Help with healer

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Monkeyman
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Help with healer

Unread post by Monkeyman »

I am playing in a game where the dm wants me simply to support the other new players and he wants me to go wild but make the best healer I can. Any suggestions on combos that would make for a ridiculous healer?
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Hotrod
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Re: Help with healer

Unread post by Hotrod »

That's a tricky one. Healers in Rifts face some major difficulties:

1. In the M.D.C. world of Rifts, most S.D.C. characters come out of fights at 100% HP/SDC or dead/missing body parts.
2. The best ways to recover from death and missing body parts is with high-level magic used by O.C.C.'s that don't specialize in healing or cybernetics.
3. M.D.C. characters either heal on their own (supernatural) or need repairs (robots and 'Borgs).

I have never seen anyone play a Body Fixer, the dedicated healer class of Rifts. Body Fixers are totally outclassed in terms of healing by any major psionic that focuses on healing powers, by virtually any priest or druid, by a great many magic users, and by cyber-docs. I have heard of players making Body Fixers as an alternate form of the Rogue Scientist O.C.C., but that's about it. I've heard of GMs who incorporate disease and medical/science problems into adventures, but that's a rare thing.

My advice when making a support character: consider the rest of the party and pick a class that compliments and synergizes with their strengths. If they rely on high tech stuff like robots, power armor, bionics, and body armor, then go with an Operator, Psi-Tech, Cyber-Doc, or Techno-Wizard, and pick skills that will allow you to repair and augment their preferred equipment. If they use magic, then go with a Biomancer, druid from England, or Techno-Wizard. If they're psychics, then go with a Techno Wizard.

Overall, the most versatile support class in Rifts is probably the Techno-Wizard; you can make useful gizmos for psychics, magic users, and regular folks, you can repair technology, and you get all the versatility of a magic user.

That said, a Techno-Wizard is limited to First Aid in terms of medical skills and does not get healing psionics, so you'll be dependent on learning some healing magic spells and building TW healing devices for yourself and your team. I'd talk with your GM about this option.

You might go with a Shifter. Using a Link to the Supernatural, (Magic deity option), you could select a specialty in healing magics and get all the powerful healing spells at level 1. You can also take Holistic Medicine and/or the Paramedic skill. Throw in major healing psionics and you'll have multiple means to heal people and creatures.

Healing-related magic spells to acquire if you go with the Shifter/healer or Techno Wizard/healer options:
Restoration (750 P.P.E.)
Resurrection (650 P.P.E.)
Greater Healing (30 P.P.E.)
Light Healing (6 P.P.E.)
Heal Wounds (10 P.P.E)
Super Healing (70 P.P.E.)
Cure Minor Disorders (10 P.P.E.)
Cure Illness (15 P.P.E.)
Negate Poison/Toxin (5 P.P.E.)
Impervious to Poison (5 P.P.E)
Cleanse (6 P.P.E.)
Mend the Broken (10 P.P.E.) [for light repairs]
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Re: Help with healer

Unread post by Hotrod »

Other options for a healer: the Amana from Debees of North America, as well as Male Fennodi, Posluznik, Psi-X Aliens and Female Simvan.

Achilles Neo-Humans R.C.C. from South America 2 has some very potent healing powers.

From the Federation of Magic, I've heard that the Mystic Knight and Grey Seer are decent healers as well.

Tattoo magic has some crazy good healing powers worth checking out.
Check out this thread which covered similar issues of healing. There's a good rundown on healing in general towards the bottom and dealing with speed vs effectiveness.
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Re: Help with healer

Unread post by drewkitty ~..~ »

HR got to my suggestion first...Mage with healing spells.

Using the RDC take the Night spawn....Nightbane race and having their wizard type RCC and load up on healing mage and take the 'Sharing the Flash' Talent.

Or if your GM will let you import from the HU game.....make up a Mystic Study with healing spells. Along with the healing spells you can get some higher level spells @ L1 than most all Rifts classes.
Or if your GM is willing make an immortal (PU2), making the immortal one of the wizard types of power sets.

Or make a dragon that is a priest of light (HU2), they have a healing touch as one of their powers that they can do every other melee round, etc, etc..etc... Why dragon? to be a BA priest that no-one is going to push around. Or make a Fairy priest. Small target, can hide real well, can be a real PitB if annoyed. (normal dragons are in the Dragons and gods book and fairies are in the Monsters and animals & the RCB1r book).

The one route I wouldn't go is the Psi-healer PCC from PF2.....not for a rifts game at least.

spells sidetone: when making mages I tend to give them cleanse as one of the their spells.
Skills sidetone: when making any char I tend to give them first aid and the cooking skills.
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Re: Help with healer

Unread post by Curbludgeon »

In a more megaversal game there are additional options. I want to say one or two psionics in other settings convert to MDC in Rifts, and Nightbane have a couple of relevant talents. Superpowers handle sympathetic-style healing well, provided the healer has some form of regeneration. If using Rifts Conversion Book 1 a Scholar&Adventurer class can have powers, and I'd argue a Rogue Scientist with Medical Doctor and healing powers, when compared with a medically focused Shifter with major healing psionics, might make up in depth what they lack in breadth.

I'll edit this list:

Psionics:
PU1: Wound Transfer

Relevant Superpowers (not including all the stuff that gives a P.E. bonus)
HU2: Minor: Healing Factor
PU1: Minor: Healing Power
Major: Divine Healing, Regeneration: Ultima
PU3: Major: Flesh Works, Massive Damage Capacity, Super-Regeneration
Armageddon Unlimited: Energy Drain & Expulsion: Life Source (this allows both healing at a distance and an attack power, although the former requires draining from someone else)
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narcissus
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Re: Help with healer

Unread post by narcissus »

As Hotrod stated, healers in Rifts are a rarity. By the time you need healing, you're dead. Instead as a support character you should focus on proactive damage reduction/absorption, rather than reactive damage healing.

A mage with Armor of Ithan/Armor Bizarre/Invincible Armor/Invulnerability is the best proactive healer in the game. When someone's magic protection is depleted, "heal" them by casting it again. Keep your team buffed and healing isn't an issue. Throw in a Blinding Flash to make the baddies connect less often, Superhuman Speed so the good guys can avoid getting hit, and just for good measure throw a Lifeward on all your friends so that if they do lose their armor, they can still keep fighting. Add Heal Wounds/Greater Healing for those situations where Lifeward kicks in.

Alternatively, an Operator that can repair armor is the best out-of-combat healer, but he's not exactly going to be riveting an MDC plate over a rail gun hole in the heat of combat.
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Re: Help with healer

Unread post by Incriptus »

Curbludgeon wrote:In a more megaversal game there are additional options. I want to say one or two psionics in other settings convert to MDC in Rifts, and Nightbane have a couple of relevant talents. Superpowers handle sympathetic-style healing well, provided the healer has some form of regeneration. If using Rifts Conversion Book 1 a Scholar&Adventurer class can have powers, and I'd argue a Rogue Scientist with Medical Doctor and healing powers, when compared with a medically focused Shifter with major healing psionics, might make up in depth what they lack in breadth.

I'll edit this list:

Psionics:
PU1: Wound Transfer

Relevant Superpowers (not including all the stuff that gives a P.E. bonus)
HU2: Minor: Healing Factor
PU1: Minor: Healing Power
Major: Divine Healing, Regeneration: Ultima
PU3: Major: Flesh Works, Massive Damage Capacity, Super-Regeneration
Armageddon Unlimited: Energy Drain & Expulsion: Life Source (this allows both healing at a distance and an attack power, although the former requires draining from someone else)


If Super-Powers are on the table

PU1: Power Touch is excellent. You can both repair objects as well as heal people.
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Re: Help with healer

Unread post by Curbludgeon »

Ooh, Power Touch is fun. I like abilites that add their own pool to draw upon.

I'm taking a shine to the idea of a Jungle Elf LLW with the Paramedic skill, with bonus points for any of: picking healing psionics off another setting's list (BTS2, PU1, and Lust for Life from PFRPG/HU2 I believe covers all the non-class specific healing powers), making use of Eco-Wizardry items, owning a Nazcan permanent Draught of Health or Healing Pattern, and having access to Healing Flame (Blue Flame), Healing Waters (Ocean Magic), and Healing Water (Nature Magic). Being elves, they can't use Healing Fetishes, and the healing-specific tattoos (Rose Encircling a Heart/Phoenix Rising from the Flames/Rose and Thorny Stem Dripping Blood) probably aren't worth the downsides.

A rogue Shadkan from DB14 seems like one of the better choices outside of HU for a dedicated caster with Medical Doctor.
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Re: Help with healer

Unread post by drewkitty ~..~ »

Moving along from super abilities, In the Ninja and Superspies book, there are chi powers. One of them is Chi-atsu or Chi healing which has two modes, the healing mode heals HP, heals SDC and gives more save vs coma/death rolls. The second mode dispels Neg Chi in the target's body. (unless the GM is being mean this will not come up in a rifts game.)

Then if paired with Fu Zhensong or Dragon chi which lets the user draw chi from the ambient chi around them to replenish used Chi or channel the chi into other chi using powers.

Note that the N&S game is an SDC game so the stats only talk about SDC and HP.
Note#2: Chi is not psionics. It has links to both Body (base chi amount is taken from the PE stat) and the char's attention.
There are those that misread a RCB1/RBC1r section incorrectly to presume that they are psionics.

If you go this route you will probably have to get copies of the N&S game book along with he Mystic China book. I would also recommend getting Rifter #3 for rifts conversion article in it. There are some conversion notes in the back of the N&S book but they are old and are narrow in scope. Covering using the N&S's text in: PFRPG 1st ed, HU 1st ed, TMNT, and one tiny section about 1st ed Rifts (IOW for the original Rifts Core book; aka Rifts Main Book)


In the Rifter text it says that the supernatural & Creatures of Magic's base Chi amountes are double their PE scores.
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Re: Help with healer

Unread post by jaymz »

Mind melter eith a focus on healing powers that way you can support when not healing too as well as potentially and proactively shorten combat etc.
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Re: Help with healer

Unread post by Hotrod »

While psychic healing is better than skill-based healing, it kind of sucks relative to magic and some technology, at least under the rules as written. Every healing power requires trance time when your character has to sit still for minutes or hours doing nothing in order to use their power. Thus, while it's decent as a back-up power over a period of hours to days, it's useless in a "patch them up and get them back in the fight" scenario. Some of the powers, at least as written, are essentially worthless

Take 'Increased Healing', for example. The healer must go into a trance for 1D6 HOURS for the patient to heal an extra 2HP and 6SDC per day for 2-8 days? In that trance time, before the healing even begins, you could perform 2-7 healing touches (at an average of 5HP or 7SDC per touch) for the same ISP cost. Let's see... do nothing for the rest of the day but sit in a trance so someone can start healing a little faster, or actually start healing someone. Which would you pick?

Even the psionic healing touch is only suitable for use when everything is calm, since it takes 2 minutes of doing nothing (trance!) before the healer can make it happen... vs healing magic that can get cast again and again, with no time delay.

The only cost-effective, unique powers of psionic healing is the diagnosis/surgery combination. With it, you could re-attach recently-severed limbs far more conveniently than most restoration spells, and do pretty much anything they do on Grey's Anatomy. Of course, a restoration spell beats this, but such spells cost enormous amounts of PPE. Otherwise, magic (and even tech like the IRMSS) is better.

tl;dr I'd recommend not depending on psionics as a primary healing method.
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Re: Help with healer

Unread post by Hotrod »

I already mentioned the herbal magic from Rifts: England, but I think it merits a bit more discussion. A herbal magic druid can be fantastic as a support character. For healing, a herbal magic character can stockpile a potent array enchanted leaves, seeds, barks, teas, potions, and salves that can treat or cure a huge variety of medical issues, including the power of restoration, curing magic curses/poisons, and straight up heal people. Many of these items can also make the rest of the party more effective with a huge range of powers. The limiting factors of herbal magic are the availability of materials and the available P.P.E. of the druid (which will be higher if there are other magic users in the party).

The best of the druid O.C.C.'s are the Herbalist (can only make teas and potions, but can make them better, and gets some nice plant-centric powers) and Dryad (most P.P.E., can make any herbal item, high skill) and the Scathach (lower P.P.E. but is better in a fight, can also make any herbal item, and is also a magic smith).

The Filidh and Millennium druids are kind of lame, in my opinion, though either could be ok as a healer/support character. Filidhs herbal magics are very limited, and Millennium Druids are bums who depend on the tree/GM giving them stuff.
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Re: Help with healer

Unread post by The Beast »

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:Using the RDC take the Night spawn....Nightbane race and having their wizard type RCC and load up on healing mage and take the 'Sharing the Flash' Talent.


That's a fairly decent idea, especially if you use Ratty's guide on which spells are the most effective for the PPE cost while you're picking out your spells. The only issue you may encounter is not having a large enough PPE pool if you decide to go crazy with the Talents.
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Re: Help with healer

Unread post by drewkitty ~..~ »

The Beast wrote:
drewkitty ~..~ wrote:Using the RDC take the Night spawn....Nightbane race and having their wizard type RCC and load up on healing mage and take the 'Sharing the Flash' Talent.


That's a fairly decent idea, especially if you use Ratty's guide on which spells are the most effective for the PPE cost while you're picking out your spells. The only issue you may encounter is not having a large enough PPE pool if you decide to go crazy with the Talents.

Since it is a mage/wizard char NB they shouldn't be buying talents very much.
It was right for you to bring that up cause mm sounds like he is not an Old Hand with the PB games.
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Re: Help with healer

Unread post by Mack »

Hmm... how about a Shifter who makes a Supernatural Link with a God of Healing. The pact grants him/her access to a wide variety of healing spells from across the many different schools of magic. Invocations, Elemental, Ocean, Nature... but only healing spells.
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Re: Help with healer

Unread post by Axelmania »

the niche for HP/SDC in MD fights is Life Ward
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