Playing cleric but not a heal-bot?

Dandu · May 12, 2010

It seems that you want to play a cleric that is not a healer.

Option 1: No one's forcing you to heal as a cleric. Load up on combat spells and have at it.

Option 2: Play a Favored Soul who does not learn healing spells. Or at least, does not learn many healing spells.

ValhallaGH · May 12, 2010

Jon_Dahl said:
I'd appreciate great game-mechanical and by-the-book ways to "shut down" healing from clerics.

That's really vague and unclear. Really, really, really vague and unclear.

If you just don't want to play a healer then don't bother casting healing spells (except via wands, after the fight). They've got some decent (to awesome) buff spells at every spell level, and with Divine Power (Cleric 4) you've got the ability to be as-good or better than the party Fighter at bashing the crap out of things (and it gets worse as you continue on).

If you'd rather smite them with miracles, well Clerics can do that too. Read thine spell list and pick well.

If you want something else (possible, given that extremely vague goal statement) then you'll need to clarify.

Good luck.

Herobizkit · May 14, 2010

I'm guessing, but I think the OP is looking for ways (as a DM) to limit available healing for PC's. Clerics can snap off a healing spell any time they like, which makes for a potentially frustrated DM who enjoys having PC's "suffer" for their rewards.

Short of magic-resistant or magic-dead areas, you could rule that in your campaign world, there simply is no Divine healing, or it's really hard to make it work as expected.

Jack Simth · May 14, 2010

Herobizkit said:
I'm guessing, but I think the OP is looking for ways (as a DM) to limit available healing for PC's. Clerics can snap off a healing spell any time they like, which makes for a potentially frustrated DM who enjoys having PC's "suffer" for their rewards.

Short of magic-resistant or magic-dead areas, you could rule that in your campaign world, there simply is no Divine healing, or it's really hard to make it work as expected.

One of the planar traits is impeded magic, which, if the DM is wanting a "suffering" campaign, could be what the OP is after.

Cirripedius · May 16, 2010

I'm surprised nobody has said this yet but do the persistent spell feat chain and get the 4th level spell Divine Power as a 24-hour buff

H - Extra Turning - +4 turning attempts per day
1 - Extend Spell - Prereq for Persistent Spell
3 - Persistent Spell - Make a spell with a range of "personal" last for 24-hours, +6 SL
6 - Divine Metamagic - You may substitute turning attempts for spell level adjustments from a metamagic feat.

Divine Power :: d20srd.org
"Calling upon the divine power of your patron, you imbue yourself with strength and skill in combat. Your base attack bonus becomes equal to your character level (which may give you additional attacks), you gain a +6 enhancement bonus to Strength, and you gain 1 temporary hit point per caster level."
(Basically you become a spellcasting fighter with a good will save)

Assuming you rolled a 8+ on Charisma, you start out with 2+ turning attempts/day
Add +4 to that via Extra Turning and you have 6+ turning attempt per day.
Upon reaching level 6 you can apply "personal" ranged buffs to yourself by expending 6 turning attempts.

This can be expedited if you roll a 16+ in charisma and your DM will allow you to take Extend Spell and Persistent Spell in the same turn. Or, if you have a 16+ but your DM wont let you, just take Power Attack instead of Extra Turning.

Cirripedius · May 16, 2010

Cirripedius said:
I'm surprised nobody has said this yet but do the persistent spell feat chain and get the 4th level spell Divine Power as a 24-hour buff

H - Extra Turning - +4 turning attempts per day
1 - Extend Spell - Prereq for Persistent Spell
3 - Persistent Spell - Make a spell with a range of "personal" last for 24-hours, +6 SL
6 - Divine Metamagic - You may substitute turning attempts for spell level adjustments from a metamagic feat.

Divine Power :: d20srd.org
"Calling upon the divine power of your patron, you imbue yourself with strength and skill in combat. Your base attack bonus becomes equal to your character level (which may give you additional attacks), you gain a +6 enhancement bonus to Strength, and you gain 1 temporary hit point per caster level."
(Basically you become a spellcasting fighter with a good will save)

Assuming you rolled a 8+ on Charisma, you start out with 2+ turning attempts/day
Add +4 to that via Extra Turning and you have 6+ turning attempt per day.
Upon reaching level 6 you can apply "personal" ranged buffs to yourself by expending 6 turning attempts.

This can be expedited if you roll a 16+ in charisma and your DM will allow you to take Extend Spell and Persistent Spell in the same turn. Or, if you have a 16+ but your DM wont let you, just take Power Attack instead of Extra Turning.

Also, if you want to be what I call a "Cleric of Badassery", take the Sun domain and do this with Radiant Servant of Pelor. You will be a badass melee damage dealer with awesome healing abilities and undead will be hilariously easy to kill.
SRD:Sun Domain - D&D Wiki
Imagine one shotting about 3-4 undead at a time 3-4 times a day while still being able to heal awesome and deal great melee damage as a fighter.

LuckyBoneDice · May 18, 2010

So, you want a non-Band-Aid Despenser cleric?

Here's my suggestion:

Cloistered Cleric 6/Sovereign Speaker 8/Contemplative 1/Divine Oracle 1/Church Inquisitor 1/Radiant Servant 3

Use Spontaneous Domain to scrap the "Burn spell slot to heal" bit

Lord Ipplepop · May 23, 2010

You can do this without any special changes or anythiung of that sort... do it by designing a character, not a cleric.
Let me explain:

My step-son's first character was a cleric... with an 8 dexterity and a 14 strength, At first he was not to amused with the "8" until we talked about it, and he decided that he had a friar tuck kind of character... "eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we shall eat drink and be merry again". He headled characters only if he had to, and then it was the invariable, "what's in it for me?" He was a mix between a southern baptist tent revival preacher and Gimli (as a human), with a bit of Louie Anderson thrown in. The only real time he healed was when he had to, and he burned spells to gain the heals.. he never had them as base spells.

Psychotic Jim · May 24, 2010

If you want your cleric to non-healing stuff and have something else pick up the slack, having several cure light wounds wands is the one of the most economic solutions, provided you can restrict your healing to out of combat at later levels.