A Variation on the Coffeelock- Heal Edition

[chartear]

Hi, I looked around briefly and didn't see anything for this, so I thought I'd make a new thread. I have a character concept I've been thinking of and I was wondering what people think of it mechanically.

The build is Elf Cleric (Life) 1/Druid 1/Warlock X. The plan is to be a Healer for my group by, during their Long Rest, trancing for my Long Rest and then taking 4 back-to-back Short Rests casting Goodberry using my Warlock slots. Thanks to Life Cleric, each of the 10 berries will heal 3 + 1/spell slot level. At level 4 (Cleric 1/Druid 1/Warlock 2), that gives me 8 castings of 1st level Goodberry per party Long Rest, or 320 points of Healing (8 castings x 10 berries per cast x 4 HP per berry). I was thinking of going Celestial Warlock to have access to Healing Light (Bonus Action d6 healing) for my in-combat needs (potentially preparing Healing Word as well). During the day, I'd use my spell slots for buffing/normal Warlock things and mainly be an out-of-combat healer.

Does this sound viable? Broken? Woefully underpowered and I'd be better off with a more conventional healing build? Is there anything you would change?

[Willie the Duck]

Certainly not broken.

Healing in general is pretty DM/group-dependent. With Healing Spirit shenanigans in the mix with other healing builds, the only thing this does is move your slow (out of combat, presumably) healing from 'more than needed' to 'insane amounts, and more readily short-rest rechargeable, if you actually do run out.' It also does leave you with most of a warlock as well (instead of a cleric or druid, so it's something of a lateral move).

I would consider such a character in a game where healing potions, lots of convenient down-time, and healing spirit were all off the table, and the rest of the group favored short rests over long. Particularly if the group needs healing and another ranged attacker more than it needs more front-line or non-healing cleric abilities.

I would call it 'viable, but niche.'

[Kyrinthic]

It, like the coffeelock is something you should talk over with your GM. Not every GM is going to be ok with 'hey, I have 4 hours of light activity, lets call that 4 short rests in a row', since that isnt a thing that exists in the rules anywhere. These are the sort of things that can really upset some GMs, so make sure yours is onboard.

That said, with healing spirit around, and able to throw out that same crazy out of combat healing just as easily, there is nothing super overpowered about this build, at least as long as the action economy of '1 action = 1 berry' is maintained, per the spell.

The build leaves a lot of options on where to go, level wise, though you have 2 important stats instead of just 1 like the coffeelock (and of course CON is important to everyone), so further multiclass options might be harder.

[Unoriginal]

Hi, I looked around briefly and didn't see anything for this, so I thought I'd make a new thread. I have a character concept I've been thinking of and I was wondering what people think of it mechanically.

The build is Elf Cleric (Life) 1/Druid 1/Warlock X. The plan is to be a Healer for my group by, during their Long Rest, trancing for my Long Rest and then taking 4 back-to-back Short Rests casting Goodberry using my Warlock slots. Thanks to Life Cleric, each of the 10 berries will heal 3 + 1/spell slot level. At level 4 (Cleric 1/Druid 1/Warlock 2), that gives me 8 castings of 1st level Goodberry per party Long Rest, or 320 points of Healing (8 castings x 10 berries per cast x 4 HP per berry). I was thinking of going Celestial Warlock to have access to Healing Light (Bonus Action d6 healing) for my in-combat needs (potentially preparing Healing Word as well). During the day, I'd use my spell slots for buffing/normal Warlock things and mainly be an out-of-combat healer.

Does this sound viable? Broken? Woefully underpowered and I'd be better off with a more conventional healing build? Is there anything you would change?

Trancing does NOT diminish the time of a Long Rest. A Long Rest is still 8 hours, regardless of it you're an Elf or not.

[SirGraystone]

Eating a berry take an action, so healing 4 hp is poor healing in battle.

[CTurbo]

Seems like a Favored Soul Sorcerer and Celestial Warlock multiclass would be best for this.

Most DMs aren't going to allow this kind of thing though.

[Naanomi]

Trancing does NOT diminish the time of a Long Rest. A Long Rest is still 8 hours, regardless of it you're an Elf or not.
Does the Trance trait allow an elf to finish a long rest in 4 hours? If an elf meditates during a long rest (as described in the Trance trait), the elf finishes the rest after only 4 hours. A meditating elf otherwise follows all the rules for
a long rest; only the duration is changed. [This answer
has been altered as a result of a tweak to the rules for a long rest, which appears in newer printings of the Player’s Handbook.]

https://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/SA-Compendium.pdf

[Unoriginal]

Does the Trance trait allow an elf to finish a long rest in 4 hours? If an elf meditates during a long rest (as described in the Trance trait), the elf finishes the rest after only 4 hours. A meditating elf otherwise follows all the rules for
a long rest; only the duration is changed. [This answer
has been altered as a result of a tweak to the rules for a long rest, which appears in newer printings of the Player’s Handbook.]

https://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/SA-Compendium.pdf

I was wrong, I apologize.

[Naanomi]

I was wrong, I apologize.
No worries, it was a reversal in rules from earlier rulings. It is one reason Elf necromancers work so well... loosens that 24 hour ticking clock on Animate Dead recasting

[chartear]

Thanks for the responses!

@Willie the Duck: I'm glad to hear it isn't broken as my group is mainly new players and I don't want anything that would diminish their fun. I'll look into the Healing Spirit builds and see what that's all about (unless it's just a Life Cleric casting Healing Spirit and giving everyone 10d6 + 40 HP per cast).

@Kyrinthic: I'll talk to the DM before I bring it to the table. No sense setting it up just to be told I can't play it. And I'd factored in the 1 action per berry although I was disappointed when I first noticed that part of Goodberry. The plan was continue leveling as a Warlock so I'd stick to two stats.

@SirGraystone: the Goodberry healing was never meant for in-combat healing. As you said, it's way too slow.

@CTurbo: About how many levels of each would you take? Would you progress mainly as a Sorcerer or Warlock?

@Naanomi: Thanks for chiming in with the rules clarification.

@Unoriginal: Np, it happens!

Edit: I've discovered that Healing Spirit is not a Cleric spell.

[Willie the Duck]

@Willie the Duck: I'm glad to hear it isn't broken as my group is mainly new players and I don't want anything that would diminish their fun. I'll look into the Healing Spirit builds and see what that's all about (unless it's just a Life Cleric casting Healing Spirit and giving everyone 10d6 + 40 HP per cast).

20D6+40, and that's about it (or 20d6 without the life cleric, but still 20D6 per character for a 2nd level spell). The point being that out-of-combat healing to full is no longer expensive (and thus valuable).

[chartear]

20D6+40, and that's about it (or 20d6 without the life cleric, but still 20D6 per character for a 2nd level spell). The point being that out-of-combat healing to full is no longer expensive (and thus valuable).

How is it 20d6?

[Willie the Duck]

How is it 20d6?

nevermind, got it and Aura of Vitality conflated.

[Contrast]

I'll agree with others that the shenanigans are a bit unnecessary what with healing spirit. If you're attached to the bonus action heal, Dream druid gets something similar as well.

[Eriol]

Also, if you're only doing the Druid 1 for goodberry, why not just take magic initiate for that? Then you can be 19 warlock, or 2 cleric, or some other dip that may be better.

[Willie the Duck]

Also, if you're only doing the Druid 1 for goodberry, why not just take magic initiate for that? Then you can be 19 warlock, or 2 cleric, or some other dip that may be better.

Magic Initiate only allows you to cast it once a day.

[chartear]

Also, if you're only doing the Druid 1 for goodberry, why not just take magic initiate for that? Then you can be 19 warlock, or 2 cleric, or some other dip that may be better.

You can only cast it once per day and only at 1st level. Once this build gets higher level Warlock slots, it increases the amount of healing by 10 per casting (1 per berry thanks to Life Cleric) which is a large part of its effectiveness at healing large amounts at later levels.

[Citan]

Hi, I looked around briefly and didn't see anything for this, so I thought I'd make a new thread. I have a character concept I've been thinking of and I was wondering what people think of it mechanically.

The build is Elf Cleric (Life) 1/Druid 1/Warlock X. The plan is to be a Healer for my group by, during their Long Rest, trancing for my Long Rest and then taking 4 back-to-back Short Rests casting Goodberry using my Warlock slots. Thanks to Life Cleric, each of the 10 berries will heal 3 + 1/spell slot level. At level 4 (Cleric 1/Druid 1/Warlock 2), that gives me 8 castings of 1st level Goodberry per party Long Rest, or 320 points of Healing (8 castings x 10 berries per cast x 4 HP per berry). I was thinking of going Celestial Warlock to have access to Healing Light (Bonus Action d6 healing) for my in-combat needs (potentially preparing Healing Word as well). During the day, I'd use my spell slots for buffing/normal Warlock things and mainly be an out-of-combat healer.

Does this sound viable? Broken? Woefully underpowered and I'd be better off with a more conventional healing build? Is there anything you would change?
Whether it is or not broken will heavily depends on campaign.
If you play a "hop on next fight" game, it will make you a decent healer at best, but not knowing any high-level heal spell (AFAIR, not Heal, no Resurrection, not even Revive) will probably smack your face back sooner or later.
EVEN if your DM agrees to allow you "coofeelocking" without limit. You'd much better pump Divine Soul Sorcerer 9-11 with just Land/Shepherd Druid 3 for Healing Spirit, Life Cleric 1 and Warlock so you can create insane amount of 3rd or 4th level spells.

And if your DM wouldn't allow that munchkinism but your party otherwise manages to take 2 or 3 short rests per day, then nothing beats a plain Life Cleric. That is how good its Channel Divinity (and automax healing at end) is.

There are other specific builds that come close in other ways though but that's beside the question.

Now, IF you are playing a "true" (yeah, cannot help it) role-playing game, in which your characters get involved into the world and the world evolves as a reaction...
Yeah, it can be pretty "broken" (for a while. Once you got level 15+ other casters will be easily capable of more impressive feats). With the biggest brokenness being probably the Fey Patron with Plant Growth (although you will obviously go Celestial precisely for Revivify and Restoration so I guess that's one concern less).
But even just with an insane amount of Goodberries, you could easily shape the economics or politics in a country.
- At low levels, you could make yourself a true folk hero by nourishing people for a very small price (pair that with Prestidigitation to make magic beans), unless maybe you keep them for a criminal faction instead.
- At mid-levels, you should have enough to flow the market of a medium-sized city, so you could earn lumps of gold everyday or maybe be sent as a support on large scale exploration / terraforming / colonization missions.
- At high-levels, you may probably be able to sustain a small army (even in case of fights) or at least allow a big army to sustain siege or burned ground strategy for unlimited times (although DM may rule that you still need water) (once good reason to go Divine Sorcerer for Purify Food and Water and Create Water, also get Shape Water as a Druid to keep a small reserve as ice -at least you should be well at all times XD-).

What makes it interesting is that, of course, world wouldn't let you creep on without reacting: merchants which business you tanked (or tried to) may hire assassins. Others may try to break a deal with you. Some kinds may offer you assets and power in exchange for exclusive services.
Etc...

This magnitude of world influence is nothing that a very high level caster (or Assassin for that matter) couldn't do, but from 1 to 12 or so levels you would have an influence that goes well above what would be expected of a character of that level.

Can be heaps of fun though. :)

[JackPhoenix]

No worries, it was a reversal in rules from earlier rulings. It is one reason Elf necromancers work so well... loosens that 24 hour ticking clock on Animate Dead recasting

Not really. You can still gain the benefit of a long rest only once per 24 hours. So it's less of "the elf can wake 4 hours earlier" and more of "the elf can stay up 4 hours longer". For undead horde shennanigans, you'd need to have 5 levels of warlock and 5 levels of whatever class capable of using Animate Dead (and neither Cleric nor Wizard is cha-based, so there isn't much synergy between them) you want.

[Willie the Duck]

For undead horde shennanigans, you'd need to have 5 levels of warlock and 5 levels of whatever class capable of using Animate Dead (and neither Cleric nor Wizard is cha-based, so there isn't much synergy between them) you want.

Divine Soul Sorcerer?

[JackPhoenix]

Divine Soul Sorcerer?

Duh, and coffeelocks are in the title. I blame just getting back from work.