Healer (from MHB): Is this a good class?

[Felon]

Side note: This criticism of the warlock holds no water with me.

"I like the ___________, but sometimes, you get sick of _____, _____, _____."

I like the rogue, but sometimes you get sick of sneak sneak sneak.

I like the fighter, but sometimes you get sick of hack hack slash.

Etc. etc.

Let's talk about analogy's holding water. Sneaking isn't just employing one ability over and over the exact same way; it consists of employing an array of skills and tactics, and applying them to each situation appropriately. The 3e fighter has feats to add complexity to his hacking--the spiked chain fighter with combat expertise, improved trip, improved disarm, combat reflexes, and karmic strike has a lot options (and that's before throwing tactical feats into the mix).

With the warlock, the eldritch essence invocations could have lent the eldritch blast some versatility, but as it is a warlock's much more likely to have one essence that it applies every situation.

 

[Felon]

While some folks insist no one would want to play a class focused on healing to the extent the Healer is, I actually know people who like that archetype.....They make good cohorts and NPCs, though.

They could use something to do besides heal. That could get boring after a while. The cleric is playable because he can do so much. The healer is kind of blah.

As others have mentioned, the Healer is a great Cohort-class... but I'd rather have a Cleric-cohort.

I'm playing a fighter/sorcerer that has a healer cohort. She has saved the party's bacon time and again. In a party of 8 with no clerics, she is our sole source of healing. Would I want to play a healer? Absolutely not. The person upthread who suggested playing a cleric who has a healer cohort, now that's a nifty idea.

Y'know, it occurs to me that I've often seen druids be perfectly content to relegate themselves to the role of "healer cohort". They have their pet do all of their fighting for them while they sit on their keester and give cures and buffs, pretty much doing what the cohort would. What's the distinction between the organ-grinder and the monkey here?

Maybe if the healer got a pet at 1st level, it'd be more appealing...especially to the girlfriends, who seem to love having some pet to chat with off on the sidelines.

 

[Particle_Man]

Maybe if the healer got a pet at 1st level, it'd be more appealing...especially to the girlfriends, who seem to love having some pet to chat with off on the sidelines.

One could do this with a "voice in the head" that the healer "talks" to, that eventually (at the appropriate level) gets revealed as...the Unicorn!

 

[ForceUser]

The analogy doesn't really hold water. Sneaking isn't just employing one ability over and over the exact same way; it consists of employing an array of skills and tactics, and applying them to each situation appropriately. The 3e fighter has feats to add complexity to his hacking--the spiked chain fighter with combat expertise, improved trip, improved disarm, combat reflexes, and karmic strike has a lot options (and that's before throwing tactical feats into the mix).

With the warlock, the eldritch essence invocations could have lent the eldritch blast some versatility, but as it is a warlock's much more likely to have one essence that it applies every situation.

I don't agree. The warlock actually gains more invocations than the fighter does bonus feats over the same 20 level progression, not to mention that the warlock also gains the use of any spell trigger or spell completion item he can get his hands on (staff of fire, anyone?). Thus, the warlock has many more combat options than the fighter or the rogue, and yet somehow, perplexingly, the warlock is boring and the fighter is not. This all leads me to believe that many people who look at the warlock on paper and write him off as boring haven't really seen the class in play over time, as I have. If all you're doing as a warlock is eldritch blast over and over, you're completely missing the point of the class.

 

[Felon]

I'd get a little deeper into the warlock issues, but this just isn't the right thread for it.

 

[ForceUser]

I'd get a little deeper into the warlock issues, but this just isn't the right thread for it.

I agree. Let's start one.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

I'm in the "healer is great as a cohort/henchman/NPC" camp. As for the Marshal, I know several players who either took levels in the class or were interested in it. Definitely not as a straight Marshal though.

 

[I'm A Banana]

The idea in this thread of cohort classes is amusing to me.

The Healer. The Marshall. Maybe even the Bard....great to have around, not so great to play as, this means COHORT!

I also like the idea of using the Warlock mechanics for the Healer.

What would also be fun is if they had some sort of "positive energy damage" attack pattern...death by lasers and bursts of pure light and radience. Double effective vs. undead. Say, something like Eldritch Blast using mostly d4's instead of d6's.

 

[Bihor]

A spell-like ability to cast cure like the blast of the warlock , is a good idea.

 

[Nyaricus]

Why not making it so that Clerics may only Spontaneously convert Cure/Inflict spells = to 3+ Cha mod per day, to balacne the two out?

On top of that, make the healer more like a Warmage/Dread Neccy/Beguiler and have it spontaneously cast spells liek them - kinda like a more focused version of a cleric, much like those other classe are like a focused version of specialist wizards.

Up the power of the unicorn mount, having it's abilities equal to class level.

Expand the spell list a bit, and get rid of the weird ones mentioned and unmentioned.

Anything else?