Help! My party has no healer!

[Ryujin]

A neat little trick could be to have someone multi into warlord, getting one warlord heal per day, and then taking the feat that grants one extra heal per encounter, effectively giving a character one heal power per encounter - not the best, but probably enough to keep a four person party fighting.

There's a feat that gives a two-for-one Majestic Word for Bards, at Paragon. That's two healing surges, with bonuses, and two characters able to shift-1 simultaneously. It not only spreads the healing around; it also gives some interesting tactical support while doing so.

 

[tuxgeo]

I think a lot of the answer depends on how you want it to be handled.

< snip >Henchmen might be another option, especially if a player doesn't mind playing the hench. < snip >

Or add in a DMPC of a leader class. Doesn't have to be Paragon level; they could take a trainee under their wing and still get to recover 2 healing surges per encounter. Like this:

Bordelin Dantroyd, male, human pacifist cleric of Kord (because he's horribly conflicted). He's attracted to the party because of the awesomeness (and pulchritude) of Maya, Adelaine, and Elizabetha (and the potential of great pay, of course). Give him whatever stats you want, but a strong WIS would be the obvious choice. He accomplishes nearly nothing in combat because he's Level 1, but that's OK: he gets to hang out with the chicks, and his contribution is to trigger healing surges using Healing Word, which accomplishes its healing based on the healing-surge value of the recipient, not the Level of the caster, so his Level-1 H.W. already suits and supports your Paragon-level party.
Best of all, he has few choices to make, being Level 1, so it puts a rather small burden of thought onto the DM. (win-win, right?)

 

[Tuft]

Why go look for complex solutions?

If things are out of balance, just re-balance.

If encounters suddenly are too easy for your party, what would you do? That's right, you would increase encounter difficulty.

So, if things change so that they suddenly are too hard, you just do the opposite; you lower encounter difficulty.

It does not matter if its because you lose or gain party members, lose or gain magic items, or the party's tactical acumen suddenly changes; when you, the DM, sit down and put the encounters on paper, you have the power to change each encounter in any way you like to make them fit your current party - you don't have to change the party. No need to cut off the toes to fit the shoe - just select another shoe.

 

[dvvega]

As many have stated, you need to rebalance the encounters for 4 characters.

You could also use the bard as a Companion character instead. This will keep the healer around as if he never left.

The other option (which a lot of people scoff at) are the healing potions. The let you spend surges to heal. They are only good for the low surge value characters but are still useful.

D

 

[Gort]

Oh, I'm certainly rebalancing for four characters instead of five. Taking one dude out of a five-monster encounter really isn't hard.

I think the problems tend to arise with monsters that can get around the fighter's marking - the fighter can deal with anything thrown at her, it's just when someone else gets focus-fired that people start falling over.

 

[Gort]

Or add in a DMPC of a leader class. Doesn't have to be Paragon level; they could take a trainee under their wing and still get to recover 2 healing surges per encounter. Like this:

Bordelin Dantroyd, male, human pacifist cleric of Kord (because he's horribly conflicted). He's attracted to the party because of the awesomeness (and pulchritude) of Maya, Adelaine, and Elizabetha (and the potential of great pay, of course). Give him whatever stats you want, but a strong WIS would be the obvious choice. He accomplishes nearly nothing in combat because he's Level 1, but that's OK: he gets to hang out with the chicks, and his contribution is to trigger healing surges using Healing Word, which accomplishes its healing based on the healing-surge value of the recipient, not the Level of the caster, so his Level-1 H.W. already suits and supports your Paragon-level party.
Best of all, he has few choices to make, being Level 1, so it puts a rather small burden of thought onto the DM. (win-win, right?)

I hate DMPCs and will never use them. Playing D&D with myself is not what I signed up for

 

[Jools]

If someone can multiclass into Shaman there is that feat that lets you use the Shaman healing power once per encounter.

 

[Storminator]

There's also the more prosaic Durable and Toughness feats.

Don't you guys just slaughter things like lightning? Are you focusing fire enough?

PS

 

[ShaggySpellsword]

A neat little trick could be to have someone multi into warlord, getting one warlord heal per day, and then taking the feat that grants one extra heal per encounter, effectively giving a character one heal power per encounter - not the best, but probably enough to keep a four person party fighting.

This has been specifically disallowed from working, as Fight On has the prerequisite of "Inspiring Word as an Encounter Power."

I believe this is from two or three updates ago.

 

[Gradine]

This has been specifically disallowed from working, as Fight On has the prerequisite of "Inspiring Word as an Encounter Power."

I believe this is from two or three updates ago.

A DM looking for a solution to a problem is certainly within their right to allow it, which is what I'd probably do in this instance, with the understanding that

A: It stops working as soon as the party gets a dedicated Leader
B: The player in question is allowed to retrain those feats immediately

Not the most elegant solution in the world, no, but it works.