Basic Trope: One of your first allies can heal.
- Straight: White Mage Alice is the first to join Hiro on his quest.
- Exaggerated:
- Hiro is the white mage.
- Alice is a party member right from the start.
- Alice's healing abilities are game-breakingly good and she joins the party first.
- Every party member in the game has some form of healing ability.
- Downplayed:
- Alice is one of the first to join Hiro on his quest and has some form of healing abilities - however, her specialty is archery and she'll quickly get outclassed by dedicated healers that join later.
- Alice doesn't join until the end of the game's first act.
- Justified:
- Hiro is physically frail, and Alice wants to make sure to keep him in top shape at all times.
- Being a savvy adventurer, Hiro realises that it's always best to recruit a healer first, especially if you're on your own otherwise: that's when you're the most vulnerable and likely to be injured.
- Inverted: White Mage Alice joins Hiro's quest last.
- Subverted:
- Alice is the first to join Hiro on his quest. She proclaims herself as a White Mage, but in reality, she has no form of healing and is closer from a necromancer in terms of abilities.
- White Mage Alice is about to join Hiro's party first until Emperor Evulz captures her before she can do that.
- Double Subverted:
- As her introduction dialogue ends, she learns a healing spell.
- Hiro frees Alice before Evulz can flee, allowing her to join the party properly.
- Parodied: There's a committee dedicated to people wanting to be the first to join heroes' parties. One of the compulsory courses is healing magic.
- Zig Zagged: Alice is the first to join Hiro on his quest. She proclaims herself as a White Mage, but in reality, she has no form of healing and is closer from a necromancer in terms of abilities. As her introduction dialogue ends, she learns a healing spell. However, as she's about to join Hiro's party, Emperor Evulz captures her before she can do that, but Hiro frees Alice before Evulz can flee, allowing her to join the party properly... Until Evulz let a parting gift for her in the form of a hex, negating her ability to heal whatsoever...
- Averted:
- The game doesn't have a concept of a "healer", whether because there's no way to recover health at all, or simply because every character can use other ways to heal like potions or Regenerating Health.
- The first healer joins mid-game.
- Enforced: "The game's already hard as it is, let's give new players a safety blanket for the beginning intrigue!"
- Lampshaded: "My first ally's able to heal me - that's surprisingly handy!"
- Invoked:
- Alice the White Mage hears about Hiro about to go on a mission. Noticing his physical frailness, she walks up to him to propose her help as a healer.
- Hiro, about to embark on a great quest, makes a point of either convincing or hiring a White Mage so he'll have someone to patch him up.
- Exploited:
- Evulz's first outposts are chock full of heal blocking traps, negating Alice's ability to heal.
- Alice is The Mole; what young, up-and-coming hero would turn down a healer?
- Defied:
- Hiro declines Alice's proposal to join the team.
- The Starter Villain realizes how much of an asset Alice can be to her party, and orders his mooks to take her out first.
- Discussed: "Hiro's going on an adventure?" "Ten bucks his first ally's got healing magic."
- Conversed: "If the game gives me a healer as my first ally, should I be worried?"
- Implied: Alice remembers and mentions being present for multiple events that occurred before the rest of the party joined.
- Deconstructed: What she has in healing, Alice lacks in offensive power - the party is quickly reduced to smithereens on the first stages as the offensive power proves to be unexpectedly overwhelming and rendering Alice's healing useless due to the sheer damage dealt in so little time.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice decides to train on physical offense. She reclasses into a battle cleric that retains her healing abilities while now being able to put up a fight.
- Alice, the first character to sign up with Hiro, is The Paladin. She's not as good a healer as Carol, a dedicated White Mage who signs on later, but she's also a lot more durable and has respectable offensive power. She can fill any tactical slot that's needed, which is especially helpful when she's the only other party member.
Back to Healer Signs On Early.
