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View Full Version : Homebrew: Rogue 5e Healing Archetype: Chirurgeon



metalith
2020-03-22, 12:44 PM
While training to focus on how to deliver the most efficient strikes to handle your foes. You begin to understand how to use that knowledge to heal instead of just harm. Those who adhere to this archetype are diverse - hardened battle medic, arrogant precise physicians, mad genius doctors, angels of mercy and covert assassins trained to heal as well as harm. Using your skills to get into and out of dangerous situations, to save the lives of your allies, end the lives of your enemies and the try to triumph over the ultimate foe, death itself.

Medical Expertise

When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you gain proficiency in the Medicine skill and with the Herbalism Kit, if you don't already have it. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses these proficiencies.

In understanding the medical arts, you realize that a doctor is only as good as his tools. Allowing you to create a specialized Healer’s Kit known as a Chirurgeon’s Kit to treat and aid your allies. The Chirurgeon’s Kit has 15 uses. You gain additional 5 uses at 9th, 13th and 17th level. Once per day, during a Short Rest, you can restore up to your Intelligence modifier uses. At 13th level, you are able to do this twice per day. During a Long Rest, you restock and prepare the kit back up to full in preparation for the next day.

Triage Specialist

Starting at 3rd level, your ability to deal with the ravages of battle start to shine. When you use your Cunning Action, As a Bonus Action, you can spend uses from your Chirurgeon’s Kit to heal yourself or an ally within 5 ft. For each use spent, you roll 1d6 up to your Intelligence modifier and the target regains the total amount of hit points. At 9th level, your effectiveness improves allowing you to add your Intelligence modifier as a bonus to the total amount of hit points restored.

When you or your party take a Short Rest, you are able to enhance the abilities of a Chirurgeon’s Kit to help triage and treat damage suffered by you or your party members. Whenever you or an ally would roll a Hit Die to recover HP, you are able to use a charge from the Chirurgeon’s Kit to have that Hit Die roll the maximum number. You are only able to affect up to your Intelligence modifier number of Hit Dice per Short Rest. This ability does not interfere with your ability to recover during a short rest. However, if used this way, you are not able to restore uses as granted by the ability of Medical Expertise. At 9th level, you are able to recover expended uses and provide aid to you and/or your allies.

Essence of Rapidity

The battlefield is a chaotic place, and a healer's work is never done. Sometimes a healer has to be several places at once, to prevent the loss of life. Fortunately, your focus on speed and precision, allows you to slightly cheat the system, letting you be in several places at once. Starting at 9th level, you can spend an Action to activate Essence of Rapidity, which lasts for 1 minute. While under the effect of Essence of Rapidity, whenever you use your Cunning Action to use your Chirurgeon’s Kit to heal a target a figment of yourself shows up treating yourself or any nearby allies within 60 ft, healing each of them for the same amount rolled on the dice. You can activate Essence of Rapidity twice per Long Rest. At 17th level, you can activate Essence of Rapidity four times per Long Rest.

Additionally, your ability to treat the body improves beyond the scope of just restoring hit points. You can use your Chirurgeon’s kit to identify and heal conditions and diseases, bolster your allies and even restore life to an ally who recently lost their life. You can spend uses from your Chirurgeon’s kit to duplicate certain spell effects.

Uses Effect
1 Detect Poison and Disease
3 Protection from Poison
3 Lesser Restoration
4 Aid cast at 3rd level
5 Revivify
7 Greater Restoration

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

Chaos is the rule of the battlefield. Something goes missing, you run out of necessary materials and medicines, or your equipment breaks or wears out. Ingenuity and improvisation become your best friend. If you ever lose your Chirurgeon’s Kit or run out of uses, you can improvise temporary uses to cover yourself short-term, by salvaging the remnants within your kit or scraping together the material from your environment. At 13th level, once per Long Rest, as a Bonus Action you may gain up to your Intelligence modifier in additional uses of your Chirurgeon’s Kit. At 17th level, you may do this twice per Long Rest.

Triumph over Death

At 17th level, your mastery over medical arts allows you to triumph over the dangers of death itself. Utilizing 2000 GP of valuable processed herbs, precious minerals, humanoid flesh and a flash of inspirational genius, you are able to breathe life into a new creation; a Flesh Golem. The Flesh Golem is friendly to you and your allies and obeys your commands. During combat, as an Action you can command your Golem to attack an enemy or defend itself or an ally causing it to move and attack any hostile creatures within 15 ft of it or the ally. If not given a default command, the Golem will defend itself and attempt to remain within 20 ft of you.

This Flesh Golem gets a bonus to its AC equal to your proficiency bonus and bonus HP equal to your Constitution modifier per Hit Dice, as you enhance its body and reactions. It also gains a rudimentary ability to speak Common. If the Flesh Golem is ever killed, it can be restored to life over a Long Rest as long as you have its body. If the Golem is over 50% destroyed, lost or sacrificed, it can be rebuilt over a week, as long as you have the 2000 GP of replacement materials.

You can sacrifice your Flesh Golem in an hour long surgery to restore life to a deceased creature. Grafting its flesh and transferring its vital essences over to the remains to be resurrected. Duplicating the effect and drawbacks of the Resurrection spell.

Mjolnirbear
2020-03-22, 01:16 PM
So a few comments:

Your wording does not make it clear: is this an additional use of Cunning Action (dodge or heal) or is it an additional effect when you use it (dodge AND heal)?

I don't like the flesh golem. It's not heal-y IMO. It's a theme better suited to a necromancer, mad wizard, or artificer. The disconnect was so huge that my brain refused to finish reading, so someone else will have to review that.

A more general criticism is that it isn't helping the rogue be a better rogue. Which I suppose isn't unique; the Divine Soul sorcerer isn't a 'better sorcerer', but sorcerer kits are about being a 'different kind of sorcerer'. But the thief can use fast hands to use a kit, and the new kit is a huge part of this subclass. You could just introduce a better healing kit, or different healing feats. It just seems weird, shanking a bad guy with Sneak Attack then healing the barbarian. A bit of cognitive dissonance if you will.

Criticism aside, I like the thought of a non-magical healer, and rogue fits well enough as a combat medic (sneak attacks could be knowledge of anatomical weak points for instance). You've covered non-HP support and this thief could, in theory, work as a primary healer especially with a high intelligence. It doesn't seem unbalanced (but balance is not my forte, so take that with a grain of salt, and remember I am not taking the golem into consideration).

If I were to offer a suggestion:

Rogue subclasses largely give you another way to use your cunning action or another way to use sneak attack. You might consider a high-level ability where you can expend a use of the kit to add to your sneak attack damage. Or alternatively, something like "you don't need Advantage to sneak attack if your target has light or no armor" to represent being able to take better advantage of having access to squishy vulnerable bodies. I'd definitely suggest flavouring sneak attack to better represent a combat medic.

Please don't be discouraged by my criticisms. It's intended benevolently; hopefully some of my commentary will be helpful.

metalith
2020-03-22, 01:44 PM
So a few comments:

Your wording does not make it clear: is this an additional use of Cunning Action (dodge or heal) or is it an additional effect when you use it (dodge AND heal)?

I don't like the flesh golem. It's not heal-y IMO. It's a theme better suited to a necromancer, mad wizard, or artificer. The disconnect was so huge that my brain refused to finish reading, so someone else will have to review that.

Understood. I had a hard time with the 17th level ability because I felt that the previous abilities were solid enough. So I looked towards famous doctors to see what would be the quintessential triumph of medicine and got the bringing the long dead back from the dead and the story of Dr Frankenstein.




Rogue subclasses largely give you another way to use your cunning action or another way to use sneak attack. You might consider a high-level ability where you can expend a use of the kit to add to your sneak attack damage. Or alternatively, something like "you don't need Advantage to sneak attack if your target has light or no armor" to represent being able to take better advantage of having access to squishy vulnerable bodies. I'd definitely suggest flavouring sneak attack to better represent a combat medic.

Please don't be discouraged by my criticisms. It's intended benevolently; hopefully some of my commentary will be helpful.

Understood. However, thematically, healers in battle whether in stories, movies and other games have had to attack and/or kill and enemy and then immediately switch over to treating an ally. I understand a niche could be filled with better "healing items" however if I were to simply create an item I could devalue existing feats and items. This is a special items is usable by this archetype only.

metalith
2020-03-23, 05:10 PM
So a few comments:

Your wording does not make it clear: is this an additional use of Cunning Action (dodge or heal) or is it an additional effect when you use it (dodge AND heal)?

It's supposed to be an or. Basically adding a new option when you want to use your Cunning Action.

Garfunion
2020-03-23, 06:59 PM
I keep looking at this archetype and it is quite confusing, and the flesh golem at the end completely throws it off. Instead of the flesh golem it would make more sense to be able to revive someone for free once per day using an action.

metalith
2020-03-24, 08:17 AM
I can try to reword things to make it more easily understood, anything specific that is was confusing?

For the 17th level ability, you do gain the ability to do resurrection. However, an only once per day revive seems like a very weak capstone.

Garfunion
2020-03-24, 03:21 PM
For the 17th level ability, you do gain the ability to do resurrection. However, an only once per day revive seems like a very weak capstone.
Most archetype capstones are not meant to be powerful except for the paladin’s. They are meant to complement the archetype not completely do a 180.

Inspired by you and a reddit user I’ve created my version of a rogue healer.

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?609263-Rogue-Combat-Medic-Archetype-Feedback