Healer
Healer is Haudenosaunee, Lakota special-purpose unit in Age of Empires III, available from the Commerce Age; obtained through Community Plaza (Healers Ceremony), American Citadel. Its listed ability is Works at the Community Plaza.
Recorded values
- Cost
- 150 Coin
- Available
- Commerce Age · Community Plaza (Healers Ceremony) ; American Citadel
- Training
- 60 sec · 0 population · 15 XP per train
- Durability & mobility
- 360 hit points · 10% ranged resistance · 4.0 speed · 12 line of sight
- Healing
- range 12
- Hand attack
- 5 base damage · attack interval 1.5
- Ability
- Works at the Community Plaza
Role, availability & values
Production is available through Community Plaza (Healers Ceremony) or American Citadel. It has 360 hit points and 10% ranged resistance. It moves at 4.0 speed and uses 0 population. Training costs 150 Coin; it takes 60 seconds to train. Attack profile: Healing: range 12. Hand attack: 5 damage; every 1.5 seconds. Special ability or role: Works at the Community Plaza.
Matchup & timing
A Healer costs no population and can work at the Community Plaza, so decide whether the Plaza’s ceremony or field healing is more valuable before assigning it. Its 360 hit points help it survive incidental damage, but it moves at 4.0 and heals only within range 12. Use it to preserve a damaged Haudenosaunee or Lakota force between engagements.
Community Plaza support and healing statistics
The Healer is a Commerce Age support unit for the Haudenosaunee and Lakota in Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs. It is created through the Healers Ceremony at the Community Plaza and has a limit of ten. In Definitive Edition it costs 150 Coin, takes 60 seconds to train and uses zero population. Its profile has 360 hit points, 10% ranged resistance, speed 4.0 and line of sight 12. It heals friendly land units for 10 hit points per second at range 12. Its hand attack deals five damage every 1.5 seconds and is not a meaningful combat contribution. The Healers Ceremony is the unit’s defining access route: assign villagers to the Community Plaza and choose the ceremony to create the support unit. The Healer can also be trained from an American Citadel where that civilization route applies. Haudenosaunee and Lakota use the same named unit, while the Aztecs have Warrior Priests and the Inca have Priestesses for related support roles. Do not treat these unit names or access rules as interchangeable; each civilization uses its own mechanics. Healing matters after troops survive an engagement. Pull damaged units behind a screen and let the Healer restore them before the next fight. Several healers can sustain a force, but they remain vulnerable to all combat units and can be lost if cavalry reaches the rear. The population-free cost lets the player create them even at the population cap, but the ten-unit limit and 150 Coin price still constrain the support group. Protect them with a small escort, keep them near the army without placing them in the front rank, and retreat them when enemy units approach. Healers can garrison in buildings that accept Villagers. A garrisoned Healer contributes as 1.2 units to a Town Center’s defensive attack under current rules, providing a secondary defensive use when the army is not in the field. Garrisoning removes its healing from the active formation, so use this only when the building itself needs support. Town Watch can increase its line of sight, and Mission Fervor increases healing rate by 50%. Other available civilization or card upgrades can add hit points, but these do not change the basic role. Before Definitive Edition, the unit was called Medicine Man, cost 200 Coin, trained in 20 seconds, used one population, and had the earlier training and kill experience values. The current version reduced its cost, increased training time, raised hit points to 360 and removed population use. The garrison contribution was also adjusted in a later update. Guides should identify the version when citing these values. A Healer resembles the Priest’s healing function, but belongs specifically to the Haudenosaunee and Lakota Community Plaza system and cannot replace the ceremony’s other strategic choices. Use healers to extend the life of expensive units between fights, especially when the army can disengage and regroup. They do not prevent focused fire from killing a unit and cannot heal a force while it is still taking damage at close range. Their five-damage attack should never be used as a reason to engage. Keep the ceremony’s opportunity cost in mind: villagers assigned to the Plaza are not gathering resources during that time, so create healers when the economy can afford the diversion.
Balance Plaza time with the economy
Villagers assigned to the Community Plaza are not gathering while they perform the Healers Ceremony. Choose the ceremony when the army is large enough to benefit from healing and the economy can afford to divert labor from Food or Coin. A full group of ten Healers costs 1,500 Coin and takes substantial time to create, so smaller forces often need only one or two. Return villagers to gathering after the desired support units appear, then protect the Healers while injured troops recover between battles.
Recover the army between engagements
Keep injured units within the Healer’s range of 12 and move the support line with the army as it retreats. The healing rate of 10 hit points per second rewards a safe pause, but it is too slow to offset concentrated incoming damage. If the opponent follows, protect the Healers first and withdraw again; losing the support group removes its future value and gives the enemy experience. The unit’s zero population use does not remove the Coin and ceremony labor costs.
Healer version note
In the original release, the unit was named Medicine Man and used different cost, training time and population values. Definitive Edition’s 150 Coin price, 60-second training time and zero population cost are the current profile.
Zero-population support unit
Healers can be created even when the population limit is reached because they cost no population in the documented profile. They can garrison in the same buildings as Villagers and count toward a Town Center’s defensive garrison attack. This makes them a low-population support option, but their value depends on the civilization or building that provides them.
Keep healers close and safe
A Healer’s main value is supporting damaged units, not fighting. Keep it behind the army and garrison it during a raid; its own combat ability is limited. A Priest, Padre, Warrior Priest or Priestess can have different healing, combat and population rules, so consult the specific unit page rather than applying one Healer profile to every religious unit.