A non-combat PC build

[Tiadoppler]

My current campaign started in 4e. In 4e, one of the favorite characters was a PC who also happened to be a true pacifist: the doctor/medic/moral center of the group who had various personal ties to most of the members of the party. This PC was retired at level 8 (due to out-of-game circumstances) and went off to do their own thing for a while. Now this PC is about to return to the game and will be an out-of-combat(/support/stays at the home base) character controlled by the original player. I'm curious how the optimizers on this forum would approach building a character whose sole goal is maximizing healing-per-day.

This character will not willingly injure another. There is no reason to take cantrips, spells, feats or equipment that does/improves damage.
This character may, in an emergency, defend themselves with effects like Charmed, Frightened, Restrained, Paralyzed etc, but combat effectiveness is a very low priority.
This character wants to eventually gain the power to Revivify, use Restoration spells, and Resurrect the dead.
This character wants to have as much healing-per-day as possible when set up in a permanent "doctor's office", even if that means taking nearly constant Short Rests.
This character does not wear armor or carry a weapon. They are a non-combatant. They can have proficiency in weapons and armor, but won't choose to use them.
This character will likely have no access to magical equipment.


This character was originally a Pacifist Cleric, but the "religious" aspect was much downplayed. I could see paladin (redemption), cleric (life), warlock (celestial), and sorcerer (divine) as options, as well as possibly a dip into monk for some level of survivability (high Wisdom)

[hymer]

A Lore Bard can be a pretty good healer (particularly with a Life Cleric dip), and can scold combatants to reduce their effectiveness. Lore Bards also have access to quite a few non-damaging combat effects that could allow the character to hinder an attacker.

[Unoriginal]

Any reason to not build this character like a NPC?

[clash]

Combine life cleric 2 and goodberry spell from druid for ultimate out of comabt healing.

[Tiadoppler]

The party already has a Lore Bard who does some healing and insults people to distract them in combat, so I'd generally prefer not to step on their toes too much. Combat utility really isn't a priority.

The character could be built like an NPC, but I'm not sure how much healing/recovery to give them at different levels. Keep in mind: this will be a PC played by a player, just not used in-combat and not the main PC that player is using. I'm happy to stat them up more like a simple hireling, but I have a feeling that the player will want a full character sheet for reference.


I'll consider Cleric + Goodberry usage. It's very powerful (and could fit in the "stop by the doctor's office, get some medicine" fluff pretty well :D).

[Aaron Underhand]

Pure Lore bard at 6th level grab Aura of Vitality from the paladin list. At 10th grab Aura of life

Or maximise healing with life cleric 1, lore bard x.

Bards get very limited direct damage spells, but plenty of charms etc...

You can get Aura of Vitality and Aura of Life before a pure Paladin can get it, even if you take the one level dip into cleric

[Angelalex242]

This sounds like someone's hireling, not a PC.

[Nettlekid]

Going to go a little off-the-beaten-path and suggest maybe a Celestial Warlock. They get a pool of healing dice to spend as bonus actions, and can learn Cure Wounds as a spell which gives you a short rest healing effect, something that isn't easy to come by. When you get to level 10 you also get a slightly nerfed version of Inspirational Leader which can give temp HP on a short rest, encouraging that all the more. You can have Lesser and Greater Restoration as spells known, and Revivify too.

When not focusing on healing, you can be a utility swiss army knife by taking Pact of the Tome and the Book of Ancient Secrets invocation to grab any number of Ritual spells that can be useful to the party. Things like Detect Magic and Identify, niche effects like Water Walk and Meld Into Stone, Leomund's Tiny Hut for that safe doctor's office you wanted, Augury and Divination and Commune/Contact Other Plane for divination support, stuff that helps keep the party safe by preventing danger in the first place.

Warlocks also get plenty of effects that they can use to nonlethally defend and misdirect. You could take Misty Visions to make illusions to trick enemies, or rely on Charm Person, Suggestion, and Hold Person to keep enemies away from you.

[th3g0dc0mp13x]

I'm assuming the character will be level 8.

Race: Human Variant
Background: Hermit
Feats: Healer, Prodigy
8,16,14,10,16,8
Life Cleric 5/Dream Druid 2/Monk 1
Skills: Medicine=+9, Herbalism Kit, Alchemist's Kit
Spells always known: Bless, Cure wounds, lesser restoration, beacon of hope, Revivify.
You can prepare 8 of any other cleric spells you may need up to third level spells.
You can prepare 5 1st level druid spells: Entangle, Faerie Fire, Goodberry, Fog Cloud,


Pros: Really good at healing little stuff, Can use a healer's kit to go all day long, any medicine checks are a minimum of a 10, AC is 16.

Cons: Limited to third level spells, despite having a fourth level slot.

Personally I would kick the monk level out and grab some heavy armor and a shield for 16-20 ac depending on class of armor. I'd also drop the second level of druid so that I could be that much closer to 5th level spells i.e. Greater restoration and raise dead.

Edit to add a second option:

Race: Half Elf
Background: Hermit
8,16,14,10,10,19
Celestial Warlock 3 (Tome), Divine soul Sorcerer 5.
Invocations: Armor of shadows, Aspect of the moon if your DM doesn't like the trance to get sleep for coffelock or Book of ancient secrets and start being a ritual king. (can get leomund's tiny hut if the dm is in a good mood.)

Not quite as versatile as the first option but this one gets you third level spells and two short rest lvl 2 spell slots; Which can be turned into sorcery points and into other spell slots as needed. This can also turn into a coffelock healer. With twin spell and distant he can either pick two people off the ground or one person who got too far ahead. He also knows 5 Sorcerer Cantrips, 2 Warlock cantrips and 3 cantrips from any class, plus sacred flame and light. (that is an obscene amount of cantrips considering that wasn't what i was going for.)

[Tiadoppler]

*snip*

Both options look really useful, thanks! This character will be starting at level 4 (the game lost some levels on the 4e->5e transition, just so the players could get used to the new spells/mechanics), but will start gaining xp again soon.

The stat array will have both high WIS and CHA, but relatively average for the other stats. Really really no combat optimization, but that lets some interesting, otherwise MAD class combos be possible.

Life Cleric/Celestial Tomelock seems cool. Maybe aiming for Cleric 17/Warlock 3 eventually (True Resurrection as a character goal).

Alternatively, a full Divine Soul Sorcerer might be plausible. If the only spells seriously desired are healing spells, the low number of spells known isn't too limiting.

[8wGremlin]

Have you thought about Warlock (celestial) 3rd level/ Sorcerer (divine soul) 5th
You get all the cleric spells you like, and can twin them, and distance them.

You get to convert the warlock spells into spell slots and use these create new spell slots

Go Tomelock and pick up the Aspects of the Moon Invocation, so you don't sleep, and can short rest 7 times per the rest of the parties long rest, whilst converting those warlock slots to spell points, then to sorcerer slots.
You have the celestial healing to boot, and can pick up all the no damaging spells you like.

You don't have to have any religious overtones at all, it's just that perhaps your blood line has celestial blood in it. or you exemplify the teachings of a particular deity, and whilst not a worshiper they have given you a boon?
That story and how it plays out is up to you.

[th3g0dc0mp13x]

Both options look really useful, thanks! This character will be starting at level 4 (the game lost some levels on the 4e->5e transition, just so the players could get used to the new spells/mechanics), but will start gaining xp again soon.

Happy to help, I'm new to the game and doing this kind of thing helps me see what each class has to offer.


The stat array will have both high WIS and CHA, but relatively average for the other stats. Really really no combat optimization, but that lets some interesting, otherwise MAD class combos be possible.

This 100% spells heavy armor to me. While he's in the "office" he doesn't need it but if he's in the field... Even some ambulance crews wear body armor if the place there going is known for violence.


Life Cleric/Celestial Tomelock seems cool. Maybe aiming for Cleric 17/Warlock 3 eventually (True Resurrection as a character goal). Alternatively, a full Divine Soul Sorcerer might be plausible. If the only spells seriously desired are healing spells, the low number of spells known isn't too limiting.

Life Cleric/Celestial Tomelock
Pros:Extremely Diverse, Switch spells on a long rest, two second level slots that replenish on a short rest, font of healing energy, Ritual casting
Cons: Awkward level progression, delayed spell progression takes til 20 to get TR, Lose an ASI/feat

Full Divine Soul
Pros: Full casting progression, Metamagic, Access to both Cleric and Sorcerer spell lists.
Cons:Nothing on a short rest, minimal spells though this is offset by what you want, no ritual casting (a feat fixes this and since it's SAD you'll have asi's to spare if you want)

[Arkhios]

An unarmored, effectively useless in combat in terms of harmful effects, but a powerful healer/support who is not a bard? I would consider a tad unconventional build:

Druid (shepherd) 3/Cleric (life) 1/Sorcerer (Divine) X.

You'll need Wis 13 and Cha 13 at minimum to multiclass, but for several reasons (mostly because of spells) you'll want to maximize both two ability scores eventually. I would say that either variant human, or a half-elf would work best with this concept.

Druid 3 because of that sweet, sweet new Healing Spirit spell from Xanathar's Guide is a 2nd-level spell for druids (and rangers), and Cleric 1 because Life Domain's best feature is available at 1st-level onwards. Sorcerer (divine soul) levels can cover up the lack of Cleric levels, because you can grab all of your spells from the Cleric's spell list if you want to. For Metamagic's, I would actually suggest Subtle as one of them, so that the seemingly "hired non-player" character could stay behind and appear completely irrelevant in combat, while still contributing whenever required. As a bonus, he/she would be able to turn into an unassuming animal whenever required.

[Smaje]

A cute halfling Druid stats don't really matter. Don't intentially use wild shapes

Good berry, cure wounds high medics or whatever for minor healing. Multiclass barbarian!

Be the cute fun loving, healing, pacifist halfling until you get hurt or angry then you turn into a raging bear that attacks everyone in sight!

Not what you were looking for, not optimized but it would be so much fun.

[Tiadoppler]

A cute halfling Druid stats don't really matter. Don't intentially use wild shapes

Good berry, cure wounds high medics or whatever for minor healing. Multiclass barbarian!

Be the cute fun loving, healing, pacifist halfling until you get hurt or angry then you turn into a raging bear that attacks everyone in sight!

Not what you were looking for, not optimized but it would be so much fun.

Yeah sounds like lots of fun! I might put that sort of character in as an NPC. Call him Spruce Banner/The Inedible Bulk.

The character is a hamadryad, and I think I've got an idea of how I'll build the character now. Thanks, everyone.