myrmidarch Magus 5 (though *all* healing would have to be from items, and Pool Strike for extra damage).

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Shadow Lodge

I would recommend the song healer bard from ultimate magic.

Feats: 1, POint BLank shot
1, precice shot
3, Rapid Shot
5, Lingering performance.

Buff yourself for damage then use wands ooc at full caster level.

You will have a lot of resources for your level.


Ranger gets access to cure spells. As do Paladins. Both can do well with ranged builds. I would play either and purchase a wand of cure light wounds. Avoid arcane spell casters as it sounds like your GM will prevent you from resting properly to regain spells.

Most healing in games is done using wands of CLW, otherwise healing in combat isn't terribly effective.

Sovereign Court

IMO, the only in-combat healing worth a damn (outside of the spell Heal) is Life Oracle. The Life Link ability means you can keep your friends healthy from a distance while staying in the back lines.

Of course, then you come to the matter that you'll be running out of health yourself... which is why you dip Life Oracle and take most of your levels in Paladin for that sweet, sweet, swift action Lay on Hands. (Divine Hunter archetype gives you Precise Shot for free which is very nice for archers.) Now you can stand in the back, heal your allies, heal yourself, and rain arrows on your enemies, all at the same time.

The build is called "Oradin" - I'm sure there's a guide for it around somewhere. Sounds like just what you're looking for.

PS: If you do go Cleric, remember that worshiping Erastil gets you longbow proficiency.

Scarab Sages

Any class with UMD and a Wand of CLW is a "healer", certainly at the point of healing between fights. For an effective in-combat healer, you really need Channel Positive Energy, with Selective Channelling to avoid healing your opponents.

That said, I can see one way to open this up, if you don't mind the roleplaying, and that's a Holy Gun or Divine Hunter paladin. You get some decent self-healing via Lay on Hands, in a push can channel energy and can use the Wand of Cure Light Wounds as well.

If you want to focus more on the healing, take Hospitaller archetype instead, for bonus channels.


Teifling Paladin with Hospitaler archetype. Fey Foundling for your first feat. Put your favored class bonus into extra healing from LoH. Huge healing. Or go Divine Hunter, take deadly aim. Paladin for sure.

Silver Crusade

Excellent! Thank you all!


I agree with Cubic Prism on Paladin - though I'd suggest Divine Hunter and Halfling with the favored class bonus to bump LoH. I played that character and he's very powerful and very fun. Plus you can use shield other on your primary melee mates and then heal yourself (and by extension, them) with a swift action LoH. It's kinda like a mini version of the "Oradin" build, but your offense will beat the pants off the Oradin.

Shadow Lodge

Grenadier Alchemist with Infusion Discovery can be shooting bomb arrows and healing.


If you go paladin, do not go divine hunter, it is a trap archetype, especially because you are starting at level 5.

Cleric is fine, so is paladin. If you are a cleric, don't get deadly aim, just go rapid, many, etc

Liberty's Edge

You could take the Arcane Healer bard archetype out of Faiths & Philosophies. It will give you the ability to channel positive energy as if you were a cleric of your bard level minus one. With your higher Charisma, that should make you more effective at it than most actual clerics, and you'll still have your Bard spells and wands for single target healing.


Have you looked at the warpriest? You'd have fighter BAB with your favorite weapon and you wouldn't have to multiclass. You could also look at short range weapons like daggers, and still do 1d8 damage with them (ranged and melee).

Silver Crusade

Oh man, I *loved* the Warpriest! Unfortunately the DM ruled against that class as OP...


I am going to lean towards paladin for the ranged/healing role, but due to its well known strength, but also due to the fact that its healing goes beyond simply waving a wand of CLW.

The paladin has access to healing spells other than cure spells, which are just as essential. Restoration to deal with ability score damage is rather important, so having both versions on its spell list simplifies things a lot.

Also, with the mercies they have available, they can deal with a variety of conditions with ease while also healing damage. At level 6, for instance, you can have it act as remove disease, which is a spell that a ranger would not get access to until level 10 (and even then it would only be due to high wisdom score). And since this is a 2-shot, I doubt you are going to get to that kind of level.


I don't think I'd go ordain with only 5 levels. If you will continue this character past 5 then sure. I just don't feel it comes into power until 8 or so.

Hospitaler paladin gives you lots of uses of LoH and Channel energy during combat. CLW wands for between fights (really your only option if you aren't going to get rests. Also get a wand of shield other to keep on the weaker targets so you can absorb some of their damage.

It sounds like you are planning more than one character. You don't need more than one healer since most of your healing needs to be done between fights. I would bring many classes that don't rely on x/per day. So, fighter > paladin for combat since the always on buffs will be more reliable than smiting that one enemy.


Buy some arrows of healing, and shoot your allies.

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