Hello everyone, and welcome to the next installment in a series of articles focusing on the Cleric Domains in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. The goal for each of these is to provide you with a quick overview of your domain powers, spells, and introduce you to a god or goddess from real-Earth mythology who could be a deity using this particular domain.
All that said, welcome to this week’s article on the domain of Healing.
The Healing domain is described as “Your touch staves off pain and death, and your healing magic is particularly vital and potent.” – and from that we can obviously infer that the deity associated and their priests set out to “heal the world,” ease pain and suffering and is therefore rather unlikely to be an evil god. However, that said, there are two infernal dukes who grant this domain: One who seems to be the devil worshipped by certain vampires, and the other who appears to be almost totally unknown, (The grand total text I can find on it is one line, basically saying “nobody knows.”)
So what powers do you get with the Healing domain?
The first is “rebuke death,” where you can heal a creature, as a standard action with a touch, for 1d4 + 1 per every 2 cleric level, worth of damage. Basically a poor man’s Cure Light Wounds, but one that you can use a number of times per day. HOWEVER, it can only be used on creatures below 0 hit points, which is a major drawback.
The second one is “healer’s blessing” and as annoying as rebuke death’s drawback is, healer’s blessing is equally good. In essence, you treat your Cure spells as if they were using the Empower Spell feat (which doesn’t stack). This increases the amount healed by 50% (it is important to note here, that there was a LOT of contention about this particular feat a few years ago, so just for the sake of repetition: Empower spell applies to BOTH the dice rolled AND the level-based bonus. With that out of the way, your Cure spells effectively get a 2 level bump for free. In my opinion one of the best bonuses for any domain out there, for 2 reasons.
- Your spells heal more, meaning you can overcome tougher opponents
- You don’t have to spend as much time, or as many spells healing, giving you the opportunity to do other, cool(er) stuff.
And with that out of the way, let’s look at the spells in the Healing domain.
Now, this will be slightly different to how I normally do it, as most of the spells you get with this domain are the Cure spells. They all heal Xd8+level (up to a certain maximum) amount of hit points, and they’re your mainstay in keeping your group alive. Don’t leave home without them.
That said, there are 3 more spells in this domain that are worth discussing in detail:
Breath of Life
Breath of Life allows you to bring back creatures that are already dead, as long as they did not die more than 1 round before, which the normal Cure spells cannot do. This is your first fallback when your companies (inevitably?) hit the dust. It’s fast to cast, and it can be useful directly in combat. Just be wary of that temporary negative level that you get.
Heal (and Heal, Mass)
Heal is one of those spells that is just insanely useful. It heals a set amount of hit points (so it’s nice and easy to predict), based on your cleric level and it removes a bunch of various afflictions and conditions, specifically these: ability damage, blinded, confused, dazed, dazzled, deafened, diseased, exhausted, fatigued, feebleminded, insanity, nauseated, poisoned, sickened, and stunned.
As you can see it is remarkably useful, even against conditions that you might not otherwise have the equipment or spells available to handle.
The Mass Heal version obviously affects more people.
Regenerate
Regenerate heals a bunch of hit options, removes exhaustion and fatigue, and eliminates all nonlethal damage that you might have taken. While that’s all nice and good though, the main point of this spell is to regrow limbs (usually lost as part of critical hits, etc.). To be fair, while this sounds awesome and should be, the mechanics are wonky: there are no real rules for losing a limb to a critical hit. In the standard core rulebook, for example, the same goes for breaking bones or losing organs. Sure, there are monsters and traps that might specifically do this, but in most cases, this isn’t really that useful.
In those rare instances where it is however, you’ll find it invaluable.
New Deity
Eir
The Merciful, Healer, Protector of Children
Alignment LG
Worshipers healers, children, teachers
Cleric Alignments LG, NG, LN
Domains: Community, Good, Healing, Nobility, Protection, Rune
Sub-domains: Family, Friendship, Home, Medicine, Purity, Wards
Favored Weapon: club
Holy Symbol: A stylized rune resembling a mixed M and R
Eir is a goddess of healing, particularly dedicated to the protection of children, but anyone hurt or injured is welcomed at the halls of her clergy. Eir is seldom seen among the other gods, keeping to herself, and often traveling in disguise among mortals, helping them in little ways, and keeping their crop, animals, and the mortals themselves alive. She never loses her temper with anyone, and while she prefers to avoid violence, she is a staunch defender of the sanctity of the home, and many an evil invader has met their deaths at the hands of Eir and her clergy.
Like Eir, her clergy tend to be quiet and mild-mannered, never seeking the spotlight or attention of the community around them, but those who know of them appreciate their work in keeping society going, and their efforts to help the poor and downtrodden.
A typical Eir priest starts the day by getting up at sunrise, and praying while the sun climbs above the horizon. The morning is then spent conducting research into better ways to use medicine (unless someone actively sick or injured is in their care, in which case that takes precedence), but in the afternoon the priesthood goes out into the community to help with charitable works, often running soup-kitchens, orphanages, hospitals, and asylums.
The clergy then go to an evening repast and an early bed, unless their duties to the sick or poor take them elsewhere.
Most of Eir’s clergy is married, often with a gaggle of children, and while there is a gender disparity in the clergy (70% female to 30% male) there is no stigma attached to either gender, nor to those who are yet to marry or who have no children.
The one place that one can be certain to find Eir’s clergy is on the battlefields, where they can be found on both sides of any conflict, refusing to take part, but tending to the wounded. Because of their neutrality, they are sometimes asked to bring messages between the hostile factions, a task which they normally accept, hoping to end the conflict as quickly as possible.
I hope you all enjoyed this week’s look at the Healing domain. For the next installment, we’ll be looking at the Knowledge domain.
Kim Frandsen
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