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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Starfox" data-source="post: 6144823" data-attributes="member: 2303">When it comes to gaming, I feel concrete examples work better for me than lofty thought experiments, but I'll try and oblige.If it could be integrated into another class, sure. I don't think anybody would mind. I was never debating that, in fact I was supporting it. But that is not how DnD works. DnD parcels out powers by class. If you take a ranger and give him cleric-like healing, that is no longer a ranger but a nature-themed cleric, because something has to be taken out to compensate for the sudden gain in abilities.We could make the classes more modular - in effect moving more effects into backgrounds or similar add-on elements. If this was done, the "combat healer" element could be basted onto any class. That would work. It would then be in competition with other combat roles such as the buffer, sniper, tank, scrapper et al. Each character would combine one combat role with one noncombat role (break-in expert, scout, diplomat, medic, tracker, fix-it-guy, whatever), a background (as in Next). and a påower origin (arcane, mundane, psi, divine). Each of these choices would combine to make a character, with the first three determining what a character can do and the last describing how he does it. This is another way to build characters that are still level based. But it is quite close to an open point bye and very far from DnD in any incarnation I've seen. I'd say Pathfinder comes closest with the large add-on components in the Oracle and Sorcerer classes - still miles form this.Ah, this is the "cleric in a staff" artifact used early in Dragonlance, and many house campaigns (including those I ran in as a teen). To avoid forcing a cleric PC, you include an artifact or NPC healer that can keep the party running without forcing anyone into the healer role. In effect an NPC that never speaks and only heals. Sure that works. Because artifacts are priceless there really is no competition - the PC's can't spend these resources on anything else, as the GM controls availability, they can't all have one. This option is (sort of) available trough the leadership feat - take a healer follower and you are pretty much set, as long as the DM agrees this character is never targeted by opponents.Magic items bought with gp that heal as well as a cleric are certainly possible. Magic items can make a fighter fly, or give a wizard the AC of plate mail. So I guess they could make anyone heal. But I also think a wizard would be miffed if all his spells could be cheaply duplicated. As would a cleric. Or rogue (this happens with spells, and rogues in DnD has always suffered for it). So while technically possible, this is not a good solution. I am not strictly a warlord fan, so maybe I am not the best guy to answer this. But my take is this: The artifact "cleric in a staff" certainly would not satisfy a warlord fan. It is handy for the DM, but what the OP seems to be looking for is a mundane solution, and this is not.The bought item would create tensions and balance problems among the players, and dilute roles beyond what is in any way sensible. It is not satisfying for anyone. As a magical solution it would not satisfy the OP. You are presenting this as a mundane item, which I find even more at odds with how DnD works than having it as a mundane class ability. If you can bye a flag that does this, why can't you have it as a reult of lifelong training? And you are REALLY cheapening the cleric.I think modular classes would work, but is functionally equivalent to having a warlord class. The warlord would be a combat healer package coupled with a mundane origin, not a class - but since there are no classes any more, where is the difference? This choice is also too far outside the DnD paradigm to be an option for Next.</blockquote>

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