Combat Medic Question

[Laurk]

goovy, thanks.

[Laurk]

So ive got Combat Medic now, and the kicker (Sanctuary) works wonderfully (for my charges). However it doesn't work on me when I have to heal myself.

Is this intentional?

Ive found that while very helpful when im invisable, this is a pretty dangerous ability while in small groups. Several times, ive had all the enemy agro go straight to me when my meat shield needed healing. That would be manageable if my desperate healing spells to keep myself alive when this happens also gave me sanctuary so they'd go back to beating on the warrior instead of the squishy healer!

Thus far ive lucked out in that ive had some invisability potions on hand that Abby chugged in the nic of time. I think id have died a few times if not though.

[YakaryBovine]

So ive got Combat Medic now, and the kicked (Sanctuary) works wonderfully (for my charges). However it doesn't work on me when I have to heal myself.

Is this intentional?

Ive found that while very helpful when im invisable, this is a pretty dangerous ability while in small groups. Several times, ive had all the enemy agro go straight to me when my meat shield needed healing. That would be manageable if my desperate healing spells to keep myself alive when this happens also gave me sanctuary so they'd go back to beating on the warrior instead of the squishy healer!

Thus far ive lucked out in that ive had some invisability potions on hand that Abby chugged in the nic of time. I think id have died a few times if not though.

It might be worth posting this in the Suggestions section. Having a major weakness introduced to your character because you picked a Prestige Class is wrong, regardless of any available workarounds.

The Sundren Wiki page (http://www.sundren.org/wiki/index.ph...e=Combat_Medic) states that you can apply the effect. The same is true for the tabletop version, suggesting that this whole thing is just a coding limitation.

That's not to say the class isn't very cool as it is. Hell, Improved Augment Healing is probably more practical then tabletop's Spontaneous Heal.

[Kitsunestume]

So ive got Combat Medic now, and the kicker (Sanctuary) works wonderfully (for my charges). However it doesn't work on me when I have to heal myself.

Is this intentional?

Healing Kicker (Su): You hate to see your careful work ruined by an attack made right afterward. Thus, you can add a short-term protective effect to your healing spells, allowing a healed target to more easily survive the rigors of combat. Whenever you cast a conjuration (healing) spell on an ally, you imbue the spell with a secondary effect as described below. These effects stack with each other, but not with themselves. You can’t apply this secondary benefit to yourself. This will effect all healing spells except Mass Heal.

Sorry to say, but it was definitely intentional. Not saying it's impossible to change, but probably unlikely. It would be nice to see the kicker work for more than just single-target healing though, like it lists in that last line. Seeing as it does nothing for things like Mass Cure or Sacred Purification.

[Lugwy]

What would be even better would be to make the kicker a toggleable effect, as the description implied it would be. Then it'd be feasible to apply it to more healing spells/SLAs.

[Laurk]

I agree, toggling it would be nice. As it is now, im glad its doesn't affect mass cure spells, because if it did, I would absolutly screwed, even in large groups as the 1 person left standing without Sanctuary.

Im not sure why this doesn't apply to the caster, but I might suggest an alteration so that the healer gets the same benifit as others when using the same cure spells on herself. When I have a couple melee enemies & archers all change argo to me the moment I try to heal our fighter, its going to be ugly.

[Fuzziebunny]

It does effect mass spells unless that was a change. I have tried it out. If you cast mass cure light wounds or one of the other mass cures your whole party will bubble or square rather. I count on this to be honest and have used it to shield someone who is taking to much damage when I am in the middle of a huge fight and can't run around.

[Lugwy]

The point was that under certain circumstances (like the scenario above), the kicker is helpful, especially if you can reliably make the will save against your own Sanctuary (), but under most circumstances--and in Abby's, specifically--the monster's aggro will be redirected to other folks you probably don't want it to chew up, which includes the combat medic themselves.

There is also the scenario of "failing the will save" part, especially if the enemy has passed theirs, involving the curiously morbid view of a combat medic observing helplessly while the bad guy cheerfully undoes all the hard work done on the poor sod that was healed.

[Raksha]

In short, the 'feature' is only beneficial some of the time, may actively hinder the combat medic from doing their job, and is based on a cruel RNG that loathes players.

So ... replacement? Plz?

[Lugwy]

Has there been an RNG that isn't cruel?

[Laurk]

The will save for the Sanctuary effect is pretty high. As of right now I have a +12 will bonus, and the DC is 23. That means I fail the will save 50% of the time. Even if I use conviction, I still fail 45% of the time. It is becoming quite common that monsters beat the crap out of my charges while I stand there unable to heal them.

I have to drink an invisablity potion "every" time I get into an encounter unless its one of those rare instances where I have a group of at least 2 fighters who stay right next to one another... even then its no guarantee that they won't shift agro to me or the other support PCs.

There are a handful of times when its been a life saver, the vast majority of the time, it is detrimental. So much so that I was willing to give it up, along with the level 3 & 5 kickers. Alas removing the feat didn't do anything though.

Please please please, fix this. Either set the kicker DC to 0, make it togglable or replace it with something else. Ideally id like to see Force Push effect because it does the same job sanctuary does without agro shift, but at this point, even granting the recipient the ability to communicate with corn for 2 rounds would suffice. It was hard enough to find groups before, now no one wants to get killed because of the "Combat Medic!" Oh the irony.

This may seem a small potatoes since there are so few people who take the class, but consider that a lot of people have said they would have taken it if not for the Sanctuary kicker.

[Valhalla]

The will save for the Sanctuary effect is pretty high. As of right now I have a +12 will bonus, and the DC is 23. That means I fail the will save 50% of the time. Even if I use conviction, I still fail 45% of the time. It is becoming quite common that monsters beat the crap out of my charges while I stand there unable to heal them.

While I do think the sanctuary effect should be removed, I would like to comment on this bit.

A lot of builds and PRCs suck something fierce until high levels. You'll go from failing your save 45% of the time at whatever level you are right now, to pretty much needing to roll a 1 to fail once you're nearing or at 20. Your saves and your ability to buff them increases much faster than the DC on your sanctuary.

[Fuzziebunny]

I have to agree here about the level. I almost never fail a will save for my heals. However, maybe my save for my heals is low.

If one thing is changed here I would like to see the PRC count as a 1 for 1 on cleric spell level. Currently, taking this PRC gives you an 8 second party buff at the expense of 3 spell levels. It also does not stack with the healing domain for clerics.

[Laurk]

At level 20, the Sanctuary kicker's DC will be around 27 to 28 depending on if a I upgrade wisdom gear. The will save will be 12 + feats + wisdom + gear. Im expecting it to be somewhere around +20/21. That's 12 + 8 (or 9) wis + 0 (natural leader is -1, but ill have a feat that gains 1 for wisdom related stuff). This could increase by other gear, not sure, and with conviction, I might be able to make it a 1 in 20 chance to fail.

If you have a low Wisdom, your DC would be lower, but then, so would your save, so I suppose its a wash.

Either way, even 1 in 20 is still pretty high for someone whose job is to heal during combat. In a boss fight, or really hard encounter, sometimes I have to pump in healing as fast as I can to keep my charge alive. A cleric would be better, and it seems outside the spirit of the class that a cleric should be a more reliable and effective combat healer than a combat healer is.

That Abby gets killed a lot from the sanctuary is more my own fault for my choice in a physicall weak cleric & the self imposed RP restrictions (Though her will save is extremely high due to maximised wisdom). Sucking up agro wouldn't be so much an issue for combat-built clerics. However, not being able to heal your charges because of failed will saves and getting the other support PCs killed are universal problems for anyone who takes the class.

[Doubtful]

It's on our list to look at but will be in the queue. Simply put its down to dev time and availability as well as priority.