White Mage as Party's main / only Healer

[GamesManipulator]

I am trying to help my group break out of some pretty narrow thinking for party composition. I am currently playing an Occultist, that has taken over the spot of their rogue that died to fill the lockpick/trap dis-abler role while not giving them all the other benefits the rogue had offered. The party cleric is played by someone who took the role so they could try it & found they hate being the healer. So I am looking to build my next backup character.

What I have for certain is that I'm going with:
Arcanist (White Mage Archetype)
Half-Orc (Sandkin racial heritage) Alignment Neutral (on the G/E axis)
Traits: Arcane Revitalization & Devoted Healer

Unless something better gets suggested; I took the Feat,
Extra Reservoir

Seriously considering:
Drawback- Mark of Slavery
Trait #3-Venicaan Medic (for Heal as a class skill)

I am planning to build the character level by level up to level 5 (our next level in-game) & am looking for any tips on making him the best healer possible with the foundation that I have chosen.

[Abraham spalding]

Not saying you have to but VMC cleric would give you some channel energy.

[Imbicatus]

White Mage is terrible at healing. They only get cure spells when they spend an arcane point, but they aren't on your spell list so you can't use wands without umd, and they also don't get condition removal spells. If you want to make an arcane caster that can heal, a witch or a bard are better picks.

[Heretek]

What Imbicatus said. Unless you're super married to the White Mage it's really just a bad choice. You'd be more effective just with a wand of cure X wounds.

[KoboldKhemist]

Second the witch. Ultimate support class in every way. One of the best spellcasters. Despite that though, really divine caster is the best fix.I have a player with a gnome oracle, and probably one of the best healers I've seen. Is there anything else in arcanist you want but other classes can't give? It doesn't seem likely healing is the only reason you choose white mage.

[Auren "Rin" Cloudstrider]

a Witch can evoke the white mage flavor much better, in fact, i personally recommend witch if you want an arcane healer. while it won't have the key spells as early as a cleric, it can use a special wand that makes it heal with healing hex for cheaper than a 3.5 wand of lesser vigor, and that same wand has a few combat uses too. plus witches have a decent amount of unique debuffs to give them something recreational to do in combat, alongside a nice save or suck. so the best way to look at playing a Witch, is to Think of playing the Arcanist from Etrian Odyssey 4, rather than the Pathfinder Arcanist.

[Secret Wizard]

I favor White Mage Arcanist.

I think it's extra sufficient.

You'll have good Charisma, so you'll Use Magic Device will easily get through the roof, allowing you to use curing wands.

NOBODY needs in-combat healing. You'll be as good as a healer with an Arcanist as you'd be with a full caster Cleric.

Focus on disabling and blasting in battles, and toss a heal every now and then (though your ability to cast Breath of Life is going to be ultra handy).

Remember you are not really a White Mage -- you are a Red Mage, master of blasting and arcane tricks, but also healing.

[GamesManipulator]

I seem to have missed the part in my original post where is says "tell me every thing I should make instead of what I asked for help building".

If you can't offer insights on how to make the most of the character concept presented; please don't comment on the thread.

[GypsyMischief]

You seem to have it figured out.

[Hubaris]

Healer is more than just fixing hit point damage, thats so easy even a monkey (familiar) could do it with UMD.

Its about being able to remove ability score damage, drain, repair lost limbs, remove insanity, break curses, turn stone back to flesh and bring back those who have unfortunately died.

*shrug* Hit points are the least of your worries.
I would say even an Alchemist makes a better main healer than the Arcanist (though very delayed on gaining Heal).

OT: You can cover some of that with UMD and Break Enchantment, but a lack of Heal (the spell) late game will be crippling. You can cheat with Limited Wish but even then that is so far down the line. A wand of Lesser Restoration will help for a while but eventually Drain starts to happen and that's definitely not fun for anyone. Basically, you're going to have to Pay to Win. Money is going to be your best friend here.

[Movin]

Consider if your GM will allow you access to the effects of the Lifting hands feat with some re-flavored trial or challenge. Being able to cast healing spells before going somewhere dangerous and keeping your in combat spell casting focused on buffs and crowd control would drastically increase your viability.

You might also talk with your GM about getting access to the Heal spell as it is effectively the capstone in healing. You are already losing Arcanist points just so you can cast healing spells. Seems really disappointing that the archetype just falls flat on actually decent healing.
As has been mentioned before healing in combat is a trap and if your group expects that you should swiftly curb that idea. the archetype you are playing has no economical method of healing in combat. Not that any other class has much of a better shot at that task.

the suggested VMC into cleric might help some. Losing half of your feats is really painful though so think hard on what you want this character to do before taking that route.

Out of combat infernal healing will cover your bases in many instances. Also makes for a great spell to use in combination with the above feat so getting hit in combat activates fast healing.

Like Secret wizard said UMD is going to be your friend, you are going to want to try and find ways to access the various X-removal spells like remove disease, fear, charm and curse. They are not often needed but it is really important to have when it is actually needed.
Nobody likes to get stuck as a statue for two sessions after all.

I suppose the real question will be how long you expect the campaign to go level wise. You ought to be fine with wands and a few scrolls of common status effect removal (lesser restoration) but the higher up you go in levels the more status effects you are going to need to cover and expect to occur.

[Auren "Rin" Cloudstrider]

anybody can heal hit points out of combat with UMD and a Wand, the real reason to bring a healer, is well, to remove the various conditions that either cripple or remove a character from play, none of which can be accessed by the arcanist, but a huge portion of which can be accessed by a healing patron witch. and well, let me link you to a youtube Video from DBJ

a good Video on how you can bypass the need for a cleric, also some good tips in the comments

[Stormagedon Dark Lord of All]

Try out False Priest Sorcerer does the White Mage thing better than White Mage.

[Heretek]

I'll second the Witch and False Priest.

[Greylurker]

Beast Channeler Witch really good at healing.

If you want an odd option

Alchemist Bomb Healer. Take the Infusion and Healing Bomb discoveries. It can be a surprisingly entertaining way to heal.

Lots of Extra Bombs feats helps with that one along with anything that improuves "splash damage"

[Dragonchess Player]

Note: You can take the unlettered arcanist archetype, to use the witch spell list, with the white mage archetype. This would at least let you use your spell slots and/or wands (without UMD checks) for basic hp healing, saving your arcane reservoir for emergencies/other uses.

Of course, the witch spell list (without patron spells) is a downgrade from the sorcerer/wizard spell list. It's adequate for most purposes, however.

A witch with the hedge witch and hex channeler archetypes may be one of the best arcane healers, though. Or you could just play an alchemist with the Infusion discovery to hand out "potions" every morning; saving your actions for things other than healing.

[Imbicatus]

Unlettered arcanist doesn't really help, because all of the good witch healing spells aren't on the witch list, but are granted by the healing patron.

[Imbicatus]

GamesManipulator wrote:

I seem to have missed the part in my original post where is says "tell me every thing I should make instead of what I asked for help building".

If you can't offer insights on how to make the most of the character concept presented; please don't comment on the thread.

If someone wants to make a fighter into the party's primary caster, there is no amount of advice that will make it work. It's worthwhile to point out the inability of the proposed class to meet the desired role, and offer alternatives that fit the desired role better.

There is no reason a witch couldn't be called a "white Mage" and fill the role of arcane healer better than the actual white Mage ever could.

[avr]

Speaking as someone who's played a sorcerer (un-archetyped) who was forced into the role of the group's primary healer by the lack of anyone else willing, yes, this can be done. A few considerations:

Make sure that others contribute to the cost of the necessary wands and scrolls in advance. Collecting later is astonishingly hard.

You need a couple of scrolls of restoration in particular, more than any other curative spell. Lesser restoration isn't enough on its own. Besides the inconvenience it plain costs more to go back to town and get it cast by a cleric a few days later, once the negative levels have set in.

Also make sure that there's someone who will save a potion or two to bring you around if you drop first.