Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Eomaugh 04-21-04, 08:42 AM	I have a feeing the group I am playing with wants me to prepare more healing than I am, and I was hoping some of you could give me a feel for what is reasonable. The players are all at about 3rd level, our fighters might be 4th or 5th. Our group consists of Favored Soul/Cleric, a druid (me), a Bard, a wizard and two fighters. How many healing spells should I be expected to prepare, and of what power?
pres_man 04-21-04, 09:59 AM	get a wand of cure light wounds, problem solved
krichaiushii 04-21-04, 10:28 AM	I agree with the statement on Wands of Cure Light Wounds. And getting one for the cleric and bard might not be a bad idea either, if you go long stretches between safe rest areas. Maybe pick up a scroll or three of more serious healing spells, as well as the other types of "cures" - remove blindness/deafness, remove disease, break enchantment, remove curse, neutralize poison, and point out to the cleric the joys of the restoration chain of spells. Ideally, the party cleric (or yourself) has Scribe Scroll as a feat and can write these up for you. As a druid, a useful spell can be goodberry - especially at lower levels. With a cleric in the party, why is it that the druid becomes the healing focus?
Roland the Crownbreaker 04-21-04, 02:20 PM	Are they expecting you to be the primary healer? If yes, slap the cleric player. Then slap the rest of them as well. Are they expecting you to have more than a few zero level spells as healing? (my group had a druid and a bard as our only healers once and the druid tried to get away with 1 cure light and 3 cure minor wounds spells....at 5th level) A little healing is to be expected out of a druid, healing primarily is not. I play a druid now (albiet in a larger party than yours) and at second I prepare 2 cure lights, 1 entangle, and 1 produce flame. At 3rd I plan to make that 3 cure lights (plus any goodberries I can stock up on) and use my second level spells for combat. (in one of the splatbooks there is a nice entangle that deals damage on top of the normal benefits) My own opinion is that at 3rd you might want all (or all but one) of your 0 level spells prepared as healing. (even one point of healing stops the slow loss a character under 0 HP suffers from) Then have at least one (maybe even two) of your 1rst level spells prepared as healing as well. If the party feels like it needs more healing than this, (and a wand is not readily available) make sure the bard has healing on his list as well. A druid is not a cleric! Yes, you can and should heal, but not to the exclusion of all else. Especially with no rogue in the party, you will be filling in for the combat magic when you get to the proper levels. (as the wizard and bard will have to have a larger selection of trouble-solving spells than normal) Both the druid and the bard (yes, BOTH) are secondary healers. You should supplement the cleric, but do not attempt to replace him. A druid is better off exercising his greatest strength: Versatility. Druids can enhance, heal, blow stuff up, and other things besides. Allowing yourself to be shoehorned into a role your class is not meant for will decrease your effectiveness dramatically. Note: At 7th level do NOT prepare any 4th level spells as cures. If the party needs healing that badly, summon a unicorn with that 4th level spell instead. (3 cure lights and one cure moderate > 1 cure serious) Keep a list if what you can summon out of combat for spells that you might not have preaperd that day. (not all summoning needs to be for combat)
Elendur 04-21-04, 02:35 PM	Perhaps the problem is that you have two fighters, higher level than the party, who wade into combat every time and take a bunch of damage? Just a guess. A druid should reconsider preparing any cure spell over light. Do you want to heal 2d8+5 hit points with cure moderate or throw 5 3d6 lightning bolts with call lightning? Sometimes a druid has to substitute for a cleric, but in this case you have a cleric AND another secondary healer. You should focus on what druids do best.
Zal'theurn the Flame 04-21-04, 02:36 PM	Are they expecting you to be the primary healer? If yes, slap the cleric player. Then slap the rest of them as well. Yes definitly! The Cleric is the Band-aid!, Unless he's a fighter/cleric...Then he's a Dwarf.
eudas 04-21-04, 03:11 PM	that's just going back to the whole reason nobody wanted to play clerics in 2nd ed: who wants to be a walking bandaid? maybe each of the characters in a party should contribute to healing, however they can: Fighter can buy potions; Rogue can buy wands/scrolls; Druid can heal himself; Cleric can heal himself, and maybe a few others if he is good-aligned; Bard can get cure light as one of his selected spells; etc. If everybody carries a little bit of healing instead of relying on a walking band-aid then it becomes less of an issue. If the party's not properly prepared for their chosen occupation (adventuring) then it's no wonder that they're not doing well at it, and have to compensate by relying entirely on one or two insufficient sources for healing... eudas
celloshane 04-22-04, 01:49 AM	I agree with Eudas. While you can expect the Cleric to handle any "major" healing, everyone should help out. The fact of the matter is, the bard is NOT the secondary healer in this group. The bard is a backup, who will likely be spending most of his time casting buffs or Charm Person. The bard will be lucky to get off 1 or 2 Cure Lights a day until level 5 or 6. What might really help the group is if you prepare healing spells other than Cure Wounds. Spells like Lesser Restoration and Neutralize Poison can be a real boon for the group if you're ready when they are needed; and when they aren't needed, simply channel them into Summon Nature's Ally. Your best bet is to discuss it with your Cleric when you prepare your spells for the day. Hmm, I just noticed your Cleric is a Cleric/Favored Soul. In this case, I'm not sure exactly how much of his spellcasting is spontaneous and how much is prepared. Talk to your Cleric and see how much he typically has "left over" for healing, and see what spells he can't cast that you can.
bitnine 04-22-04, 02:33 AM	When you get 4th level spells, don't forget that you can spontaneous drop for a Unicorn summon, which can pop out 3 cure lights, a cure moderate, and neutralize poison. That can be real handy to have. Until then, wands of cure light definately aren't bad to have.
Tony Vargas 04-22-04, 08:05 PM	Well, you have a Cleric and a Bard - they should both be able to do some curing spontaneously, so if the party is short on healing, they should talk to them. You cast Summon Nature's Ally spontaneously: if the party is short on badgers, they can talk to you. You might want to prep a healing spell or two of each level you can cast - or, at least of each level you expect you might want to use to cast a summon, since you can always 'burn' them for that...
ninjarabbit 04-22-04, 11:36 PM	Use scrolls and wands, and the unicorn idea is pretty good too.
Count Arioch the 28th 04-23-04, 08:20 AM	When you get the spell Heal, then you should be able to heal pretty good, that's the one and only healing spell worth that much.
Eomaugh 04-23-04, 11:10 AM	(I am the originator of this thread) Thank you all for the great advice and insights. Putting it all together, I exploited both the cleric and the bard by preparing no healing spells the first time we met, and then again the second time by preparing too few. The third time we met, I prepared too many (I'm 3rd level and I prepared 4 cure minor, 2 cure light). I suppose I deserve it, and I'm lucky the rest of the party didn't kill me off after the second session, but it is a bit overwhelming when I'm trying to decide whether Shillelagh or Flaming Sphere would be better in a particular situation and the other players audibly groan in frustration that I'm doing anything but healing them. Maybe I should prepare too many healing spells for a few sessions, as penance? I am looking forward to being able to summon a unicorn and cast Heal. It also sounds like exploiting the cleric character is a running problem in many groups, and I am going to be very careful about NOT doing that from now on. My only previous DnD experience was a short time as a cleric in second edition. After a while, practically the only thing I did during combat was keep a table of the other player's hit points and damage and run around deciding who to heal next. Very boring. I am happy to hear that third edition has made the cleric more interesting to play. I should discuss the healing with the other members of the group, especially the cleric and the bard.
Will Brandiman 04-23-04, 11:23 AM	If memory serves, the Favored Soul is a spontaneous divine caster with access to the entire cleric spell list. In other words he can use any of his daily spell slots to cast a healing spell of that level or lower. So explain to me why you are preparing anything more than sufficient healing spells to bring the cleric back from -9hp to positive numbers?
Kronk LaSworda 04-23-04, 11:26 AM	Originally posted by Eomaugh I should discuss the healing with the other members of the group, especially the cleric and the bard. That's the best advice anyone can give and I'm glad you are using it. Talk to the other players when there is a problem. As a Druid, you have access to some very powerful spells, as does the Bard and the Cleric. You 3 should easily be able to balance healing and other spells so that no one person gets stuck being the bandaid. Good luck with your group!
Eomaugh 04-23-04, 11:26 AM	I've never healed the cleric. Only the fighters and the Wizard and maybe the bard, although I'm not certain about the bard
Beamup 04-23-04, 11:30 AM	The Cleric should be doing most of the healing. It's what he's good it. Druids aren't. If the other players groan when you prepare non-healing spells, they seriously need to get a clue. You'll be MUCH more useful doing combat magic than healing.
Will Brandiman 04-23-04, 11:31 AM	Originally posted by Eomaugh I've never healed the cleric. Only the fighters and the Wizard and maybe the bard, although I'm not certain about the bard If this was in response to my post I think you may have missed the point. I'm saying that you should not be doing any of the healing, that's what the Favored Soul (cleric) is there for. He has more than enough spells available to heal the party AND do other stuff too. And he doesn't have to prepare them in advance. You have some very cool other spells whichyou should be using to help the party. Just keep enough healing in reserve to get the cleric back if he/she is taken down.
Eomaugh 04-23-04, 12:33 PM	>>He has more than enough spells available to heal the party >>AND do other stuff too. .. Just keep enough healing in reserve >>to get the cleric back if he/she is taken down. I like this solution very much! I will discuss it with the cleric. I'm also wondering if a big part of our problem is that, as some of you suggested, we are taking too much damage as a group. If anyone is willing to help, I posted those questions under a new thread in "what's a player to do." The thread is "Too little cash, too much damage, etc"
celloshane 04-23-04, 04:50 PM	Originally posted by Will Brandiman I'm saying that you should not be doing any of the healing, that's what the Favored Soul (cleric) is there for. He has more than enough spells available to heal the party AND do other stuff too. And he doesn't have to prepare them in advance. You may want to take a look at the Favored Soul class. At 3rd level, he's only going to have 1st level spells available. I'm only guessing, but I bet he's a Cleric 1/Favored Soul 2. This means he won't get 2nd level spells for another 2 levels. Not to mention that Favored Souls use a spells known chart like the Sorcerer, they do not have access to the full Cleric spell list. So, having the Druid cast CMW (or Regenerate MW ;) ) can make a big difference for this party. This Druid has access to spells that the Cleric doesn't (and may never) have access to. Discussing spell selection with the rest of the group is the best advice I can give.
Nick Soapdish 04-23-04, 05:30 PM	I think that you still need to prepare some healing spells. It isn't fair to the player of the favored soul character or bard character to just rely on them to do all the healing just because they can do it spontaneously. They're also going to want to do something with their slots besides cast cure spells. Plus, you've got a large group and need more than one healer. That being said, I don't think that you need to be preparing tons of healing spells either. One or maybe two Cure Light Wounds with a few Cure Minor Wounds ought to be plenty. A wand (or multiple wands for the other casters) would be even better.