Healing ammount of Heightened Heal spell for 2 action version

[Prisoner301]

Hello all,

I am wondering what is the final roll for a Heightened Heal spell cast as a 2 action spell. Upon reading it might read to be extra 1d8+8 per extra level. But back when we started playing we found it a huge amount of healing (it severely outpaces spell damage scaling which is usually 2d6 per extra level) so we changed our reading of it. We now read it to be as +1d8 if it is 1 action and +8 if it is a 2 action. But I am not sure anymore. So what is it, illustrating with an example:

A. A 5th level heal cast as 2 actions heals 5d8+40 hp
B. A 5th level heal cast as 2 actions heals 1d8+40 hp

[Blave]

A. It's 1d8+8 per spell level.

2d6 per level damage spells are usually either area damage or have additional effects like debuffs which aren't affected by heal.

[Watery Soup]

Prisoner301 wrote:

we found it a huge amount of healing (it severely outpaces spell damage scaling which is usually 2d6 per extra level)

I'm pretty sure that's a feature, not a bug.

Nobody wants to play a character who just casts Heal every turn. I'm guessing Heal intentionally recovers more hit points than another spell can take away, so that a spellcaster healer can cast some offensive spells once in a while. It's also why that Heal/Harm, when used to damage an enemy, has its numerical values halved by allowing the enemy a save.

[HammerJack]

More than halved for the two-action version.

[Gary Bush]

Right, the correct answer is A. But that is to one target.

[Gortle]

Yes its a lot of Healing.

Its curious that Clerics can heal faster than most classes can do damage. At least till their spells runs out which is a fair while. I guess it was a game design decision. Normally in stories and real life healing is very hard. But not for PF2.

I do often see sessions where the cleric will do a few buffs, then pretty much heal for the rest of the combat. Which is a pity as sometimes its better to use Fear or Calm Emotions.

[Cordell Kintner]

An example level 11 Barbarian has 184 health. A level 6 heal heals 6d8+48, an average of 75hp. This is 40% of the Barbarian's health.

Heal is meant as an emergency spell that heals a huge chunk of HP, so that Clerics can do other things in combat over spamming heal every round. If you find yourself casting it constantly, maybe your party is taking TOO much damage.

[HumbleGamer]

Heal scales good with the level.

Anyway, what really matters is after how many combats your players rest until daily preparations.

Being able to withstand 9+ fights without resting until daily preparation require some resource management, for example.

If your players cast heal at will until they run out of spells, and the rest to recover all spells ( or all allowed to do so), a modify might be searched somewhere else.

[Ubertron_X]

Cordell Kintner wrote:

Heal is meant as an emergency spell that heals a huge chunk of HP, so that Clerics can do other things in combat over spamming heal every round. If you find yourself casting it constantly, maybe your party is taking TOO much damage.

While your individual lineage may vary based on party composition and size, quoted for truth.

Being our party's dedicated "healbot" even spamming heal every single round sometimes can't keep up with the occasional immense HP loss (usually one or more fails or critical fails to enemy area damage spells), especially during boss fights and with a certain "stand and deliver" attitude.

[Staffan Johansson]

Gortle wrote:

Yes its a lot of Healing.

Its curious that Clerics can heal faster than most classes can do damage. At least till their spells runs out which is a fair while. I guess it was a game design decision. Normally in stories and real life healing is very hard. But not for PF2.

In the playtest, 2-action healing only had the advantage of being cast at range, and didn't do any additional healing. This had two results:

1. In an emergency, a cleric would run up to their target and double Heal, or triple Heal if they were already adjacent. So they could put out a LOT of healing in a short time, but that then lead to problem 2.

2: If doing that, clerics quickly ran out of Heal spells, which wasn't fun. So the fix was to make the 2-action version significantly stronger, thus making that the spell's "default" version.

[Gary Bush]

Ubertron_X wrote:

Cordell Kintner wrote:

Heal is meant as an emergency spell that heals a huge chunk of HP, so that Clerics can do other things in combat over spamming heal every round. If you find yourself casting it constantly, maybe your party is taking TOO much damage.

While your individual lineage may vary based on party composition and size, quoted for truth.

Being our party's dedicated "healbot" even spamming heal every single round sometimes can't keep up with the occasional immense HP loss (usually one or more fails or critical fails to enemy area damage spells), especially during boss fights and with a certain "stand and deliver" attitude.

If the healbot is using Heal spells, they will run out very fast. If they are using skills, like Battle Medicine, than I can see that. But they would need a feat so the character getting healed is not locked out for 24 hours.

In any case, your GM is seems to be an aggressive one to have much healing needing to be done every round. Or the party tactics needs a little adjustment.