Touch of Healing [Reserve] feat from Complete Champion Excerpt

[Stalker0]

Pretty good, but the sacred healing feat is probably better in a lot of cases, a decent cha cleric can turn out some good group healing with that feat. But of course, that requires cha.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Because all PCs around the world are associated with a church, right?

My PCs that have uses for wands have been clerics and a religious bard so yes "my characters*" have been.

*note the difference between the language in my post and yours.

Because there's always a near church that shares "the adventuring party's overall goals", right?

I play heroes in non-Midnight style campaign settings, so yes for "my characters" there generally is.

This is of course just flavor, as the DMs I have played with have generally adhered to the base guidelines for item availability and a low cost magic item like a CLW wand is "most likely available" in any small town. I don't need to justify gaining access to rules standard equipment, but I do like to describe its aquisition in character apprpriate ways. Your house rules in your campaign are of course your own - and luckily have no impact on my gameplay.

 

[Nifft]

saves you somewhere around 750 gp per week in expenses.

Holy cow! You guys go through a wand each week? Depends on the PCs level, I guess -- what level are we talking?

Cheers, -- N

 

[AllisterH]

I wonder how much of a paradigm shift this Feat really is or is like Power Attack, a.k.a. not as good as it actually is.

Let me explain my thinking:

The iconic party with a healer without this feat is expected to retreat/rest after the 4th encounter of the day. Now with this feat, the self same party will at least always be at half-strength. However, this is only in terms of HP though.

If a 10th level cleric has used up his 5th and 4th level slots in those 4 encounters (healing in battle, spells in battle), he still can easily heal the party to 1/2 strength with this feat due to his lower slots, but the fact that he doesn't HAVE any 5th or 4th level spells available greatly lowers his effectiveness should another encounter occur.

So he's going to have to retreat/rest ANYWAY? Am I correct in my thinking?

 

[Patlin]

According to this quote, the feat can only heal to 1/2 hit points - in other words extremely useful, but not the be all end all that everyone here is making it out to be. Assuming the post linked to is correct, perhaps people need to rethink their opinions.

And since our group allready has a Dragon Shaman... as I said, the devil is in the details for feats!

 

[Egres]

Your house rules in your campaign are of course your own - and luckily have no impact on my gameplay.

My "house rules" are what we call "we don't play a videogame where you can always buy what you need".

 

[Nifft]

According to this quote, the feat can only heal to 1/2 hit points - in other words extremely useful, but not the be all end all that everyone here is making it out to be. Assuming the post linked to is correct, perhaps people need to rethink their opinions.

Check that out! Thanks for the info. Now I'm thinking it looks pretty good, particularly if it requires a spell and NOT just the ability to spontaneously convert a spell.

Cheers, -- N

EDIT: PS - IMHO, this is NOT a must-have for Clerics. It's a must-have for Druids! Now the Druid can be a half-reasonable replacement for a Cleric.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Here's a more interesting question. Given what we now know about the feat, who benefits the most from it:

Paladin
Bard
Cleric
Favored Soul
Healer
Shugenja
Archivist
Druid
Sorcerer/Wizard/Warmage with Arcane Disciple: Healing

My guess is as follows:
1. Favored souls and clerics benefit from it the least. Healers probably don't benefit from it a lot either. All of those classes have large reserves of healing. This feat extends those reserves by allowing curing with fewer wand charges or spells, but it is a somewhat more incremental change.
2. Characters who are sometimes pushed into the role of primary healers--druids, bards, Shugenjas, and archivists gain a lot from it. They now have a renewable way to contribute out of combat healing without losing nearly as much of their offensive capabilities.
3. Characters who have healing abilities but are generally focused in other areas--the arcane casters with arcane disciple for healing spells and the paladin will find the feat to be a very significant sacrifice since it strengthens one of their weaker areas rather than focuses on their strong areas, but the feat might well bring such characters to a point where they might actually be able to fill the function of party healer in a pinch.

 

[Nifft]

Ranger benefits greatly. Paladin benefits massively -- he can heal up to half with his feat, and then fill in the rest with his Lay on Hands ability.

Super-cool.

-- N

 

[Kahuna Burger]

My "house rules" are what we call "we don't play a videogame where you can always buy what you need".

You might find that "low magic item availability" rolls off the tongue a bit easier, and actually describes what you want, rather than misassigning a feel to other campaigns.