Deset Gled said:
It occurs to me that if you are allowed access to the MIC and Reserve feats, and this is the most broken/best method you can come up with for healing, you're either very desperate or not trying very hard.
While this should have some RP consequences if used often, I don't think it's really that big of a deal.
There aren't many methods by which to acquire unlimited healing in D&D without custom-made items or carefully selecting your class.
Applying Persistent Spell to Mass Lesser Vigor (or better) will do it for 24 hours (by which point, the Divine Caster that pulled it off can do it again). Generally, you'll need Divine Metamagic (Persistent Spell) for this. With this method, you're stuck with a particular class (and variations on it), and several feats. Granted, they're very useful feats, and a powerful class, but you're still stuck with a particular set.
There's a Devoted Spirit-1 stance in Tome of Battle that gives free HP healing for you or an ally whenever you strike a successful blow against an opponent in melee (Martial Spirit). You either need to spend two feats to get it, or be a Crusader. Plus, you still need a ready supply of opponents to strike in melee to make it work.
The Binder from Tome of Magic has a binding available that grants the Binder fast healing, and a Cure Light Wounds effect every so often. This ties you to a particular class, and eats up a very significant fraction of the class's resources (the Binder only gets so many bindings at once). If you're doing this, you're playing the band-aid box - and there's little else you can do until around 8th level or so. This is boring.
A Cubic Gate or an Amulet of the Planes can get you to the Positive Energy Plane (or another plane where you get fast healing for free). This is good in that it works for everybody, but it's crazy expensive, and you can't be sure where you'll end up, exactly, when you're coming back - not very useful in a dungeon.
A Dread Necromancer's Charnel Touch grants an Inflict spell, usable at will. Combine with Tomb-Tainted Soul, or the undead type, and you've got unlimited healing. Downside, it requires a feat slot or a racial pick from everyone you want affected, not just the user; additionally, it locks the healer into taking levels in a particular class.
Innate Spell (Complete Arcane) lets you gain a 1/round at-will spell-like ability. Catch: It has three feat prerequisites (Quicken Spell, Still Spell, and Silent Spell) and requires you to permanently lose a spell slot 8 levels higher than the one you're getting. So while the Cleric or Druid could get take Cure Minor Wounds at will, it costs them an 8th level spell slot and four feats to do so. For Cure Light Wounds, it costs a 9th level spell slot and four feats to do so.
Pun-Pun.
That's about it for methods of getting actual unlimited healing. Pretty much everything else has limited charges (wands, staffs, potions, scrolls, and so on) or a daily cap (Belt of Healing, a Cleric's spells per day, Perls of Power, and so on).
This can be done by any caster with a Summoning spell of 4th or higher. Clerics, Druids, Wizards, Sorcerers, Bards, and even Rangers can all pull this off - and that's just of the core spellcasters that can do it. Six of 11 of the base classes in the PHB can eventually do this. It requires one item in the party, one feat from one character in the party, and requires that one spell slot (and possibly spell known) goes unused (held in reserve).
Other than being: A) Evil and B) Slow, the Vampiric Dagger and Elemental Summon Reserve Feat (or minor shapeshift, but you've got to trust your party mates a lot to use that one for it...), it's basically the least expensive in terms of mechanical character limitations while still letting you do the infinite healing gig. And at that, it's still not generally going to be a particularly optimal solution compared to wands of Cure Light Wounds unless you're on a very long campaign.
