Non spellcasting healer

I understand you want to make this "realistic" where the healing is hard to come by, but don't you think dc 40 to prevent a character from dieing, coupled with the fact the surgery has to begin within 3 minutes is a bit much? I understand that because of the no magic-realism aspect of it, you can't feasibly offer a longer period to begin the surgery, but maybe a reduced dc. I understand that at 13th lvl when you take into account the classes inherrent bonus to heal, base skill level, ability modifier, and probably skill focus heal that dc 40 isn't really that high, but the character will still have less than a 50% chance of success! Sounds like you don't really want these guys to have long, fruitful adventuring careers...
 

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2nd revision

i'm set with a name, the class shall be called Apothecary ! :D
made some changes to some class features...maybe more powerful maybe weaker...who knows ?

Combat Medicine
An Apothecary learns to adapt himself in combat situations where anyone can easily get hurt. Therefore, the Apothecary knows the from the quick remedies to the more powerful curatives to dress the wounds from the slightest cut to the gravest of injuries. At 1st level, the Apothecary begins with 1d8 and adds an additional d8 equal to ¼ the ranks he has in the Heal skill (rounded down) per day. For example, a 5th level Apothecary with 8 ranks in Heal (rounded down) would begin with 3d8 (1d8+2d8 for 8 ranks in Heal). This is the total amount of damage the Apothecary could restore per day. The Apothecary could choose how many d8s is being rolled when healing a wounded as long as it does not exceed his daily dices. For example, an Apothecary with 3d8 per day may choose to restore 1d8 of damage on one patient. On another patient, the Apothecary may choose to use up the remaining 2d8 to cure that much damage. This ability could only be applied once on each character until the Apothecary regains his d8s on the next day.
At 3rd level, the Apothecary begins with 2d8 and additional d8 equal to ¼ the ranks in Heal. The Apothecary would begin with an additional d8 at every odd level hereafter (5th, 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 17th & 19th)
In addition to the Apothecary’s daily dices, the Apothecary also provides a +1 to the result of the roll per level. Similar to the d8s, these +1 may also be distributed between each patient. For example, a 5th level Apothecary with 8 ranks in Heal begins a new day with 5d8+5 (3d8 for the daily base dice, 2d8 for 8 ranks in Heal and +5 for 5th level). When the Apothecary is tending to one patient, he may choose to restore 3d8+3 worth of damage. This means the Apothecary has a remaining of 2d8+2 to cure other patients.
The Apothecary must use this ability as a full round action and make a Heal check (DC 15).

Poison Treatment
At 4th level, the Apothecary could provide temporary antidotes to prevent the effects of a poison until a proper cure is found. As the treat poison of the Heal skill (refer to PHB page 76), when the Apothecary makes the Heal check she may add her level to that check

Still tweaking the surgery class features, not finished yet. But so far what do you think ?

Now, to address certain feedbacks that may require an answer (thanks anyway) ;)

but don't you think dc 40 to prevent a character from dieing, coupled with the fact the surgery has to begin within 3 minutes is a bit much?

Well, the intention to provide that class feature wasn't completely implicating that the PCs are going to die often. In a setting with no common access to divine magic, people tend to die more easily without being abled to be raised.In fact, it's almost impossible to raise a dead man without the aid of divine magic. That reflects the high DC if that was what you meant since it would really take a real miracle to be able to bring someone back to life with only mundane means. Although I hope my PCs wouldn't end up in their graves during their careers (especially when they worked so hard just to reach high levels), but i'm not above killing them if they really did something without their brains or it was a dice's fault so with this class feature, at least the PCs would have a slim chance should anyhthing like that happened to them rather than just saying, 'Opps, sorry you're dead and there's nothing you can do about it' :(
 

Wow....

I love it! I love every single bit of it! Its amazing! I was thinking of running a warrior only world with no magic whatsoever, but with some kind of compliments to the other classes, and you've just done it for me! wow! That really is amazing!

One thing I do not get though...

What is the real difference between minor Miracle and Miracle itself? other than the save being more difficult, I don't see why someone would do Miracle instead of minor Miracle. only real difference is that the person would be awake in that same turn, and since you have to do it within 3 rounds of the person hitting -10 hp, there would be no real reason to wake him up straight away, when you could do an eaiser to make save in the firs round, then heal him back to a more stable hp the next round. if nothing else... make them have to do minor Miracle when they are between -10 and -1, and Miracle when they are past -10.

Another way you could gurantee that your characters do not just die all over the place is by lessening the damage creatures inflict by half. It would make for longer battles - not that it would matter because most of you would be fighter types - and things would be hard-pressed to die more often.

Of course this idea is not really practical, but it makes more sense.
 

2nd revision complete ~!

I've finally completed a 2nd revision of the Apothecary after making the modifications i think that would balance the class ! Enjoy ! :D

Base Attack Bonus : same as cleric
Saves Progression : same as cleric
Skill Points : same as cleric
Class Skills : same as cleric except excluding Knowledge (religion) from the list.

Class Features

Healer
An Apothecary can multiclass with Cleric levels without losing any of the class features. For the purpose of calculating XP penalty for multclassing, the Apothecary and Cleric levels are added together and considered as one class.

Combat Medicine
An Apothecary learns to adapt himself in combat situations where anyone can easily get hurt. Therefore, the Apothecary knows from the quickest remedies to the more powerful curatives to dress the wounds from the slightest cut to the gravest of injuries. At 1st level, the Apothecary begins with 1d8 and adds an additional d8 equal to ¼ the ranks he has in the Heal skill per day. For example, a 5th level Apothecary with 8 ranks in Heal (rounded up) would begin with 3d8 (1d8+2d8 for 8 ranks in Heal). This is the total amount of damage the Apothecary could restore per day. The Apothecary could choose how many d8s is being rolled when healing a wounded as long as it does not exceed his daily dices. For example, an Apothecary with 3d8 per day may choose to restore 1d8 of damage on one patient. On another patient, the Apothecary may choose to use up the remaining 2d8 to cure that much damage. This ability could only be applied once on each character until the Apothecary regains his d8s on the next day.
At 3rd level, the Apothecary begins with 2d8 and additional d8 equal to ¼ the ranks in Heal. The Apothecary would begin with an additional d8 at every odd level hereafter (5th, 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 17th & 19th)
In addition to the Apothecary’s daily dices, the Apothecary also provides a +1 to the result of the roll per level. Similar to the d8s, these +1 may also be distributed between each patient. For example, a 5th level Apothecary with 8 ranks in Heal begins a new day with 5d8+5 (3d8 for the daily base dice, 2d8 for 8 ranks in Heal and +5 for 5th level). When the Apothecary is tending to one patient, he may choose to restore 3d8+3 worth of damage. This means the Apothecary has a remaining of 2d8+2 to cure other patients.
The Apothecary must use this ability as a full round action and make a Heal check (DC 15).

Medical Expert
At 3rd level, the Apothecary gains a +1 competence bonus to his Heal check. These bonuses rise to +2 when the Apothecary reaches 6th level, to +3 when the he reaches 9th level, to +4 when he reaches 12th level, to +5 when he reaches 15th level and to +6 at 18th level.

Surgery
At 4th level, the Apothecary may perform surgeries on characters to cure any sickness or repair damaged organs. The Apothecary must have a masterwork Healers’ Kit to perform a surgery or suffer a –4 penalty to the Heal check (if in the Apothecary does not have a Healers’ Kit, he would have a total penalty of –6). To perform a surgery, the patient must have rested a least 8 hours before the surgery and the Apothecary must make preparations that will take 1d10 minutes. If the Apothecary is performing an emergency surgery (see below), he may perform the surgery immediately but take a –5 penalty to his Heal check. The surgery takes a 1d4 +1/for each point of ability score lost, hours and the Apothecary must rest a minimum of 8 hours before he could perform another surgery. The surgery is done to remove any effects of a diseases that is infecting the patient or restore lost ability score. The Apothecary must make a Heal check (DC 20). If the Apothecary is successful, he restores 1 point of ability damage for each point above the DC. For example, if a patient has lost 6 points of Strength due to a disease, the Apothecary could fully restore the patient if his Heal check result is 26 (20 for the surgery to be successful + 6 to restore the 6 ability score). The patient must still make the proper Fortitude saves to remove the disease from her system.

At 8th level, if a disease was not stopped before the surgery (either by the patient’s previous successful Fortitude save), the surgery could be done to remove the disease and restore the ability damage at the same time. If this is so, the Apothecary makes a Heal check (DC 25) to remove the disease from the patient and restores 1 point of ability damage for each point he gets above the DC. For example, a patient who lost 6 points of Strength due to a disease that is still infecting the patient, the Apothecary could restore the patient if his Heal check result is 31. (25 to remove the disease successfully + 6 to restore 6 ability damage).

A failed surgery does not restore any of the ability damage or remove the disease and may have dire consequences. If a surgery fails, the patient makes a Fortitude save (DC 15 + hit dice). If successful, nothing happens to the patient and the surgery ends.. If the patient fails the Fortitude save, instead of having none of his ability score recovered, the patient HP drops to –1 and is dying. The Apothecary automatically detects his failure in the surgery and the status of his patient which could be quickly responded by stabilizing the patient (refer to PHB page 75) situation. Once the patient is stabilize, the surgery must end. This ability never works when removing mummy rot.

A patient who undergoes surgery is fatigued and unconscious. The patient requires a minimum of complete day rest with long term care (refer to PHB page 75) but regain consciousness 1d6 hours after the surgery.

Medical Treatment
At 4th level, the Apothecary could provide temporary antidotes or medicines to prevent the effects of a poison or a disease until a proper cure is found. As the treat poison and treat disease of the Heal skill (refer to PHB page 76), when the Apothecary makes the Heal check she may add her level to that check.

Caretaker
At 5th level, when an Apothecary uses her Heal check for long term care (refer to PHB page 75). If is successful, the patient recovers HP or ability score points (lost to ability damage) at thrice the normal rate: 3 HP per level for a full 8 hours of rest in a day, or 6 HP per level for each full day of complete rest; 3 ability score points for a full 8 hours of rest in a day, or 6 ability score points for each full day of complete rest.

Minor Medical Miracle
At 10th level onwards, an Apothecary could save a character reduced to –10 HP or lower (but not below –15). If the Apothecary is able to begin surgery (see above) within 3 rounds of the character’s death, he can make a Heal check (DC 30) and the Apothecary can’t take 10 or 20. If the check succeeds, the dead character can make a Fortitude save (DC 25) to stabilized and be restored to -9 HP. If the Apothecary fails the skill check or the patient fails the save, the dead character can’t be saved. If the character is revived, she is still unconscious but stabilize. The patient must have a minimum of complete day rest for 1 week and have long term care (refer to PHB page 75) and only regain consciousness after that period.

Medical Miracle
At 13th level onwards, an Apothecary can revive a character reduced to –10 HP or lower (but not below –20). If the Apothecary is able to begin surgery (see above) within 6 rounds of the character’s death, he can make a Heal check (DC 40) and the Apothecary can’t take 10 or 20. If the check succeeds, the dead character can make a Fortitude save (DC 30) to stabilized and be restored to –9 HP. If the Apothecary fails the skill check or the patient fails the save, the dead character can’t be restored. If the character is revived, she is still unconscious but stabilize. The patient must have a minimum rest of complete day rest for 1 week and have long term care (refer to PHB page 75) and only regain consciousness after that period.

Well ? What do you think ??? :o
 

who wants to play solely a healer? Clerics get some nifty evocations such as flame strike and a host of useful as well as powerful spells.

They're also pretty good at fighting and all that jazz...


sooo, it's aneat class, but I don't see anyone wanting to play it, sounds like a great NPC or cohort.
 

Instead of creating a class to do this, have you thought of using feats? A field medic during our various wars was also a soldier. He also had rudimentary (at least) knowledge of medicine.

So you could develop a "Field Medic" feat chain ... some ides:

Field Medic
Requirements: 4 Ranks in Heal.
The character is trained the arts of battle field wound dressing. As such he or she can get a soldier operational when normally they could not.
Benefit: On a successful DC15 heal check, the Field Medic heals 1d3 hit points of damage to a single person. For every 5 points about the initial DC, the healing is increased <- thinking either increase the die used to heal or +1 per 5 points.
Note: This is natural healing, sewing of wounds, etc. It will leave scars, unlike magical healing.

Field Medic, Natural Toxicology
Requirements: 4 Ranks in Heal, Field Medic, 4 Ranks Knowledge (nature)
The character has studied the toxicology of plants and normal animals. As such he or she can counter the effects of naturally ocurring poisons.
Benefit: The character is able to cure ability point damage caused by natural poisons. On a DC20 heal check, the character cures 1d2 ability points, increasing by +1 for every 5 points above 20.

And so forth.

Remember that a straight Heal Check can stablise characters, repalce a secondary saving throw versus poisons, and some other nifty things.

This would
1. make it a specific profession if you will for a character
2. give the character something else to do instead of just "hang around" and wait for healing opportunities.

Just Some Ideas
D
 

You could do with Heal what Bardic Music did for Perform. At particular ranks, the character gets new abilities (remove poison, restoration, etc.)

I'd also probably give them good defense (Heavy Armor proficiency?), high hp (d10), good saves (perhaps Will and Fort), and some abjuration-like effects. I'm not sure you want the supernatural power route, but it would seem neat to me to have a healer that could also protect.

This is a fascinating idea. I'd like to work out one of these.
 

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