Non-magical healing

[GlassEye]

The last time I played face-to-face the session was pretty rough for the characters. They stumbled into an area that was a bit beyond their skill (5 characters going through the Caverns of Thracia). The party doesn't have a cleric but does have a druid who spent many of her spells on healing and using the fast healing alternate class feature. I noticed that the druid's player was getting a bit frustrated with his difficulty in keeping the characters alive.

So I got to thinking. What could I do as a DM to make the cleric less of an indispensible character and help parties that don't have a cleric member at all? This is what I came up with and I'd like your thoughts on balance, etc.

HEALING HANDS (Manipulation skill trick)
Prerequisite: Heal 5 ranks
Benefit: You can treat each wounded character once per encounter provided they were wounded during that encounter. If you succeed on a heal check, that character heals 1d3 points of damage.

If you succeed on a Heal check made to stabilize a dying character, that character also heals 1d6 points of damage.

HEALING SALVE 25 gp; 1 lb.
You can apply this natural curative to a wounded character once per encounter. Application of a single dose takes a standard action and heals 1d3 points of damage. Each stoppered pot of healing salve holds 5 doses of the salve. You can create healing salve with a successful DC 12 Craft (Herbalism) check.

CONVICTION
Cost: 2 conviction points
Result: "Second Wind": As a standard action heal 1 hit point per level plus CON bonus.

What do you think?

 

[Switchblade]

No cleric is hardly critical for healing. In a one off we all made our PC's independently for an urban game. 3 rogues, one swashbuckler, one lawyer (don't ask). Found a good use magic device check and a cure light wand works just as well with the added bonus rogues can tumble to get to downed comrades and wands don't provoke AoO.

In a long Iron Kingdoms campaign I ran healing was kinda sparse as clerical healing is something the gods don't entirely smile on. The first time a cleric tried to heal someone he accidently did enough damage to kill them instead. From then on they relied on alchemical healing (and the ****ing paladin). No problems. You want a game without clerical healing IK is worth a look, it has buckets of healing alchemicals.

With your salve I would (a) give it an onset time as it isn't magical and (b) increase the healing or reduce the cost. With that it would cost a fortune to restore a respectable amount of hits. On average that is 2.5gp per hit point. If that is the main source of healing the gp adds up pretty quickly.

 

[Shazman]

I think that there already is a healing hands skill trick in complete scoundrel. I think it heals 1d6 hit points. You could also consider using the second wind mechanics from Star Wars Saga. Once per day as a swift action, a character can heal up to 1/4 of their normal hit point total or their con, whichever is higher.

 

[Meeki]

I allow for bandaging. Basically heal check with a heal kit DC = 20, you are healed 5 points. Takes a minute to perform.
If your check exceeds the DC you can heal an additional 1 per 2 points exceeded. Each character can only be bandaged once per day.

 

[GlassEye]

Switchblade: A wand is a good idea. Since we have a druid (making UMD unnecessary) it's an even better idea. Slipping one into the next treasure will probably be the best thing to relieving the druid player's stress. The point about tumble and battlefield mobility is a good one, though. As for the cost of the healing salve: I really didn't intend for it to be a primary source of healing, just something to help tide the party over til they can rest. And I was comparing it to the cost of a healing potion (which, if my math is right, cost an avg. of 10gp per point of healing).

Shazman: You are right. Healing hands is from Complete Scoundrel. However, the ability only heals 1d6 if you are in the negative hit points and nothing if you have taken damage and are still conscious. (I added that extra bit of healing in.) And it was a bit of a nod to 2e's Healing and Herbalism checks.

As for second wind, I had only a vague idea how that worked and was trying to do something similar with the conviction point thing. That certainly seems more useful than just healing your level+con bonus.

Meeki: I like that very much! Very elegant, provides reason for continuing ranks in Heal, and more useful than the Healing hands skill trick. I will definately be using this.

Thanks all.