Games can be hard, especially early on. You don't have any of the awesome skills or mighty gear you'll have by the final boss, and you may well be outclassed by a rat.
Game designers know this, and so they lift some of the work off of your shoulders.
Nine times out of ten, one of the first people in your party will have a healing ability. This means that you don't have to rely exclusively on items or Trauma Inn healing to survive, and thus you can get further into any given area without having to run back and restock. It may also serve to introduce the player to actions that don't just do damage, encouraging them to use what they may have assumed to be a Useless Useful Spell due to having few other options during the early parts of the game.
The character with the healing ability doesn't have to be The Medic or a White Magician Girl - quite frequently, in fact, they'll be outclassed by a more proper healer later on. What matters for this trope is that they join you quickly and have some form of healing available.
If the healing is by magic, then usually it's a type of Healing Hands.
Sometimes the game will cut out the middleman and give the main character a healing technique. Compare/contrast Healing Magic Is the Hardest.
Examples:
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RPG — Eastern
- In Another Eden, Aldo is first accompanied by his sister, Feinne, who comes with a healing spell by default. After she gets kidnapped, the next story-based party member is Riica, who also can learn a mid-strength healing spell.
- Atelier offers an interesting variant in that the protagonist is almost always the game's main healer. As an alchemist, she can create and use healing items, and in many games they're the only characters that can use items at all.
- Atlus is notorious - and justly so - for making games that make players weep blood. But even they follow this trope:
- One of the first possible recruitable demons across the franchise in general is usually the Pixie with Dia, a low level healing spell.
- In both Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, and Shin Megami Tensei V, the first demon to join the hero is a Pixie with Dia.
- Your first battle partner in Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse is Asahi, who learns healing skills.
- In Soul Hackers Pixie fills this role once again, and she along with Knocker are guaranteed to join your party.
- In both Devil Survivor and Devil Survivor 2, Pixie is again one of the first demons to join your party. The stat growths of Yuzu and Io also allows them to equip Dia, which becomes available very early on. If the MC is magic-oriented, they too can equip Dia at the start of the game.
- In Persona, one of your initial party members, Yukino, learns Dia upon bringing her initial Persona to rank 3, which should easily happen in the first few battles. She does permanently leave if you go down the SEBEC route, but she is replaced by Maki, who also picks up Dia at rank 3.
- In both games of the Persona 2 duology, one of the player's first three party members (Lisa in Innocent Sin, Maya in Eternal Punishment) learns Dia upon bringing their initial Persona to rank 2, which can easily happen at the end of the first battle in the game.
- From the very beginning of Persona 3, the player has access to Yukari, The Medic.
- In Persona 4, as part of his role as a Red Mage, Yosuke learns some of the early healing spells. Yukiko, the main healer, joins right after the first dungeon.
- Regardless of which path you pick in Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, you'll always have some healers handy from the start of the game. The P3 path gives you Yukari, and the P4 path gives you Yukiko, both coincidentally being the main healers of their respective games. Rei also joins you very early on, and she comes with healing spells of her own.
- Persona 5 meanwhile pulls a double whammy. Not only the first party member to join is Morgana, one of the team's main healers, the first new Persona you acquire as part of a tutorial is once again Pixie. Ann also joins the roster not long after, and she too knows a few healing spells to take some SP pressure off Morgana. In Royal, this also applies to the first Will Seed crystal you get, which starts out with a strong single-target healing spell which later upgrades into a version that also boosts attack.
- Born Under the Rain: The game starts with Masud, who has the Bandage skill:
Heals an ally.
- The Boxxy Quest series: BoxxyQuest: The Shifted Spires and BoxxyQuest: The Gathering Storm: The healer signs on first. Catie is the character you start with, and she gets all the best healing spells.
- Breath of Fire:
- Breath of Fire I: While the first party member that joins Ryu is a healer, she doesn't join until after Camlon castle and the dungeon of Nanai.
- Breath of Fire II: Bow, your second teammate, is a healer. Though he does temporarily drop out of the party for plot reasons after the first act. Fortunately, one of your next party members can also heal. Unfortunately, he also drops out of the party shortly. Fortunately, Ryu can also heal, even he is pretty bad at it, and has to conserve MP for dragon forms.
- Breath of Fire III: Ryu is actually a reasonably good healer, making a "No Dragon Forms" Self-Imposed Challenge relatively easy.
- Breath of Fire IV: your first playable is Nina; she joins with healing spells, and remain the best healer in the game. Averted for Fou-Lu's sections - he has to do them alone, and the only way he can heal himself is with items or by equipping a certain accessory.
- Castlevania: Curse of Darkness has Hector receive a Fairy familiar early on. This familiar starts out with a healing power.
- Even before the party learns magic in Chrono Trigger, Marle, the first person in the party other than Crono, has her Aura Tech. Though she's unavailable for the first true dungeon, you get Frog for that one, who learns the healing Slurp Tech.
- Corruption of Laetitia: The healer is there to witness the church attempt to sacrifice Celeste and gets caught in the explosive fallout that ensues when Celeste accepts the demon lord's aid. Thus, she can be recruited literally within seconds of regaining control of Celeste.
- Crystalis: The game starts with only Mio, and he has an Extract, "Extract Life", to Heal Thyself for 25 CP.
- Dragon Quest:
- In most games, the hero naturally learns a healing spell early on.
- Dragon Quest II is the only exception, as the Prince of Midenhall never learns any magic; however, both of his cousins have healing magic, and one of your first tasks is tracking down the Prince of Cannock.
- The protagonist of Dragon Quest VIII knows Heal.
- Dyztopia: Post-Human RPG: Akira is the main playable character and starts with a healing skill, Mend. They can learn additional healing skills through the skill tree and from leveling.
- Played with in the RPG Maker game "Echoes Of Aetheria". Halfway through the prologue you rescue Princess Soha who has some healing magic, but it's Blood Magic and therefore all of her healing is either Cast from Hit Points or some sort of Life Drain effect. Master Kesh has a fair number of healing and status removal effects, but he's the last party member to join. Neither of these is particularly troublesome though because After-Combat Recovery is in full force.
- Another RPG Maker example, though this time played straight; A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky does this twice. For the first third of the game you have immediate access to Mint, a dedicated healer and sister to the main hero Ivy. Once you get into the main game during the adult arc, the first character you gain control of is Gainer, who does Mint's job even better and learns various useful group healing spells.
- The Denpa Men: Your hero Denpa always has the "revive" ability. In the third game, you also receive a guaranteed party member in the form of Crystal's dad, who joins as soon as you defeat Squelch. He's always a healer.
- In Emerald Dragon Tamryn is your main healer and joins very early in the game, just partway through the first real dungeon.
- The Epic Battle Fantasy series frequently gives access to healing early on, if not at the start:
- Epic Battle Fantasy 1 and Epic Battle Fantasy 2: Both playable characters, Matt and Natalie, have access to healing abilities:
- Natalie has two dedicated healing spells: Heal, which heals herself or Matt, and HealMore, which heals both of them. She also has Judgment, a Holy-elemental attack which also heals her.
- Matt, meanwhile, can drain enemy health with the Drain spell, and heal both himself and Natalie with Power Metal. Matt's healing abilities are weaker than Natalie's, however.
- Epic Battle Fantasy 3 starts with Natalie already in the party, with Heal as one of her starting spells.
- Epic Battle Fantasy 4: Anna, the player's starting character, can learn a healing spell called Renew at the start of the game quite cheaply. Anna's healing capabilities are outclassed by Natalie's, who joins with Heal about halfway through the game's first area, Ashwood Forest.
- Epic Battle Fantasy 5: Three out of the five playable characters join with a healing skill - Natalie joins with Heal near the end of Hope Harbor, Anna joins with Renew at the beginning of No Man's Land, and Lance joins with Medipack at the end of the Iron Fortress.
- Epic Battle Fantasy 1 and Epic Battle Fantasy 2: Both playable characters, Matt and Natalie, have access to healing abilities:
- Eternal Twilight: Damien, a White Magi, is the second party member of the game. His skill set revolves around using spells that simultaneously damage the enemy while healing the party, and any excess healing becomes a barrier to absorb damage.
- In the Final Fantasy series:
- In Final Fantasy II, Minwu is the first Guest-Star Party Member that joins you, who starts off with an assortment of white magic spells at respectable levels.
- In Final Fantasy III, the White Mage class is one of the first the player gets. In the 3d remake, the Freelancer starting job can use level 1 magic, which includes Cure.
- Immediately after the second boss fight in Final Fantasy IV, Rydia joins you, bringing a Cure spell. Tellingly that this is done purely for the player's benefit, she loses access to white magic when she rejoins the party much later in the story - once you have the game's primary healer.
- In Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, almost every single chapter either gives the protagonist healing abilities, or gives the player a character with a healing ability early on. Notably Rydia's chapter inverts this later on, as the player eventually loses their only healer and never gets them back.
- In Final Fantasy V, after you defeat the first boss in the Wind Temple, you unlock jobs for your characters. Among them is the White Mage.
- In Final Fantasy VI, Terra is the main character and remains a constant part of your party (other than the scenario where Locke and the moogles have to protect her) until the Lethe River. She has a healing spell. And when Locke goes on his own solo mission, he meets Celes before he has to do much fighting - she comes with one too. And when Sabin gets split off from the party at Lethe River he... doesn't get a healer at all until he reunites with the rest of the group several dungeons later. His portion is also longer than both Terra's and Locke's combined.
- Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
- In the original Final Fantasy VII, the player is given a free copy of the Restore Materia, which teaches the Cure spell and its stronger forms, at the end of the first mission, and more copies can be bought at the first Materia shop in the Sector 7 slums.
- As a subversion of sorts, the sole dedicated White Mage in the game who joins you in the beginning of the story gets abruptly killed at the end of the first disc, leaving a huge healer-shaped hole in your team composition for the rest of the entire game.
- In Crisis Core, one of Zack's starting materia is Cure, though you can only use it starting with Chapter 2.
- In Final Fantasy VII Remake, Barret comes with a Healing Materia and its Cure spell automatically equipped during the opening mission, and, similar to the original, Jessie gives Cloud a free copy afterward.
- In Final Fantasy VIII, one of the first spells you can draw is the Cure spell. In addition, Selphie (who joins right before a second boss) has a powerful Full-Cure spell as part of her Slot limit break.
- In Final Fantasy IX, this is Zig-Zagged - turns out the princess you are supposed to kidnap (and who, incidentally, actually wants to be kidnapped), Garnet, is a White Magician Girl, who is also able to summon Eidolons, powerful creatures. However, after the party reaches Lindblum halfway through Disk 1, Garnet departs, and leaves the party with no healing outside of items for the rest of the disk.
- In Final Fantasy X, the main character gets recruited as Yuna's guardian who, along with being able to summon aeons, is a White Magician Girl, and who will provide all the healing for most of the game. She does get separated from the party for a decent amount of time late in the game, however, making potions much more vital and forcing your party to train up if the player leaned too much on Yuna's aeons.
- Zig-Zagged in Final Fantasy X-2, as while White Mage is one of the first Dresspheres the player gets, getting it can be delayed depending on the route the player gets through the chapter - it's very well possible to not get it until right before the end of Chapter 1.
- In Final Fantasy XI, the first Trust party members the player can get when starting in San d'Oria or Windurst are respectively Excenmille, a Paladin and Kupipi, a White Mage. Averted if the player starts in Bastok, as in that case the first Trust is Naji, a Warrior.
- In Final Fantasy XII, Penelo joins your party early and already know the Cure spell (she doesn't need to learn the licence for it). When you get separated from her, luckily your new party members Fran and Balthier know the Cure spell and First Aid skill respectively. Finally, when Amalia (Ashe) joins your party quickly afterwards as a guest, she also knows the Cure spell. Also, Larsa as a guest will provide an infinite supply of Potions and Hi-Potion in the PS2 release of the game (in the Zodiac version, he instead joins with very powerful healing spells).
- Penelo repeats this in the game's sequel, Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, though there is a small window of time where she is not present and the player cannot summon healing Yarhi yet.
- In Final Fantasy XIII, early-on after unlocking their powers, your characters are separated in two different groups, one with Lightning and Hope, and the other being composed of Sazh and Vanille. Hope and Vanille join with the Medic role, and Lightning also unlocks it quickly on her path (though she is outclassed by far by the other two). Even earlier than that, in Chapter 1, one of the NORA members has an infinite amount of potions to heal the party with.
- Final Fantasy XIII-2 follows suit, as of the two Monsters the player gets at the start of Chapter 2, one is Cait Sith, a Medic.
- Inverted in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII - the only healing the player gets is from using either healing items or Curaga (which costs Energy Points). Technically there is also the Angel of Valhalla, but he is only present in one of four major areas, and it takes some care before he can start healing.
- In Final Fantasy XV, one of the first techniques Ignis can learn is Regroup, which heals the entire party.
- In Final Fantasy Tactics, the player is immediately given two chemists, who specialize in using healing items and can develop into true mages (White, Black, or any other). In addiition, one ability Ramza can get is Chant, which allows him to learn others at the cost of his own health, and it's literally the only ability in the game that costs nothing to learn.
- In Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, one of the characters who is already a part of your clan when you join is a White Mage Nu Mou.
- In Final Fantasy Tactics A2, one of the initial clan members is a Viera White Mage.
- Final Fantasy Dimensions goes a long way for this - of your first party members, both Diana and Aigis start with the ability to use Cure, then Elgo joins, being capable of casting both Cure and Cura. After switching parties, Dusk starts with the ability to cast Cure, and after the parties get shuffled, Dusk and Diana switch parties. In addition, every Guest-Star Party Member but two has some way of recovering a party's HP.
- In Final Fantasy Type-0, one of the initial party members, Queen, starts with a Cure spell already equipped.
- In Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, the first spellbook the player can find is Cure, and even if the player doesn't, Jusqua comes with another one right before the first boss fight. Plus, the White Mage is one of the earliest (though not the earliest) crowns the player gets
- In Bravely Default, the Spiritual Successor of Final Fantasy V, you can unlock the "White Mage" job rather quickly, but there is a twist: you get the Job by defeating a White Mage boss. Bravely Default also grants a basic healing move as the second one learned by the default Freelancer Job and can be learned even before fighting the White Mage.
- Slightly subverted in Bravely Second, as you don't get the first healing job, the Bishop, until the end of Prologue, while also removing a free heal from Freelancer. This forces the player to go through several dungeons and boss fights with nothing but potions for healing.
- Bravely Default II: The Freelancer once again returns as the initial job, and the White Mage becomes available after the very first Asterisk boss battle in the game. In addition, the first Guest-Star Party Member is very liberal in his usage of (an infinite supply of) healing potions.
- In Final Fantasy Record Keeper, one of the very first characters who joins your crew is White mage, who comes with a useful Limit Break which heals your whole party. However, her stats are very low, so it is recommended to swap her as soon as possible for a named character with a better Mind stat.
- In World of Final Fantasy, the second Mirage the characters get is a Chocochick, who is literally a level away from learning Cure.
- In Flawed Crystals, your very first party member is Stevonnie, who is also your main healer. Peridot, another White Mage, was also the first character to be released, and is recommended as the first gem to rescue.
- Fortune Summoners: Sana, the second party member acquired, just a few screens after the first battle, starts with her Heal It with Water skill, "Heal Water".
- Genshin Impact: Zig-zagged. The first available F 2 P healer is Noelle, whose Breastplate has a base 50% chance of healing for every attack that lands, but only if you do the Beginner Wish, which becomes available after clearing the first act of the Prologue and at Adventurer Rank 5. However, once you finish the main story part of the first nation of Mondstadt you will get a free Barbara, who is focused almost solely on healing.
- Golden Sun:
- The three leads have access to the Cure class of spells from the get-go. They also naturally learn the Revive spell.
- Inverted in the first game, where designated healer Mia is the last party member to be recruited (but as mentioned, you've had a healing character in your party from the start).
- Dark Dawn also qualifies for the main trope in that Karis has access to a wind-version of the game's stock-standard healing spells usually reserved for the water-adepts, thus avoiding the need to cut your offense in half when someone needs some HP.
- Subverted with Jenna in Golden Sun: The Lost Age: while she is available from the beginning of the game and can learn a series of multi-target healing spells in her base class line, she requires four Mars Djinn to do so, which will not happen until after the fourth party member joins.
- Invoked in Grand Kingdom: The game outright warns you that you're going to want a medic in any squad that needs to live more than five minutes. They're a common class in the hiring roster, and their main ability is to store five doses of healing potions that can heal two people on average to near-full health.
- In Grandia II, the White Magician Girl is in the party from the very start—in fact, the entire plot is kicked off when the sword-wielding hero is hired to escort her to the capital city.
- In Hero Must Die, the first person to join your party is Thomas, the Hero's retainer, who knows some basic healing spells. The Hero also has a healing spell, but he may lose it over the course of the game as his power wanes.
- In Lost Odyssey Jensen, who primarily specializes in Black Magic starts with some low level healing spells. These will serve just long enough for the team to get through a few dungeons and get their next teammate, who is a pure healer. Noticeably Jenkins never learns any new healing magic, causing his starting healing magic to degrade to the point of uselessness (save for the ability to heal paralysis) rather quickly, which makes it pretty clear his tiny batch of white magic spells was entirely due to this trope, to support the team until they could get a real healer.
- In The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, Elliot Craig, whose Crafts are heavily geared towards healing, is one of the first party members to join Rean in the first game's prologue when exploring the Old Schoolhouse. This also applies to the field studies, as he's assigned to the same group as Rean in the first field study to Celdic. This also applies in the second game, which starts with Rean reuniting the members of Class VII, and the others are split into three groups. Elliot is among the members of the first group Rean reunites with.
- While the Glyph system of Lunarosse means there's no one designated healer, Noel's first Glyph is Water, which has healing spells to it.
- In the Mana Series:
- Final Fantasy Adventure, aka Seiken Densetsu (which got a remake known as Sword of Mana), the girl who joins early as your companion will restore your health if you ask her help.
- In Secret of Mana, the first spirit you recruit, Undine, unlocks the invaluable Cure Water spells for the Girl, a cheap and multitargetable spell which is a godsend after having to rely on your limited and expensive item stock until now.
- In Trials of Mana you get to choose which characters join your party and in what order at the start of the game, letting you play this trope however you want. Charlotte, the game's default cleric, is the only character who can learn healing magic in her starting class, unlocking it as soon as you meet the first Mana Spirit, Lumina. Even if you set her as the third and last party member, she'll join slightly earlier than anyone else in her position, just in time to meet Lumina. It's possible however to not have her join at all and use Duran and/or Kevin as healers after class-changing around half-way through the game, or to not have any healers whatsoever (which you're stuck with if your party consists of Angela, Riesz, and Hawkeye, who have no healing spells in any of their classes).
- Can be invoked in Miitopia, since the Cleric class (the quintessential healing class in the game) is one of the six classes available from start.
- The MOTHER/EarthBound series has a tradition of making the protagonist the party's main healer, which is rare for the genre. Ness, Ninten, and Lucas all qualify, having most of the advanced healing PSI and relying on physical attacks (and one or two late-game PSI attacks, like PK Rockin' for Ness and PK Love for Lucas) for offense, leaving most of the combat PSI to their female counterparts, Ana, Paula, and Kumatora.
- This tradition is probably why Ness and Lucas had to borrow some of their party members' PSI abilities when they became fighters in Super Smash Bros.; letting them use healing PSI like in their home games would make them instant Game Breakers (since no other fighter can heal on command), though they can both still heal by absorbing projectiles with PK Magnet.
- Neptunia: How it works in most every game:
- It's become tradition in the series to have your first two companions as Iffy and Compa. The latter specializes in healing spells. Makes sense, given she's a nurse. The second game gives protagonist Nepgear some light support options, and the next party member you get outside of the aforementioned Iffy and Compa is RED, a combat healer.
- In Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory, the second party member is Nepgear, who comes with a Heal skill. Neptune only gets stat-boosting skills at that point.
- Zigzagged in Octopath Traveler based on the player's choice; players are given the option to start the game with Ophilia, a Cleric with healing spells, or Alfyn, an Apothecary who brews curative potions. Or the player can downplay this trope by starting the game with Primrose, Therion, H'annit, or Cyrus (all of them being one zone away from either Ophilia or Alfyn). Tressa and Olberic are two zones away from the nearest healer, averting this trope if the player chooses one of them as the main character.
- Similarly, in Octopath Traveler II, the player can choose to start with Temenos the Cleric or Castti the Apothecary. Osvald and Throné start in towns near Temenos, while Ochette and Hikari are only a town away from Castti, so starting with any of them can lead to downplayed examples.
- Oracle of Askigaga: The first member to join the starting party, the Oracle, has a HealingHands skill:
Restores health to an ally.
- The Other: Airi's Adventure: Luca, the second member of the initial party, starts with the First Aid skill as his first skill, letting him heal people for 50 HP.
- Parasite Eve has Heal as the very first ability you unlock when Aya's Parasite Energy powers awaken at the start of the game. Parasite Eve 2 subverts this by having a fireball ability unlocked from the start and it's up to the player on whether or not they want to unlock the healing ability right away or wait much later.
- Phantasy Star:
- In Phantasy Star I, the first ally to join Alis, Myau, knows Cure. While Alis also starts the game knowing Cure, Myau's Cure spell is more potent.
- In Phantasy Star II, Nei joins the party at the very beginning of the game. She starts the game knowing Res, a basic healing spell. Amy joins early on as well and is a dedicated healer.
- Phantasy Star III has Mieu join your party early on knowing healing techniques.
- In Phantasy Star IV, the doctor Hahn joins your party shortly before entering the first dungeon. While some other characters can learn healing techniques, Hahn is one of the only two characters who can learn the most
- Rakenzarn Frontier Story gives Makoto a healing move with his first level up after the first fight in the game. Later in Chapter 2, once the class change feature is activated, the first shareable class is the aptly-named Healer class.
- In Chapter 2 of Rakenzarn Tales, healing-focused character Nina joins the party, and two other healers - Donald Duck and Edd - can be recruited in the next chapter.
- Early-on, in SaGa Frontier 2, during Will's story, his aunt, Nina, will join your party. She joins with the Life Water spell, a healing spell, and her role, Medic, amplifies the healing power of said spell.
- Shadow Hearts:
- In the first Shadow Hearts the game begins with Yuri saving Alice from villains and has him protect her for practically the whole game. When she is taken out of party for a short while, the game generously gives you a replacement in Zhuzhen.
- In From the New World Johnny automatically picks up Cure Stellar after the very first battle.
- In Skies of Arcadia, Aika is right alongside Vise during the first battle, starting with her weapons equipped with a Green Moon Stone. While she has an affinity for Red Magic with her Specials, Aika learns Green Magic the fastest out of any other magic, and is the second-fastest to learn it behind your dedicated spellcaster Fina, who only joins you about a couple of hours into the game.
- In the Sonny series, Veradux is a Combat Medic who serves as your main source of healing throughout the games. He joins you shortly about halfway through the second zone in Sonny 1, right after the tutorial in Sonny 2, and shortly into Chapter 1 in the iOS reboot.
- Star Ocean:
- Star Ocean: Subverted. You got a healer, Millie, from the beginning, but she leaves the party and only re-joins after visiting the third or fourth continent on Roak; it depends on whether or not Ioshua is recruited midway through the second continent.
- Star Ocean: The Second Story: If the player chooses Claude's side of the story. The other potential viewpoint character, Rena, is the first to join. If you choose Rena's side of the story, you are the healer.
- In Blue Sphere, the gaiden sequel to the second game, Noel Chandler is available from the very beginning.
- Star Ocean: Till the End of Time: Subverted. Sophia, your main healer, joins the party very late. Double-subverted in the Director's Cut Versionnote , as it gave Healing spell to Nel, who joins early.
- In Star Ocean: The Last Hope, the player is given Lymle almost immediately after the tutorial region, though she does need to be leveled up a bit.
- Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness has main healer Miki join when it's time to start the journey.
- In Suikoden II, the protagonist, Riou, will acquire the Bright Shield rune early on, granting him access to very potent healing spells, which will come in handy against boss battles, and a decent light attack spell. As Riou is also a very powerful fighter on his own, this makes him the best Combat Medic of the game, bar none. His rune also comes in handy during war battles, allowing him to heal every army in the range of two squares from him.
- Super Mario Bros.:
- In Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, the very first badges you get (literally right before the warmup boss in the first dungeon) come with a nice built-in healing effect, that the game actually shows you how to use mid-battle (basically acting like a free healing spell). Then the very second set of badges you get block damage for a set of turns.
- In the game's distant predecessor, Super Mario RPG, the first addition to Mario's party is Mallow, who has a healing rain spell. He's not a dedicated healer, though, he's The Red Mage. The job of dedicated healer belongs to Princess Toadstool/Peach, who is the last party member to join about mid-way through the game. Also, at that point, enemies start to be more merciless with party-wide attacks and status ailments, which Peach can easily get rid of in one go.
- In the Tales Series:
- In Tales of Phantasia, Mint Adenade, the first permanent party member, is the Trope Codifier for the White Magician Girl.
- In Tales of Destiny, Rutee Katrea, the series' original Combat Medic, joins after a couple of easy dungeons.
- Tales of Eternia gives the first party member, Farah, a healing spell almost immediately.
- Tales of Destiny 2 gives the first party member, Loni Dunamis, the basic Heal spell just for the sake of this trope.
- Tales of Symphonia double subverts this. Your Black Mage companion uses the party's lack of a healer at the very outset as an introduction to Cooking as a backup healing source, yet it has Kratos join you before the first dungeon and even though he acts like the strongest warrior in the party, every player knows his actual role is to cast First Aid. At least until the White Magician Girl joins a dungeon later.
- Subverted in Tales of Rebirth: Annie joins two hours in, and she's the main support character, but you'll need to wait a lot before she learns any of her measly two healing spells. It's a result of the game's unique combat system, that allows characters to heal themselves by using right artes at right time. Annie's actual role is to dispense buffs and debuffs.
- Tales of Legendia makes the first party member, Will, a single target healing specialist.
- Tales of the Abyss has Tear who joins right at the beginning.
- Tales of Innocence: Illia, your Water-elemental medic, joins right after the tutorial battle.
- Tales of Vesperia goes all the way and just has the White Magician Girl be the first party member to join you.
- Not only that but by the third dungeon, you get a second dedicated healer character. Both of the healers also qualify as the Combat Medic trope, especially in Estelle's case, who is also the team tank starting around mid-game.
- Tales of Hearts has Hisui, the first party member to join, be the primary healer.
- Tales of Graces does this in both the tutorial prologue and the game proper with Sophie and Cheria respectively.
- In Tales of Xillia, this happens if the player chooses Milla's side of the story, as Jude is still the first party member recruited.
- It's taken even further if the player chooses to play as Jude since he already knows a healing arte.
- Tales of Xillia 2 repeats Milla's situation with Ludger since Jude is the first party member to join and already knows a healing arte.
- In Tales of Zestiria, the game follows Vesperia's example by having Mikleo who is the best healer in the game join right in the opening.
- Tales of Berseria averts this. The first party member with any significant healing power to join is Laphicet, and he's the fourth party member to join. Magilou travels with the party early, but she's the second-to-last party member to actually join, and her healing artes show up pretty late. This is to get the player accustomed to the new Break Soul mechanic that allows Velvet to absorb enemy health. Eizen is in the same boat as well, as he also has a healing arte...but joins pretty much before Laphicet does anyway. And to drive the point home further, Eleanor, the final character with a healing arte (and, unique to herself and Eizen, a revival arte), is the absolute last character to join, about a fourth of the way into the game. The first two party members you play as for the first two dungeons and first three major boss fights are literally the only ones with no means of healing outside of self-healing through Break Souls.
- Tales of Arise returns to the series' standard practice by having Shionne, the teams primary healer, be the first character to join.
- In Vandal Hearts, after your third mission, you will recruit Huxley Hobbes, a Bishop who will provide much-needed healing spells.
- A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky: The initial party has Mint, who starts out with the healing skill, "First Aid".
- Wild ARMs series:
- In Wild ARMs, Cecilia is the magician of the trio, and already knows a healing spell.
- Wild ARMs 2 mirrors the first game, and has Lilka start with a healing spell.
- In Wild ARMs 3, the hero and first viewpoint character, Virginia Maxwell, is also the main healer, as she's an Item Caddy who has an ability that lets her apply the effects of items to either all grouped members of an enemy squad or to every member of her team, which is vital considering there is no easy access to healing items for the first third of the game, and healing items far outstrip magic in effectiveness. Gallows (who also signs on early, as part of the 'prologue' and after it) also counts, as he has healing magic, the ability giving him healing magic also boosts his magic attributes, and as the team mage (whose magical power will usually be about a full 100 points ahead of the second-best mage, Virginia) it's really best in his hands and not Clive's or Jet's, and somewhat like Virginia, he has an ability that lets him spread his magic, including buffs and healing spells, over the entire party. Both Virginia's and Gallow's abilities, by the way, spread their healing without diminishing the effect for each individual recipient; the game really wants you to treat the two as the dedicated healers.
- Wild ARMs 5: One of the two first mediums that you recieve is Sea Medium, that provides healing spells.
- Xenoblade Chronicles series:
- In Xenoblade Chronicles 1, Shulk starts with the Light Heal ability. He's later on outclassed by Sharla, whose entire purpose is being The Medic, but him having a minor healing art helps avoid frustration until she's recruited (which could be a while given the game's Wide-Open Sandbox nature).
- In Xenoblade Chronicles X:
- Irina becomes a recruitable party member after Chapter 3. She comes with the Buff Art "Repair", which restores some HP and removes debuffs and eventually learns "Smooth Recovery," her unique party wide heal. At the same time, all characters are capable of healing one another through Soul Voice: using an Art corresponding with a party member's request restores HP for both the requester and the character performing the Art.
- Cross can also become one early on if they choose the Enforcer class. Not only can you learn "Repair" fairly early on into the class, but you can also unlock Irina's "Smooth Recovery" as soon as you finish her first affinity mission, which unlocks when Irina becomes recruitable after chapter 3.
- In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, there are multiple examples:
- Nia and her Blade, Dromarch, are the first healers in the game when Rex is assigned to a special salvaging mission. When Rex and Nia are separated from the group, Nia becomes the first permanent party member.
- Rex's default moveset with Pyra also includes Anchor Shot, which produces an HP potion for minor healing, even though Pyra is technically an Attacker-type Blade.
- During the tutorial for the Blade Bonding mechanic, Rex will always receive a common healer Blade (specifically, a Wind element Knuckle Claws) as his first Blade after Pyra.
- In Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Eunie serves as the default healer for the Keves half of the party as soon as the game starts. Her Agnus counterpart Taion also joins along with Mio and Sena within the first two chapters.
RPG — MMO
- Final Fantasy XIV has several story missions early in the game that has a Guest-Star Party Member with the ability to heal and will heal you when needed since not every player will have started a new character as a healer. Likewise, some class and job quests will have an NPC acting as a healer for you since the majority of said classes and jobs don't have healing abilities for the player. For players taking up the role of healer at the start of the game, one of the very first spells they learn at the first level up is the Cure spell.
- In both Guild Wars campaigns that have heroes (NPCs you can customize and add to your party), one of the first heroes gained is a Monk who comes with a Healing Magic build (Dunkoro in Nightfall and Ogden in Eye of the North). In all campaigns, Healing Magic henchmen (like heroes, except not customizable) are available everywhere henchmen are (i.e., everywhere except the Prophecies tutorial area).
- Zigzagged in Star Wars: The Old Republic: Prior to the companion overhaul in Knights of the Fallen Empire (that enabled players to use their companions in any role), various classes got their healer companions relatively early on, while others had to wait awfully long.
- The first companion for the Bounty Hunter character was Mako, the healer.
- The Sith Warrior and Republic Trooper picked up their healers on the first planet you could go to after obtaining your ship, while the Jedi Consular's healer joined on the second.
- The Jedi Knight and the Imperial Agent on the other hand had to wait until their respective sixth planet (Taris and Balmorra) to get their healer.
- The Smuggler and the Sith Inquisitor took the cake: both had to wait until Hoth, the eighth planet for either side, before their healer companion joined them. Which must have been particularly annoying for Gunslinger smugglers who could neither tank nor heal nor use stealth.
- However, all characters got a ship protocol droid after the second planet (Coruscant or Dromund Kaas), who - while having very questionable usefulness as a companion - did have a healing ability if you do decided to use him.
- In a similar manner, every class that can be built as a healer will get a tank as their first companion, with the exception of the trooper, who gets a tank as their second companion. As a healer, you will want a tank to solo certain missions!
- A couple years into the game's lifespan, Treek, a companion who could heal or tank, was added for all characters and available as early as level 10 (usually after the starter planet). However, she required either significant in-game investment (legacy level 40 and one million credits – a decent chunk of change at the time) or Bribing Your Way to Victory.
RPG — Strategy
- In Bahamut Lagoon, one of the starting party members starts out with the healing spell. Then there's a whole class that's the White Mage in all but name, and they all join in earlier chapters with said healing spell, with a status cure and revive.
- One of your first four party members in Dark Deity is Maren, a cleric.
- In Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, you can add a healer to your party literally right after the tutorial, and due to the Extra Gain system, Laharl can also learn healing spells himself from healers. This is before Flonne, a plot-relevant healer, joins the party.
- Later Disgaea installments give you three free Generics the first time you play. One of these is always a Healer. The exception is Disgaea 5, which gives you two Prinnies and a Maid, but even then you can recruit a Healer early, and you get Christo in the second chapter.
- EXTRAPOWER: Attack of Darkforce: A healer is part of each of the teams introduced at the start of the game: Davie and Marie provide healing for the Zophy group, Emerald with Platinum and Kurogane, and Ri=ko with Fei. Individually they provide decent healing for their teams, and together provide good coverage once teams start to join together. As an added bonus, Emerald starts the game at the level cap of 20, giving some especially powerful healing when everyone else is a defenseless Level 1.
- Fire Emblem: Most healers who follow this are members of what is generally known as the Lena archetype, though the Lena occasionally joins a bit later than another healer.
- In Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light, Wrys joins in the first chapter (fifth including the remake's newly introduced prologue) while the original Lena joins two chapters later.
- In Fire Emblem Gaiden, Alm can recruit a healer named Silque very early in the game after fighting some bandits in a cave. Celica, meanwhile, starts with not one but two healers available to her party; both the priestess Genny and Celica herself have healing spells. Oddly, both Silque and Genny are completely optional, as the cave one meets Silque in can be ignored entirely and talking to Genny isn't required to exit the temple at the start of Celica's chapters.
- In Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, Marisha joins in Chapter 1. In the remake, Wrys joins you in the fourth prologue chapter and leaves the party after the prologue concludes.
- In Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, Ethlyn joins in the prologue of the first generation while Edain, the resident Lena, joins in the first chapter. In the second generation, Edain's daughter, Lana (or her replacement Muirne) joins right at the beginning.
- In Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, the resident Lena, Safy, is the first staff user to join. You get her in the fourth chapter (including 2x, the completion of which is required to recruit her). and then she gets separated from you at the end of that chapter. Your next medic after that is Nanna, who joins in chapter 5. Good luck slugging your way through chapters 4 and 4x without a healer in the abusrdly difficult earlygame that is Thracia.
- In Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, Elen joins automatically in the second chapter.
- In Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, Serra, an insufferable White Magician Girl, downplays this trope initially by joining Lyn's party about halfway through Lyn's tale (i.e. chapter 5 out of 10). In Hector's or Eliwood's tale, Serra rejoins the party in chapter 12 or 13, playing this trope straight by leaving you without a healer for only one or two chapters respectively.
- In Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Moulder automatically joins at the end of Chapter 1. Unlike other games, it takes another four chapters for the Lena (the cleric Natasha) to join.
- In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, the priest Rhys joins in chapter 2.
- Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn has it to an even greater extent: Laura joins in chapter 2, but Micaiah, who can heal by way of Equivalent Exchange Cast From Hitpoints, is available from the prologue.
- In Fire Emblem: Awakening, Lissa the cleric joins the party right after the premonition battle at the beginning of the game.
- In Fire Emblem Fates, depending on the Avatar's gender, either Jakob or Felicia join for the first real battle in Chapter 2, and both are Combat Medics. Later, depending on which path the player chooses in Chapter 6, Jakob or Felicia will rejoin the party and either the Shrine Maiden Sakura (for Birthright) or the Troubadour Elise (for Conquest) will follow almost immediately afterwards. In Revelation it's almost the same, only Sakura joins two stages later and Elise takes a little longer.
- In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, all three of the titular houses have a character that is predisposed to using healing magic, guaranteeing that the player will have a healer at the earliest possible point regardless of alignment. Linhardt in the Black Eagles, Mercedes in the Blue Lions, and Marianne in the Golden Deer.
- In Fire Emblem Engage, one of the first characters to join Alear is Frame, a qi-adept who serves as the party's initial healer after joining in Chapter 2(and being an allied unit in Chapter 1).
- La Pucelle has Alouette as one of your initial party members, a devout cleric with healing abilities.
- In Phantom Brave, not only does the protagonist Marona start with a healing spell and learn more later on, one of the first Phantoms you're given is a Healer.
- Shining Force: Lowe, a priest, is one of the first characters to join Max before your first battle. Plus you get Gong, a monk, and Khris, another priest, within the first chapter.
- Shining Force II: Played straight with Sarah. She is one of the first characters to join Bowie. In fact, she is the ONLY healer you have until Karna becomes available at Creed's Mansion (and she is an optional character). After that, you don't get any more healers until Frayja and Sheela late in the game.
- Sonny: In both games, you are quickly joined by a Combat Medic.
- In Stella Glow, Lisette is the first Witch the player has control over and is also the game's most powerful healer. Before she reaches her full potential, though, they are also joined by Klaus, the Jack of All Trades who can also serve as a backup healer.
- Super Robot Wars games typically have a mech with healing abilities join within the first few stages. Aphrodite A and the Methuss are especially common examples.
- Alternatively, instead of repair mecha, the game hands out pilots with cheaply costed healing Spirits. Roy Fokker in Super Robot Wars Alpha and Denzel Hammer in Super Robot Wars Z are good examples.
- Unicorn Overlord has Chloe and Scarlett among the first playable characters, both of whom have access to healing magic. This way, you still have access to healing when Scarlett gets abducted at the end of the prologue.
- Warcraft III: In the human and undead campaigns of the first game, your hero starts with a powerful healing spell (that deals damage to undead/living respectively). The orc campaign instead starts you with an offensive caster, but one who can also summon a pair of expendable wolves to tank for you. The night elves are largely reliant on healing from moonwells, which are available any time they can build a base.
RPG — Western
- In Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura, the very first NPCnote the player encounters after surviving an airship crash is Virgil, a sorta religious fellow with a basic healing spell who declares you the Chosen One and joins your party. Another easily-available ally uses technological healing.
- In the Baldur's Gate games, the main character will learn healing spells if they are Good-aligned. If they're Evil-aligned, they will instead learn life absorption spells (same purpose, but not as useful). Also, in both games, you have Jaheira, a Warrior/Druid, who can join your party very early on and who will provide the very necessary healing spells you will need to get through the game (on top of that, in the first Baldur's Gate, she and her husband Khalid join very close to a level-up).
- A honourable mention goes to Branwen, a priestess of Tempus (who naturally learns healing spells), who can be found petrified on display at Nashkel's carnival, the town that you're immediately instructed to go to by Khalid and Jaheira or Xzar and Montaron. With a simple scroll of Stone to Flesh you can free her and have her join the party.
- The sequel gives you Jaheira as soon as you start the game and while she's a hybrid healer, she's enough for the beginning stage. You can recruit Aerie in the easy-to-spot circus tent just next to where you left the beginner dungeon. And while she too is a hybrid healer, she's better at it than Jaheira. It doesn't take long before the Government District is unlocked. That's where you'll find Viconia. The game's only full-healer with high class relevant stats.
- In Baldur's Gate III, Shadowheart the Cleric is the second of the "Origin" party members you meet, and you meet her immediately after meeting the first character (Lae'zel the Fighter) and the first to join your party permanently who operates - much in D&D 5th Edition style as a Combat Medic. Her default setting is as a Trickery Cleric, so focused around sleath, deception, but also healing.
- A Dance with Rogues actually inverts this: you don't even meet the module's only cleric before Part Two and he is unceremoniously killed off after a couple of dungeons. In fact, he is the second-to-last possible companion the Princess encounters (the last one is Rizzen). Luckily, the game throws enough Healing Potions at you to survive without a healer most of the time.
- While Dark Souls doesn't have party members (the closest you get is co-op), it does give your the ability to heal early on, with both the reusable Estus flask Oscar gives you in the Undead Asylum, and the healing miracles you can buy from Petrus as soon as you get to Firelink Shrine.
- In Darkest Dungeon, after the tutorial level, you will always get the same two recruits from the Stage Coach: a Vestal, the game's most reliable healer, and a Plague Doctor, who can nullify blight and bleed Damage Over Time and provide small amounts of spot healing.
- The very first ally Kris meets in Deltarune is Ralsei, a goat wizard with healing powers. He gives them the tutorial on the combat system and accompanies them for the rest of their journey.
- Kormac the Templar in Diablo III is the first follower to join your party, and is a Stone Wall Combat Medic who can heal you, taunt enemies to distract them when they attack you, and provide bonuses to life and mana regeneration.
- Dragon Age:
- The first party member you encounter in Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening (besides Mhairi, who starts off the game with you) is Anders, a Spirit Healer. He'll even reappear just before the first boss if you sent him away, giving you a second chance to recruit him.
- The first two main games don't quite fit this, because their respective dedicated healers (Wynne in Dragon Age: Origins and Anders again in Dragon Age II) can be obtained pretty much whenever you feel like it—most people recommend recruiting them firstnote , but it's not required and you can leave them for last if you really want. Dragon Age II potentially plays this straight to a more minor extent if the player is a warrior or a rogue, as Hawke's younger sister Bethany, who's one of your starting party members, can learn the Heal spell. She dies if you're a mage, however, since you can learn Heal yourself. Dragon Age: Inquisition averts this by removing magical healing from gameplay altogether, although Solas fulfills a very similar function with his Barrier spell.
- Throughout The Elder Scrolls games, the player starts with a basic healing spell, regardless of race.
- Fear & Hunger: Termina: If chosen as the protagonist, Daan can start with the Loving Whispers spell, which allows him to heal other characters during combat. Alternatively, he may start off with the Medicinal skill, allowing him to harvest organs to cure party members' status effects.
- Downplayed in GreedFall, where Siora (the only party member whose special ability restores others' HP) is technically the third companion recruited out of fivenote , but still joins you very early in the game — after the tutorial section, but before you can receive your first story missions on Teer Fradee.
- In Indivisible, Ginseng and Honey (a young botanist and their plant companion, respectively that play as a single character) are the third to sign on to Ajna's party, after Dhar and Razmi, and their joining is a plot event. Though Razmi and Ajna herself have some healing abilities, Ginseng and Honey are the simplest and most dedicated healers in the game.
- In LISA, the very first party member you get is Terry Hintz, who starts with a weak healing cheernote . As he levels up, he gets a normal cheer that heals an average amount, and when he’s leveled up to his 20s he learns a cheer that fully heals a character.
- Similarly, one of the first and easiest to obtain recruits, Nern Guan, also comes with a skill that gives TP, and learns skills to restore SP and HP fairly early on.
- Mass Effect:
- Mass Effect doesn't have a healing ability — only Medi-Gel doses that anyone can use at will. But there is the 'First Aid' Talent that makes each dose more potent for the whole party and 'Medicine' that lets you wait less between shots. Your very first squadmate (well, not counting Jenkins) is Kaidan Alenko, who starts with both talents and incidentally is the only squaddie with the latter. Shepard also gets the unique Unity skill that can be used to revive downed party members, making them as close to a straight example as you can get.
- Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 consolidate Medi-Gel with the Unity skill, making Shepard the only one who can use it. This isn't such a big deal in 2 since everyone has Regenerating Health and party members will revive themselves given enough time, but it allows Shepard to bring everyone back at once while also restoring their own health (which is critical because their death means Game Over). In 3, you can only regenerate health in segments of five, making Medi-Gel more important as it's the only way to get the rest of your health back.
- NeoQuest II: Inversion. The healer is the LAST party member you receive and doesn't join you until Chapter 3.
- Inverted in Neverwinter Nights 2. Zhjaeve, the cleric, is the second to last party member to join, almost exactly halfway through the game. Fortunately, the game has a lot of healing options that don't depend on having a dedicated healer in the party.
- In Pathfinder: Kingmaker, Linzi The Bard is the first character to sign on with you in the prologue and already knows Cure Light Wounds. Linzi is also the one character in the game who cannot die because of her ring of teleportation and will therefore always be available to you. She is followed shortly by Harrim the cleric (fourth character to join you), who can heal you through spells or Divine Channel. One or both of them can temporarily join Tartuccio depending on your alignment-based actions during the chapternote but they will quickly rejoin you in that case as neither can stand him. However, the truly healing-focussed character, Tristian, only joins later in Chapter 1 (or at the start of Chapter 2, if you go after Tartuccio before following the main quest).
- In Pillars of Eternity, the priest Durance is the third possible recruit, and pretty impossible to miss. Found on the road to Caed Nua, the second major location the player visits, he begins ranting the instant he sees you, declaring that it is the will of his god that he join you to both aid you and put you to the test.
- Inverted in Planescape: Torment with Fall-from-Grace. She's the only healer that you can recruit and she's located in Clerk's Ward that is about mid-game. Much longer than your first fighter, (part) thief and (part) mage, whom you can recruit from the beginning to early game. This isn't too much of a problem, as the Player Character is a immortal that regenerates health points and can learn resurrection. Plus healing services are easily available.
- In Super Lesbian Animal RPG, Melody, the protagonist is the healer herself. She is a newly magically empowered paladin in training who's magic focuses on healing and team support.
- In Tyranny, the Sage Lantry is potentially the third recruit to the party, but still comes before any major combat.
Other
- Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms: The first character you obtain after Bruenor Battlehammer (who you start out with) is the Priestess Celeste. She gains a healing ability early on, which is useful for keeping your next character (the party tank Nayeli) alive, and her Ultimate Ability Flame Strike heals your entire party to full health while also dealing damage to enemies with a pillar of fire.
- Jagged Alliance 2: The first squad member you can recruit for free is Ira, whose highest starting skill is Medical.
- In Jak 3, the first spell Jak learns when he gets access to his "Light Jak" form around 40 minutes into the game is Regenerate, which restores his health as long as he has enough Light Eco.
- While it's a Bequeathed Power rather than a party member, Mipha's Grace can potentially act as this in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It's played with in that the radically non-linear nature of the game means that completing the Vah Ruta arc to get this healing spell can be done after doing all the other Divine Beast arcs first. But the way Zora's Domain is positioned (it's the closest Divine Beast-related region to Kakariko Village, which is itself the first place the player is advised to go after the Great Plateau tutorial) means that the player is subtly nudged into doing that arc first.
- Similarly to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Dark Souls, the healing power in Jotun (which even functions similarly to an Estus flask) is the first one you find.
- Starcraft II: In both the Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm campaigns, the first unit you unlock after the basic combat unit has a healing ability (the Medic and Swarm Queen respectively). Legacy of the Void does it a bit differently, as the Protoss don't have a healer; instead, early on you unlock the Shield Battery and Sentry for replenishing units' shields, while actual healing is only unlocked later in the campaign (and even then only for Mechanical units). Averted for Nova Covert Ops, where the only healer unit only becomes available in the second half of the campaign - Super Stimpack helps, but only so much.
- The player gets a free repair bubble at the start of TerraTech's campaign, allowing them to keep their tech shipshape as long as they have the battery power.
Non-Game Examples
- The waterbender Katara (along with her non-bender brother) is one of the first two characters we see in the Avatar: The Last Airbender, introduced even before the title character. Waterbending is the only type of bending that gives healing abilities. While she didn't know that at first, she discovered it soon enough and eventually became pretty good at healing.
- The sequel series Legend of Korra has the variant where The Hero Korra herself has it, being the group's only dedicated waterbender - though you would be forgiven for forgetting that, as she rarely uses it.
- In the Discworld Igors and Igorinas simply know when their medical and healing skills will be needed and turn up to where they will be effective. Monstrous Regiment sees Igorina as one of the first recruits to the Section. Elsewhere, the Discworld continuation fictions of A.A. Pessimal see another Igorina recruited as Matron to the Assassins' Guild School. She finds working for assassins to be job satisfaction in spadeloads and finds plenty of excuses for going out as medical support to Assassin missions.
- Looking for Group: Healer Benny is the third introduced character (if you don't count the Red Shirts casually killed by Richard).
- Negima! Magister Negi Magi: Of Negi's classmates, the 4th one who gets a Pactio artifact is Konoka, the dedicated healer, in the second major arc of the story. Even before that, Negi himself knows some healing spells.
- One Piece: Nami joins very early on and is the first crew member to have any real medical knowledge, but she's far from a real doctor. The ship's actual doctor, Tony Tony Chopper, doesn't join until the crew is well under way (around the start of the 3rd season in the anime adaptation). Nami's main role as navigator somewhat fits this trope in spirit because being able to avoid getting lost or caught in storms is one of the most essential skills for a ship's crew that not just anyone can do.
- Prophecy Approved Companion: Of The Chosen Many that each may be The Chosen One, the warrior is the real one, and they get the titular White Mage companion with Healing Hands.
