Wand of healing: Everybody pitch in?

The best healing bang for the buck is a wand of cure light wounds (or wand of lesser vigor if you're using Spell Compendium), but the downside is that you generally need to use a lot of charges to bring characters back up to fighting strength since each charge only heals a relatively small amount. This requires time, and as such, is best used after combat when time isn't usually much of an issue.

Clerical healing, on the other hand, and especially from high level spells, tends to heal much more damage per spell. As such, it is best used in the middle of combat, when someone's hp drop to dangerous levels. IMHO, that's when the cleric should be using their healing spells, not after battle touch-ups. Using wands and potions in the middle of combat tend to be last-ditch efforts to save characters, useful as a last resort for when there's nothing better available, but a poor substitute for a cleric packing cure critical wounds.

I almost always end up being the party Cleric (or Druid), and the default healer (although there is competition for that popular role, and we've had a few parties with more Clerics and / or Druids than every other class put together!). Just as I would balk at being told that I *must* chip in for the wizard's scrolls or the fighter's shiny new breastplate, I've never once asked for help buying the tools necessary to fulfill one of my roles in the party (note that healing isn't the Clerics *only* role).

However, on most occasions, party members have chipped in to help another character (of any class) make a big purchase, with the expectation of getting paid back later, and more than once, another party member has bought a Wand of Cure Light Wounds and then given it to my Cleric character, under the assumption that every little bit helped.

The friends I play with, in some cases I've played with for two decades, and the thought of *not* playing cooperatively doesn't occur to us. But we've never made it an official 'party treasure rule' that any character is required to shell out gold for another character's gear.

The only rule appears to be a sort of benign anarchy...

The group always pays for healing since it benifits the group directly.

I'm playing an evil cleric as my next character, starting tomorrow, and have been wondering about this issue myself. The last 3.5 campaign we had the cleric was there only to heal. In 4e the cleric is still quite hard focused on healing, good or evil. As a cleric that cannot spontaneously cast cure spells, the other PCs will likely be more reliant on me having prepared the spells, or have wands ready. Since we're level 8 I have spent a little of my gold on a few healing wands, but my current plan is, once those run out, the other PCs can help purchase them. This would also be in line with the type of character I wish to portray. Heal machine is not the only thing clerics can do. My character doesn't even have any ranks in Heal.

We had everyone buy 3 or 4 wands each. Honestly, you can never have too many CLW wands.

So everyone buys their own, then hands them to the cleric as needed.

PS

If it benefits the group as a whole, it gets paid for by the group as a whole.

Example: I don't require my wife to buy her own food. We buy communal food. Even though there will be food items I do not eat.

Definitely a party expense. Anyone with Use Magic Device or a Divine Spell List (at least most of them) can activate the Wand of Cure Light Wounds.
And everyone in the party will need it.

Consumable items are usually always party expenses. Potions, Scrolls, Wands and Staffs...

Every member of the party buys a wand of CLW or lesser vigor - they are then used communally.

I will now be harsh.

The cleric is a spellcaster. Spellcasters generally work best with a 15-minute adventuring day. It is thus not in the cleric's interest to heal - which extends the endurance of the party, allowing several fights. Thus the cleric has no self-interest in purchasing healing wands that effectively allow fighters an infinite adventuring day. If he does purchase the wants, he will hae to conserve spells, especially at lower levels. This makes play less exiting for him.

Of course, this lessens the party overall - which is really a problem for the DM and his plots, not for the cleric. The DM will have to write adventures geared to a 15 minute adventuring day, or see his plot fall apart as the party repeatedly retreats.

However, DnD (any edition) is written with the assumption that the cleric will support his party. The cleric is supposed to buff the fighters in the party. The balance between the classes are built on this. If the cleric doesn't, the fighter suffer and the cleric shines. This is where the CoDzilla phenomenon comes from (Cleric-or-Druid-Zilla, where zilla comes from godzilla, giant monster extraordinaire).

So, whats the point of my argument? Well, I guess it boils down to this; while it might be fair that the cleric pays for his own equipment, including healing wands, this encourages CoDzilla play and might lead to a party that simply lacks healing - as the CoDzilla has no interest in paying for it or even casting healing spells on others. It is thus probably better if the group pays such things communally, encouraging the cleric to be more supportive.

Bardsandsages said:

The cleric's roll is not to heal. The cleric's roll is to tend to the needs of his flock (or his allies). Considering the range of potent buff and support spells clerics have, why anyone would think the cleric should just be healing is beyond me.

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I don't think the OP is remotely arguing this. He is, rightly IMO, arguing that ONE of the roles of a cleric in an adventuring party is healing. And, even in your own words, a cleric's role is to "tend to the needs of his flock (or his allies)". Why would you consider healing to not be included in there?

If it is possible to buy a wand of healing (and honestly the entire logic of this arguement assumes a Magical Walmart approach to the setting) then if the group wants the cleric to heal, the group should pay for the healing.

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Not even remotely. A wand of cure light wounds take 1 day to craft. Any 5th level caster with the feat can do it. He doesn't even need the spell since the cleric can provide that. Any reasonably sized town will have at least one (and probably more than one) caster with the Craft Wand feat. Forking over several hundred gold to some guy for a single days work shouldn't be all that difficult and does not in any way necessitate a Magical Walmart approach to the setting.

Honestly, I don't think I've ever played with a group that DIDN'T have the players helping each other out, even with magic weapons. Our group generally allots so much of the treasure we find to "group funds" just for things like this. The group fund gets assigned an equal share of the loot, and that money is used for stuff that benefits the entire party. Generally, this is used for expendable items (wands, potions, scrolls, room and board, etc). Not just to upgrade permanent gear. And yeah, if we can get our hands of a wand of fireballs for the mage so he can save some of his spell slots, your damn straight we'll take that out of the group funds.

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This I completely agree with. When I get to play, one thing I like to do is split treasure with an extra share. If you have 4 PC's, split the take 5 ways. The 5th share is used on stuff that has no direct benefit to any one character - typically as you say, expendable stuff.

Although, I wonder why you would put the whole "Magical Walmart" comment in there when you obviously play in that sort of campaign? Seems strange to call it out as a bad thing and then, in the next paragraph, state how you do EXACTLY what the OP is doing.