Any Oracle can do it, Life just does it best (but sacrifices a lot of other potential utility to do it).
There is also the school of thought on the subject that you don't worry about actual healing that much, you just top off after combats with Wands of CLW.
However, if you want to do more than that, there are 3 real options IMO. You listed the Cleric (Positive Energy) and the Oracle, but there is also the Restorer Archetype for the Druid, which lets them cast Cures spontaneously instead of SNA (many people consider this to be a pretty bad trade off though). Shaman also gets the cure spells, but has to actually prepare them.
No matter what you do with any of these options, because of how spellcasters are, you will be able to do other things than heal, unless you just choose to burn all your spell slots on healing.
However, if you want your Primary role to be healer (which, again, many people don't advise, buffing/support primary with healer secondary is generally overwhelmingly preferred) Life Oracle is the best pure healer in the game.
Spiritualist gets all the most important heals and condition removal spells.
Spiritualist gets all the most important heals and condition removal spells.
Good call on that, I am not too familiar with the OA book. However, they do have only 2/3 spellcasting, which (in terms of the healing role) makes them a bit worse than the others, especially considering she doesn't get to know the cure spells for free.
Spiritualist gets all the most important heals and condition removal spells.Good call on that, I am not too familiar with the OA book. However, they do have only 2/3 spellcasting, which (in terms of the healing role) makes them a bit worse than the others, especially considering she doesn't get to know the cure spells for free.
It is not "the best", but it can fulfil the role.
Spells have to be selected, but is a spontaneous caster.
As the title asks, I'm wondering what classes can act as a partys main healer?
With Main Healer I mean the person that is doing most of the healing stuff int he party (But preferably can do other stuff aswell)
Cleric and Life/Double Life Oracle are a given, But what other classes can be main healers to keep the party alive and well?
In version 3.0 of dungeons and dragons, there was the class called Healer. This class had the characteristic of having exclusive healing abilities. But nothing more. With wizard's base attack, magic and abilities were limited to healing. A kind in a certain way, passive.
Currently, the witch class. It can be a good choice for a healer class.
Spiritualist gets all the most important heals and condition removal spells.Good call on that, I am not too familiar with the OA book. However, they do have only 2/3 spellcasting, which (in terms of the healing role) makes them a bit worse than the others, especially considering she doesn't get to know the cure spells for free.It is not "the best", but it can fulfil the role.
Spells have to be selected, but is a spontaneous caster.
I agree that it CAN fulfill the role. I meant that in comparison to the Oracle (the other spontaneous caster in the discussion), the Spiritualist has to actually use a spell known to know the cure spells. (Which, as I look at the Spiritualist Spells Known progression, isn't actually a downside, since when you count the cure spells of the Oracle, they generally know the same number of spells per level (not including the mystery spells, which if you take Life Oracle does matter for in this situation). Still, they get them later, but I agree they can do the role if you want them to. They also don't get access to an additional spells known FCB, if that matters to you.
What I would say is that they can fulfill the party healing role. However, I would look elsewhere if you want your character's primary role in the party to be a healer.
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basically all you need to fill the "healer" role is wands of cure light and the ability to remove status like blindness and ability damage.
This lets TONS of archetypes and classes be able to fill this role.
If you aren't interested in Oracle and have already played Cleric, I suggest Restorer Druid. You get good healing (with spontaneous cures) and you don't sacrifice anything related to your Animal Companion or Wild Shape abilities. Those, especially in combination with your other spells, will allow you to heal well and also do plenty of other stuff.
Dedicated healer is not a necessary or even really desirable character role in a party.
In-combat healing seldom works well as an action. You are better served taking an enemy down or hitting them with some disabling spell to prevent damage than you are healing it in the middle of a fight, so it's not generally worth it unless you can do it passively or as a swift action.
Healing is best done between fights, off of a wand of Cure Light Wounds. Anyone who can use said wand is plenty of healer for a party. A Bard can be the primary healer just fine, built any way you please, without knowing any healing spells because they can use that wand of Cure Light Wounds.
And note that I said disabling spell. Damage-per-round and healing-per-round are not what wins fights. Control and action economy are what wins fights. If a Druid starts the fight with an Entangle spell that keeps a portion of the enemy from getting to the fray for a round or two, they have prevented far more damage than they could have restored with a heal spell. That's not ultra optimization. That's tactics.
Also, the Cure Light Wounds wand should always always always be bought from party funds, not individual funds, because it is for the party. It should never be one person's burden to buy, and using it isn't really a burden to anyone.
The great thing about it is, if you are a Restorer Druid or Cleric, or Non-Life Oracle, you don't have to actually plan to heal at all. You just prepare your good spells, like Entangle, and if you need a cure in an emergency you have it. I wouldn't devote any more additional resources to increasing your healing ability. Just having the spells available is more than enough.
I found Paladins to be surprisingly good Healers, especially if they can avoid hogging it all for themselves.
Merellin, that is why I think you would like the Restorer Druid. You can prepare whatever you want, and convert if you need to. Then you also have your Animal Companion and Wild Shape on top of that.
Paladin healers? Could you elaborate on the paladin healer please? I hadent thought a paladin could manage being a party healer.
They lag behind the output of full caster healers, but with Lay on Hands for the hitpoints, Mercies for the condition removals and wands as backup, they'll do just fine.
Paladins' main benefit as party healer is their robustness: it's no use for the enemy to target the healer, when the healer is also a tank...| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Hedge witch gets spontaneous cures though some GM's will say it only kicks in at level 4 so be aware of that. You can combine it with hex channeler if you really want to have access to channeling too.
If you're ever playing a game that uses Psionics, try playing a Soul Thief Vitalist.
A shaman is perfectly capable of handling the healing role, and they're flexible enough to be able to do other stuff also.
There's at least two wizard archetypes which can do the role - spell sage and arcane physician.
The Thuvian alchemist prestige class can turn any arcane caster into an occasional healer.
It's more of a backup than anything else, but a kineticist can make a really good emergency healer. Burn stops them being an everyday healer, but in that emergency large amounts of HP healing at range is something that may be worth doing in combat.
