6. Healer Spells:
Summary: The Healer has a limited list, but as long as she has some metamagic feats it's easy to prepare useful spells for each level. 1st, 6th , 8th, and 9th levels are the strong points. With the inclusion of a domain icon(see the items section above), or the Sanctified spells from the BoED, or the suggested spells from the Spell Compendium, the Healer's spell list becomes much more versatile and powerful.
Sanctified spells: these spells from the BoED are automatically added to all prepared casters' lists, which is VERY helpful for the Healer.
When casting these spells you generally take 1d2 Strength damage at the
end of the spell's duration. For this reason, a single level dip into Binder for Naberius (which grants ability damage healing/round) is a pretty sweet deal. The addition of these spells bumps Healers up from T5 to a high T3 due to the hugely increased versatility.
Spell Compendium: The Spell Compendium's instructions for DMs are to add spells concerned with healing, removing afflictions, providing protections, and providing for needs, and to add higher level versions of spells that the Healer already knows, such as mass restoration. These spells are based on those guidelines, which provide the class with the best protective and healing spells that the cleric and druid receive.
Alternate spell list for the Healer, including spell compendium spells (by Pteryx)Spell Compendium spells (by Akal-Saris)[spoiler]1
Aura against Flame: An early elemental protection spell.
Conviction: grants a decent morale save bonus with a 10 min/level duration.
Delay Disease: Good on a scroll.
Faith Healing: Awesome if your party min/maxes their deities, otherwise mediocre.
Foundation of Stone: A decent buff for a scroll.
Healthful Rest
Inhibit
Ironguts
Nightshield
Resist Planar Alignment
Resurgence
Snowshoes
Vigor, lesser
Vision of Glory
2
Aura against flame
Close Wounds* (Moved from 3rd)
Divine protection
Healing lorecall
Protection from negative energy
Stabilize
Summon elysian thrush
3
Cloak of Bravery
Conviction, mass
Mantle of good
Resist energy, mass
Resurgence, mass
Safety
Shield of warding
Snowshoes, mass
Vigor
Vigor, mass lesser
4
Astral Hospice
Contingent energy resistance
Delay Death
Panacea
Positive energy aura
Recitation
Resistance, greater
Revenance
Sheltered Vitality
5
Dance of the Unicorn
Life's Grace
Revivify
Sanctuary, Mass
Vigor, Greater
Heal Animal Companion (unicorn companion)
6
Energy Immunity
Revive Outsider
Resistance, Superior
Vigorous Circle
7
Fortunate Fate
Renewal Pact
Restoration, mass
8
Death Pact
Death Ward, mass[/spoiler]
Healer Spells
* = Sanctified spell0-level: Cure minor wounds: You could potentially heal about 4-6 HP with a single cure minor wounds and a high charisma.
Deathwatch: normally a 1st level spell, and works as Detect Undead+Constructs as well as learning the hit point value of stuff.
1st level: Bless Water: Holy water is underwhelming.
Cure Light Wounds: Your bread and butter healing spell. At low levels, the healing from this along with your charisma bonus from Healing Hands should be enough to keep up with most opponents' damage to your allies. Remember that it's also usable as a touch attack against undead!
Goodberry: If you can pre-cast this before an adventure it will work like having potions of cure minor wounds on hand. I used to do that regularly in 2nd ed...good times!
Protection from Evil: Always useful, especially on a scroll.
Remove Fear: A great spell that's always worth packing in a scroll.
Remove Paralysis: Hey! You get this 2 levels earlier than anyone else! Which makes scrolls of it cheap enough to carry easily.
Sanctuary: The duration is generally too short until later on, when the save will be too low.
Speak with Animals: Another spell that's best in a scroll.
*
Twilight Luck: Won't make a difference.
*
Divine Inspiration: A nifty short-duration +3 to attacks buff for your ally. -1d2 Str.
2nd level: Calm emotions: A fun spell to focus a character around if you're into that sort of thing.
Cure Moderate Wounds: A decent boost to cure light wounds.
Delay Poison: Good as a scroll.
Gentle Repose: Pretty useless.
Remove blindness/deafness: Good as a scroll.
Remove disease: Your 1/day cleanse should take care of this.
Lesser Restoration: Most healers' 2nd level list will be full of lesser restorations, especially if they cast sanctified spells.
Close wounds: If the spell compendium is in use, this changed to a 2nd level spell. Excellent, excellent spell to keep an ally on his feet for another round. Thanks for the reminder on the change,
Zionpopsickle!
Metamagic: An extended sanctuary will last 6 rounds at this point, though with your d8 HPs you might as well take a few hits in a fight.
*
Luminous Armor: the poor man's Mage Armor. Gives +5 AC (+9 against melee) for hours/level. -1d2 Str damage.
*
Ayailla's Radiant Burst: Nice! Gives a little AOE damage (good against swarms), and blinds opponents in a huge cone! (1d2 Str dmg)
3rd level: Close wounds: The winner for this level, as immediate action heals are fun stuff.
Create food and water: Bland.
Cure serious wounds: I'd keep on casting cure moderate and save 3rd level slots for other spells.
Neutralize poison: Generally your 1/day Neutralize should keep the party covered.
Remove curse: Niche.
Restoration: You get this one earlier than anyone else!
Status: Bland.
Metamagic: An extended Luminous Armor, or an extended Ayailla's Radiant Burst.
*
Phieran's Resolve: Niche.
*
Path of the Exalted: It's a "Okay DM, now where do we go?" spell. The Abstinence cost is easy since you don't even have any other Divination spells to abstain from yet!
*
Telepathy Tap: Useless.
*
Brilliant Emanation: Nice! A short duration, huge AOE blind against evil foes. -1d3 Str.
*
Hammer of Righteousness: A d6 or d8/level force damage spell with no damage cap! It's not the best spell out there, but it's a solid pick for a little extra damage. 1d3 Str.
*
Celestial Aspect: A long-lasting buff that's very flexible, especially giving a +1 Holy Sword or flight! -1d3 Str.
4th level: Cure Critical Wounds: Too little, too late for most in-combat healing.
Death ward: A nice spell for many situations.
Freedom of Movement: A great in-combat buff spell.
Mass Cure Light Wounds: Pffft. If it can't keep up with the fireball damage, what's the point?
Panacea: My favorite spell of this level - it's like a mini-Heal.
Metamagic: Nothing leaps out at me here.
*
Luminous Armor, Greater: Another +3 AC to Luminous Armor. Not great, but nice. -1d3 Str.
*
Sunmantle: It's like a Fire Shield lite. -1d4 Str.
*
Diamond Spray: A cone of fireball damage at evil creatures that dazzles them. You can cast it at all your opponents without harming your allies. A 100g component though.
5th level: Atonement: Good for RP.
Break Enchantment: A good status effect remover. Thumbs up.
Mass Cure moderate wounds: Pffft.
Raise Dead: Always nice to have.
Revivify: A good emergency spell.
Stone to Flesh: Hey, you get it earlier than the wizards do! Still niche though.
True Seeing: A great utility and in-combat buff spell.
Metamagic: A lot of 5th level spells are utility, so this is a good level for metamagic. An extended freedom of movement, luminous armor, or death ward, or quickened 1st level spell are all decent choices.
*
Inquisition: This spell seems pretty evil to me. Still, it has a lot of RP utility! -1d3 Con.
*
Curtain of Light: It's like a Wall of Fire that only hurts evil and undead.
*
Sicken Evil: It has a long duration, a decent range, and automatically hits nearby creatures, so think of this as a mobile -2 penalty on all attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks for evil creatures. -1d4 Str dmg.
6th level:Greater restoration: You get it a level earlier than clerics do! The long casting time and 500 xp cost are the main drawbacks to this spell though - use your spell-like ability first if you have it!
Heal: ABOUT TIME. This spell makes in-combat healing worthwhile again for the first time in 6 levels. This can also work as a blast spell on undead in a pinch.
Heroes' Feast: A very good buff spell before heading into the dungeon.
Mass Cure Serious Wounds: Pffft.
Regenerate: At least you have it.
Metamagic: This level is too awesome to waste on metamagic spells. Seriously, I'd just prepare a single Heroes' Feast and then go full Heals for everybody.
*
Exalted Raiment: It's a decent buff, but it doesn't match up to casting Heal. Good synergy with sanctified spells though. -1d4 Str.
*
Valiant Steed: Oh good, a spell that binds a unicorn or pegasus to you for a year. And the cleric can even cast it spontaneously to gain one of the Healer's best class features. Still, there's something to be said for running around with 2 unicorns all the time, and the pegasus gives another in-class flight method. -1d3 Str drain after a year.
*
Storm of Shards: Permanently blind every evil creature within 80ft (Fort negates), and up to 20d6 divine damage (Reflex half). A nice dual threat spell! 1d3 Str drain.
7th level: Mass cure critical wounds: Pffft.
Repulsion: One of the only battlefield control spells on the healer's list, this is actually a nifty spell.
Resurrection: Good to have, though expensive as hell
Metamagic: Perhaps an extended Heroes' Feast
*
Cry of Ysgard: Get 4 bariaurs for a year. If you can't think of a use for 4 large-sized 9th level rangers, then you're not thinking hard enough. -1d3 Str. drain.
*
Constricting Chains: At first I wasn't impressed. A 7th level spell that does what a Tanglefoot Bag can do at 1st? But this has no save, doesn't give SR, automatically hits, deals damage over time, is very hard to break, messes up spellcasting, and hurts the creature when it tries to break free - so it's actually pretty kick ass! -1d3 Str drain.
*
Rain of Embers: Eh, you have better things to do at this level than an AOE Flamestrike.
*
Phoenix Fire: Okay, the image kicks ass, but level loss is really too harsh a price for this effect.
*
Channel Celestial: OK, so this spell can break a game, but it requires a lot of DM interaction and is pretty confusing. Best of luck! -1d3 Str, Dex.
8th level: Discern location: You never get Scry, but you do get the best divination spell in the game. If the DM isn't prepared, this spell can break a campaign.
Holy aura: Hey, an in-combat buff spell! This is a great spell to start an encounter with.
Mass heal: A great in-combat healing and status removal spell, and you get it one level earlier than the cleric!
Metamagic: I could see a quickened Freedom of Movement here.
*
Dragon Cloud: Whoa! This is a powerful summon, and gives a free lightning bolt every 1d4 rounds, with a good duration to boot. -1d3 Con.
*
Restore Soul's Treasure: Yeah, like this will ever come up in a game.
9th level:Foresight: This is good to have ready.
Gate: For some reason, Healers that stick it through to 17th level are rewarded by a spell that makes their fighter buddies redundant at the relatively low cost of 1,000 XP! Keep in mind that it can be used as a plane shift spell without the XP cost, allowing Healers to become decent taxi cabs at high levels.
True resurrection: Nice to have, especially if you didn't stick with Healer for the capstone.
Metamagic: A quickened true seeing or Break Enchantment, or an Extended Dragon Cloud.
*
Armageddon: Lose a level for an effect that's inferior to the Gate spell? NO.
*
Exalted Fury: Ugh, kill yourself to deal mediocre damage? Pass.
*
Sanctify the Wicked: A save-or-die that costs you a character level. I'd rather cast Gate 16 times.
*
Channel Greater Celestial: See the previous iteration, and good luck!
