Pathfinder 1E Pathfinder w/o Cleric?

[Jester David]

Well, I play since AD&D 2nd and I never encountered a party carrying on unhealed. Either they rested at first opportunity or they used magic healing. Before 3.0, they actually used healing magic and rested immediately afterwards, hoping for no "wandering monster".

Some groups are much more sensitive to being slightly injured or having fewer resources. The 5 Minute Workday and all. Other groups are able to keep adventuring. Hard to know without having an idea of the players.

And "well into the game" in Pathfinder is what? "Wealth by level" assumes 1k gold for each character at second level. Even in a three person group, everyone has only to pool a fourth of that to buy a CLW wand.

Which presumes everyone is getting all their wealth-by-level I'm a big pile pile cash instead of hard treasure.
And it presumes no one is buying that cloak of resistance, a masterwork weapon, upgrading their armour, or scribing scrolls.

Leadership on the other hand is a very bad and abusive feat (one of the reasons Pathfinder Society play banned this feat).

If it was that bad it never would have been upgraded. They would have just ignored it.
It's clearly the most powerful single feat, and extremely problematic in Organized Play. Which is why it was banned.
But in a homegame it's often quite useful, such as by allowing for a tag-along healer. DMs can make an informed decision to ban or allow. In an adventure path, it might be handy to have an extra character.

 

[D'karr]

I'd argue this is more the player's reaction to the system than the system itself. It's an accidental byproduct of cheap crafting, magic item vendors, and the presumed easy availability of wands.

All of those system issues were a direct result of how many people were already playing the game in previous editions. The system simply "codified" the most common house rules, and made them part of the default system. However, the system assumes those resources are there, and "balanced" combat damage with respect to common healing resources. If there are no common healing resources the DM is going to have to adjust by providing the healing resources, or by adjusting combat damage appropriately.

 

[Walking Dad]

Well, in low level D&D 2nd groups, with rolled abilities and order and HD, slightly injured can mean half or more of the HP . It isn't about the ability to keep adventuring, but about the cost of healing items versus the cost of resurrections. My groups never liked to dismiss a grown character for some bad luck and just replace them with new ones.

And no, not a big pile of cash. But with some luck, weapons and armors you find are actually useful, so you can use the other money for the wand. It is cheap and if you got a class with HP healing spells he isn't forced to spend them only for healing because the fighter needed his new (more expansive) cloak right now.

Leadership, well I still consider the feat broken. If the adventure path and the group needs a NPC, just provide it without anyone having to take a feat. And i there is no need, I see no reason to have a NPC for it around.

 

[Mike Myler]

Goldarned forums done tricked me.

 

[Mike Myler]

Personally, I'd just run with it. The big difference will be in more frequent and longer breaks (multi-day rests to allow for natural healing).

The thing I'd watch out for, especially as you get into mid-levels, is spellcasters starting to outpace the rest of the party due to shorter adventuring days. At that point, start introducing some healing items.

Cheers!
Kinak

Seconded. Healing potions are cheap and you don't actually need to be a healer to make them.

 

[LexStarwalker]

Any character with use magic device can use healing wands, as can bards, rangers and paladins.

 

[Henry]

In Pathfinder, the alternative is potions and heal sticks. The most effective "bang for the buck" in Pathfinder is the wand of cure light wounds, which gives 50d8+50 hit points of healing for 750 gp, which breaks down to just under 3gp per hit point of healing on average. Everybody and their brother can use it, too -- a full 9 of the 20 or so classes (maybe more, I might have miscounted.) Since one out of every two characters can use it, if the party is unwilling to run with a cleric or oracle, then they ought to be wise enough to pool resources and grab a wand or three -- it's really what they're there for, "low magic" games notwithstanding, which brings its own challenges to both magic healing and classes that do such.

 

[DragonLancer]

As long as they have access to healing potions and wands, it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[thedroid]

I'm going to offer a left-field suggestion: What if you changed the fluff for clerics? I find players don't like being the "holy man" or having to use blunt weapons. But if you make "cleric" a magical race unique to your campaign that has access to the same magic from non-divine sources, suddenly it becomes a cool character choice.

 

[darjr]

Maybe wizards can cast some divine spells. Especially the really religious ones?

Could one or two of the players have some divine favor? A favor that gets some healing cast for them by their deity or an avatar or other representative?

Maybe their ancestors are watching over them and will occasionally intervene with a divine helping hand from time to time?