Healer

Healers were a class of divine magic-users entirely dedicated to healing. It is their sworn duty to tend to the sick and wounded, whenever they are in need and whatever their philosophy, especially the good people of the world.

Activities
Among the highest of a healer's great purposes was to protect, and failing that to heal, all good people who needed it. They performed much the same role as clerics and druids, but had a much narrower scope and were uniquely apolitical members of their clergy. Rarely were they involved with intrigues or denied spells, for as long as they fulfilled their oath, their deity had no reason to refuse them.

While some might find the life of a dedicated healer dull, they possessed a certain degree of anonymity and neutrality that could be liberating. The nature of their duties made them excellent and trustworthy midwives, physicians, combat medics, and adventuring companions.

Culture
Some healers were unofficial members of religious organizations, others freely wandered, alone or with company, while others still took up service in armies and expeditions to fight off evil, war, or similar dangers. While somewhat combat capable, they also did this while mostly eschewing violent magic. Their role required a selflessness and dedication to good, gentleness accompanied by strength of conviction. Adventuring healers were most common among humans and elves amd less so among dwarves who would rather forcibly prevent than cure wounds.

Healers could be members of any non-evil religions, but never associated with gods of the death, destruction, hatred, metal, retribution, suffering, tyranny, undeath, or war domains (Ilmater being an exception). Other clergies with known healers included those of the dwarven goddesses Berronar Truesilver and Sharindlar, Lurue the Unicorn Queen and Torm the god of paladins.

Healers of Ilmater were often even more devoted and ascetic than his paladins and clerics, taking the healer's creed a step further by rarely refusing to help the injured of even evil groups. Such causes were never supported or endorsed, but they rarely denied aid to individuals from those parties. In Heliogabalus, a small, Ilmatari-run healer's college called End's Rest tended to the local sick, pregnant, and injured as well as the young recruits and paladins who protected the city.

The clergies of Berronar and Sharindlar were collectively responsible for dwarven health and wellbeing in Faerûn. Berronar's clergy took on the role of caring if stern matriarchs, formally solving a community's problems, while those of Sharindlar's church acted as amiable sisters and confidants with whom their fellow dwarves could share their issues and secrets. Healers of those deities worked both in battlefields and medical wards, Sharindlarans dealing with local problems directly while the Berronarans typically operated as guides to teach and organize healing and familial activites. It was not uncommon for both, but particularly the chaotic healers of Sharindlar, to adventure. In the city of Eartheart, religious capital of the gold dwarf homeland of the Great Rift, both faiths ran a healing college whose graduates tended to the unwell dwarves of the region.

Abilities
Healers had a relatively tight list of spells to draw from which lacked the destructive potential of their clerical counterparts. They also lost their spells upon violation of their vow (such as by refusing healing for allies and good beings) and could not cast spells if they donned metal armor or used shields. This was not due to any practcal impediment on their spellcasting, but rather the traditional oaths of the vocation, which required them to maintain a certain degree of vulnerability to allow them to more fully empathize with their wards.

Compensating for these drawbacks was mastery of curative magic outdoing even that of clerics. All their healing spells were more potent, they were adept at detecting ailments, and over time they became so experienced in handling different types of maladies that they could do so with supernatural efficiency without the use of spellcraft. Poison, paralysis, petrification, disease, blindness, and fear could all be cleansed through their powers, which at their height could regrow body parts and even undo death.

Eventually the god or gods watching a healer came to recognize their devotion and granted them a companion, a symbol of healing to serve them willingly and unfailingly. The companion could be magically summoned from whatever celestial planes it occupied, although it importantly could be killed (and brought back to life), leaving the healer incredibly distraught for weeks on end. The companion could empathically communicate with the healer up to a away, although notably might see the world differently from their humanoid allies. Normally the companion was a unicorn, but others were possible particularly for more powerful healers, such as lammasus, water nagas, couatls, and gynosphinxes or androsphinxes.

Aside from their companions, a healer's empathetic ways allowed them to more easily understand the coarse thoughts of beasts and win friends among otherwise savage creatures.

Relationships
Healers provided aid to those they worked with, whether they be part of an adventuring party, the militant wing of their faith, or members of an alliance they were pledged to. Among adventuring company a healer was rarely snubbed for the obvious advantage their occupation provided. They were much revered for their services, and might only ask for compensation in the form daily praise towards their deity. At most they sought an equal share of the reward, and they might accept commissions to escort a company or warband on a dangerous mission. They were easily spotted moving behind a combat unit or adventuring party bringing relief to the injured. Sometimes they clashed with clerics over the more dogmatic and reverent perspective of such individuals.