The party's cleric *won't* heal your character?!

[Gnome Quixote]

One time all the healers in one group conspired to limit healing on one particular monk who was very reckless all the time as a means of teaching him to be more careful.

The gnome I'm currently playing, a chaotic good cleric of Garl Glittergold, did this early in our campaign to the party's self-centered jerk of a wizard, who has a tendency to get bored and poke at things while our rogue scouts the dungeon ahead. Consequently, he got himself zapped by a trapped statue as he tried to climb it, taking him down to one measly hit point. In an attempt to instill the wizard with some common sense and humility, my cleric offered to bring the healing only if he promised not to touch anything else unless I said it was OK... and called me 'sir'.

The joke was on me, though. Wizard-boy stubbornly refused the offer, turned it all around and made me look like the jerk, as he limped through the rest of the dungeon, brilliantly roleplaying it to the hilt. He went on to survive a couple dicey encounters, one of which nearly killed our paladin--and might have, if I'd used my last heal spell on the wizard--and got back to town with his one lousy hit point intact. There he spread the word about how I'd confirmed every rotten thing he'd ever suspected about us dirty gnomes, and earned me the nickname 'Malpractice'. It was great.

 

[Ourph]

I played a Paladin/Cleric for a while in a Forgotten Realms campaign and refused to heal the Chaotic Stupid member of the party most of the time. HPs were like sands through the hourglass with this guy. Eventually when he'd ask for healing my character would tell him "Tyr helps those who help themselves - now go bleed someplace else".

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The clerics in my Midwood campaign only give out healing to those whom them believe their god would want them to heal. It hasn't been all the group, and the less-behaved characters have had to tow the line (and avoid getting hit).

The campaign is splitting into two parallel tracks, so it won't be as much of an issue in future, although the not-good-guys don't have a healer at all, now, while the good guys have a cleric/rogue, paladin/cleric, a pure cleric and a barbarian/druid ...

 

[merelycompetent]

As DM:

Priests of the WarGod only heal those who take part in battle. Anyone hurt by a trap... wasn't worthy. Some extremists even considered cowardly wizards (stand back & cast fireball) and archers as unworthy. Players loved it (especially in 2E), even the rogues who got zapped by traps. Famous quote: "Somehow I don't think the WarGod had garrotting them from behind in mind when He grants His healing unto the...~worthy~."

Priests of the Death God (NE, N, NG - 3 sects, you don't want to meet the NE ones) only heal you *after* the danger was past, or if you were on a mission for the Death God. If someone was seriously injured, the priest was likely to break off combat with his current opponent and be nearby to "ease the soul's journey into My Lord's cradling arms." Some players willingly took AOO's for it. Really creeped out anyone low on hp.

As a player:

Best one I can remember: Human fighter/barbarian (yours truly), bleeding heavily, goes up to the cleric tending to a wounded enemy goblin (negative hp, not dead yet).

Ftr: "Priest! I have struck down the enemies of your faith and require your ministrations!"
Cl: "One moment...." (mumble... mumble... Cure Minor to stop hp loss). "There!"
Ftr: "What are you doing?"
Cl: "I'm a follower of a god of healing. I'm healing him."
Ftr: THWACK!! Goblin's head rolls across priest's boots. "He doesn't need any more healing."

Kinda set the mood for the next 10 levels or so.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

I don't understand the "heal me cause you're a cleric" stance. I love to play clerics - and I seldom play healing clerics. Yeah, most of the characters I play are good aligned. But to me it is simply arrogant and an offront to assume that just because I'm a cleric means that you have the right to extort healing from me. My clerics typically go by two standpoints:

1. Everyone chips in for several wands of healing and I'll gladly use them all day long.

2. If your character makes an IC attempt to legitimately be a friend, the cleric will likely heal you. But to "assume" that just because I chose cleric means that I want to heal everyone's scrapes is simply arrogant. You want healing, earn it through RP and become friends with my character.

To be honest, my clerics usually go about healing the truly needy - the poor and oppressed in the game - before healing a bunch of whining rich adventurers who can afford a decent wand. Sure, in the middle of a battle my good cleric doesn't want anyone to die ... but ... the poor and the oppressed have no means of helping themselves. Rich adventurers do. By me a wand! [Heck, I'll even chip in for my share of the wand to be fair!]

 

[Stalker0]

I think the problem is that dnd assumes parties have access to healing...CRs are based on that (I believe). So while I agree, a cleric shouldn't have to heal the party, the system assumes he does.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Expecting the party to chip in for a wand for out-of-combat healing is perfectly fair.

But IMO, a cleric shouldn't stand around and watch his buddies die in combat because he refuses to heal them. Otherwise he shouldn't ever expect them to rescue him. (Note: PCs who are obviously going against his goals can be left to die.)

I think it's arrogant for a cleric to not heal his buddies, but expect his buddies to get him out of a jam when it happens to him. I mean, really, it's not the fighter's fault someone got a crit on him with an axe.

 

[airwalkrr]

There was a WotC article a while back that spoke of the unspoken power of the cleric to direct the party by using healing as a means of persuasion. Few people want to argue with the guy who makes the hurt go away.

Although the idea of a walking band-aid does not sound that appealing, playing the "support" cleric is quite fun. It is simply a differen style of play. Often, when the player who is used to fighters plays a cleric he is beset with woe because he no longer does the same amount of damage and no longer has such great attack bonuses. These players often try to play battle clerics and forget to focus on what clerics are really good at: keeping people alive. Those who play wizards that move into cleric often feel a great loss at the versatility of wizard spells and the sheer blasting potential they are missing and try to use cleric spells the same way. However, I have played a cleric the way it is supposed to be played. I have played a clerics and even a favored soul and a healer and all are great fun as long as you can get yourself into the mindset of playing a support character. And support doesn't mean "secondary." The cleric plays a very vital role in the party and a good player will always be able to use the cleric class to secure one of the most influential spots in the party.

 

[Felix]

I had a grand old time with this one character of mine. Deacon Usfirth Koenig. Carried around these holy books of his and lamblast the other PCs with what Oghma would want them to do. As it happened, none of my spells were required in the first battle, so I had plenty of spells per day afterwards. The fighter came up to me and asked for healing.

So I said, "Oghma teaches us, 'That which lightens the heart, and makes rememberance of our own true passion is the surest healing for your soul.'"

The other player said, "Yeah, ok. What did you roll?"

"I didn't."

"What? Why not?"

"I'm not going to cast a healing spell on you. As a matter of fact, I'm not going to ever cast a healing spell on any of you."

"What??? Why not!"

"I'm a wizard."

[pause for effect]

[laughter]

The guy acutally got a little perturbed before I told him what class I was. Heh.

 

[genshou]

2. If your character makes an IC attempt to legitimately be a friend, the cleric will likely heal you. But to "assume" that just because I chose cleric means that I want to heal everyone's scrapes is simply arrogant. You want healing, earn it through RP and become friends with my character.

It's generally good to be friends with the people you adventure with anyway. You spend so much time saving each others' skins; why not be friends?