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Steamsaint
2010-11-12, 09:15 AM
I'm starting to run a campaign for a couple of people in 4e, and one of the players wants to play a "Simple farm lad who joined a local militia, but fared poorly in combat. Was seen to have aptitude as a healer, so become on under the rule of where ever they're from. Not much more to it then that, considering he's a young'n who hasn't done much in life yet."

The problem is, in 4e there's no actual medic style healing apart from the heal skill which is, well, useless in combat (compared to say the cleric's heal etc.)

Any ideas of how to reflavour/homebrew something?

Sipex
2010-11-12, 09:16 AM
I'm starting to run a campaign for a couple of people in 4e, and one of the players wants to play a "Simple farm lad who joined a local militia, but fared poorly in combat. Was seen to have aptitude as a healer, so become on under the rule of where ever they're from. Not much more to it then that, considering he's a young'n who hasn't done much in life yet."

The problem is, in 4e there's no actual medic style healing apart from the heal skill which is, well, useless in combat (compared to say the cleric's heal etc.)

Any ideas of how to reflavour/homebrew something?

Look into the artificer, it's easy to reflavour into a medic role.

Maho-Tsukai
2010-11-12, 09:23 AM
Warlord would be perfect for this roll if it was not so melee focused. However due to the melee focus and "commander" flavor it dose not really work. If he is not fully set on his healing being mundane he could always try a "zap/laser cleric." Clerics make great healers and the "zap" build which focuses mostly on ranged powers could possibly work for a guy who was rather poor in melee. However, the issue with clerics is the fluff of their power coming from the gods/their "magical" flavor. Perhaps the society from which he came was highly religious and "military priests" where a part of their standing army?

Steamsaint
2010-11-12, 09:26 AM
Look into the artificer, it's easy to reflavour into a medic role.

But then the rest of his powers? He wants to be a farm boy, not a spellcaster. Also, the range of healing is also problematic.

Though it does give me an idea of playing an artificer as a Skold from the Monster Blood Tattoo books...


Warlord would be perfect for this roll if it was not so melee focused. However due to the melee focus and "commander" flavor it dose not really work. If he is not fully set on his healing being mundane he could always try a "zap/laser cleric." Clerics make great healers and the "zap" build which focuses mostly on ranged powers could possibly work for a guy who was rather poor in melee. However, the issue with clerics is the fluff of their power coming from the gods/their "magical" flavor. Perhaps the society from which he came was highly religious and "military priests" where a part of their standing army?

I thought about warlord, but the same holds true - he doesn't want to be an inspiring leader, we already have an ardent, in fact, he wants to literally get in there and physically deal with people's wounds. The more I think about this, the more I realise that in the middle of battle this is starting to seem impractical. I may have to have another talk - thanks for the input, guys.

Kurald Galain
2010-11-12, 09:28 AM
How about bard?

For that matter, how about Lazylord? You don't do anything, you just encourage other people to fight harder to protect you.

DragonBaneDM
2010-11-12, 09:35 AM
There's a feat called Combat Medic. It makes the Heal skill a viable option if you're a difficult DM. You can stabilize/grant second wind/grant saving throw as a minor action, which is pretty sweet.

Also, consider the Archer Warlord. If he's looking to stay out of melee combat, I think it would work well. What's more, you could have something happen to him that more or less gives him his class if you want to.

Cause y'know, farmboys with superpowers seem big over here.

Steamsaint
2010-11-12, 09:39 AM
There's a feat called Combat Medic. It makes the Heal skill a viable option if you're a difficult DM. You can stabilize/grant second wind/grant saving throw as a minor action, which is pretty sweet.

Wow, that actually looks really awesome. Since we already do have a proper leader role, that might be enough to make him feel useful as a healer yet retain his nonmagical theme.

Maybe make him a skirmishing character of some sort - a ranger or rogue and yet also train him in heal and give him the combat medic feat.

DragonBaneDM
2010-11-12, 09:56 AM
Maybe make him a skirmishing character of some sort - a ranger or rogue and yet also train him in heal and give him the combat medic feat.

Hey, glad you like it! It's on my Pacifist Cleric, mostly for fluff, but yeah! Another thing you could do, especially if he goes rogue or TWF ranger, is multiclass him warlord. That way he still has some actual healing to fall back on!

I think this character is going to be really cool! What race does he like, just so that I can envision it? :smallsmile:

Sipex
2010-11-12, 09:58 AM
Ohhh, you don't want him to be a leader particularily.

Yeah, then that feat is probably your ace in the hole.

Steamsaint
2010-11-12, 10:06 AM
He's a typical human, this guy :smallbiggrin:

Also, Sipex, my first thought was to go a leader as well but somewhat change around the heal so it was better than normal but required you to be in touch range. But this seems better, and we already have the leader role covered in our five man party.

Pinnacle
2010-11-12, 10:37 AM
I don't have my book right here, but aren't there some useful Heal skill powers?

Mando Knight
2010-11-12, 01:22 PM
Cause y'know, farmboys with superpowers seem big over here.

But I was going to go to Metropolis for some power converters!

Tengu_temp
2010-11-12, 02:13 PM
I don't have my book right here, but aren't there some useful Heal skill powers?

There are. You get the first one on second level, though.

The problem with this concept is that "fared poorly in combat" is anathema to 4e design, where everyone is supposed to be a good fighter. Well, except for lazylords.

Kylarra
2010-11-12, 02:23 PM
There are. You get the first one on second level, though.

The problem with this concept is that "fared poorly in combat" is anathema to 4e design, where everyone is supposed to be a good fighter. Well, except for lazylords.Pacifist clerics aren't too bad either.

Tengu_temp
2010-11-12, 02:24 PM
They still have attacks, those attacks just cause status effects instead of damage.

Esser-Z
2010-11-12, 02:24 PM
The thread title makes me wonder if there's any way to nicely simulate an Ubercharge and/or Kritzkrieg...

Pinnacle
2010-11-12, 02:30 PM
The problem with this concept is that "fared poorly in combat" is anathema to 4e design, where everyone is supposed to be a good fighter.

I think it's doable, particularly if the local militia he joined outfitted them in particular ways.
He found the chain armor they gave him difficult to move in, and he just didn't have the strength to wield a club well.

Now that he's on his own with a party of adventurers, he's found that lighter armor works well for him and allows him to keep his mobility. The skilled hand (and anatomical knowledge) that he needs as a medic serves him well when he holds a weapon that allows for a little more finesse.
Rogue, with a dagger.

Sipex
2010-11-12, 02:32 PM
I like it, his sneak attack damage represents how he's able to take advantage of a situation when he has the upper hand and go for the vital parts.

Kylarra
2010-11-12, 02:41 PM
They still have attacks, those attacks just cause status effects instead of damage.Well yeah, but since you're not doing damage, that's a fair interpretation at not being good at combat.

Reluctance
2010-11-12, 03:11 PM
He wants to play a noncombatant character in a game with a heavy focus on combat. It's a popular trope and a common attempt to test roleplaying boundaries, but the best solution for that sort of thing is to take a break with a game that's not so focused on action heroes. D&D can be done like this, but you'll have to work against the system.

Try preluding with this guy a bit. A poor combatant with a knack for medicine has two probable paths ahead of him; he can live a nice, comfortable life working as a medic back at base, or he can bite off more than he can chew on the front lines and get severely messed up. Ask him to pick his own path, allow him to improvise how he gets out of scrapes, and he gets to spend a session roleplaying the farm boy coming into his own while the rest of the group gets a competent party member at the end.

Remember also that this is indeed a world where asking god very nicely, or even singing at a person, can help them recover faster. Talented healers in our world hone their talents by heading to med school. Talented healers in your game world should make a point of building their skills, as "that dude with a lot of Heal ranks but nothing else going for him" sounds like a coulda-been rather than an actual hero.

Loren
2010-11-12, 04:57 PM
there are also some rituals tied to Heal that might give some flavour/utility to the character concept. Similarly, there are also alchemicy formulas and martial practices that the character may wish to learn.

Zaq
2010-11-13, 03:19 PM
Have you considered the Ardent? If you choose your powers carefully, it's easy to avoid the overtly magical ones. Then it's very easy to fluff that your character has no idea why all these things keep happening. The psionics are part of him, but he has no idea, and isn't really in control of them. (You can do this with just about any class if you try hard enough, but I find that it's easy to do so with psionics.)

DragonBaneDM
2010-11-13, 04:34 PM
Have you considered the Ardent? If you choose your powers carefully, it's easy to avoid the overtly magical ones. Then it's very easy to fluff that your character has no idea why all these things keep happening. The psionics are part of him, but he has no idea, and isn't really in control of them. (You can do this with just about any class if you try hard enough, but I find that it's easy to do so with psionics.)

They already have one. And good catch on the Heal skill powers! This guy just might end up making us proud!

Steamsaint, if you could get back to me with how this guy turns out, I'd appreciate it!

Steamsaint
2010-11-13, 11:32 PM
Sure, I'd be more than happy to.

Thanks for the help, everyone, I'm still trying to work out exactly what he wants above and beyond a healer, but it should be good. :smallbiggrin:

Excession
2010-11-14, 04:53 AM
Paladin might be an option. Perhaps what the militia saw as a gift in healing was an intuitive use of Lay on Hands. It has the touch range going for it at least, though I'm not sure how you'd explain the rest of the class mechanically. A Cha/Wis proto-paladin could match the "useless at combat" aspect, if the first thing they tried to do is hand him a melee weapon and see what his MBA was like: "He's a nice kid, looks good in the armour, but he can't swing a sword to save himself!". Might presuppose a culture not familiar with paladins, but that might be an interesting twist in itself.