Animal Lord PrC and unlimited healing

[shilsen]

The description of the Animal Lord from MotW seems to provide the PrC with unlimited healing ability. At 3rd level, the Animal Lord gains the Lesser Wild Shape ability, which allows him to take on the form of any animal from his selected group. The only place where this differs from the druid's wild shape is in that he can "use it as often as desired" (pg.45). This would mean that every time the Animal Lord uses the ability, he heals as if having rested for a day. And he can choose to do it over and over, healing as much damage as he wants.

That's a pretty powerful ability, to put it mildly, especially given the levels involved. A Shifter can do that too, but no sooner than as a 15th level character (Drd5/Shifter10). Animal Lords can do it from 8th level (Drd5/Animal Lord3). So my question is: Am I misunderstanding this, or is that the way it would work under the rules as written? Thanks.

 

[Caliban]

Yes, that is how it would work.

 

[EOL]

Yes that's how it works, but no it wouldn't be out of line to put some limits on it. A simple heal cap of 10 hp/animal lord class level/day would keep most of the affect of the ability while creating a situation here and there where he might run out.

By the time he gets 15th 100 hp/day is all but unlimited or you could just remove the cap at that point. I'm sure there are lots of other ideas as well.

 

[shilsen]

Thanks for the quick replies. I just wanted to confirm that there is a genuine oversight there, and that I hadn't missed anything. EOL's suggestion is a good one, so I might use that if the PrC does ever come into use in my campaign.

 

[Crothian]

We limited the normal shapechange healing of a druid to once a day. We thought that getting it more was to much.

 

[Archer]

I believe the official WoTC cap on wild shape healing is 7x/day.

 

[shilsen]

I believe the official WoTC cap on wild shape healing is 7x/day.

That would balance things out a lot. Do you have a reference for that ruling?

 

[Voadam]

similar issue

On a similar note is there anything to prevent a character from polymorphing himself into a bat for one round again and again with the item Cloak of the Bat in order to heal up completely?

 

[Archer]

Skip: Note that you can heal yourself through shape shifting a maximum of 9 times a day, even when you have evershifting form. (That one's not in the shifter's description, but the authors were quick to add it when I showed them your letter.

Skip Williams
RPG R&D

(Ok, its 9x per day not 7, but I was close)

 

[shilsen]

Thanks for the reference, Archer. 9 times your level sounds a lot, but considering these PrCs (Shifter, Animal Lord) give up regular spellcasting progression, that's a decent trade.