Help choosing favored soul spells

[echite]

Hey everyone I am running a campaign for my brother, sister and father. Since we only have three players I am also running a DM character who is a favored soul of Heironeous.

I am running us through the Sunless Citadel through the Bastion of Broken Souls and we just finished the Sunless Citadel about to hit the Forge of Fury and are now 4th level.

I have so far choosen the following feats: Augment Healing, Combat Casting, Spontaneous Healer and Weapon Focus (Longsword)

For spells I am have choosen: 0 - cure minor wounds, detect magic, guidance, read magic, resistance and virtue; 1st - bless, cure light wounds, divine favor and shield of faith; 2nd - bull's strength, cure moderate wounds, deific vengeance.

Now I am going for an individual who can heal characters in a bind by using only one spell (hence Augment Healing combined with Sponteous Healer) but focuses mainly one buffing himself into a tank for the party.

My dad is playing a fighter/wizard working to the eldritch knight, my brother is a ranger/sorcerer working to the arcane archer and my sister is a rogue/wizard possibly going for arcane trickster. As you can see artillery isnt needed.

What is everyone's opinion? Are those good feats and spells or would I be better with other spells to help the party, I am limiting myself to the PHB and CD only as two of the players are new to 3.5. While I want to absorb damage I dont want to outshine the rest of the party which is why I am asking.

 

[Crothian]

Spontaneous Healer does you no good. Favored Soul already casts everything they know spontaneously.

 

[echite]

I may have misread it then I thought it allowed me to cast any curing spell I know a number of times per day equal to my Wis modifier in addition to my daily spell allowment.

The Player's Handbook II lists the Spontaneous Healer as a recomended feat for a favored soul playing the role of a healer. That is why I thought that, was I mistaken? If so it is know problem I will chose another feat.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Now I am going for an individual who can heal characters in a bind by using only one spell (hence Augment Healing combined with Sponteous Healer) but focuses mainly one buffing himself into a tank for the party.

I don't know the Favored Soul that well, but I have an alternative suggestion for you.

I'm currently running a Clc/Sorc/Geomancer/Mystic Theurge- don't worry, that's NOT what I'm suggesting you play. Even though the PC has been very effective, it isn't what you're looking for.

However, it does something you might like. By taking Sacred Healing (the original version in CompDiv), you can burn a Turn attempt to give all creatures in a 60' radius burst Fast Healing 3 for (1 + Cha bonus)#Rds. By taking Extra Healing, you gain +4 Turns/day. If your PC has a Cha of 16, by burning one Turn Attempt, you're healing 12HP to each of your allies...better than your average Augmented CLW. And since the healing is spread out over a few rounds, anyone dropped to 0HP or fewer is automatically stabilized while the effect is active.

The Extra Turning, of course, makes sure you're not leaving the party defenseless against the undead.

For a party this size (with no allies), this means that you'd be doing the equivalent of exchanging a Turn Attempt for casting 4 healing spells. And this exchange gets better and better for each ally your party adds. Conceivably, you could heal hundreds with this- my personal max is around 35 so far.

The downside is this: since it is a burst effect, it will work on everything with HP in the AoE, so you MUST NOT cast this in combat, or you're helping your foes as well as your allies. That said, there's nothing to stop you from casting your standard healing spells in combat.

None of which precludes you from doing the buff-up & beat up thing. In fact, if you go with Cleric, you won't have to take up spell slots with healing spells, since you'll be able to cast those spontaneously.

As a cleric of Heironeous, take the War domain and you'll get WP and WF with Longsword. That still leaves you with 2 Feats to work with.

If you take Combat Casting (or the slightly lower bonus but much more flexible Skill Focus: Concentration), you still have one more feat to burn.

Given the Sacred Healing/Extra Turning combo, Augment Healing might be overkill (overheal?) at this point...though it will boost your higher-level healing spells.

 

[Crothian]

Favored souls do not have turning ability.

 

[echite]

We have already hit 4th level so I am going to stay with the favored soul as I can choose the spells I cast based on the situation rather then guessing which ones will be useful for that particular day. Also since I am the DM I dont want my daily spell selection to be influenced by my DM knowledge of the module. Plus I dont want to introduce another character and get rid of this one to replace it with a cleric.

I am limiting the campaign material to the PHB, DMG and MM since we have the new players. The only reason I took the Favored Soul and the two feats from the Complete Divine was with the class I am able to play a divine caster who's spell selection is based off is list of known spells and can't be influenced by DM knowledge and so that when I do heal it is very effective.

All future feats and spells I plan to take will be from the PHB. While I might use some of your suggestions for NPCs Dannyalcatraz, my original question of are the spells and feats I choose good for the roll I am going to be playing in the party and is my reading and understanding of the Spontaneous Healer correct?

 

[echite]

Oh please forgive me if I come off sounding rude, I don't mean to be I just want opinions on the feats and spells I have chosen. I am not trying to make the most effictive super awesome healer possible just one that can do the job and do it well.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Favored souls do not have turning ability.

That's why I was suggesting Cleric of H rather than Favored Soul of H.

Oh please forgive me if I come off sounding rude, I don't mean to be I just want opinions on the feats and spells I have chosen. I am not trying to make the most effictive super awesome healer possible just one that can do the job and do it well.

That's not rude- that's what you're looking for!

I was unclear whether you were looking for FS stuff in particular or if you were open to other options.

As for your spells- I think those spells are pretty solid choices. I, for one, cast Bull's Strength almost every session with my aforementioned Geomancer. You're going to need the healing, no question.

As for Spontaneous Healer, I'm somewhat puzzled. The Favored Soul is a spontaneous caster right out of the box. Spontaneous Healer lets you swap memorized spells for Healing spells spontaneously, like a Cleric does. I can't see why they recommended it for a Favored Soul.

 

[echite]

Well the way it was worded makes it kind of ambigious, in that you can spontaneous cast any curing spell you know a number of times per day equal to your Wisdom modifier, but it doesn't mention that it actually uses up any of your daily allowment of spells or trades out spells you already have.

Anyhow thank you I will keep the spells and perhaps trade out Spontaneous Healer for another feat. Though not being able to take any of the Divine feats because I can't turn undead I like the favored soul it is different and I am able to choose spells based on the situation rather then guessing ahead of time or trying to ignore my DM knowledge.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I know you want to limit the books, but if you're willing to just grab a single feat from somewhere else, Touch of Healing is a great reserve feat for a heal bot, in Complete Champion.

As long as you have a healing spell of level 2 or higher available to cast (as a spontaneous caster, that'd mean if you have level 2 spell slots left for the day), you can heal with a touch (standard action) for 3 hp per spell level of your highest level healing spell you can still cast. So, as long as you didn't use up all your level 2 slots, you know cure moderate wounds, so you can heal for 6 hp. You can use this unlimited times/day, but it can't heal someone past half their maximum hp total (you can use other healing to help them past that point). If at Favored Soul 6, you learned Cure Serious Wounds, you could then use Touch of Healing for 9 hp healing. If you used all your level 3 slots, you could still heal for 6, as long as you still had level 2 slots, and so on...

Touch of Healing also gives you a permanent +1 CL on all healing spells. So...you basically heal an extra hp with each spell. Not too sexy, but handy.