D&D 3E/3.5 How to play a 3.5 group without a healer?

[SuperJebba]

Hey, guys! Has anyone home-brewed some way to play through a campaign without anyone having to play a healer? No one in my group really likes healing, and I have not really come up with a way to make that work. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Alexander123]

You can find a guide on just that here http://web.archive.org/web/20080117015939/http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=900334.

As far as out of battle healing is concerned a wand of CLW or a wand of Faith Healing will do the trick.

 

[Jacob Marley]

You could slow down the pace at which adventure happens. That way, your characters can heal up naturally. Instead of danger lurking around every corner, danger could occur once every couple of weeks (in game), or longer. Dungeons are more like small lairs with three-to-five encounters, traps, or tricks.

Another option is for the party to just hire a healer. I believe the actual healer class is in the Miniature's Handbook and is easy enough to run as an NPC who travels with the party. If you need more than just healing, perhaps the party can have a patron who is a higher level cleric able to cast spells like Restoration, etc.

Finally, there is the Healing Belt from the Magic Item Compendium. It is a very cheap and very useful tool that allows any character to have a small amount of healing.

Edit: The Guide to Healing (posted above) is a very good resource. Check it out.

 

[frostburn]

It has been a while sense I have played, but here were the fixes. I have seen. Yes, healers are lame and I hate the needed cleric slot, that no one wants to play.
It depends on you play style how much healing or walking wounded you want. It is easier to do a full heal up after ever fight. Walking wounded takes some play testing.

Have a reserve points(RP) style. It Equals/Twice or might be Half of your hp. As a standard/minor action you may heal up to your con score per use. PC can do it least once per fight. You can make feats/give as rewards better in fight heal powers but it all comes from the RP. Once your run out of RP for the day you can no longer heal yourself for day, or you need magic heal if you are feeling kind. Your RP resets after a long rest. PC can draw on the RP after a fight to full heal up per a short rest/bandage yourself idea.
You also have the option of saying you can't heal magical if you run out of RP at least not out in the wilderness/dungeon.

OR staff of healing but modified. It uses you a standard action in fight, but you don't need to make a use device check. In other words, an dummy/fighter can use it they just need a open hand, or make it a item that works in your pocket/bag. A good rule of thumb is 1 cure light/per PC plus 1-2 extra per fight uses min. plus pretty much infinite uses out of combat. The idea is to keep the fun going not cure every cripple in the city so it might run out if used for hours straight. If you want the walking wounded campaign idea. You will have to have a daily limit.

No, I don't want to hear fun limiting rules about staff of healing don't work like that. This is Nonsense the idea is to max out fun not add to the 5 min adventure day. So this might be the most powerful item in the whole game if that the amount of healing it takes to keep things moving. In fact this should be in int artifact so it can get bored healing or what every GM needs it to do. Also, it can be arcane or divine. It so not matter. Normal magic item rules do not matter. Plus, this item is a party resource so keep that in no matter who hads it. So it the wizard/who ever "owns" the item but needs both hands for his build don't punish him you make the limit his build for the party needs make "the staff" a ring or a amulet that sits in the bag of holding bc that PC filled all his slots up. Also, the no device rule helps with we all want to be fighters or want not or can't use device.

Or you can combine the two but drop the staff of healing to more regular staff of healing norms, but I would keep the just use heal power not make a device check.

Or you can "make" a healer pick a tiny magicial creature/imp/fey/angel/whatever. give it an party lvl equality of healing as if it were a cleric. It does a few things well it hides(pretty much it is to small to hit or see by most enemies +95%), moves around the battle field healing, healing PC after a fight, and make fun of the PCs when they do really dumb things. This also helps keeps the TPK as the healer is not a PC. It can be GM or a PC's minion. Helps make that retarded familiar useful.

These ideas should keep the fun going forbore with out that stupid cleric/pad ruining every bodies fun bc when our 1lvl party w/ no healer and down to our last hp bc we rolled bad fighting a dire rat as a first fight for the day has ended the adventure day silliness.

Now go forth and be awesome!
Death to the CLERIC and PAD! Amen

 

[Magesmiley]

For one group I played in where I ran an evil necromancer-type cleric (so no channeled healing spells), we had some (somewhere between 4 and 6) wands of lesser vigor made. I used these to heal members of the party between combats (but within a particular combat folks had to survive). Wands of lesser vigor are one of the most cost effective way to heal between combats, at 15 gp per shot for 11 hp of healing.

You could probably do something similar if you either have someone who has lesser vigor on their list or a suitably high use magic device bonus.

 

[SuperJebba]

Thanks for the responses, guys. These are all some great ideas. Thanks for the guide, too. That was very Enlightening.

 

[TanisFrey]

If any is playing a ranger or bard they can use wands of Cure Light Wounds and other curing wands and staffs. Why the low level curing spells are on their spell lists. Or a rogue could could Use Magic Device any wand, staff, scroll with healing spells.

 

[CuRoi]

Don't get hit? Well, get hit -less-.

Relying on a rogue to UMD is tricky (make sure the rogue has a good Wisdom, which is not often the case). But I definitely second the Cure Light Wand for any ranger/bard/paladin in the group. I'm currently playing in a game with a Bard, a Wizard, a Monk and a Barbarian/Druid. It's still low level and the closest thing we have to a healer is the Druid who doesn't bother with many Cure Lights. We have wands and smart tactics to make up for it.

I mean tactics doesn't negate the need for healing. But most often players sit around and think of ways for their PC to do massive damage. Less often do they think defensively - which by the way comes in very handy when you don't have a dedicated healer.

Select feats that support this, say Combat Expertise in lieu of Power Attack; use group tactics (most players have a lot of trouble with this). Aid another, focusing fire, distracting foes (illusions, charm spells, etc) fighting defensively (I still run into groups that have no clue what that is), invest in at least 5 ranks in Tumble whether it is on your class list or not.

It's really interesting because it requires not only smart players but smart characters : ) Feats like Imp Trip, even Imp Bull Rush come in handy as you use them to control the battle. Use spells to lessen your opponents ability to hit and cause damage - resistances for PCs, enfeeblement, doom, blindness, curses, ability damage, etc. etc.

You can do it with the right group tactics. I firmly believe there is no "required" class/ability/party composition. The only thing you really need are players willing to function with some teamwork, which is tough to find sometimes.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

When you say "no healer", do you mean no healers whatsoever or do you mean nothing like a Cleric, Druid or other full-caster type healer?

(FWIW, in parties without any, we typically used a LOT of potions and saved up GP for visits to NPC healers, and generally took it slooooooow.)

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Implementing Trailblazer's rules for 10-minute rest, starting hit points, and action points are a really good start.