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The heal skill is almost entirely useless in pathfinder. Yes you can use it to stabilize someone, but then any healer class has access to the stabilize orison which is, I remind you, a ranged spell. The only time a person would use a heal check is in an anti magic field. And sure, you can see how much you've hurt something, but since in almost all combat, you generally just keep clubbing, slashing, or poking, whatever it is until it stops moving does it really matter? Whose going to waste skill points for that? A rogue?
So I propose that any healer can add the ranks they have in their heal check to any healing spells they cast. This would suggest that the higher a person's heal ability the more they understand about anatomy. With a greater understanding of how the body works it makes sense that you could focus your healing energy to the more important areas.
I also think if a character has at least 10 ranks in their heal check they should be able to increase the range of their heal spell by one step. Perhaps at 20 they can increase it by 2 steps. If you feel this is too powerful this could require a spelcraft check using your heal ability.
You realise that the Heal skill can be used to heal HP damage in Pathfinder, freeing up your precious spell slots a bit until you can purchase a happystick and have all your healing woes covered?
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Between 1st and 6th level (before neutralize poison shows up for clerics), the Heal skill (and alchemical antitoxins, and the delay poison spell, and the overlooked resistance cantrip) are pretty much the only things standing between PCs and death-by-poison.
For instance, a 3rd to 4th level party running through the 1st or 2nd book of an AP that will only be named in a spoiler
If he didn't have the Heal skill (and antitoxin) *everybody* would have died, including himself, because *everybody* was poisoned (and deathblade's no joke...).
The Heal skill might also be the only thing saving a PC from becoming a ghoul because of ghoul fever (or suffer ability drain or permanent penalties from other diseases), before remove disease is available at 5th level (for clerics) or 6th level (for oracles) or the 10th of never (if your 'healer' is a wand of cure light wounds).
Lessee.. 20th level cleric
20 Max ranks
Say....+6 Modifier on Wisdom. No doubt greater
So taking an hour can heal someone 26 HP. At that point, Cure Critical Wounds wands are available for 1 poke every round.
The biggest problem of being able to keep up with damage when you get tagged without using a Heal spell has yet to be addressed. I've seen a high level barbarian on these boards not bother with armor outside of something to stack buffs. He used a Ring of Blinking for defense and unloaded Reckless Assault/Power Attack until things died.
Best reason for heal skill: poison and disease. Makes dealing with both much easier.
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I like it for healing during rests. You get more bang for your buck and it frees up some resources.
Now, if you get the skill unlocks for Heal, treat deadly wounds becomes VERY cost efficient. I made mention of this elsewhere so I'll just quote that post.
An unchained rogue with Psychic Sensitivity (For Psychic Healing), Psychic Healing, the skill unlock for Heal, a (Superior) Healer's Satchel, Bandages of Rapid Recovery and some means of accessing the Healing (Medicine) subdomain 1st level ability can grant an unbelievable amount of hit point and then temporary hit points of healing in under a minute (the domain isn't really necessary though). Once per day for each creature. But still, very, VERY powerful when used before a significant fight, and only gets better as you level. The fighter will love you.
The Heal skill works for its intended purpose. Using it to buff magic is not a good idea. Throws some feats right out the window for no reason.
Honestly the skill unlocks do a lot for the skill, i recommend using them if you want a fairly decent boost without reinventing the wheel.
Moorningstaar, diseases do not have a 1/round frequency. They typically take days to resolve, not rounds.
As for poisons, most combat lasts for a few rounds, using heal to resolve the poison after combat ends will save a poisoned character from suffering the effects for several rounds.
I have seen the heal skill make all the difference at low levels to deal with poison and disease.
Well if you still feel like you need to add more to the skill, you can alsways use the Kirthfinder rules for it. It won't affect your spells (other than being needed to prepare/learn them) but it allows for a single roll per person after combat to heal up to the damage they took in that combat to be healed.
The other thing I have used Heal for is forensics. I have an investigator and that's basically his shtick, using the heal skill to figure out what attacked someone, how long they've been dead, etc. I'd love for it to give you a cure spell or whatever, but it's not meant to be a magical skill.
You realise that the Heal skill can be used to heal HP damage in Pathfinder, freeing up your precious spell slots a bit until you can purchase a happystick and have all your healing woes covered?Only once per day per person, and each attempt takes an hour. If this is before you get a happy stick, you're probably looking at 1 or 2 HP healed. I'd hardly call that useful in most cases.
Brings the main healer back on line.
Flagged to move to Homebrew/House rules forum.
For the feats, I'd suggest the requirement be "able to cast cure [x] wounds or prepare infused extracts of cure light wounds" instead. And clarify that the CL 5 is in the class able to cast cure light wounds. Opens up the feat to witches or bards or alchemists or White Mages, which also have more skills to use on heal in the first place.
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I'd also prefer basing it on Heal ranks, and not the Heal bonus.
Ditto opening it up to non-divine casters of cure X wounds spells (such as alchemists, bards and witches), but explicitly not any healing spell or effect, so that it won't enhance spells like infernal healing, that grant fast healing or regeneration.
Gating the extra healing effects off with a Feat seems like a good way to go.
A feat to increase the range of a cure X wounds spell seems like it may be a little too good, as written, and seems completely unrelated to this Heal spell affecting curing business. Limiting the extra range to a number of people / day (designated when you prepare spells) equal to your spellcasting ability modifier (Cha for bards, Wis for clerics, etc.) might be one way to have that utility, without just arbitrarily upping all cure spells to Close range with a single feat. Other balancing options might be to require that the ranged healing only works on targets of your faith (and therefore limiting that one to divine casters, making clerics potentially better cure-ers than other classes with the same spells), or that the person to be cured at range be carrying a token or holy symbol that you've given them, through which the healing energy is transmitted, etc. also exist.
Here's a variation on the notion of Heal skill boosted curing magic, just so you know that I'm not opposed to the idea;
Prerequisites must be able to use cure light wounds as a spell or infusion, must maintain ranks in the Heal skill equal to your character level
Benefits You have learned to augment your healing magic with your mundane surgical skills, and vice versa. Whenever you make a Heal check to provide first aid, long-term care, treat caltrop wounds or treat deadly wounds, you add an insight bonus to the check equal to the highest level cure spell (or infusion) you have prepared or available to cast (if a spontaneous caster). Whenever you make a Heal check to treat disease, you gain a +3 insight bonus if you have remove disease prepared. Whenever you make a Heal check to treat poisoning, you gain a +2 insight bonus if you have delay poison available or a +4 insight bonus if you have neutralize poison available.
Whenever you cast a spell or use an infusion that cures hit point damage and has cure in the name, you can make a DC 20 Heal check as a move action to also Treat Deadly Wounds, as per the Heal skill. With the exception of the time taken, this is treated as a normal use of Treat Deadly Wounds, including bonus healing if you exceed the DC by five, expending 2 uses from a healer’s kit and needing to occur within 24 hours of an injury. This magically-enhanced use of Treat Deadly Wounds can however be applied to a single individual more than once in a 24 hour period, although the Heal check DC increases by 5 for each attempt after the first.
Additionally, whenever you use remove disease or neutralize poison as a spell or infusion, you gain a bonus to your caster level check equal to half your ranks in Heal.
Special If your total ranks in the Heal skill ever fall behind your character level, you lose the benefits of this feat until you catch up your training.
Certainly do it on Heal ranks, not bonus. The bonus can get rather large, even at 1st level, eg +1 (rank) +3 (class skill) +4 (wisdom) +2 (masterwork stethoscope) = +10. So that's +5 on a CLW with just 1 feat.
Alternatively, you might envisage that the Heal skill allows the caster to apply his spells more accurately while not increasing their overall power. So he takes the greater of the die (or dice) roll and the Heal ranks when casting a CLW, CMW, etc.
For example, a 4th level cleric with 3 ranks cast CLW. He rolls a 1. Instead of healing 1+4=5 hp, he heals 3+4=7. A 9th level bard with 8 ranks casts CLW. He'll always heal 8+5=13. If he casts CMW, he'll heal a minimum of 8+9=17.
And you can extend the idea to Remove Disease and Neutralise Poison. The minimum roll on the d20 caster level check is your Heal skill.
(edit - I wouldn't require a feat to do it this way)
You are really conflating the Heal skill with the curative magic available.
All of these work so that if patient is negative -> stabilized, and are available at low levels.
Stabilize [level 0] = only if patient is negative, standard action, 0 hp healed, 25 feet + 5 feet / 2 levels
Heal check = only if patient is negative, standard action, DC15 to Provide First Aid, 0 hp healed
Heal check = 1 hour, DC20 to Treat Deadly Wounds, heals d4 + level (no max), once per person per day
Rebuke Death [Healing domain, level 1 ability] = only if patient is negative, heals d4 + cleric level / 2
Cure Light Wounds [level 1 spell] = standard action, d8 + level (max +5)
CLW, memorized with Reach Spell metamagic [level 2 spell] = standard action, d8 + level (max +5)
CLW, spontaneous with Reach Spell metamagic [level 2 spell] = full-round action, d8 + level (max +5)
Rod of Reach Spell metamagic, lesser = 3,000 gp, usable on spell levels 1 - 3, 3 times/day
Potion of CLW = standard action, [usually] level 1, d8 + 1 [50 gp]
Wand of CLW = standard action, [usually] level 1, d8 + 1 [750 gp]
Wand of CLW, with Reach Spell metamagic = standard action, [usually] level 2 cost, d8 + 1 [4,500 gp]
First Aid Gloves = standard action, up to Breath of Life [5d8 + 9] [4,500 gp]
Here is a good discussion on Heal skill vs. the others:
https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/96820/what-is-the-reason-to-use-the -heal-skill-assuming-that-other-means-of-healing-ar
The primary purpose of the heal skill is to give a non-magical alternative to healing. It does not, and was not meant to match magical healing. It may not directly help an adventurer when there is a magical healer but that was not its intended use. Think of it as a slightly more useful craft, or professional skill.
Creating feats to make it more useful for a spell caster is not worth it. Magical healing is already powerful enough and does not need a boost. This will only serve to reduce the importance of the skill even more. The heal skill is what people who cannot afford magical healing use.
While the game focuses on the players remember that there is more to the world than just that. Heal may not be useful for the party, but it is very useful for the ordinary people of the world. Honestly you are trying to fix something that is not broken.
Other options:
Sorceress with Celestial bloodline:
Heavenly Fire (Sp): Starting at 1st level, you can unleash a ray of heavenly fire as a standard action, targeting any foe within 30 feet as a ranged touch attack. Against evil creatures, this ray deals 1d4 points of damage + 1 for every two sorcerer levels you possess. This damage is divine and not subject to energy resistance or immunity. This ray heals good creatures of 1d4 points of damage + 1 for every two sorcerer levels you possess. A good creature cannot benefit from your heavenly fire more than once per day. Neutral creatures are neither harmed nor healed by this effect. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier.
Wand of Infernal Healing: heals 1 point per round for 10 rounds, 750 gp
Wand of Celestial Healing, level 20: heals 1 point per round for 10 rounds, 750 gp * 20 = 15,000 gp
Feat Fast Healer
You benefit greatly from your healing, be it from spells or natural healing.
Prerequisites: Con 13, Diehard, Endurance.
Benefit: When you regain hit points by resting or through magical healing, you recover additional hit points equal to half your Constitution modifier (minimum +1).
Cleric Healing Domain:
Healer's Blessing (Su): At 6th level, all of your cure spells are treated as if they were empowered, increasing the amount of damage healed by half (+50%). This does not apply to damage dealt to undead with a cure spell. This does not stack with the Empower Spell metamagic feat.
Life Oracle mystery:
Enhanced Cures (Su): Whenever you cast a cure spell, the maximum number of hit points healed is based on your oracle level, not the limit based on the spell. For example, an 11th-level oracle of life with this revelation may cast cure light wounds to heal 1d8+11 hit points instead of the normal 1d8+5 maximum.
Cure Minor Wounds cantrip from 3.5: level 0 and cures exactly 1 hp
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/cureMinorWounds.htm
Only once per day per person, and each attempt takes an hour. If this is before you get a happy stick, you're probably looking at 1 or 2 HP healed. I'd hardly call that useful in most cases.
Not picking on you, but since you brought it up: a character attacking at 1 hp is no different than a character attacking at 150 hp. Sure, their defense is affected, but their offense is unimpeded. Bringing someone back into the fight (from 0 hp to 1 hp) can turn the tide of the upcoming battle. In addition, a character with 1 hp can suggest things to you such as "Let's not get revenge today and go sleep it off," as opposed to you just deciding all by yourself to get revenge for your friend's corpse.
@ Mudfoot
You might have noticed I did not include your masterwork stethoscope in my calculations. This is because the only stethoscope I could find only granted a +5 bonus to hearing based perception checks not healing. I'm not sure where your finding this.
It's a generic masterwork tool, costs 50gp, weighs 1 lb and gives +2 to the relevant skill under appropriate circumstances. Doesn't have to be a stethoscope; could be a scalpel, an endoscope, an ear syringe or a tongue depressor. CRB p58.
The "Goblins" webcomic has characters who are aware that they live in a D&D world, and the author does something neat with characters at negative hit points: they can still talk. I think he doesn't does this because despite the rules, players tend to share information anyways. The characters are still helpless and can't take actions.
I'm glad the negative HP you die at is your chance instead of a flat 10, but I'd like to see character level added to that number, and some more ways to gain a bonus on stabilization checks.