Do I need a healer?

Mackinstyle

I've never played BG1 before. Played BG2 but that's much higher level so things are a bit different.

Do I need a healer in my group of six? I've got a mage, thief, fighter, fighter druid (Jahiera is my out of combat healer), ranger, and _______. I'm also taking suggestions on what else to add!

While I'm here, can I load Jahiera up with the heaviest of armour and shields despite being part druid? If I don't plan on sneaking, can I give Minsc the heaviest of armour?

ajwz

Out of combat healing is the only healing you should be doing. In combat healing is also known as healing potions

CutlassJack

Jahiera should cover you just fine. And go ahead and load her up with the best armor/shield she can wear. The Ankheg armor I especially like for her since its green.

Armoring up Minsc is also reccomended. He never really should have been a ranger.

Mackinstyle

Thanks so much to you both. Very helpful.

toanwrath

ajwz said:

Out of combat healing is the only healing you should be doing. In combat healing is also known as healing potions

Except when you need to heal the helpless/disabled/shut down person who cannot actually use the potions themselves, and are getting auto-hit because they are held/asleep/whatever. Then, in-combat healing becomes very useful (I have saved party members at least 4 times with a well timed Cure Moderate/Cure Serious wounds in combat because they couldn't use potions.)

EDIT: Though I agree with CutlassJack, Jaheira tends to do just fine with healing up my entire party in combat and out of combat. I have over 24 potions in my quickslot because I never need to use them (thank you Jaheira).

Madhax

I prefer having more healing power than just one MC'd druid, but Jaheira can get you across the finish line just fine.

Sneaking with Minsc just feels wrong to me, and I always play him in the heaviest plate armor I can find. That said, I'm assuming your thief is Imoen. If you want to wholly disregard her stealth abilities in favor of lockpicking and trap-disarming, you could potentially have Minsc remove his armor for scouting expeditions. I forget how high his stealth ability gets, but having a scout can be very useful. He can always come back to the party, don his plate, and then rush in headlong with the rest.

Nukenin

Jaheira+healing pots should be fine as others have mentioned. You could always add another cleric-type for extra coverage.

In my current party my halfling barbarian is the scout. He just runs ahead and starts attacking whatever party he's invited himself to, while the others halfway across the map race to get in their bowshots and spells if anything's left alive by the time they get there.

atcDave

I think Branwen (statue lady at the Neshkel Fair) is by far a better healer than Jaheira. But you probably don't really need her. Jaheira is more "survivable", especially at lower levels.
I don't really get the "no healing in combat" advice. I've never had a problem with it. Healing spells are fairly slow and there's always a chance of loosing the spell. Soooo, invest in some good armor for your healer(s) and don't worry about it. Clerics and Druids have pretty limited offensive potential anyway, so its not a big deal to have them heal or buff (Bless, Chant or something) during battle. Potions are expensive, I hate to waste them if I don't need to.
I'd also add; a paladin's "Lay on Hands" ability and the Bahlspawn cure light wounds power seem to have MUCH faster casting times than the cleric spells. That makes them extra useful in a combat situation.

Linkamus

In Combat Healing is always practical in my opinion.. Even more so in Baldur's Gate 2 when you get Greater Restoration, which is - in my opinion - one of the most powerful spells in the game.

toanwrath

@atcDave
I wasn't assuming the OP's alignment, so they might have Larloch's instead of Cure Light (which helps them, but not able to heal others with it).
Potions are expensive, but you do find A LOT. I am in Chapter 6 now, and have more than 24 potions of healing (I have used maybe 4 or 5?) just from finding them as I haven't shopped for them (I spent my money on a few expensive trinkets at High Hedge). And even with the best armor, healers can sometimes be hit. Eventually, even the best AC still gets disrupted by a lucky hit, or by a simple magic missile.

colonel_burger

I always roll with 2 clerics (either dual or multi). It makes the game a lot faster on insane, and their stun spells are great too.

Calmar

I need a healer, I'm holding out for a healer 'till the morning light
He's gotta be sure and he's gotta be soon
And he's gotta be larger than life
I need a healer, I'm holding out for a healer 'till the end of the night

Ahem... I find Jaheira's healing skills coupled with my guy's cure light wounds ability very sufficient. If things get really ugly, I still have healing potions in store.

Cragspyder

I played my first playthrough with Jaheira as my only healer, and she does just fine. In fact, since it seems like half of the druid spell list is useless (Goodberry? Really?), most of your slots are free for a crapton of Cure Light Wounds or whatnot.

A cleric (I used Branwen) in addition to Jaheira is supremely useful, not for the healing spells per se but for the awesomely useful utility spells. Remove Fear. Silence 10' Radius. Animate Dead. Remove Paralysis. Hold Person, the greatest of all debuff spells! All fantastic, and all unavailable to Druids in 2nd Edition for some reason.

At 5th level, a Druid gets their first decent damage spell, Call Lightning..that only works outdoors... and Hold Animal...which only works on normal and giant animals, specifically excluding all the dangerous animals like Wyverns, Ankhegs, Sword/Phase Spiders, etc. What kind of crappy party can't kill a Cave Bear or Huge Spider at level 5 just by auto-attacking? Maybe a party full of 2nd edition druids!

At least Jaheira is a fighter as well!

toanwrath

Cragspyder said:

I played my first playthrough with Jaheira as my only healer, and she does just fine. In fact, since it seems like half of the druid spell list is useless (Goodberry? Really?), most of your slots are free for a crapton of Cure Light Wounds or whatnot.

A cleric (I used Branwen) in addition to Jaheira is supremely useful, not for the healing spells per se but for the awesomely useful utility spells. Remove Fear. Silence 10' Radius. Animate Dead. Remove Paralysis. Hold Person, the greatest of all debuff spells! All fantastic, and all unavailable to Druids in 2nd Edition for some reason.

At 5th level, a Druid gets their first decent damage spell, Call Lightning..that only works outdoors... and Hold Animal...which only works on normal and giant animals, specifically excluding all the dangerous animals like Wyverns, Ankhegs, Sword/Phase Spiders, etc. What kind of crappy party can't kill a Cave Bear or Huge Spider at level 5 just by auto-attacking? Maybe a party full of 2nd edition druids!

At least Jaheira is a fighter as well!

Are you kidding me? Goodberry is AMAZING!! Insect Swarm is also a very powerful caster-killer.
As for the rest, yeah I agree.

The_Cheeseman

Cure Wounds spells are a terrible waste of a divine spellcaster's potential. Healing in combat is almost always a poor tactical choice, since it consumes one party member's action without doing anything to actually defeat the enemy. Cure Wounds spells are extremely inefficient, have long casting times, and have comparatively little effect on the outcome of an encounter.

I used to use Viconia as a healbot back when BG first came out, but then I tried soloing a cleric. You'll get much better results by using your cleric or druid's spell slots to disable your enemies or buff your allies. Remember, if the benefits of your Bless spell result in a battle ending just one round earlier, you very well may have saved your party more total hit points than a Cure Light Wounds would restore.

bob_veng

Use a moderate amount of healing spells during combat. Occasionally, it can be very helpful when characters are disabled or the fighting is less intense (later in combat) so you don't have to debuff, but you still don't want a character to waste time on drinking potions. You'll have enough spell slots.

Deucetipher

Does it burn down below? If so, yes, you do need a healer.

Nazad

Cleric combat spells are a better use than healing. Hold Person is amazing for shutting down enemies' ability to damage you and as such can be considered 'preventive medicine.' I tend to look at the cleric that way. What spells can be used to prevent enemies from messing up my peeps? I cast them first. Healing spells are fine but secondary.

atcDave

It's always good to have tactical flexibility. Clerics can cast some awesome spells. I love Holy Smite in particular, its often the first spell I cast in combat. Since it only hurts evil characters I can wade right in with my tanks while the spell goes in right on their heads. Mages don't get anything like it until they get their HLAs in ToB. But its total damage is not high, and if your opponents are not evil; or worse, if some of your tanks ARE evil, its suddenly a much less useful spell.
But I would still say they are offensively the weakest of the classes. And I think its tactically short sighted to dismiss healing magic as a viable part of your team package. Its often advisable to keep your tank bashing heads and not wasting an action to drink a potion while the cleric heals, or neutralizes poison, or cures some other condition.
Its fine to have favorite strategies and tactics for dealing with enemies. But the best defense is not ALWAYS a good offense. Sometimes its more valuable to aid a team-mate. And I think that is the greatest strength of Clerics and Druids, keeping the team on its feet so the more offensively capable characters can, well, be offensive.

Cragspyder

Can someone explain why Goodberry is 'amazing'? A maximum of 8 hp healed that you have to click every time for doesn't seem 'amazing' to me.

toanwrath

Sorry, the goodberry thing was a joke--I should have clarified that. It is good in PnP where it also counts as a full day's food (not sure if this is true in 2nd Ed.).
Also, I think that a Cleric/Druid can have some healing spells prepped and still be effective. I am not saying only prepare healing spells, I am saying that having a few prepped can save you in an emergency.
Also, at low levels when a Cure Light Wounds can fully heal (or near enough) a party member from near death: I think I prepared the right spell for the day.

GoodSteve

Jaheira can get you through the game with her healing alone but I find that Druids aren't the ideal choice for the only source of divine magic in your group. As was stated earlier there are many very useful party buffing/status removing/preventing spells that the cleric gets but the druid does not. Don't get me wrong, I love druids but missing out on staple spells like Remove Fear means that you need to get your mage to blow some 2nd level spells slots for it instead of using a clerics 1st level slots.

I'm not sure which characters you are using, besides Jahiera, but if the fighter in your group is anyone but Kagain I'd suggest taking Yeslick once you get to the cloakwood mines. He's a fighter/cleric so he'll be good on the frontline, will fill the gaps in your divine casting and gets a groovey innate ability to cast dispel magic once per day for free! Just make sure you don't have Kagain, he wont get along with him at all.

atcDave

Goodberry is one of those that actually was useful in PNP, but didn't transfer well to the computer.

GoodSteve I completely agree about Yeslick, he's a very useful character. Both as a healer and a second line tank. I have often kept Branwen around just until I got to Yeslick when I swapped them out. One nice thing about getting to him late, you'll be earning a lot more experience at that point, which helps with a multi-class character like him. It also helps that cleric is an easy xp table.

badbromance

Can never have to many divine casters!! My charname is a cleric and I have Jahiera as well. No shortage of buffs/debuffs and Jahiera just got access to lvl 3 spells (insect swarm or plague cant remember which one it is

CoM_Solaufein

Jaheira is a good healer and she can be a secondary fighter.

sandmanCCL

@GoodSteve:

Druids have access to the BG2 spell pool now. A single-class druid is EASILY the best divine spellcaster possible. They can do things clerics can't do, and the one thing clerics can do you already mentioned: it can be relegated to an arcane caster. All I ever have prepared at level 2 is hold person and web anyway.

Only counts for straight regular druids, though. Hitting level 5 divine spells is a huge advantage over clerics but they lose that if they multi-class.

Amera

In combat healing is a lot less useful if you are playing on insane and almost everything hits for 20+. And it is so easy to rest between almost every encounter that the main reason to bring a healer is just so you don't get the "Your party has rested for 65 days" message. =P

That said, clerics/druids are completely worth bringing for reasons other than their healing spells. It doesn't hurt to memorize one or two but in D&D throughout time healing spells just aren't generally that great until you get Heal, at which point you don't even need anything else. Potions/wands ahoy!

kmfdm

I always use potions to heal the characters + 2x heals you get on your main character. In combat, normal healing is just way too slow, you usually either get hit and interrupted or the other character dies before you finish casting it. Most of other cleric spells can be also replaced by potions. Pure clerics also get always just 1 attack per round no matter what, in BG 1 they are simply useless, unless they are dualclassed (Like Yaslick, Tiax or Jaheira).

Ignatius

sandmanCCL said:

Druids have access to the BG2 spell pool now. A single-class druid is EASILY the best divine spellcaster possible. They can do things clerics can't do, and the one thing clerics can do you already mentioned: it can be relegated to an arcane caster. All I ever have prepared at level 2 is hold person and web anyway.

I have not yet played a Druid in BG:EE but I believe they cannot cast Animate Dead. Which in BG:EE, means summoning 1 or 2... ghasts. It is a lvl.3 spell and is therefore a massive advantage to clerics vs druids.

atcDave

I would challenge calling single class clerics useless; I've often played them, and I often recruit Branwen. I'm happy to have the healing/buffing support in any of the tougher battles, and I find many of their combat spells useful even if they aren't overpowering (Hold Person and Holy Smite in particular).
I would have to admit as an old school AD&D gamer I very much enjoy the balance of having all four major professions in my party and balancing all their different strengths. I did once complete the game with a party of three (a Ranger/Cleric, a Fighter/Cleric and Imoen dualed to Mage) which was also a ton of fun. But I usually prefer a full, balanced party of six. The interactions if not just personalities, but very different abilities is very satisfying.

moopy

Mackinstyle said:

I've never played BG1 before. Played BG2 but that's much higher level so things are a bit different.

Do I need a healer in my group of six? I've got a mage, thief, fighter, fighter druid (Jahiera is my out of combat healer), ranger, and _______. I'm also taking suggestions on what else to add!

While I'm here, can I load Jahiera up with the heaviest of armour and shields despite being part druid? If I don't plan on sneaking, can I give Minsc the heaviest of armour?

I just beat the game with Minsc, Dyshanar, Raasad, Neera, Imoen (dualed to mage), and CHARNAME as a Kensai so... clerical magic isn't that important. The low level heals suck anyway.