Augment Healing feat (Complete Divine)

[Methos of Aundair]

One of my players in my Eberron campaign has asked if he can take this feat and I am unsure as to how balanced it is. Note that I allow only the core books (PHB, DMG, MM, and EPHB) and anything else must go through me first.

After reading the AH feat it appears to be fine but I prefer hearing from those who have actual game experience with it. I really prefer any experiences from DM’s with players who have this feat.

I’m tempted to allow it just so we can playtest it but I still wish to hear peoples’ experiences. In the past I have seen single feats or spells cause the balance of the game to be thrown way off kilter so I hate to allow something I’ve never used without first hearing from others who have seen it during play. Plus the simple fact it helps the party heal doesn’t seem unbalancing but I still wish to ask.

 

[Methos of Aundair]

At the lower levels (such as 1st) this feat doesn’t seem bad at all. Such as CLW modified with this feat would grant 1d8+3. That’s not bad and in fact very useful. But what about a CCW at 7th level (minimum), it would be at 4d8+15. Though this doesn’t really sound bad at all (even to me) it does cause a cure spell of a lower level to be as effective as a cure spell one level higher.

Using a 7th level Cleric we have:

(With the Augment Healing feat)
CCW 4d8+15 for an average of 33 points
CSW 3d8+13 for an average of 26.5 points
CMW 2d8+11 for an average of 20 points
CLW 1d8+7 for an average of 11.5 points

(Without the Augment Healing feat)
CCW 4d8+7 for an average of 25 points
CSW 3d8+7 for an average of 20.5 points
CMW 2d8+7 for an average of 16 points
CLW 1d8+5 for an average of 9.5 points

With an augmented CMW it heals ½ point less than an un-augmented CsW. This would mean with the AH feat you could cast a 2nd level spell that would does nearly as much as that of a 3rd level spell. That does seem a bit much to me.

Maxed out caster level wise a CMW spell at 10th level would heal 2d8+14 points, or an average of 23 points. A un-augmented CSW does 3d8+10, or an average of 23.5 points which is .5 over that of an augmented spell one level lower. This still seems a bit much.

What about at 20th level?

(With the Augment Healing feat)
CCW 4d8+28 for an average of 46 points
CSW 3d8+21 for an average of 34.5 points
CMW 2d8+14 for an average of 23 points
CLW 1d8+7 for an average of 11.5 points

(Without the Augment Healing feat)
CCW 4d8+20 for an average of 38 points
CSW 3d8+15 for an average of 28.5 points
CMW 2d8+10 for an average of 19 points
CLW 1d8+5 for an average of 9.5 points

At 20th level the benefits begin to spread out and the AH feat basically just raises your average points healed rather than make the spell effectively one level higher. But that doesn’t happen until much higher levels than what the campaign is currently at.

So my question is does this make the feat a bit unbalancing? Does being able to cast a spell as if it were one level lower make it unbalanced? And does the fact that it is a healing spell make these benefits less enough that balance is unaffected?

 

[FireLance]

I haven't actually seen the feat in play, so make of my comments what you will.

It really depends on how much of an issue you want to make of healing, and to a lesser extent, how many undead you fight.

If downtime healing is not a major issue (the party has a wand of cure light wounds, for example), the feat will not be all that unbalancing. With respect to combat healing, it could actually work to the DM's advantage. A cleric's ability to spontaneously cast cure spells is a DM's best insurance against an inadvertent TPK, and the feat enhances that ability.

This feat can be very useful against undead as it adds +2 hp per spell level to the base damage dealt by cure spells. This can significantly increase the damage output of a mass cure spell against undead hordes in conjunction with Empower Spell.

 

[green slime]

It's cool. Its good. Any feat worth taking has to be.

It only affects healing. It means the cleric may actually get to do other things than just heal people and prop them up all the time. It removes randomness, by reducing the relative weight of die contra the fixed amount healed. THis means the player will be better able to choose a correct level of healing rather than fiddling with pitiful amounts due to bad die rolls.

The Analysis posted above failed to mention that it will also affect the "Mass CxW" and Heal (IIRC) spells

 

[Methos of Aundair]

The Analysis posted above failed to mention that it will also affect the "Mass CxW" and Heal (IIRC) spells

Yeah, I thought of that but was already tired and knew I was way over-thinking it. Not that I ever over-think something to the point of being foolish

 

[uzagi_akimbo]

It's rather balanced and makes healing more calculable for the healer - as he has a larger percentage of base HP healed in every spell. Also eases the healing load of the cleric (or druid ) some, as he heals more efficiently, thereby saving un-converted spells for other uses - which basically allows a cleric to actually do other things than play the role of combat medic at lower levels.

Not broken or overpowered at all - and hugely eases the load of a druid, if no other healer is around. The healer type players IMCs only pick this for lower level play ( always a good sign with regards to balanced power, IMHO, if a feat is not a "everytime" pick for a certain sort of character ), at higher levels it gets quickly outshone by "Sacred Healing", especially for those clerics who don't specialise in turning undead.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Actually, contra what people have written here thus far, I would expect it to have the most effect at high levels rather than low levels by altering the effect of the mass curexwounds spells. If a mass cure critical cures 4d8+31 (avg 49) instead of 4d8+15 (avg 33), it's actually halfway decent combat healing. A mass cure light wounds is the most dramatically affected, going from 1d8+9 (avg 13.5) to 1d8+19 (avg 23.5) at 9th level. 23.5 hp is decent combat healing. 13.5 hp is hardly worth mentioning as 9th level combat healing.

So, it's a good feat even at high levels. (And isn't outshone by Sacred Healing since Sacred Healing is for non-combat healing and Augment Healing is for combat healing). I don't think there's anything unbalanced about it though. Unbalanced is Divine Metamagic.

 

[Methos of Aundair]

Originally posted by uzagi_akimbo

Also eases the healing load of the cleric (or druid ) some, as he heals more efficiently, thereby saving un-converted spells for other uses - which basically allows a cleric to actually do other things than play the role of combat medic at lower levels.

This is probably one of the best things about this feat. It allows the cleric to use his spells for more than just healing. It’ll especially help this campaign since it has just added a 5th player.

Originally posted by Elder-Basilisk

I don't think there's anything unbalanced about it though.

Even though I did the math I still feel it isn’t that unbalanced but I tend not to trust supplements when it comes to balance, even those printed by WizCo. I think I’ll go ahead and allow it since I believe it’ll help both his player and the rest of the group due to their lower number of players (as well as a single fighter type: the ranger).

Thanks for all the suggestions and sorry for what seems like a rather foolish question. Like I said, I just don’t trust supplements when it comes to balance.