Comments on: I’m Your Cleric, Not Your Bitch!

By: RPG Blog Carnival: Things to Love and Things to Hate About Healing Surges — Dungeon's Master

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:59:56 +0000

[...] I’m Your Cleric, Not Your Bitch! [...]

By: LanzerSA

LanzerSA — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 01:12:26 +0000

We are starting an epic quest, and my DM said we can be any race. So you can imagen the different monsters been used. I’m always the cleric or paladin in the group, and am happy with the position. I went looking around and settles on Angel Solar Cleric, lvl 20. It uses 4 different prestige classes. I can heal around 700hp x2 creatures in one go from a safe distance of 30ft. The best of all, I can use reserection spell at will. I love been a cleric, and so do my party when we come up against monsters that do 2000 dmg in one shot.

By: Philo Pharynx

Philo Pharynx — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:28:48 +0000

One issue I would definitely play up in this party is thanking the cleric’s deity for their blessings. With my characters I often think about how they think in relation to religion, especially for non-divine characters.

Jeb – You need an artificer! The ability to heal people and recharge from those with the most healing surges is awesome. Not to mention getting two or three free surges added to the party economy.

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 12 May 2011 14:05:18 +0000

I think the semi-withholding cleric is awesome. What I don’t get is why no one has mentioned what the other PCs can do to get in on better access to healing.

Maybe joining the cleric in his daily prayers will make the cleric feel the PC is entitled to their deity’s boon more than just to save him from the brink. Maybe making an arrangement where the PC(s) make a small donation to the cleric’s church for each healing spell used (or just used outside of the cleric’s SOP) will soften the cleric’s stance. After all, each of those heals will advance the deity’s worldly resources. Not to mention the church would likely reward the party as a whole for their contributions, whether it be providing more info than normal, or places to stay while in town, or more access to helpful rituals. Friends in high places are a good thing… As long as the cleric isn’t pocketing the donations (cleric’s responsibility), and the party eventually comes to see that those donations aren’t just a money sink (DM’s responsibility), then hopefully players could come to embrace it.

It’s all for the players to figure out between themselves, but I love that it adds an extra dynamic to the group.

I don’t have that issue myself. I’m playing a Tiefling Warlock. He stands really far away, and gains temp HP like a vampire. Many fights go by where he never takes a point of actual HP damage. His aloof personality wouldn’t have him needing to kowtow to a cleric, but a serious butt kicking could change his mind…

Our party is a Swordmage, a warlock (me), an invoker, and a warlord/cleric (she wanted to play a warlord, but the invoker convinced/pressured her to multi- with cleric). The healing is not great, but the Swordmage knows what he’s doing, as do I, and the invoker helps with buffs (even though he’s a dwarven drunkard who ruins every attempt at subtlety outside of combat).

Love the debate! This is awesome.

By: Seth

Seth — Tue, 10 May 2011 14:46:05 +0000

Theoretically I think it’s great that someone has decided to be so bold with playing their character, especially if they can present a valid story reason for it: say, that the character saw friends and family die during a brutal war as a child, and won’t waste any divine healing in memory of those who could have used just one prayer.

However, a lot of the justification I could afford a player of a Leader character for these policies depends on the build of the character itself. With the popularity of the Lazylord builds, and the general sub-optimization of Leader attacks when examined in a vacuum, I think many members of the role can’t operate without their allies. Sure, they provide the heals to keep the party running, but if the party stops assisting them they’ll fold like an origami swan and rack up few to no bodies for their efforts.

That’s certainly not true of every Leader, or even every cleric; but my interpretation of how justified the player in this anecdote would be largely depends on the question of how much the build could contribute to an actual combat.
Seth´s last [type] ..Ive Packed My Bags and MovedOver Here

By: Divine Intervention — Dungeon's Master

Divine Intervention — Dungeon's Master — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:11:09 +0000

[...] I’m Your Cleric, Not Your Bitch! [...]

By: maverick0023

maverick0023 — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 08:41:20 +0000

i disagree because sw only allows a base surge spent while modified heals allow extra “free” healing and many a game that I run the players needs those extra free hit points to help their surge economy since we dont reset every night with extended rest but instead every 2 or 3 milestones.

By: Your Best Resource: Healing Surges — Dungeon's Master

Your Best Resource: Healing Surges — Dungeon's Master — Fri, 28 May 2010 13:01:24 +0000

[...] written articles on healing previously. I’m Your Cleric, Not Your Bitch remains one of our most controversial articles. It also spawned the article Brave Warrior Heal [...]

By: Ameron

Ameron — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:38:19 +0000

@JEB
This has been one of our most debated articles. Ultimately it’s up to the player running the Cleric, the DM and the rest of the players to come to some kind of understanding. If this decisions creates friction at the game table then it may be time to reconsider the character quark. But, in the case with my group, pleaser refused to expend their own resources to heal and acted recklessly because they knew the Cleric was there to heal them. By playing the Cleric with this quark, the other players began to realize that being more defensive (when possible) and getting other items that can heal made them better character. It also made them realize the value of the Cleric.

By: JEB

JEB — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:22:17 +0000

I don’t think witholding healing is a good thing for the group dynamic.
I agree with the fact that he should not dish out healing when the characters isn’t too badly damaged, nor should the players expect that the cleric(or any other Leader class heals (or should I say heels?) on command.

But in my experience the healing that the cleric brings to the table is so much more effective(especially ay higher levels and with the feats to back it up) that to waste a precious surge when the cleric still has Healing word available is downright criminal.

That is, however, not to say that the cleric shall waste his powers on any minor wounds…merely that the healing surge value of Second Wind is under par when it’s compared to Healing Word. OK, I agree with nemomeme’s posting that it also gives you a +2 bonus to defense and shouldn’t be underestimated for that reason alone …(especially for the defenders and their Mark ability!)!!

Still, an example is in order:
The group i DM has reached Paragon level now … it consists of a Paladin, a Rogue, A Fighter, an Avenger and a Cleric (i.e. 2 defenders, 2 strikers and 1 leader). Of these, the Rogue is the character most often in trouble … the reason being that he only have 6 surges daily(no CON bonus). In addition he has an armor that may be charged by using healing surges.(Bloodcut Armor)
This means that he usually uses 2 sometimes 3 surges each encounter … basically 2 encounters and he has maybe 1 or 2 surges left …

hmmm use a second wind and regain 20 something HP(they are lvl 13) and waste a standard action better used for attacking or ask the cleric to give you 20+3d6+5 hp …??

When this is probably your last, or last but one surge for the day (and I often withhold the chance to take a daily rest) I think that the cleric should be doing the poor rogue a favor …

Does this make sense?

I do favour Roleplaying over rollplaying … but somewhere a line has to be drawn …