Options for arcane healing spells?

[WhatGravitas]

IMHO the Cleric's main balancing factor is that the party drains their spells for healing. If you let the parties other casters be able to take some of that burden off the cleric, you add more power to the cleric.


If done at all, I'd say let the wizard have pseudo healing spells that convert normal damage to non lethal.

Cauterize 0th level Stabilizes a dying creature in the most painful way imaginable.
Stitch light wounds 1st level 1d8+level [Max +5] damage converted to non lethal.
Stitch moderate wounds 2nd level 2d8+level [Max +10] damage converted to non lethal.
Stitch serious wounds 3rd level 3d8+level [Max +15] damage converted to non lethal.
Stitch Critical wounds 4st level 4d8+level [Max +20] damage converted to non lethal.

1) Right... that's a catch, a healing arcanist powers the cleric... - never thought of this (on the other hand, what do you think about a party with two clerics?)
2) The spells are a bit too sucky, because... well, they mak rescue creatures from dying, but nothing else - it works wonder in conjunction with clerical healing, but as stand-alone... not so good. Perhaps half healed, half subdual?

 

[Nefrast]

This is why wizards always become super evil necro liches.

No, no. True wizards become baelnorns or intelligent items. ;-)

If they had access to healing magic they wouldn't have to use vampiric touch or become undead and use negative energy to heal.

Don't we now also have positive energy powered undead? I think they are called the undying. I haven't read a lot about them so far, but they can probably use normal positive energy to heal.

 

[Fedifensor]

If you're playing in Eberron, and your character is a halfling, you could take Least Mark of Healing and get cure light wounds 1/day.

Check out the Dragonmarked Sorcerer feat from the latest Dragon magazine. Take the mark for a halfling of House Jorasco, and add ALL of the least, lesser, and greater mark abilities to your spells known. Nothing like a sorcerer with the ability to cast heal...

 

[Mistwell]

False Life. It's one of the top ten best wizard spells, in my opinion.

 

[Jack Simth]

It's a curious quirk of wording, but while a Core Wizard can never learn a direct healing spell, a Core Sorcerer can.

Seriously; compare:

Spells: A wizard casts arcane spells which are drawn from the sorcerer/ wizard spell list. A wizard must choose and prepare her spells ahead of time (see below).

To learn, prepare, or cast a spell, the wizard must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a wizard’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the wizard’s Intelligence modifier.

Like other spellcasters, a wizard can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Her base daily spell allotment is given on Table: The Wizard. In addition, she receives bonus spells per day if she has a high Intelligence score.

Unlike a bard or sorcerer, a wizard may know any number of spells. She must choose and prepare her spells ahead of time by getting a good night’s sleep and spending 1 hour studying her spellbook. While studying, the wizard decides which spells to prepare.

(Emphasis added)
Vs.

Spells: A sorcerer casts arcane spells which are drawn primarily from the sorcerer/wizard spell list. He can cast any spell he knows without preparing it ahead of time, the way a wizard or a cleric must (see below).

To learn or cast a spell, a sorcerer must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a sorcerer’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the sorcerer’s Charisma modifier.

Like other spellcasters, a sorcerer can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on Table: The Sorcerer. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Charisma score.

A sorcerer’s selection of spells is extremely limited. A sorcerer begins play knowing four 0-level spells and two 1st-level spells of your choice. At each new sorcerer level, he gains one or more new spells, as indicated on Table: Sorcerer Spells Known. (Unlike spells per day, the number of spells a sorcerer knows is not affected by his Charisma score; the numbers on Table: Sorcerer Spells Known are fixed.) These new spells can be common spells chosen from the sorcerer/wizard spell list, or they can be unusual spells that the sorcerer has gained some understanding of by study. The sorcerer can’t use this method of spell acquisition to learn spells at a faster rate, however.

(Emphasis and Emphasis and Emphasis added)

In the Wizard version, there's no wiggle room. A Wizard's spells "are drawn from" the Sor/Wiz list. In the Sorcerer version, there's a lot of wiggle room. A Sorcerer's spells "are drawn primarily from" the Sor/Wiz list. They even expand on it later, explicitly allowing "unusual spells that the sorcerer has gained some understanding of by study."

So a particularly religious Sorcerer (or one who had studied Clerics/Druids/Rangers/Paladins), or a Sorcerer who made friends with/studied/pretended to be a bard could pick up Cure Light Wounds, and still be within the Core RAW. Theoretically, he could just locate and study a scroll of Cure Light for a while. The requrements are vague, so the difficulty is up to the DM, but it's in the rules as they are written... for a Sorcerer.

False Life. It's one of the top ten best wizard spells, in my opinion.

Temporary hit points aren't healing so much as damage prevention.....

 

[Storyteller01]

HoHF: Elves has a feat that allows wizards to learn healing spells as arcane spells three levels higher (cure light wounds as a fourth level, etc). Allows you to take some decent healing spells starting at 6th level. You could look into other class options and still maintain healing spells.

 

[Iku Rex]

Healing touch (lv3, Spell Compendium) lets you heal someone else for 1d6/2 levels. You suffer half that as damage
Synostodweomer (lv7, Spell Compendium) lets you heal 1d8/spell level by sacrificing an arcane spell.
Undying vigor of the Dragonlords (lv5, Dragon Magic, Sorc only) lets you heal yourself of 5d6+1d6 per level of a sacrificed spell.

Negative energy tends to result in temporary hit points rather than real healing, but if you can find a suitable spell (like negative energy ray), shroud of undeath (lv2, Spell Compendium) could arguably let you take advantage of it to heal. ("When you are affected by this spell, inflict spells heal you and cure spells hurt you. You are treated as if you were undead for the purpose of all spells and effects that specifically affect undead creatures.")

 

[Thanee]

Seriously...

Riiiiight!

Bye
Thanee

 

[kerbarian]

I agree with earlier posters that Arcane Disciple is the easiest path.

If you want to avoid that for some reason, though, I think the best actual Sor/Wiz healing spell is Healing Touch from Spell Compendium. It heals the target for 1d6 per 2 levels and then deals half that amount in damage to the caster.

Not much compared to cleric spells, but it's the best I've seen for Sor/Wiz. There are also some tricks that can be used to make it more effective. The first is to use it in combination with False Life -- use that to soak the damage so that you get pure healing out of Healing Touch.

e.g. a 6th-level caster is at 20/30 hp. He casts False Life and gains 10 temporary hp. Then he casts Healing Touch on himself, which heals 10hp (out of 3d6) and deals 5 damage, which comes out of the temporary hp. Now he's fully healed and has 5 temporary hp left.

At higher levels, there's a somewhat complex trick that allows pretty significant self-healing:

Cast Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability on your famliar, and imbue one or more copies of empowered Healing Touch. Each time you want to heal, the familiar casts Healing Touch on the master, and the master casts Polymorph, sharing the spell with the familiar.

For a 16th-level caster, the Healing Touch would heal 8d6*1.5 = 42 damage and deal half that (21) to the familiar. Then the polymorph heals 16 hp for both the caster and the familiar. The familiar is down by 5 hp and the caster has been healed for 58.

 

[Darklone]

Could someone outline for me again how Arcane Disciple works, I don't have my books around... don't be too specific if it's a CR problem.