by Amethine on Sun Jan 20, 2019 4:06 pm
I've been thinking a lot about this too.
"Healers" have very little going for them in terms of progression, at least compared to other classes. There's no Umbara/Unigo specific spells, their reward for hitting Healerx7 is lackluster compared to other classes and as you say, only females have the option of "Advancing" the class, which makes them completely drop their Healing lifestyle they once had.
I was in the process of drafting up a series of spells to offer as a suggestion, but I think the idea of an advanced class specifically for advancing the essential skill of lifesaving could be a viable option.
Spells I was in the process of drafting were things like, a stabilization spell to stop someone from bleeding out (put their body "on hold" as it were, the damage would still be there and needing fixed, but any debilitating effects like poisons, bleeds etc are simple "paused", though this couldn't be cast on a conscious patient, requiring them to be put to sleep or knocked out first); a fix for the spell Healer's Rescue to either split or remove the Life element, as nobody would EVER use that to restore Life over using the Heal spell, an overhaul of the Anchored Savior Spell to add the ability to create a temporary "designated spot" that the spell would then teleport to instead (Say, a separate spell that requires Anchored Savior to be learned first, that takes an hour IC to cast or something). The "Healer's Sacrifice" ability, which is a powerful class ability, could be moved to this new advanced class, and Healers instead get a version that's used to save themselves. So, "Due to awareness of their own anatomy, once per combat after they fail a defense roll but before damage is rolled, they can declare "Healer's Reflex!" and reduce the incoming damage by 10% for each time Healer class is taken". Advanced Healers could keep this, and gain the ability to save the life of another, or drop it for just saving another. I was also tossing around the potential of an AoE heal of some kind, buff/debuffs that makes sense for Healers to have and not least of all, "end game" spells that a Healer would want to aspire to get.
I get that the lvl 30 Water spells are powerful, but are Out of Battle, which kinda limits them to RP flavor and specific quests that the GM is deliberately thinking of, as Cure Disease, Cure Poison and Heal ALL do the same thing, and IN battle as well. Adding an advanced class to Healer that actually advances Healing in some regard also gives the opportunity to create higher level spells to reward those who really go the distance. Why not make that little golf-flag at level 50 to give Healers an aoe version of Healer's Helping Hand, or a non-lethal attack spell that aims to stop an aggressor by magically locking up their specific joints? I admit, I'm spitballing here as my writeups didn't reach this far yet, but the general idea is gotten across, yes?
As I said, I was in the process of writing all this out into a format that would be presentable to dev's, and look somewhat balanced, but since you brought up Healer end-game Aramis, I wanted to write a little something. If only to show my KEEN interest in this subject! I like Healers! I wanna see fun new toys for them!
Amethine Tawariell is the main catgirl.
Felicia`Delacroix is the naughty catgirl.
All the catgirl's just wanna have fun!
If you like this wax-seal, I could make one for your too. PM or hit me up in IRC if you're interested
Thank you Abby for drawing the amazing pic I'm using as the avatar!