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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Class features for a healer that aren't just healing?



tyruth
2017-02-23, 11:48 PM
A player in an upcoming campaign has decided they want to play a healer (https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Healer_(5e_Class)) but looking at the class it seems to just be the 3.5 one ported over to 5e. I'm going to make some alterations an was wondering if anyone had suggestions to help give the character some options that weren't just heal the fighter etc...

Was thinking some other support based stuff would be good, though I'm going to be staying away from damage mostly due to the character's background and theme. Also will be removing the companion for similar reasons. There's definitely room for adding in some anti-undead stuff in there, but was looking for other suggestions too.

TinyBlooper
2017-02-24, 01:39 AM
Support stuff definitely seems to be the way to go. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, after all. Here's a couple things off the top of my head:


Spend a reaction to force an enemy to reroll an attack roll.
Whenever a creature deals damage to an ally with X feet of you, they feel an echo of their enemy's pain, taking damage equal to your Wisdom modifier.
Target creature must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, they are knocked prone and stunned until the end of their next turn, crushed under the weight of all the pain they have ever inflicted. (The class only specifies that you only can't cast spells that cause saving throws)
Target creature must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, they are compelled to protect the healer, even if it requires fighting their former allies. The healer, in turn, is compelled to protect them. This effect lasts for 1 minute, or until the creature is damaged by the healer or one of the healer's allies.
Summon some kind of celestial that can fight, under the healer's control. No deity would leave the most vulnerable of their servants unprotected, after all. This could replace the unicorn, if your player really wants a summon.


How strong any of these abilities should be, and how often they can be used, depends on where in the class progression you want to put them, of course.

zeek0
2017-02-24, 08:43 AM
Your player may want this healer class, but I have a special dislike for it. Pacifism is not only a cowardly philosophy in real life, but doesn't fit into a game what combat is key. Healing is such a...simplistic theme for a class. Also, I think the a Life cleric is straight-up better than this Healer at healing.

As for your question, I would say that reducing damage, granting advantage on saving throws, granting resistance, or utility assistance.

I'll insert my own work for a moment, and promote my Hearth domain homebrew - you can find it in my sig.

tyruth
2017-02-24, 07:08 PM
Spend a reaction to force an enemy to reroll an attack roll.
Whenever a creature deals damage to an ally with X feet of you, they feel an echo of their enemy's pain, taking damage equal to your Wisdom modifier.
Target creature must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, they are knocked prone and stunned until the end of their next turn, crushed under the weight of all the pain they have ever inflicted. (The class only specifies that you only can't cast spells that cause saving throws)
Target creature must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, they are compelled to protect the healer, even if it requires fighting their former allies. The healer, in turn, is compelled to protect them. This effect lasts for 1 minute, or until the creature is damaged by the healer or one of the healer's allies.
Summon some kind of celestial that can fight, under the healer's control. No deity would leave the most vulnerable of their servants unprotected, after all. This could replace the unicorn, if your player really wants a summon.


How strong any of these abilities should be, and how often they can be used, depends on where in the class progression you want to put them, of course.


Some great ideas, like the second and third ones. Reactions to allow a reroll of things are also good, I think I might have a look at some of the stuff in the Psionics handbook homebrew thing because that had some similar things.



Your player may want this healer class, but I have a special dislike for it. Pacifism is not only a cowardly philosophy in real life, but doesn't fit into a game what combat is key. Healing is such a...simplistic theme for a class. Also, I think the a Life cleric is straight-up better than this Healer at healing.

As for your question, I would say that reducing damage, granting advantage on saving throws, granting resistance, or utility assistance.

I'll insert my own work for a moment, and promote my Hearth domain homebrew - you can find it in my sig.

They wanted to play a healer, not that one. It just happened to be what I found in a quick google search. I was going to steal some things from the life healer, but the cleric is too combat focused and doesn't fit in with the character's personality (definitely not the hardened battle-priest, but an optimistic hermit).

Granting resistance is a good idea, and I'll play around with that. I'm not sure how much utility stuff they should have or what kind but I'll have a think over that.

tombowings
2017-02-26, 08:55 AM
- Healing broken bones, severed limbs, internal organs, etc,
- Proroguing life (adding X years to the target's maximum life spend per use)
- Some sort of empathy ability, feeling the target's emotions and reading surface thoughts, when healing the target's wounds
- Calming emotions
- Placing sanctuary spells
- Creating healing potions for commercial use
- An ability that deals damage to the target based on how much damage the target deals to others
- Tranquilizer (like hold person)

Hashmalum
2017-02-26, 12:23 PM
When working on the 3.5 healer, I realized that the ability to cleanse conditions isn't very helpful if the healer is afflicted by those same conditions. The healer can't remove fear or paralysis or petrification from party members if they themselves are running away or paralyzed or petrified. A healer needs some condition immunities to do its job properly. Disease immunity at the very least, since they're going to be coming into contact with diseased characters. I'm not familiar with 5E but I imagine the same principle would apply.

Nero24200
2017-02-28, 04:16 PM
There's a few support based abilities you could add, though it would depend on the theme of the class you're going for.

If you were to follow a more holy route, abilities which damage or hinder undead/devils/demons wouldn't go amiss. Maybe abilities which heal living creatures in the area, but also buff followers of the same god, or imply a debuff to undead/devils/demons.

Alternatively someone going down a sort of doctor route might have abilities which enables the party (or even unwilling enemies) to only deal non-lethal damage. Or some sort of enforced pacifism which grants everyone disadvantage on their attack rolls for 1 round (allowing them or the allies time to patch up or buff). Perhaps some sort of extreme protection where weapons take damage and may even dissolve if they strike you.

If you played someone who had a more life-manipulation theme, in addition to healing they could also shift abilities around - maybe take the strength of the party barbarian and "give" it to other party members (something like bestowing a -2 penalty to grant a +2 bonus to a group of creatures). Or bestow set weaknesses on enemies, such as reduced movement, conditions like paralysed etc.

GalacticAxekick
2017-02-28, 05:51 PM
There's a huge lack of nonmagical healing in 5e. I'd love to see a class, subclass, or set of feats developed around it. Here are some area where features might be developed:

Stabilization: The base rules are as follows
If damage reduces you to 0 hit points and fails to kill you, you fall unconscious (see conditions). This unconsciousness ends if you regain any hit points.
You can use your action to administer first aid to an unconscious creature and attempt to stabilize it, which requires a successful DC 10 Wisdom (Medicine) check.

A stable creature doesn’t make death saving throws, even though it has 0 hit points, but it does remain unconscious. The creature stops being stable, and must start making death saving throws again, if it takes any damage. A stable creature that isn’t healed regains 1 hit point after 1d4 hours.
As an action, you can expend one use of a healer's kit to stabilize a creature that has 0 hit points, without needing to make a Wisdom (Medicine) check.

A Healer might subvert these rules in a few ways:
ResusitateYou can use your action to resuscitate an unconscious creature momentarily. The creature is not healed and continues to make death saving throws if they are not stabile, but they are nonetheless conscious until the start of your next turn.
Casualty CareYou can use your action to administer first aid to a stabile creature in an attempt to heal it, which requires a DC 10 Wisdom (Medicine) check.

On a success, the creature may spend hit dice to regain additional temporary hit points. These temporary hit points are lost after one hour, unless the creature begins a rest. After a short rest, they become true, permanent hit points. An unconscious creature that chooses to spend no hit dice nonetheless regains 1 hit point.
As an action, you can expend one use of a healer's kit to heal a stabile creature without needing to make a Wisdom (Medicine) check.

And now, some effects not related to revival:
Field MedicineIf a creature you can touch could make saving throws against an effect that causes the Blinded, Deafened, Fatigued, Paralyzed or Poisoned conditions, or reduced speed, you may use your action make a Wisdom (Medicine) check against the DC. On a successful check, the creature is considered to have succeeded on its save.
If a creature you can touch could make saving throws against an effect that causes the Blinded, Deafened, Fatigued, Paralyzed or Poisoned conditions, you may use your action to expend one use of a healer's kit. The creature is considered to have succeeded on its save.
AmbulanceYou may use a bonus action to lift and carry a willing or incapacitated creature, following the rules for mounted combat. Your speed is halved, as if you were grappling the creature, and any effect that would let you move at full speed while grappling will let you carry at full speed.

And finally, some thematic, non-healing features. These especially are not yet balanced:
Your anatomical knowledge informs your fighting style.

When you score a critical hit, you may forgo the bonus damage and instead Blind, Deafen, Fatigue, or Poison your target, or reduce their speeds by 10 feet. A creature must make a DC 10 Wisdom (Medicine) check to relieve the target of their condition, ex
Given the chance, you strike with surgical precision.

As an action, you may make a Wisdom (Medicine) check against the AC of a creature you can see. On a successful check, you identify a fatal gape in their defenses. When you successfully hit this creature with a weapon attack, you may choose to score a critical hit. Once you have scored a critical hit in this way, or once you lose sight of the creature, you must make another Wisdom (Medicine) check to locate a new gape in their defenses.
You are acutely aware of your own weaknesses and take care to defend them.

When an attack scores a critical hit against you, you may use your reaction to make a Wisdom (Medicine) check against the result of the attack roll. If you succeed, the attack is non-critical.

Morphic tide
2017-02-28, 08:43 PM
Buffs are the main thing. Damage prevention, both by debuffing enemies and buffing allies, is a big thing here. Increasing the damage allies deal is also a way to get some DPR for them, but be careful to have limits to stop Fighters from being the primary buff target.

Jallorn
2017-03-02, 01:47 AM
I would recommend they consider playing one of the core classes as a healer style. A Cleric or Bard who's primary contribution in combat is healing and buffs is generally viable. Dude in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCn5EuY_sFg&t=406s) talks about doing just that, playing Hawkeye Pierce from MASH as a Cleric.

icefractal
2017-03-02, 01:53 PM
Do you want to stay away from any offensive ability, or just harmful ones? Because a healer could have plenty:

Anesthesia: Target is immune to pain, and also has no sense of touch. Dex save to walk without falling or hold things without dropping them.

Somnia: Target falls asleep.

Euphoria: Target is stunned by overwhelming pleasure sensations.

Tranquility: Target feels peaceful, has no desire to fight. Fights at a penalty if really determined to.

Local anasthesia: One part of target is nonfunctional - leg (falls), arm, tongue (can't talk), eyes (can't focus, vision limited to 10'), tail, others at GMs discretion.