We are about to start a game, and I was thinking about becoming a cleric.
My goal is to mainly heal and support the party.
We are starting at level one and probably going to end around level 20 or higher.
Since I'm a cleric, it's important ,I think, to note that we play with Greek gods (+Bahamut/Tiamat)...
I rolled 14 14 14 16 18 18
For rp purpose I must be a Gray Elf.
Oh by the way, if it would be possible to avoid too weird rules, my DM doesn't like when we get stuff from too many different books...
Thank you very much
Kind regards,
Hikari Hinata
EDIT: Oh yeah, we are playing D&D 3.5 ^^
Another way of doing something similar, although it is a very long shot, is to take the feat Innate spell (Complete Arcane), which allow you to trade a daily spell slot to select one of your spell to be used as a spell like ability once per round at will, which you could use to select cure light wound. Downside, you need the Quicken, Still and Silent Spell feats, and you permanently use a spell slot 8 level higher to power it, a 9th level spell in that case. By the time you're at that level healing might not be that big a problem.
I hope I don't need to advise on putting one of those 18's into wisdom
Really you don' tneed much advice to play a totally core cleric. They are just incredible.
-You need spells to fight in melee. At first you can beat the hell out of people in melee, but as level 10 rolls on you will find that your BAB is starting to falter. You will have to rely on spells to hit and dish out damage. Personally as a healer I'd suggest sticking to about 5 feet behind your tank
-AC is critical. if you are keeping your melee alive you will usually be in reach of the bad guys, but between armor + shield you should have no issue keeping your AC high. Keep an eye on your magic armor spell (i can't remember its name) its in the PHB and gives your armor and shield a 1/hour per day AC bonus. Eventually it becomes far more cost effective to cast that on yourself every day.
-Turning fails in pure core. At high levels you will only be able to turn monsters small enough that your party would not have problems with them anyway. I wouldn't get any of the improved turning feats.
-Chain healing rules. mass cure light might not seem great, but because you get to add your entire cleric level + bonuses it actually heals a good deal. It hits most of your party, can be cast at range AND hurts undead at the same time.
-Healing domain. I'm guessing you thought to take this
remember it gives you +1 caster level on cure spells so +1 more hit point-wands of cure light wounds: fairly cheap and the best way to do out of combat healing. 1d8+1 isn't much, but its better than wasting your cure spells that you might need in combat. Wether I'm the cleric or not I always insist that the group pays for these wands out of shared money.
OK thats pretty much basic stuff, but depending on waht books you are allowed I can make a few others.
Turning feats - complete divine, champion and warrior all have feats that let you trade your turning attempts for small bonuses. Check them out if you are allowed
Complete divine -
Divine metamagic - This is a dangerous feat. It allows you to pick a metamagic feat you have and then use turning attempts to fuel it instead of changing the level. It costs turning attempts equal to 1+the normal spell level change. This means that if you have empower and divine metamagic: empower, you could cast an empowered cure light wounds from a level 1 spell slot by spending 3 turning attempts. Be careful though, theres a very fine line between a fun feat and cheese. I personally stay away from using divine metamagic to deal damage. If you get it make sure you pick up lots of extra turnings.
Radiant Servant of Pelor - This is the probably the single best "pure cleric" prestige class in 3.5. It effectively makes you a cleric, but slightly better. Pelor is a sun god though so you would probably have to work with your DM to find a suitable roman god.
Complete champion - there are two feats you should check out hear.
touch of healing - this lets you heal people up to half life (slowly, so it really doesn't work well in combat) without using up heal spells. Believe me, at level 20, you could easily be having to heal 200-300 points of damage. Thats a lot of your spells or a lot of hits of a healing wand.
I forget the name of one but it adds +2 to any healing die you roll. If you consider that a d8 has an average roll of 4.5, that +2 is almost 50% more healing from dice. It's not huge but for a pure healing cleric its a great boost to making your healing the best possible.
Vigor line from spell compendium,
Combat Medic.
Delay Death,
Revivify,
Death Ward.
Excellent class, go all 10 levels. After that, combat medic would be your best choice. Also, if your trying to make your cleric harder to hit, 2 level dip into divine oracle will helo you out, for evasion purposes.
The following feats are key:
Divine metamagic
chain spell (for divine metamagic)
and possibly, draconic aura from Dragon Magic
Divine Ward
Reason I say draconic aura is this, if you take that feat, with vigor, which is found in PHBII under the auras.. You give your party Fast healing 1 within 30 ft of you. Depending on how your DM rules, you can do this with a spell compendium feat called healthful rest. Healthful rest says that all natural healing is doubled for the day. Fast healing is "like natural healing". My dm didn't allow it, b/c like isn't IS. However yours might be more flexible. If he isn't than later on take the dragon touched feat, and watch after you hit level 20, your FH is now FH 4. That's 4 Hp every round, to anyone within 30 ft. Not bad.
I highly HIGHLY advise you DO NOT get touch of healing. I say this to you for one reason. IT SUCKS! At most you get 27 hp to heal, but only till half way health. NO reason for it. Its a waste of a feat. At low levels its ok. But higher up, it just a waste of space. With you doing FH 1-4 throughout your campaign, out of battle healing will come down too, "hey guys, huddle around me for 5 minutes." Now the vigor aura feat only works at halfway health as well, however, after that you cna heal them yourselves. No need to use the feat, for out of battle healing. And in battle, 27 healing is not gonna help much either.
Chain your cure light wounds mass. Thats about it. It a great trick.
Divine ward: Is in PHBII I believe. It is an amazing feat that, using your turn attempts, makes a divine connection between you and your party members. You can now, use any touch spell at close range on your party members. And since chain spell needs a spell to be at range larger than touch... that right. your now cure critical wounds is can now be chained, not to the full extent as a mass cure critical, but still, it is highly effective.
If you have any questions feel free to ask.
As for items:
healing belts- for your party and yourself, no need to waste all your spells for healing when the Barbarian can bust out 3d8 on his own. Saving you time and energy.
Necklace of retributive healing- I had mine customized to make it have more uses in the day, 3 is good, but I made mine have 5/day. Now when you heal someone else, as a swift action you heal same amount. Very effective. Its in MIC.
Since you'll have divine ward on your party members, you won't need to be in the front of the pack with the tank, so your now, less vulnerable as before.
Hope this helps. IF you have any questions, comments, or concerns, Private message me, or email me.
As a healer, your main job is to prevent damage. Buff your team with prayer, bless, resist energy, spell immunity; whatever you expect to need. Sometimes you simply can't reach the victim in time for a reactive heal spell to be viable. Divine Metamagic: Persistent Spell (Complete Divine and Complete Arcane respectively) is your best friend here. Throw in DMM: Quicken and your metmagic is set for all occasions. Extra Turning helps lots too.
Your second concern is healing. If your team plays like pros, they'll almost never be hurt. More realistically, expect to patch people up after every fight. A wand of cure light wounds is EXCELLENT, outdone only by a staff of heal or mass heal at later levels, though you can stock up on CLW wands for cheap, core, out of combat healing and emergency stabilization.
Complete Champion has the wonderful Touch of Healing feat for healers. Given a minute or few you can heal everyone to half. CLW wands can take it from there if need be.
Complete Divine has the Augment Healing and Sacred Boost feats. AH gives +2 HP healed per spell level and is only wise if you can't take Divine Metamagic. Sacred Boost costs turn undead attempts, but it maximizes cure spells for a brief period.
Chain your cure light wounds mass. Thats about it. It a great trick.
I don't think this works. Chain spell states that the spell has to have a single target, and cure light wounds mass doesn't.
Hypothetically if there are 3 people and lets say for numbers sake your CLW mass, did 20 hp of health to the primary, each person is an individual primary. ANd each is a secondary target twice, from the chain redirect. So person A, B, and C each get 20 (their own primary) + 10 (chain half first time redirect), + 10 (second chain redirect... for a total of 40 hp. Now this numbers are much higher, but i just picked a solid number to do the math for you. It does work as RAW and RAI. DM's typically always allow it, mine does, and hes a bit picky with things. Also if your RSoP, dont forget at level 10 your spells are maximixed and empowered. SO no need to roll dice, just firgure it out, empower only works on the number before the chain affect. So instead of a total of 40 it would be 60 + 30 + 30... 120 hp.. NOt bad.
Actually CLW mass, can be chained. It has single targets but more than one. Still single targets, but because of the multiple amount of people there is, it goes off.
Hypothetically if there are 3 people and lets say for numbers sake your CLW mass, did 20 hp of health to the primary, each person is an individual primary. ANd each is a secondary target twice, from the chain redirect. So person A, B, and C each get 20 (their own primary) + 10 (chain half first time redirect), + 10 (second chain redirect... for a total of 40 hp. Now this numbers are much higher, but i just picked a solid number to do the math for you. It does work as RAW and RAI. DM's typically always allow it, mine does, and hes a bit picky with things. Also if your RSoP, dont forget at level 10 your spells are maximixed and empowered. SO no need to roll dice, just firgure it out, empower only works on the number before the chain affect. So instead of a total of 40 it would be 60 + 30 + 30... 120 hp.. NOt bad.
Unlike effects like Twin Spell and Admixture, a Chained spell is effectively the same spell, and won't affect the same target twice. Just as damage won't accumulate, healing won't accumulate in those 'burst' patterns. It's the same reason why a creature that takes up a huge area doesn't take multiple dmg from a spell that affects multiple squares (example, Wall of Fire, Fireburst spell). The only spell that DID do that was Green Slime Wave, which was pretty much instantly considered broken and was not reprinted.
==Aelryinth
A wand of cure light wounds is EXCELLENT, outdone only by a staff of heal or mass heal at later levels, though you can stock up on CLW wands for cheap, core, out of combat healing and emergency stabilization.
No mention of wands of lesser vigor for out of combat healing?
HEALING
While not as contentious an issue as, say, Melees at high levels, Healing is a key element of rest/recovery, and has a massive impact on the grittiness level of your campaign.
1&2E assumed healing was uncommon and expensive ('realistic'). The natural means of healing was actually important, because the amount of healing you got was typically only from very pricey potions, equally pricey scrolls, and the party spellcasters (free). Thus, clerics were healbots because otherwise you had to shell out a lot of money for healing. Devices that could heal over time were hoarded and massively prized (like Rings of Regeneration). A Fighter with a RoR basically needed little in the way of healing over time, a massive freeing up of party resources. A creature with fast healing was something that could run away and come back fully healed a short time later, a fearsome ability!
This level of healing is very grim and gritty. Recovering from a battle could easily take a couple of days for a party, even up to a week to replace all those lost hit points. Going into battle injured was common, and resting for a day to get that full level+con bonus of hit points was often necessary!
In 3E, healing was liberalized, ostensibly to free the Cleric from healbot status ('video game healing'). It was also increased in potency, to reflect the fact that Con bonuses were higher and reflected across 20 levels instead of 9 to 11. Mass spells were put in to allow fast group burst healing, and the costs of healing items were generally downtoned, to the point where in many cases it is simply better to purchase healing (CLW wands) then to cast it. The ability of a Cleric to swap spells for Cures is generally a waste of an action better spent on doing other things, and healing left to out of combat actions. Furthermore, the ‘rules’ seem to imply that being unable to heal to full hit points is cause to exit stage left, known as the ‘five minute work day’…and adding to the video gamer mentality.
3.5 extended this somewhat further with things like the healing aura of the Dragon Shaman, and the Touch of Healing reserve feat. Basically, if time is not an issue, characters become 'entitled' to starting every fight at a minimum of 1/2 hit points. The Vigor line of spells made a clear difference between healing in battle and healing out of battle...something Monte Cook also did, but he used 'scarring' and subdual dmg to the caster as costs.
4E takes this a step further from classic literature and fiction, making healing and recovery a core element of every class, with somewhat superior ability given to the Cleric, who can heal others as part of another action (thus not wasting a battle action on healing). How often someone can heal is a function of the character, not the spellcaster. If you want to heal more, have a higher Con score. The amount of healing remains static per level at 25% of maximum hit points. There's some affinity with Butcher's Calderone books in how this applies.
There’s no best system here…it all comes down to ‘realism’ and ‘grit’ versus “I wanna play, not sit around and heal!” Where in your campaign do you want the level to be placed?
Some things to think on:
Make the minimum casting level of all wands 5.
This change raises the price of a CLW wand to something believable. As it is now, the cost of a CLW wand with 50 charges is 750 gp, or 3 gp per spell. Hiring a level 1 cleric to cast the spell is 25 gp!
Also, you get nonsense like the level 5 ranger with 11 wisdom, taking Practiced Spellcaster and Craft Wand. In one day, expending some xp and 375 gp, he can get 50x his daily spellcasting allotment of healing!
At the very least, I’d slow down the making of wands to 1 spell/charge. In other words, you actually have to cast the spell into the wand to make it work. A high-level spellcaster could cast the spells from higher-level slots (if they dare) and hurry the making of a charged item along. A low level caster might be working on said charged for a considerable length of time, exchanging spells cast now for using them later. This impacts availability of spells and increases downtime, i.e. 'realism'. Making a low level charged item is, for a low level caster, still a matter of work! Even if you use ‘off-camera’ making of magic items, you’d still need to account for when you cast the spells to put into a magic item, and you can’t DO that if you cast spells for any other purpose earlier that day, and it ties up 8 hours if you do decide to ‘donate’ that day. It's not 'video gamerish' in the least, of course.
Secondly, revamp the spells somewhat. CLW wands at level 1 are popular because that is absolutely the lowest healing cost per spell. Level 2 CLW wands cost twice as much, but only increase healing 1 pt/spell. Since time is often ignored when healing (50 rounds go by, and everyone is healed as yet another wand bites the dust), cost is the only deciding factor. A level 2 CLW Wand should honestly only be 25% more then a level 1.
Thirdly, healing spells have caps and don’t scale evenly. Cure Moderate Wounds costs twice as much as CLW for the same caster level, but doesn’t deliver twice as much healing. Cures also tend to scale slower then dmg inflicted.
Then, there’s no ‘reward’ for preparing/knowing healing spells. A spell from a wand is the same as a sacrificed spell is the same as a prepared spell.
Next, the reward for the Healing domain from clerics is laughable. +1 caster level for Cures? 1 pt of healing? What?
Lastly, Cures are completely overwhelmed by the existence of Heal and Mass Heal. At lower levels, their out of combat healing is completely overshadowed by the Vigor line of Cure spells. At higher levels they remain mostly useless.
Solutions:
Minimum caster level. In 1E and 2E, Wands of Cure spells did not even EXIST. The only healing charged item was the Staff of Healing. In 3E, staves have a minimum caster level of 8…this would set a standard level.
If you like Wands, simply set the minimum caster level at 5, the caster level you must have to take the feat! That sets a very standard price break for low-level charged items. It does raise the cost of wands, but now they scale in usefulness far more evenly when time is unimportant, and it’s easier to compare wand costs. Wands can only hold level 4 spells, and almost never exceed caster level 10. Since the effect of the spell doesn’t scale evenly, the cost of the wand should reflect that.
In 4E, Curing items are extremely pricey (as in 1E)! The idea is that you rely on healing surges instead of magic to remain in a fight. Healing stuff is as rare and precious as magic weapons, even for one-shot use. Even reusable stuff is typically restricted to 1/day. This downgrades the idea of ‘charged’ items replacing spellcasting. In effect, charged items are more like scrolls. This attitude is almost a roll-back towards times of less accessible healing.
Revamp the spells. First, have them scale absolutely evenly. A CMW should be 2x a CLW, a CSW 3x, and CCW 4x in effect.
Raise the caster level caps on Cures. I propose +10 for CLW, +15, +20 and +25 for CCW. 10th level is the default ‘stop’ level for most level 1 spells.
This would mean a CLW would top out at d8+10, CMW 2d8+30, CSW 3d8+60, and CCW at 4d8+100. At level 7, you’d have d8+7, 2d8+14, 3d8+21 and 4d8+28. A CLW becomes useful enough to even a higher level caster.
Reward preparing Cures: Take a hint from the Healer. If preparing Cures, add Cha per HD Cured. This comes in very nice at low levels, and provides a decent kicker at higher ones. Cure Minor Wounds becomes an extra source of good low level healing or a way to stabilize someone at negative hp. It also scales better, and matches Vigor well. A 16 Cha becomes +3/die, or +3, 6, 9, and 12 pts of healing, and gets nicer with levels as stats increase.
Also, look at the power of Heal, which not only does dmg, but removes conditions. Fold the various Restore functions into Cure spells of the appropriate level, for the purpose of removing conditions. CLW could remove one condition, CCW up to 4, if the spell is Prepared. This is a good booster effect for the Healing Domain, if nothing else.
Give the Good and Sun caster domain level bonuses to Cure spells cast, if the cleric also has the Healing Domain. Healing is, after all, a Good effect, and positive energy and Sun domain overlap quite a bit.
For the Healing Domain, use Ranks in Healing for healing effect of Cure spells, instead of caster level. If Good or Sun Domain is there also, treat it as actual Caster level (for the anti-undead effect). This amounts to a +3 bonus per die of healing, and a possible +3 SR Punch. You could also have a low level cleric/expert who is amazingly good at healing, if her skill is based on healing ranks.
Consider adding a level 5 spell, Cure Mortal Wounds. 5d8+5xCL cured, limit +30 CL. This brings Cures up to just behind Heal in power and effect.
Consider moving Heal and Mass Heal to exclusive access from the Healing, Sun and Good Domains. Harm and Mass Harm would migrate to Death, Evil and Destruction domains. That would really give those Domains some clout, and taking other domains would have to be done for really good reasons. It also gives a very good reason for the pre-eminence of Good vs. Evil as a campaign driver…the best healers vs. the most anti-life domains. You could even restrict them to the Healing and Death domains for some real influence to otherwise neglible domains.
Special Note: Tomb-Tainted Soul: This feat allows a character to be healed by Inflicts and harmed by Cures, like undead. Naturally, there are plenty of ways to inflict negative energy damage, which would ‘cure’ such a character.
A Tomb-tainted Soul should lose 1 hp/level/day, the exact inverse of what a positive life form does. If they hit 0, they should be destroyed, just like undead…and then spontaneously arise as a zombie or something (maybe a Necropolitan if you're hugely generous), I’d think, as the negative energy in them finally overwhelms the positive. Lastly, they should not gain hp from negative energy attacks unless such attacks are specifically stated to also heal the undead. However, like living creatures are generally immune to positive energy ‘attacks’, such a person should be immune to negative energy.
Read the Age of Worms? The undead knights at later levels get the ability to toss a Deathbolt, a d6/level attack of negative energy that is basically a ranged Inflict/Fireball. It’s an 8th level effect, which means there should be a positive energy version of it for the happy undead slayer…
-------------------------
In short, access to healing will really drive the ‘realism’ level of your campaign. If you want to run from encounter to encounter at full hp, then healing should be cheap and easy. If you want healing as another resource to be hoarded and expended wisely, then it should be much more difficult and character based in getting ahold of, as opposed to easily purchased and subbed for with items. Furthermore, restricting healing spells to certain domains or actual spell choice really raises the importance of characters choosing a role.
Allowing healing to work to greater effect out of combat doesn’t just devalue the power of healing, it’s a ‘have your cake and eat it, too’ effect. Basically, it rewards the idea of non-combat healing. Easy access to healing devalues the whole idea of hit points being valuable and having a health reserve. It also caters to the idea that time is unlimited and there are no consequences for not pressing forwards, or for running away and coming back later at full strength. Again, very video gamerish…and definitely not something you see in any kind of real fantasy story.
I'm reading Butcher's Fury series right now, the first fantasy series I've seen where widespread healing is common, almost like the modern day. There are restrictions on how much can be cured, curing in combat, and limits on how much a day someone can dish out curing. It's treated very realistically, to the extent that there's always the need for more/better healing, and he repeatedly refers to how the ability to heal soldiers and put them back on the line is the greatest edge the Legions of the story have over their enemies.
His take on healing is that combat healing is almost impossible, or at least tightly restricted...so you can ONLY heal out of combat, and that's time-intensive, which an adventuring party doesn't have (nor do they haul around tubs of water). Healing taking time creates time pressure, and gives enemies time to respond and to react. If time is NOT a factor, healing loses its importance. You may as well just mark the hit points at full at the end of every combat, yes?
==Aelryinth
Personally, one of my favorite strategies is to lose 2 levels of cleric spellcasting in exchange for 11 levels of Warlock through the Eldritch Disciple prestige class. The Healing Blast lets you convert your damaging blast into a Positive Energy blast. Lets you toss out lots and lots of healing in short amounts of time.
If you don't want to go through all 10 levels of RSoP, you can take Maximize Spell to open up the feat Mastery of Day and Night. It automatically maximizes all your Inflict spells and healing spells, with no increase to cast time or spell level.
Personally, one of my favorite strategies is to lose 2 levels of cleric spellcasting in exchange for 11 levels of Warlock through the Eldritch Disciple prestige class. The Healing Blast lets you convert your damaging blast into a Positive Energy blast. Lets you toss out lots and lots of healing in short amounts of time.
Mastery of Day and Night is an Eberron feat, right? Requires access to Iridian or something? A manifest zone?
Nice use of warlock levels to help healing. I thought there was a 'good' warlock class which did the same thing.
==Aelryinth
By fluff, it requires you to join an orginization called the Manifest Spellshapers, but none of the feats have the requirements list anything about any of that, so from a mechanical point of view, they're all open.
Knowledge: Planes 2 ranks, Spellcraft 6 ranks, Maximize Spell
That's all the feat requires.