Rogue Combat Medic Archetype Feedback.

[Garfunion]

Inspired by a thread in these forums and in the Reddit forums, here is my version of a rogue healer. I don’t claim this as all my ideas.

Rogue Combat Medic

Medical Supplies
Starting at 3rd level you gain proficiency in medicine and the herbalist’s kit. Additionally at the end of a long rest and you have a herbalist’s kit in your possession, you may create one healer’s kit containing 10 uses or one healing potion without expanding material cost.

Stabilizing Hands
At 3rd level, you can use your cunning action to use a healer’s kit or administer a healing potion.

Rapid Response
At 3rd level when an ally you see is critically hit or they are reduced to 0 hit points, you may use your reaction to move up to your speed toward them.

Battle Field Triage
Starting at 9th level you learn how to treat the wounded more effectively, getting them back into the fight quickly.
When you use your cunning action to use a healer’s kit or administer a healing potion to an ally, the ally regains additional hit points equal to your rogue level. Additionally the ally can stand up (if prone) and use its reaction to move up to half its speed. This movement does not provoke opportunity attack.

Medicine kit
At 13th level, when you use a healer’s kit or administer a healing potion to a creature, the creature can end either one disease or one condition afflicting it. The condition can be blinded, deafened, paralyzed, or poisoned.

Miracle Max
When you reach 17th level, you may restore life to a dead creature. The creature cannot have been dead no more than 24 hours. You may use a healer’s kit and spend 5 uses of a it, to return a creature back to life as if you cast the Revivify spell. You cannot use this feature again until you complete a long rest.

[Magicspook]

I don't have the phb with me right now, but my first impression is that it has a lot of little things, which makes it a bit cluttered. Maybe the archetype would be more effective if at 3rd and 9nth level, you got fewer but more powerful features. Your capstone feature is very effective in that way.

I really like the theme you're going for in general, keep it up!

[Garfunion]

I don't have the phb with me right now, but my first impression is that it has a lot of little things, which makes it a bit cluttered. Maybe the archetype would be more effective if at 3rd and 9nth level, you got fewer but more powerful features. Your capstone feature is very effective in that way.

I really like the theme you're going for in general, keep it up!

The 3rd level features allow you to move as a reaction and you can use the healer’s kit with an action and bonus action on your turn. Combine this with the healer feat for maximum effect.
The 9th level features is the real healing meat of the archetype. However i can see that it is a bit cumbersome. I was trying to provide healing without the use of spells. At later levels players tend to use less hit die healing and more spell healing instead. So I tried to give a reason to actually use them.

[Garfunion]

I’ve made some changes to the archetype to make it more impactful.

[T.G. Oskar]

I'm seeing a lot of variants of this. WotC should pay attention.

But on to the topic. This? Seal of approval. I love it. I was thinking on something similar, maybe a bit more powerful (such as an option to dirty your weapons to deal extra poison damage) and a bit more fluff to it, but this does the trick very nicely.

Medical Supplies is pretty effective - you get proficiency in Medicine and the herbalist's supplies (necessary for your job). The healing potion at no extra cost is a tad too much at 3rd level, and something I feel the Alchemist Artificer could do better. I could keep it, but you still need to "spend" the money; you just don't need to spend the time, which is pretty awesome nonetheless. (Now, do consider that adding 1 basic healing potion to the party per day isn't exactly game-breaking, even with your other subclass feature)

Stabilizing Hands is right on the spot - expand your Cunning Action uses to provide healing. Using a healing potion as a bonus action is something I seriously didn't think of - kudos for that.

Rapid Response is also decent, but makes the subclass a bit too front-loaded. I'd quit the "critically hit", since while it's not something common, it can be exploited. Downed to 0 HP is the right trigger, and you seriously want to move at that moment.

Battlefield Triage is a tad too powerful, but that's only perception. Increasing the potency of a healing potion hits right on the spot, but you'll be using a healer's kit only to stabilize until later on, so you could add a corollary that you can use the healer's kit on an ally at any moment. It's powerful healing, for sure (9 extra HP when using any potion, so 2d4+11 at 9th level as a bonus action - more than comparable to a Healing Word from a Cleric), but since it relies on positioning, it's a good trade. And the Circle of the Shepherd, even if only usable 1/short rest, heals everyone in the area for a similar amount, so it's not like it's more powerful than anything there is. It'll make a Life Cleric green with envy, but they can do ranged healing while blasting, so again - nothing too spectacular. If you feel it's too powerful, making it Int or Wis mod-based is a fair trade, but it's very solid as it stands. Wouldn't change.

Medicine Kit is...a bland name, let's be honest, but it has a very solid effect. Ending the blinded, paralyzed or poisoned effect on a bonus action without anything else is very powerful, but par for the level it's located, so it's not like it's game-breaking.

Miracle Max is another bland name (call it Medical Miracle, for goodness sakes!), but it's just lovely. If you're intending to have this apply in-combat, use the Revivify spell effect instead - it's essentially the same, but meant to be used in combat (you already have the time limit established, and the "material components" replaced). But yeah: this is what I imagine for a Combat Medic capstone.

If I were to change anything, it'd be the description and maybe the names of some of the class features. But I'd definitely play a Rogue with this subclass - it has to exist already, and WotC is foolish for not doing so. Again - kudos to you and the Redditors for suggesting this.

[Garfunion]

Medical Supplies is pretty effective - you get proficiency in Medicine and the herbalist's supplies (necessary for your job). The healing potion at no extra cost is a tad too much at 3rd level, and something I feel the Alchemist Artificer could do better. I could keep it, but you still need to "spend" the money; you just don't need to spend the time, which is pretty awesome nonetheless. (Now, do consider that adding 1 basic healing potion to the party per day isn't exactly game-breaking, even with your other subclass feature)

Like you said one basic healing potion isn’t going to break the game especially at 3rd level. I didn’t add the gold cost because I think 25 gold really isn’t significant enough to worry about.



Stabilizing Hands is right on the spot - expand your Cunning Action uses to provide healing. Using a healing potion as a bonus action is something I seriously didn't think of - kudos for that.

It was originally just going to be the healer’s kit but I felt it needed a little more.



Rapid Response is also decent, but makes the subclass a bit too front-loaded. I'd quit the "critically hit", since while it's not something common, it can be exploited. Downed to 0 HP is the right trigger, and you seriously want to move at that moment.

I really don’t think this feature isn’t that powerful seeing as how the movement can still provoke attack of opportunities.



Battlefield Triage is a tad too powerful, but that's only perception. Increasing the potency of a healing potion hits right on the spot, but you'll be using a healer's kit only to stabilize until later on, so you could add a corollary that you can use the healer's kit on an ally at any moment. It's powerful healing, for sure (9 extra HP when using any potion, so 2d4+11 at 9th level as a bonus action - more than comparable to a Healing Word from a Cleric), but since it relies on positioning, it's a good trade. And the Circle of the Shepherd, even if only usable 1/short rest, heals everyone in the area for a similar amount, so it's not like it's more powerful than anything there is. It'll make a Life Cleric green with envy, but they can do ranged healing while blasting, so again - nothing too spectacular. If you feel it's too powerful, making it Int or Wis mod-based is a fair trade, but it's very solid as it stands. Wouldn't change.

I would imagine a good combat medic rogue with the extra feats they get would pick up healer feat. In order to utilize this feature more often.



Medicine Kit is...a bland name, let's be honest, but it has a very solid effect. Ending the blinded, paralyzed or poisoned effect on a bonus action without anything else is very powerful, but par for the level it's located, so it's not like it's game-breaking.

Any suggestions on a different name?



Miracle Max is another bland name (call it Medical Miracle, for goodness sakes!), but it's just lovely. If you're intending to have this apply in-combat, use the Revivify spell effect instead - it's essentially the same, but meant to be used in combat (you already have the time limit established, and the "material components" replaced). But yeah: this is what I imagine for a Combat Medic capstone.

Come on now Princess Bride? I will however take your suggestion and replace the raise dead with revivify. And maybe the name.



If I were to change anything, it'd be the description and maybe the names of some of the class features. But I'd definitely play a Rogue with this subclass - it has to exist already, and WotC is foolish for not doing so. Again - kudos to you and the Redditors for suggesting this.
I’ll work on the descriptions a bit more.

[Grek]

Medical Supplies has the problem that it lets you trade downtime now for power later - you brew up twenty healing potions and slug it out with the boss, healing whoever got hit that round round as a bonus action. That, and you can sell the proceeds during downtime to make money relatively quickly. To close that loophole, why not make it:

Starting at 3rd level, you gain proficiency in medicine and the herbalist’s kit. At the end of each long rest, you may refill one empty healing potion and restore all uses to a single healer's kit.

[Garfunion]

Medical Supplies has the problem that it lets you trade downtime now for power later - you brew up twenty healing potions and slug it out with the boss, healing whoever got hit that round round as a bonus action. That, and you can sell the proceeds during downtime to make money relatively quickly. To close that loophole, why not make it:

While I understand the concern about stockpiling healing potions and even selling them, however it’s no more different than a 2nd level artificer using an alchemy jug and stockpiling and selling vials of acid. And those 20 healing potions boss fights requires the medic to spend 20 days and not use those potions. Most printed adventures do not have significant downtime moments.



Starting at 3rd level, you gain proficiency in medicine and the herbalist’s kit. At the end of each long rest, you may refill one empty healing potion and restore all uses to a single healer's kit.
What’s stopping a rogue from collecting a bunch of used healing potions and mass producing them? I understand you are trying to create some kind of a limitation but there really isn’t any need for it.

If you’re making the healing potion and not using it then you’re just wasting the ability.

[Anymage]

One healing potion a day while adventuring? Cool and won't break things. 25 GP a day (assuming you can sell unused healing potions at half price, the default for PCs selling unwanted items) brings the risk of a PC deciding to build up cash during downtime by just selling the things.

That said, it's a pretty trivial loophole to close. The kit/potion made with Medical Supplies loses potency if not used within that day. You still get the bonus resource on days that you will use it and won't find your medic-rogue without their essential tools, but you can't give up adventuring in order to sell or stockpile..

[Magicspook]

Just like anymage said, the way to fix the stockpiling healing potions thing is to make the potions go bad after X days, where X is the maximum number of potions you want your player to have. They can keep making them, but all that does is maintain that maximum number.

[Garfunion]

I know everyone seem to be worried about stockpiling and/or selling of healing potions but I need to point out again that a 2nd level Artificer can do the same thing with an alchemy jug. With an alchemy jug you can create up to 2 vials of acid which can be sold at 12.5 gold each (25g total). Acid also has more uses as well, especially if you combine it with catapult spell.

I’ve made some changes to battle field triage to reduce its potency.