Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 obtusehobbit Jan 04, 2009 13:56:06	For the most recent campiagn I have volunteered to play the party healer. While looking for non-divine ways to play a character who can heal I ran across the alertenate class feature Healling Hymn in complete champion. For those who have never looked at the feature it alows you to add your Perform ranks as a bonus to your healing spells. So for your viewing enjoyment her is my first attempt at a build using Healing Hymn. Title: Faith Healer Race: Human Build Stub:Bard 7/Lyrical Thaugamist3/Virtuoso 10 Build Progression:
#2 NiteCyper Jan 04, 2009 14:45:44	You know you don't need a party healer right? Check out the Player's Guide to Healing linked in SHCOL.
#3 obtusehobbit Jan 04, 2009 15:13:42	Yeah I know a party doesn't need a healer to survive but having one is better then not having one.
#4 almagest Jan 05, 2009 10:37:46	Yeah I know a party doesn't need a healer to survive but having one is better then not having one. Nah. Having wands of cure light wounds, lesser vigor, and belts of healing is enough, really. Maybe keep a couple of high-level scrolls/potions around for emergencies. If you focus on killing stuff as fast as possible, and on battlefield control, you'd be surprised how little healing you actually need. Primarily dedicating actions to healing is really a waste.
#5 pithica Jan 05, 2009 10:44:48	There are only a couple of situations in which a dedicated healer is 'needed', and both of those involve the heal (or mass-heal) spell. The rest of the time, spending actions on healing rather than buffing/debuffing/BC'ing or even just damaging your opponents is a waste. If you are going to make this your primary focus, the only way I can think of to make it any better than what you already have is taking arcane disciple-healing. At least then you'd have access to heal/mass heal, if only 1/day each (but then, you shouldn't ever need them any more than that, if even that).
#6 obtusehobbit Jan 05, 2009 11:51:36	Despite the fact that every member of our party is a strong character in of themselves and that we as player play well together our dm is quite good at pushing our party to its limit (he has been doing it for 15 yrs now). So our group always includes a character who is good at healing to help prevent our pc from getting killed. As for buffing/debuffing and damage. The character is also designed to be a buffing bard with a strong inspire courgage and several ways to expand my number of spells per day to assist as a secondary caster. The reason I posted the build was to see if there was anything I could do to up the characters power.
#7 obtusehobbit Jan 05, 2009 11:54:51	If you are going to make this your primary focus, the only way I can think of to make it any better than what you already have is taking arcane disciple-healing. At least then you'd have access to heal/mass heal, if only 1/day each (but then, you shouldn't ever need them any more than that, if even that). Thanks, what book is arcane disciple-healing from.
#8 phaedrusxy Jan 05, 2009 12:08:01	Thanks, what book is arcane disciple-healing from. Arcane Disciple is from Complete Divine, I think. It lets you cast spells from a cleric domain. He suggested using it to grab the Healing domain. Of course, that's normally limited to 1xday per spell level, as stated above, and you need a Wis of 10+ spell level to even use that... So I'd suggest just buying a Staff of Healing when you can afford it (or a custom staff with Heal in it), and activating it via Use Magic Device. The DC is only 20.
#9 pithica Jan 05, 2009 12:34:44	Despite the fact that every member of our party is a strong character in of themselves and that we as player play well together our dm is quite good at pushing our party to its limit (he has been doing it for 15 yrs now). So our group always includes a character who is good at healing to help prevent our pc from getting killed. As for buffing/debuffing and damage. The character is also designed to be a buffing bard with a strong inspire courgage and several ways to expand my number of spells per day to assist as a secondary caster. The reason I posted the build was to see if there was anything I could do to up the characters power. It's not about how hard the encounters are, it's about the nature of playing offense and defense in a conflict. That, and the fact that numerically, healing power/level/rd is almost always significantly less than encounter damage potential/cr/rd. So, any time you spend a round casting a heal spell, rather than doing something that could end the fight one (or more) rounds early, you are, in effect, wasting your action that turn. Now, there are exceptions to that, such as a last ditch heal to save the life of a character that could end the fight earlier, but even in some of these cases, your better off just casting revenence after they die. In your character's case, the numbers are significantly better for defense, because of the extra boosts of Healing Hymn. But I have no idea if they've crossed the threshold as to where playing defense is better, I just doubt it. Arcane Disciple as Phaedrus said, is in Complete Divine. He's right that, generally, using wands/staffs is better than the feat, especially if you can get custom made staffs (the one in the DMG is costly). I only suggest the feat over item use because the Healing Hymn feat specifically doesn't work on items.