Help! My party has no healer!

[Gort]

My party's just hit level 11 or so, and the bard player has moved out of the area. This leaves four characters, and the party no longer has a healing character.

The party makeup is this:

Maya - level 12 human shield fighter/dreadnought
Adelaine - level 12 human night stalker assassin/venomed soul
Franco - level 11 human chaos sorcerer/wild mage
Elizabetha - level 12 human marauder ranger/ruthless punisher

Now, Maya's pretty well off - she's switched a lot of her feats and powers out for good fighter options which allow her to spend healing surges - she also has a magic item called an Amulet of Life which lets her spend two surges when she would normally spend one, once per encounter.

The other characters keep falling over, though. Does anyone have any suggestions for how to solve the problem of our lack of healer - feats, magic items, paragon paths, power choices - any would be fine.

 

[Vanifae]

You might need to adjust your encounters, that could help too.

 

[FireLance]

1. Get one or more healer's sashes (11th level waist slot item, AV). It can allow a character to spend a healing surge once per encounter as an immediate reaction, and can effectively transfer unused healing surges from characters who do not need them to characters who do.

2. The ranger can take invigorating stride (2nd level encounter utility, MP2) which allows her to shift and use her second wind as a move action.

3. Multiclass into a leader class and use power swap feats to obtain healing powers.

4. [Shameless plug]Multiclass into lumin! (see links in sig for details).[/Shameless plug]

 

[Ryujin]

Sounds like you'll need to do some retraining, if not have a character replaced. There are many items that will let you spend healing surges, from simple potions to the Cloak of the Walking Wounded that was mentioned in another thread. Ultimately, though, they won't let you maximize the benefits of the healing surges.

Multi-classing was the route that we took. Three of the characters in our group multi-classed to a healing capable class. My Warlock is also a Bard. The Fighter and Ranger both MCed to Cleric. We had the benefit of a Laser Cleric also, but could survive when that player couldn't make a session. We just had to rest a bit more often.

 

[LightPhoenix]

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

If you want to make a DM change, you could adjust encounters with relative ease. I'm not just talking changing up the mix of creatures, but also adding in "magic squares" for healing, terrain, and so forth. You can also adjust treasure - more healing potions, the aforementioned healer's sash, and so forth. Henchmen might be another option, especially if a player doesn't mind playing the hench. Another option is to consider a house-rule; Second Wind as a Move Action, or even Minor (Dwarves get two/enc), or everyone gets a limited-use Healing Word (without riders).

On the other hand, if you want the PCs to make the change, you can try and suggest they emphasize hit-and-run style tactics or ambushes (and as DM, let them do this). You could also suggest (subtly or overtly) the players invest in more healing - potions/sash/etc. Alternatively, just let it ride - playing without a leader is doable, and if your group is like mine they do ludicrous amounts of damage per round.

 

[mkill]

Your party has 1 defender and 3 strikers. Maybe one of the striker players wants to try out a new character class and switch characters? Retire one PC gracefully and create a new 12th level leader PC. If that's not an option, consider hiring a companion character. Or invest in healing potions, and lots of them.

 

[Gort]

1. Get one or more healer's sashes (11th level waist slot item, AV). It can allow a character to spend a healing surge once per encounter as an immediate reaction, and can effectively transfer unused healing surges from characters who do not need them to characters who do.

Oh, Maya actually has this - I probably should've mentioned it

 

[Celyn]

Oh, Maya actually has this - I probably should've mentioned it

And I, uh.. completely forgot to use it this session. More healing items please D:

Hello, I play Maya! Retiring a character isn't really an option- We're all playing members of the same family, and we have a fantastic dynamic going on, swapping out a character wouldn't be preferable. And I can't think of anyone that could become a leader so easily unless I swapped from Fighter to Warlord, and I completely love love love 4e Fighters so I'd like to do everything to avoid it..!

 

[Wik]

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.

 

[Celyn]

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.

That's pretty tempting. While I'm not happy to do a full on hybrid thing, I'm fine with handing over a feat or two for the cause!