Non-divine class with healing capabilities

[Starbuck_II]

I think making an arcane-based "healer" class would be fun. Cherry pick from the Cleric list to find healing and fortifying spells that aren't too focused on alignment, undead-smiting, etc. Similarly browse through through wizard spells for good defensive and utility magic to round things out. Give them lots of skill points, and have a skill list similar to a combination of wizard and cleric. Simple weapons only. Probably 1/2 BAB and good Will saves.

Having said all of that,I'm hard-pressed to come-up with any interesting class abilities, however. Maybe upping the healing capabilities of the bard is a good way to go, afterall.

Aren't Adepts Arcane curing casters? NPC class but not bad.

 

[pawsplay]

Aren't Adepts Arcane curing casters? NPC class but not bad.

Adepts are divine casters.

 

[Starbuck_II]

Adepts are divine casters.

But they get a Familar and cast normal arcane spells like polymorph, Scorching Ray, Lightning Bolt, and Wall of Fire!
So they basically get best of both worlds: Arcane spells cast as divine.

 

[Sadrik]

You could simply recast the names and roles they play in the game.
Cleric could become Mystic, Occultist, Warlock, Hospitalar or even Scholar
Druid could become Witch, Elementalist, Naturalist, Hermit or Life-giver
Paladin could become Champion, Crusader, Hunter, Slayer (Demon/Dragon/Undead/Witch)
Ranger could simply convert to whatever the druid becomes with their flavor

Easy as pie. Whatever name you pick for the class make sure you also change their role within the world too. If you choose mystic for the cleric you could have them essentially be "white mages" that use all the familiar trappings of wizards; towers in remote locations etc. You could even give them spellbooks to reinforce this idea.

Druids as witches or elementalists is easy.

Paladins as witch hunters or demon slayers is a snap.

Good luck.

 

[TheNovaLord]

celestial sorceror can heal in PF, cant it?

the heal skill can also be used to heal hp as well. (heal deadly wounds)

..just up the power of healing for these too

 

[Flayra]

First of all, thanks for all the replies.

Based on some of the feedback from Set, I think I might be going with a warlock/necromancer-style theme and create a new semi-caster class. His magic would work by drawing on life forces of enemies (or allies of no enemies are nearby). This also gives a chanc to introduce a class that is possibly more shunned then witches/wizards/sorcerors

I think I will be keeping the monk as a paladin-style "limited healer" as his ki pool is limited, but spice it up to not be a direct copy of Lay on Hands

Starbuck_II: Could you elaborate a little on the classes you mention and where I can read more about them?

 

[Bihlbo]

I wish to run a campaign where faith and religion are more similar to the real world - that is, faith is actually based on belief rather than firm proof, praying guarantees nothing and there is no definitive proof that the gods do exist (but it is strongly hinted, word of mouth, stories of miracles, etc.)

I strongly recommend you check out Testament. Though it's probably not what you're looking for, it has a lot of good ideas on how to support a religion and religious structure without faith in something necessarily "real."

 

[Remathilis]

Not Starbuck, but I'll help out.

Bard - Core book, duh.
Paladin - ditto
Crusader - Tome of Battle. Not too familiar with it.
Shugenja - Complete Divine. An oriental/elemental-themed caster. Stripped of its oriental flavor, it makes a GREAT elementalist, since it was designed to fill either a wizard OR a cleric's role. Fire shugenja's are very offense-oriented (fireball), earth shugenja's are defensive (stoneskin), air shugenja's are movement-based (freedom of movement) and water shugenja's are healers (cure wounds).
Favored Soul - Mini's Handbook and Complete Divine. Basically a divine sorcerer. Not a bad class to look at for mechanics, but poor flavor.
Healer - Mini's Handbook. A simple divine class that focuses solely on healing. It could EASILY be rebranded an "arcane" caster and made to work, but the class itself is a bit weak (doubly so under Pathfinder). Still, a strong contender for "divine-but-not" if your going that route.
Spirit Shaman - Complete Divine. A spirits-based spontaneous druidic caster. Has all the problems of a druid, unless your willing to argue spirits are real but deities are unknown.
Psion/Wilder - Expanded Psionics Handbook. The Egoist (pyschometabolic) gets some healing powers, and there are more powers and prestige classes on WotC's site still. Complete Psionic offer's two more classes; ardent and divine mind, which fill a psionic cleric/paladin role (using psionics for power, but following a deity or philosophy).
Truenamer - Tome of Magic. Don't know much about it, except it uses truenames.
Binder - Tome of Magic. Ditto, cept for vestiages.
Dragon Shaman - Player's Handbook II. Of all the classes, you could argue this one the easiest. Its not "divine" in the traditional sense, they gain power through veneration of dragons (not specific ones, but draconic power as a whole) and gain some healing/buffing powers. Strong but not overpowering (you won't need to convert much) they get some healing, status-removal, and buffs via non-spellcasting means (a lay-on-hands/mercy mechanic, for example).
Incarnum classes - Magic of Incarnum. Don't know much about them either.

A healer, dragon shaman, or even shugenja could all be refluffed to remove divine elements and still allow healing, but each would require a bit of 3.5 => Pathfinder conversion.

 

[Bad Paper]

I really like Set's post, #5, above.

It's been a year since I cracked the book, but I think there's some kind of post-monk martial adept prestige class in the Book of Nine Swords. I have forgotten its name, but it tinkers with both positive and negative energy, and even does the aforementioned taking-hit-points-away-from-someone-to-give-to-someone-else thing.

I'll go on the record here and say that I hate arcane healing. The cure wounds spells have no place on the Bard's list, for example, and it's always irritated me. It's like the designers said "Gosh, we have to give the arcane casters healing somewhere."

That bein said, it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to give the Wu Jen some healing (and take away some other spells). It would give them an actual niche, rather than simply being "not quite wizards."

Really, though, I think that a campaign that just focused on adepts as healers would be interesting enough. It would highlight the fact that magic is most often used to hurt people, and make people generally more suspicious of spellcasters.

 

[Flayra]

I think I am going with a fighter/necromancer hybrid. He won't be a spellcaster per se, but will have some necromantic powers usable X times/day.

Anyone have a good name for such a class? Necromancer and warlock suggests spellcasters and I want something that indicates necromancy + fighter with a shady side.

I'll post it here when I have something worked out