Spirit of Healing

[Lord Ernie]

So with teh healer' lore note, that thing heals 12 damage every time you kill something?

Actually, it's every time anyone near the spirit hits something - more Battlerager than Warlock style.

I will say healing is a funny thing in 4e. Because defense stays comparative with offense (in 3e offense scaled much faster), healing can become a true weapon. I'm seeing more and more builds that create nigh invulnerable parties.

Yeah, I was thinking something similar. In fact, with all the extra cleric powers granting healing, I'm again looking to set my cleric up as a hybrid cleric|invoker (and he's the only leader in the party), simply cause there are tons of powers to replace that loss of a single Healing Word.

 

[Diirk]

I think it was an illthought out power. With the abundance of items/feats that boost healing, and the cleric's healing lore class feature, it would have been much more reasonable as healing just wis instead of 2xwis. Or even only healing 1.

Healing 1 per hit could still wind up around 10 at 8th level fairly reasonably (1 + wis + healer's brooch + healer's implement feat) which is a fairly significant amount.

Limiting it to once per player to round would be better as well... 'if a player standing adjacent to the spirit hits with a power during their turn' as opposed to 'when an ally ... hits an enemy'. As written a sorcerer/wizard/whatever can let loose an AE and trigger the heal multiple times per round. Even melee get plenty of multiattack powers.

 

[Destil]

I think it was an illthought out power. With the abundance of items/feats that boost healing, and the cleric's healing lore class feature, it would have been much more reasonable as healing just wis instead of 2xwis. Or even only healing 1.

I'm beginning to wonder about healers lore. You simply can't make a cleric power that reads well but heals small amounts (i.e. healing 1 damage reads really badly), this is also part of the problem with sacred ground. Really I think if healing lore only worked on powers that required surges spent everything would be fine.

Healer's Mercy also looks suspect to me, that's a LOT of healing. And any cleric with at least 1 good encounter non-damage power can generally get it without any real cost... and they have an entire build of such powers as encounter/dailies in DP. Never mind a number of good utilities and an excellent at will...

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

This is why some DMs ban non-core stuff. I'm glad this one is easy to spot, though.

 

[ChristopherA]

Spirit of Healing certainly sounds broken to me, in the sense of being much more powerful than normal powers of that level. One little utility power that can give a lot, lot, lot of healing without surges. Far more than cure serious wounds. Your party is going to be substantially more powerful in one fight every day.

And am I reading it correctly, that someone with a good area power can potentially heal himself 48 hit points if he hits 4 targets with one attack?

I'd have to agree with Destil that Healer's Mercy looks pretty good if you compare it to the formidable but highly specialized Turn Undead power.


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[Miphon]

I'm still not sure that it's as broken as some people suggest. Yes, it can be a lot of healing that doesn't use surges, but it is a daily power so it's only going to come into play for one encounter per day. It also seems to me that a lot of it's potential usefulness is dependent on where it is placed/moved and how your allies are positioned.

I'll guess I'll form a better opinion of it once I see it in play.

 

[Turtlejay]

If that one encounter is the big bad ending of the campaign, it can turn cinematic into mundane.

The best way for the enemy to end this effect is to kill the cleric. I say every time a cleric casts this spell, he is focus fired until dead. That aught to tip the scales back, eh?

Jay

 

[DracoSuave]

Meh, it's a daily. It's not coming out all the time and if it does, you amp up the difficulty to smish them. Clerics are supposed to be the kings of healing, that's their job. There's no such thing as a 'cleric ability that heals a small amount'.

 

[guindone]

Well in our game it is just plain stupid - one encounter a day we basically walk out with full hit points at no healing surge cost. Its overpowered. It should be more limited. Right now its sort of brain dead to choose this power at the appropriate level and that's not how powers should be.

We'll be nerfing it or banning it. Like so that it triggers once a round only...

 

[DracoSuave]

Have you tried moving the enemies away from it? Forcing the party to spread out? It's not exactly a subtle effect, and requires some modicum of cooperation and/or terrain advantage to truly abuse.

AoEs/auras that cause ongoing damage are a good counter as well. Healing 10 per turn isn't so bad when you're being hit with an AoE or an Aura that damages the entire party just for being beside the spirit. The party'd end up taking less damage by spreading out, defeating the brokenness of this ability.