So, the healer (Druid) in our group is bored.
As the only real healer in the group, she feels she *has* to take only healing spells where she can. In down time she created healing potions to take some of the load off, but that really doesn't seem to have worked.
They're gone (as is all her money) and she's still having to heal to avoid deaths.
How do other GMs avoid this? I'm tempted to just hand her character a Wand of Cure Light Wounds so she can explore her other spells a bit.
Druid spells are *so* situational she really needs to be able to fill her spell slots with a few spells. As a gnome, her combat skills are sub-par (although, her bear tears things to shreds!). That being said, she now has Wild Shape - dual wield bears! Maybe that should be her route but I suspect furry combat machine wasn't what she intended with her character.
Any advice?
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Have her charge cost to the other players for potions she makes that they use. Not full value, but cost, so they're paying for their own healing. She shouldn't have to pay for their healing; and have the other players buy her the wand of CLW to use on them. And for crying out loud, how badly are they getting themselves torn up without thinking to bring their own potions? Don't give her a wand of CLW. If anything, reward her for team play with something that will get her mixing it up in combat. Wand of produce flame or a wand of bull's strength to use on her bear.
And hint to her that better days are coming.
She's going to just rock fighting in the brambles outside Thistletop.
Something like a wand can alleviate that at lower levels, yeah, but it is the sort of problem that won't necessarily go away as you go up in levels. Of all the possible options, the druid is close to the worst possible in terms of being a dedicated healer. A first level wand isn't real expensive and certainly won't overpower things if you toss one into the loot on top of what's already there.
What are the other players in your game playing? Those who can should probably be taking more responsibility for their own welfare in terms of spending their own resources in a group that doesn't have a dedicated healing class.
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The group should pay for healing items like wands of CLW collectively. My group got as far as the Runeforge without a cleric or any other healer using wands of CLW and the Paladins healing themselves with Lay on hands.
The Druid is probably more efficient casting buff or combat spells as that will reduce the amount of damage taken, until the Heal spell comes along keeping up with the damage taken using cure spells is almost impossible
I don't believe a druid was the best choice for her, not in any capacity as a support character. A druid is best run as a front-line combatant, with a tough companion, on-the-fly summoning for even more allies, and some impressive buffs and zone-control spells.
Druids have healing only tangentially, it wasn't meant to be their primary role.
That being said, it is probably in the party's best interests to invest in a couple healing wands — definitely one or two of CLW, but also a mid-level CMW if they can afford it. The bigger wand would primarily be used in-combat to cover emergencies, while the lesser one(s) would be for patching up after a battle.
I've house-ruled in my games that healing wands cure a fixed amount outside of combat, to speed up their use. (It's basically done by assuming you roll a 4 on each d8, so a basic CLW wand heals 5 per charge.) In combat, they have to roll as normal.
It's also worth it for someone else in the group to invest a bit in the Use Magic Device skill, at least enough to enable them to reliably roll a 20 (which is all you need to use a wand of any level). That enables someone else to take on the wand-handling role as well.
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Wait... No one wanted to be a cleric or oracle so they think they should stick the Druid with all the healer responsibilities including (if I read correctly) spending her own wealth on healing items they use? Just a little self-absorbed aren't we?
I hate to jump to conclusions (but hey! it's an Internet forum!) - the druid player appears to be female and is doing what's necessary to get along without it seems much acknowledgement from her boorish (male?) companions.
In every edition of this game a group of pc's is more effective in serial, multiple encounter adventures with a capable healer. We can lament that, try to ignore it or even thumb our noses at the mere thought but a Truth it remains. If no one takes that role and the GM is unwilling to add a GMPC, you're all welcome to make a go of it but it's not right to shove that role unwelcome on one ill-suited pc. You want to be a Kistune Swashbuckler? Awesome, knock yourself out but you can't expect the druid to waste her money and her actions fixing your sorry butt while you're out there tripping the light fantastic.
I suggest you intervene directly, first by calling out the situation and reminding everyone that this is supposed to be fun for all and then suggest something along these lines: Going forward, the group will pay an immediate 20% of all treasure for a healing pool which will be used to buy potions, scrolls, wands etc. Additionally, it's reasonable to ask the druid to use these items outside of combat. But if you're seriously wounded in a fight, you use your own actions and your own potions, etc. to heal yourself. She should at most be expected to carry a couple healing spells for use in a true emergency. It goes without saying she should also NOT be expected to take crafting feats to make magic items cheaper for the group.
My first question would be what is the mix of the rest of the party?
Perhaps you can alleviate the problem by adding in, not a CLW wand, but another item that can be used by another character Perhaps a wand of Infernal Healing, Mirror Image or Summon Monster II?
Some potions as loot would also help allow the distribution of actions back to the other characters as well.
My own Rise campaign is running with a druid as the only real heals, I suspect that at some point they'll be looking to recruit a more healy-type NPC to pick up the slack.
Maybe convince one of the other players to take Leadership and invest in a bit more focused healer as a cohort.
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OP
what is the rest of the group doing to mitigate incoming damage?
are they aware the player of the druid has had her gold and resources drained to keep their characters alive?
is the player of the druid unhappy with her party role or simply looking for ways to make this role as a dedicated healer a success?
needs more informations
help us to help you (and your player)
Often we create a 'party fund' by taking an extra share from the treasure that is used for things that benefit the whole party, including consumables and healing items. The druid definitely shouldn't be forced to pay for all the potions and such from her own money. Sounds like the rest of the party owes her big-time (whether that's an official 'you owe me this much GP' or 'you owe me one/a lot' or even just gifts/favors is up to the characters). Still, it's important that everyone have fun.
As others have/will point out, if the characters are getting hurt so much that they constantly need in-combat healing, they're either not built well and/or are using bad tactics in combat. They should invest in their defenses (magic armor/AC items, cloaks of resistance or displacement, boosts to CON or HP, etc.). Buffs like blur, haste, cat's grace, bear's endurance and the like can help with this. I'm not terribly familiar with the druid spell list so I can't comment on specific spells, but they get a number of battlefield control spells (like entangle, stone call, wall of thorns, and SUMMONS which are great) that should help distract some of the enemies so the other party members aren't taking as much damage, or it's being taken by summoned creatures instead which don't need healing.
Generally, parties should be able to get by without much healing in-combat, and using wands after fights to patch themselves up is useful and easy.
Is the player a combat druid or more of a caster-focus? Casters tend to do better preventing damage (as described above) than healing it.
I can't commend on the AP itself as I haven't played it.
Yeah, a wand is more cost effective than making potions. Additionally, she shouldn't have to pay her own money for something everyone uses. All party members should pool money for healing magic, even if she's the one carrying it around.
I suggest using the Strain/Injury HP variant rule (found here). This will cause a very small change in how damage works, but it will mean your druid will need to use fewer cure spells.
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#1: I'm going to pile on with the rest of the group on, "She's using all HER money to heal the party."
I was in a group where I intentionally played a Life Oracle whose SOLE purpose was healing. I did it -by choice-. And yet the rest of the party refused to contribute a dime to any kind of "healing fund". "You're the healer, use YOUR money! Asking us to pay for it is like asking the party to pay for the wizard's scrolls!"
Needless to say, it led to significant conflict the moment I stopped buying consumables and said, "Well, I've got no money, so you get until I run out of spells, and then you're S.O.L."
And they STILL wouldn't cut me any extra.
In short even if she volunteered unequivocally to be the healer, having her pay out of her own pocket for consumables is just the rest of the party being greedy jerkwads.
(I personally love the idea of a healer of Abadar. "OK. I spent all my money on scrolls and potions. You used... 6 potions of CLW, 8 charges from my wand, and 3 spells. At the going rate, that will be... 450 gold pieces, please!)
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#2: Her PC choice is a druid. She obviously didn't WANT to be the healer. So not only is the party doing the good old, "We want healing, as long as we don't have to pay for it," jerkwadiness, they're doing it to someone who would rather do something else.
That's unconscionable.
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In our Carrion Crown game, our GM allowed us to pay 1500 g.p. for an infinite-charge wand of CLW. It was nigh-useless in combat, but allowed the party to heal up outside of combat whenever they had 20-30 minutes to spare. It definitely wasn't game-breaking, because by the time you're 10th level or so you're going to be spending so much time with that wand you're going to burn your minutes-per-level buffs.
I'd suggest that if no one in the party wants to be a healer. Just make it clear that they only get ONE. EVER. The item is unique in the multiverse. The moment they try to cheese it it goes away.
And it definitely makes taking massive damage in combat far more exciting, so maybe they'll think more about tactics and defense...
Contributor
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Totally with you on the healer of Abadar. One day, when I can actually play instead of running. Although, if a party wants to hire a healer...
My Reign of Winter game has a little of this going on (although we have purchased wands now). I'm playing a winter witch with a gunslinger, Viking fighter, and two NPCs (Nadya and Greta). Fortunately, I've had the Healing hex since level 1. Still, it's a good thing we're mostly hard to hit. I can't imagine Rise of the Runelords without a healer. Gosh.
I have two suggestions.
1. Take the party members aside and state that the player running the druid is having problems with the lack of resources the other players are investing in keeping their characters alive. They may not realize how frustrated the druid player is becoming having to be the healer all of the time. I've fallen into that role because I love to play clerics, druids, shamans, and oracles, and people have a base expectation that the divine caster should be a healbot. I stopped healing certain groups depending on what type of divine caster I was playing for this very reason, and focused my spellcasting more on what divine tenets my god/goddess/pantheon/philosophy proclaimed. Once you have that discussion, see if the group changes their mind and starts picking up potions and wands of healing magic.
2. Have the party either hire or create a cohort that is a life oracle, or a cleric with the healing domain. A cleric of Sarenrae, Phasrama, or Milani would make the most sense. Or provide her with healing backup that alleviates her spell issues.
So, the healer (Druid) in our group is bored.
As the only real healer in the group, she feels she *has* to take only healing spells where she can. In down time she created healing potions to take some of the load off, but that really doesn't seem to have worked.
They're gone (as is all her money) and she's still having to heal to avoid deaths.How do other GMs avoid this? I'm tempted to just hand her character a Wand of Cure Light Wounds so she can explore her other spells a bit.
Druid spells are *so* situational she really needs to be able to fill her spell slots with a few spells. As a gnome, her combat skills are sub-par (although, her bear tears things to shreds!). That being said, she now has Wild Shape - dual wield bears! Maybe that should be her route but I suspect furry combat machine wasn't what she intended with her character.
Any advice?
Actually, for a druid, "furry combat machine" is pretty much the default setting. If that wasn't her character intent, what was?
Once she has wild shape, consumables are out of bounds: she can't draw a wand or potion while in bear form.
You have several options:
You can let her spontaneously cast cure spells along with summon nature's ally. That will free up her spell slots, but it won't solve the underlying problem of her "feeling forced" to be the healer.
I suggest you try to make someone else step up and be the healer. You said she's the "only real healer in the group", but druids are not good healers at all. What are the other character classes?
- If there's a ranger or paladin, they can use wands even before their get their spells.
- Does anyone have UMD?
- Sorcerer or wizard can use Infernal Healing.
- You can "strongly encourage" another player to take a level dip into any class that picks up cure spells on a spell list.
- You can even give the party an NPC healer so she can play her character the way she wants to.
Or, you can try to get the party to figure out why they keep dying. RotRL is not known as a brutal sausage factory (sure, it has it's moments, but still). Why is your party getting beaten so badly that only a dedicated healer keeps them alive?
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#1: I'm going to pile on with the rest of the group on, "She's using all HER money to heal the party."
I was in a group where I intentionally played a Life Oracle whose SOLE purpose was healing. I did it -by choice-. And yet the rest of the party refused to contribute a dime to any kind of "healing fund". "You're the healer, use YOUR money! Asking us to pay for it is like asking the party to pay for the wizard's scrolls!"
Well, if those were scrolls of party buffs like Haste or Communal Resist Energy, you bet I'm asking the party to pay for the wizard's scrolls. And the next time someone asks for Bull's Strength, they can pony up for spell casting services.
It's bad enough when players treat buffing and support characters like henchmen; it's even worse when players treat them like NPCs.
A lot of great advice everyone, thanks.
To answer some general questions:
- The group is 6 people, including me, with an even gender split
- There is a Paladin, who burns his Lay on Hands every chance he gets, usually on himself
- The group have only really had one near death experience (Tangletooth nearly disemboweled the paladin in one round)
- None of the characters are combat-tuned. We're more of a roleplay focused group
- Honestly, the Paladin and Monk have the worst luck with dice rolls. It's a bit beyond a joke
- The Druid player was interested in the links to the natural world etc, and planned to be "a bit of healing as required". That's just turned out to be more of a burden than we expected.
So, obviously I need to do what I can to get the other players to assist the Druid financially. I'll try subtle, then get out the mallet.
On consideration, I think there may be an "over healing" issue. Excessive caution. So a bit of guidance to the Druid player there might help. If I had to guess, I would attribute it to too much MMO playing. The whole "tank" and "healer" roles having been subconsciously assigned and/or accepted.
I might also encourage her to get out the fangs and claws if she's interested, see if increase combat power reduces the need for healing.
I'll throw in a Wand of CLW too, more for in-between fight healing than during. Are there any good re-useable, non-combat healing items I could use?
And finally, I might assure her that as GM I don't really believe in allowing player deaths unless the player is being really bone-headed. That way she doesn't have to feel like the survival of the group is her sole responsibility.
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hate to say it, but you might actually be better off having shaleu pull her aside and fiat some kind of nature themed sidequest, the party has to fight without her and they all end up dying horribly because they are jerks and then, they have to roll new characters.
Don't worry about murdering characters off. I roleplay out encounters how the monsters would react, my players play VERY safely now, because they found out why you don't punch the jerk chelaxian noble in the face.
That was my first TPK. Death by hellknights.
There seems to be a lot of assumption here that the others aren't chipping in or the like. Nothing in the original post said they weren't; instead it said she is doing the lion's share of healing. The second post shows that there is a second healer (of sorts) who is forced to use most of the healing on himself. (Of the PCs, it's been revealed there is a Paladin, a Monk, and a Druid... and the others seem to be RP-strong characters which suggests there's probably a Rogue and maybe a Bard in the group... and either a Sorcerer or Wizard.)
So really, there isn't anyone else available. Seeing the group is just now 4th level, they've not had a lot of opportunity to acquire treasure. Especially if they didn't search a certain room at Thistletop.
Seeing they ARE a roleplaying-strong group, there is a RP-related aspect to this. She's a Druid. She can shapeshift. She should tell the group "you realize I'm not going to be able to keep healing you; I'm going to be busy fighting in a form that doesn't let me cast spells. You're going to have to pony up and either buy a wand, or pay me to make additional potions to keep you all alive."
And really, this offers an RP-related solution to things, especially if the group realize just how bad a problem they have. (I take it the Paladin doesn't have a decent Charisma score? High-charisma Paladins can be quite potent healers.)
There seems to be a lot of assumption here that the others aren't chipping in or the like. Nothing in the original post said they weren't;
While that is correct, when I read
In down time she created healing potions to take some of the load off, but that really doesn't seem to have worked.
They're gone (as is all her money)
I inferred she was spending her own money on healing potions without help from the group.
I *could* be wrong, but I'd argue the wording implies that's the case, which is why many of us are uppity.
So, the healer (Druid) in our group is bored.
As the only real healer in the group, she feels she *has* to take only healing spells where she can. In down time she created healing potions to take some of the load off, but that really doesn't seem to have worked.
They're gone (as is all her money) and she's still having to heal to avoid deaths.How do other GMs avoid this? I'm tempted to just hand her character a Wand of Cure Light Wounds so she can explore her other spells a bit.
Druid spells are *so* situational she really needs to be able to fill her spell slots with a few spells. As a gnome, her combat skills are sub-par (although, her bear tears things to shreds!). That being said, she now has Wild Shape - dual wield bears! Maybe that should be her route but I suspect furry combat machine wasn't what she intended with her character.
Any advice?
The players tactics could be a problem. As a GM I would give advice on what to do better unless they just have bad dice rolls. I also think the entire party should help her buy a wand.
I would also help her to find a way to prevent damage instead of focus on healing.
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An aside: It's actually sort of possible to play an effective druid who only puts slots in healing spells. SNA is a real gift, and even though some of the monsters on the list don't look super effective, they're great at putting meat shields between the party members and the swords they are trying to skewer themselves on. It sounds like she's fourth level, so the druid can start off two or three fights per day by throwing out 1d3 eagles. If she invests in Undercommon, she can get a mite to climb up a sheer cliff and tie a rope; later, elemental languages will net her intelligent flying allies and friends that can swim through stone. Couple this with mobile/defensive wildshapes and utility spell selections, and you can actually run around the battlefield saving people a lot of the time.
As a GM, I would definitely recommend giving a wand of cure light wounds (perhaps with low charges) out as loot at some point. Or maybe as a reward from Mayor Deverin, as she's seen the group returning home beaten and bloody every few days. A druid's healing spells should be a last resort, not a mainstay.