Hey guys,
I'd like to hear your thoughts about this :
We were discussing outgame about healing of our characters. We are lvl 2: Ranger, Kensai, wizard, so no dedicated healer and are playing rise of the Runelords.
The discussion came up as we nearly died against a "bow monk" and a few goblins so we had to drink a lot of clw potions.
A full Wand of clw seems boring, cause if we don't die, we start every other fight full health, but if we die, it's over anyway. So the fights tend to be easy (cause we just heal up anyway) or to hard (tpk). If we continue to use potions only, it's gonna be extreme expensive. How do your groups deal with healing, clw potion and especially wands? We thought about a few(5-10) charges so we still have to evaluate if it's better to use a charge now or a potion later..
I would like to hear some input :)
Well, you are playing a relatively deadly Adventure Path with only 3 characters. Unless everyone is on point, healing will be required.
CLW Wand is the boring, horrible, unescapable solution, sadly.
If infernal healing is an option, that can help with the expense. But wands are cheap, and even if you had a character that is good at healing you are likely to be using them anyway.
Personally, I believe that every group should play at least one campaign without significant healing resources, if only to learn that there are options other than in combat healing. Quite often parties get the idea that they need a healer and 'waste' a powerful character spending their actions on nothing but healing rather than proactively preventing damage. With only 3 characters, I believe you can't afford a dedicated healer.
The biggest concern I see is that you are going to be in trouble with condition removal. No way to get rid of ability damage, negative levels and things like that. That is something that is going to have to be dealt with at some point, UMD might be an option (max ranks for the wizard, improved familiar and evolved familiar would get you an emergency medic.)
Here's a question: does the Ranger have an archetype?
Nerf the Wand. That aside;
As a general rule for myself, I like to have a Cleric's worth of healing on the team. Now this doesn't mean "Cleric" every game. But if you put all the resources together of the team(Abilities, Feats, Gear), you should total 1 Cleric. 2 Clerics if you have more than 4.
There's a very good topic floating around here for Healer's Hands. Your Monk or Wizard can probably pick up a feat or two for that. Heal Skill + Rest will allow for recovering from Ability damage.
If you don't want to use wands, up the potions they find. I also suggest any potion related Magic items. Bountiful Bottle could really help them extend a Potion's lifespan(But that's Mythic. Wait really?)
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Allow Potions of Cleric-Stuff beyond 3rd Lvl spells. Potions of Remove Disease, Cure Critical Wounds, Neutralize Poison, Heal, etc. Also, allow the PCs to auto-succeed UMD checks on Scrolls and Wands of healing stuff -- without even rolling a UMD check.
Make the Heal Skill better: Every 5 points they get on the result heals 1 HP-- DC 5 = 1 HP, DC 10 = 2 HP, DC 25 = 5 HP, etc.
Make Cure Potions & Scrolls and Happy Sticks 1/2 off the listed price; make more locations carry them.
Get an alchemist cohort with infusion discoveries, leave them at camp but bring a chunk of their extracts with.
Get an alchemist cohort with infusion discoveries, leave them at camp but bring a chunk of their extracts with.If you are going to get an alchemist cohort, you could of just brought a cleric cohort. Not only does the cleric get better access to healing and condition removal, but it doesn't cost your 3 players an action and AoO to do it.
Except a cleric has to accompany you for the healing while the alchemist can say safe at camp, therebye not bringing extra combat actions to the party.
Except a cleric has to accompany you for the healing while the alchemist can say safe at camp, therebye not bringing extra combat actions to the party.Get an alchemist cohort with infusion discoveries, leave them at camp but bring a chunk of their extracts with.If you are going to get an alchemist cohort, you could of just brought a cleric cohort. Not only does the cleric get better access to healing and condition removal, but it doesn't cost your 3 players an action and AoO to do it.
Alchemist can also brew potions such as Cure Disease and send those along with them.
"Healer" is a boring position. The main need for a Cleric is removing permanent conditions (blind, disease, ability damage)
Whenever I hear something like this, I have to imagine the person has never played a Cleric and has never GM'd a cleric.
You literally get:
* Spell casting including crowd control and damage AoE's
* Channeling, which allows you to burst down hordes of undead/demons/etc or channel into your weapon which allows you to hit like an absolute truck against singleton opponents
* No requirement to your armor for said casting, meaning you can wade into the fray. Take a 1-level Dip for proficiency if needed.
* Proficiency with a weapon for free. Wanna go crush skulls as a Cleric with no level dips but act like a martial? Why not worship Saren and crush people with a D10 greatclub? Not good enough, if you're pure neutral or Chaotic Good, you can take a Greatsword as your favored weapon via Lyssa.
Literally all you have to do to be a reasonable healer while playing a reasonable martial or caster is to not dump everything into Wis and Cha, and instead do a Wis/Str, Wis/Dex, Cha/Str, or Cha/Dex type of split. Nothing is stopping you from hitting like a truck while Also being a caster while Also being a healer.
It's true that a Pure Caster or a Pure Martial will beat you in a 1v1 on those things. You got me. But you'll still be the hero of many fights; especially when they're weak to Positive Energy.
If the Wizard is a Universalist and not planning to go into Arclord of Nex, and not already rebuilt as an Exploiter, the Wizard has a couple of options:So there is this thing you can do to make anyone a healer at 5th level. As you grow in level that heal skill will become more and more effective. At low levels you'll still use a CLW wand to heal between fights but once you can treat deadly wounds multiple times a day the wand will see less and less use.
It would be good if anyone picked up the healer's Hands/skill unlock combo, but its best for the Wizard to do it. Well, more specifically so the Wizard's familiar can use the ability. The familiar needs to be physically capable of performing the skill, so a monkey familiar would be good. A lot of the improved familiars would work as well. {. . .}
- The most obvious is Arcane Physician. This would be of noticeable help, although you would still want a Wand of Cure Light Wounds (or Infernal Healing, if you are so inclined). However, Arcane Physician actually isn't the best for a healer Wizard.
- The better healer Wizard option is Spell Sage. Not only that, but both of the Spell Sage's abilities are actually useful for other purposes as well. Just keep in mind that your total resources are highly limited -- probably good to get Craft Wondrous Item and make a paranoid number of Pearls of Power.
For a Wizard that is not Universalist, a couple of possibilities are also available:
- A Conjurer can eventually fill in some of the healing spells by summoning the right stuff.
- Any type of Wizard could get the Faith Magic Arcane Discovery at 7th level and apply it to a 2nd level divine spell, dip 1 level of Living Grimoire Inquisitor, and then become a Wizard-focused Mystic Theurge. This is one of the easiest ways remaining to become a Mystic Theurge and costs the least in Wizard spellcasting progression, but your Inquisitor spellcasting progression will be way behind (but at least it still keys off Intelligence, due to the Living Grimoire archetype).
If you are going to get by without a healer, then you need to be able to shut enemies down very quickly. So, that's either going to be with extreme amounts of damage or strong control options.
^ . . . Unless you have Pragmatic Activator (and if Use Magic Device is not already a class skill for you AND you worship Nethys, also add Underlying Principles), in which case Use Magic Device is an Intelligence-based skill for you.
If you are adding someone, both druid and witch can get the condition removal spells. A druid is good with combat while a witch is good at debuffing.
The ranger can also get condition removal, but not as soon.
As to the heal to full or TPK, if you go carefully, and plan well, and use information wisely, you can generally avoide major damage.
APs are geared to non-optimized four character parties. You currently have three. Either you need to take it easy, or get another PC/NPC to get back on track.
As to magic items for healing, check out the Extraction Scarificator. At 2,500 gp, you get 1/day of one of four potions including Lesser Restoration and Cure Moderate Wounds. Also check out the Healer's Satchel, Specialized. At 3,000 gp, it can even handle stat drain.
/cevah
Our group has no problem with the CLW wand "meta"; it's cost-effective, action-inefficient, and a gold sink at early levels.
If you're looking for something radically different, your GM could implement 4th Edition Healing Surges; a subsystem I actually liked quite a lot, though we haven't taken the step to carrying it over to our home games in lieu of CLW wands.
There's also the recent forum post Finally, With Feats, Anyone Can Heal if you really want more of a price for your healing (skill ranks and feats being relatively "expensive".)