Survival without a priest

[smetzger]

I am in a group where there is no priest. We are 7, and 3 already had to reroll...
How can a group survive better without a priest? No one seems to like playing one and the good "cure" wands are too expensive for us.
Anyone here was crazy like THIS?

1) Have someone take 1 level of Cleric, A fighter who does this and takes the War domain doesn't lose much.
2) Have everyone take a level of Cleric.
3) Have someone take the leadership feat and chose a Cleric for a cohort.

 

[arwink]

I've played in a group that had, between six characters and three cohorts, only one mutliclassed cleric at level 4 or so and a character with two levels of bard and access to cure light wounds. This didn't actually spread that far between the standard level ten characters, and no-one else belonged to a class with healing abilities.

We got around it by being very good at not being hurt, putting a lot of effort into fortifying our camping sites (cause, lets face it, we were going to be there for days), and investing in a lot of healing magic whenever we had the spare cash.
We found that while we were healing light, we were damage heavy. Three heavy powerhouse tanks, an arcane archer, a buffing wizard and a combat wizard more than made up for the lack of healing ability. We stayed hurt longer, but we took things down faster too.

 

[BlackMoria]

Consider assigning a NPC cleric to the party. It ups the character count but having a cleric along solves alot of problems that not having a cleric brings.

 

[Orco42]

How can a group survive better without a priest? No one seems to like playing one and the good "cure" wands are too expensive for us.

I think that the party should pool money to get a wand of cure light wounds.

750gp is a great price for 225 hp's (on average).

They are not great in battle but are perfect for healing up after a battle.

 

[Fenes 2]

Survival without a priest is simple: Just let the DM adjust the adventures. If no one likes to play a cleric, then don't require a cleric, just cut down on the gracious damage.

As an aside, a bard with the right spells, coupled with a paladin, can more than make up for a cleric.

 

[Taloras]

We managed for a few levels, till my rogue died, and i created a druid character. healing is very useful.....he just needs a few more spell slots....

 

[Paederon]

The players in the game I run seem priest averse as well. I accomodated by giving them an NPC priest that is part of the plot. She has a higher calling than just an HP machine, and her religion has called her away from time to time and they've been forced to do with out her. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, or something like that...

In games that I play in, we also have a fairly priest averse group. Our DM never really hits us very hard... I never got hit ( as a wizzie ) for like 8 levels ( until I chose to make a point ). The one or two times things looked really bad, the pally was able to keep us going

 

[Hopping Vampire]

the whole idead of repeatedly sucking down potions seems so diablo-ish to me

 

[tarchon]

We just did 90% of the first Against the Giants without one, with no casualties, aside from the priest, who got killed on the way there. One 9th level bard and a few healing potions for our 9th level party of 5 seemed to suffice, though it did require our being more careful than usual. Clever use of Inspire Greatness helped extend the hitpoints considerably. After we defeated the hill giants, we got the priest raised and went back to clean up some parts of the dungeon that we'd passed over; he got killed again in the first encounter.

 

[jollyninja]

i can count the clerics my group has had in 3e on one hand. it's 3 actually. combine that with probably a hundred fighters and an equal number of rogues with half as many barbarians paladins and rangers. almost no bards or druids or wizards or clerics. and we do just fine. we do not allways know what all of our magical items do. that has been a far bigger issue then a lack of in combat healing. we have few character deaths and we certianly have fought many creatures that were above our challenge rating with mixed success.

players just have to get smarter and think in terms of tactics. if you get ambushed, run. if it looks way to strong: try to ambush it then run if that does not work out. if you are getting killed in melee, drop back and pull out your bow while someone else plays at being the tank for awhile in stead of just relying on your walking hospital to bail you out. it requires more co-operation and group thinking.

buy some potions and a heywards handy haversack. you'll be fine. unless you are not