Can the Celestial Bloodline Sorcerer's Heavenly Fire power heal a friendly character?

Question

The Sorcerer Celestial Bloodline has this power:

Heavenly Fire (Sp): Starting at 1st level, you can unleash a ray of heavenly fire as a standard action, targeting any foe within 30 feet as a ranged touch attack. Against evil creatures, this ray deals 1d4 points of damage + 1 for every two sorcerer levels you possess. This damage is divine and not subject to energy resistance or immunity. This ray heals good creatures of 1d4 points of damage + 1 for every two sorcerer levels you possess. A good creature cannot benefit from your heavenly fire more than once per day. Neutral creatures are neither harmed nor healed by this effect. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier.

(emphasis mine)

I've seen posts about this being castable on yourself. Can it be cast on yourself or a good party member?

If not, what good is the ability to heal a foe?

Answer 1

Interestingly, this power is being used to heal allies in a campaign I am GM'ing - none of us had noticed the "foe" wording you spotted.

Having looked at the wording in context, I see this as a classic cut-and-paste error. The same wording

"...targeting any foe within 30 feet as a ranged touch attack"

is used in the descriptions of the Abyssal bloodline's Acidic Ray power, the Elemental bloodline's Elemental Ray power, the Conjuration school's Acid Dart power, the Illusion school's Blinding Ray power etc. Conversely, the "touch range" bloodline and school powers do not mention "foe" at all, they all identify the target as being a "creature" or "living creature" even when the target would clearly be a foe.

The limit on receiving healing more than once per day is an indication that it is assumed that the power will be used on a friendly creature but a limit has been placed on its healing abilities. If a good (alignment) foe was targeted in ignorance of its alignment and the healing was observed then there would be no motive for a character to use the power again on a foe and there is no need to forbit its repeated use.

TL;DR I consider this to be a typographic error and the intention is that this power may be used to heal an ally, but only a maximum of once per day.