Healing without Spells

[Nagog]

Howdy folks!

I've got a bit of a conundrum for you all:
I need to make a character that is not a spellcaster, has enough healing to support a large party (6 members), without using UA, monstrous races (Aasimar included) or Elves, or Wildmount content.

The Why: I'm currently playing an Artificer (Alchemist) in this campaign, but the character's motivations and goals are making it rather difficult to keep them travelling with the party. Also, the world has been repeatedly described as low magic, however our party consists of 5 spellcasters (Wizard, Eldritch Knight, Ranger, Bard, and Artificer (me)) and one Barbarian. In addition, the monstrous races are mostly extinct (anything that would potentially be hostile to humans) and Elves are also on the brink of extinction.

What could be a good healer for such a large group without furthering the "Your party is magical as cuss in a land nearly devoid of magic" conundrum? (Thief Rogue is the only non-magical one that comes to mind, but with such a large party idk if running around with a healer's kit will suffice).

[nickl_2000]

Anyone with the healer feat would be decent enough. Thief Rogue would be the best for bringing people back up in combat, but it will help everyone. The nice thing about the healer feat is that all you need is enough healer's kits and you are fine. It works better with a larger party (since you can use it once per PC per short rest).

That is the best you are going to get with no magic. My next choice would be a Paladin. Between cure wounds and laying on of hands you can get some pretty serious healing going on while only being a half caster like you were before. Ranger can heal very well to with healing spirit and cure wounds and is also only a half caster.

[Civis Mundi]

Anyone with the healer feat would be decent enough. Thief Rogue would be the best for bringing people back up in combat, but it will help everyone. The nice thing about the healer feat is that all you need is enough healer's kits and you are fine. It works better with a larger party (since you can use it once per PC per short rest).

That is the best you are going to get with no magic. My next choice would be a Paladin. Between cure wounds and laying on of hands you can get some pretty serious healing going on while only being a half caster like you were before. Ranger can heal very well to with healing spirit and cure wounds and is also only a half caster.

I'm playing a Thief Rogue with the Healer feat in one game and it really is surprisingly strong. At, say, 5th level, you're healing 1d6+9, average 13, as a bonus action. A 3rd level cure wounds at that level will be healing ~3d8+4, average 18 damage. Cure wounds can heal a lot more, but it's also much swingier. Also, going between support and mobile striker is a really fun role to play in the party. For extra fun, mix in Inspiring Leader.

[Brawnspear]

There's also the Banneret / Purple Dragon knight from Sword Coast, which gives a very small amount of healing to people every time you second wind. To go along with that and the Healer feat, you could pick up Inspiring leader for some sweet Temp HP doling out.

That's all I can think of for full magic less healing. There are a couple options for spell-less healing. Oath of the Crown paladin / life cleric channel divinity, Dream druid and Celestial warlock heal dice.

Oath of Crown paladin channel divinity doesn't scale based on level, it's just a d6+char to people below half health so if you want it but don't want to be castery you can stop after 3 levels. Add that on to the Banneret for fighter level hitpoints to 3 other people when you second wind, you have some nice pick up affects that reset on short rest. Along with that you have Heal kit and Inspiring leader, which also reset on a short rest.

I don't know that I'd call it a lot of prime healing but its enough to keep people limping forward until they use their own darn resources hopefully.

[jjordan]

Homebrewed. Far from complete. Worth slightly less than you paid for it.
https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?590467-Expanding-Healing-Options

[Scarytincan]

If unearthed arcana is good, way of mercy monk?

Edit : oops missed the no UA

[Samayu]

Why do you have to be the healer? What's wrong with the ranger taking on that role?

[OldTrees1]

Healer feat followed by Inspiring Leader feat. You just gave everyone roughly +12 Con. That should be enough for hp healing. Also Inspiring Leader helps delay the Healer feat until out of combat. The real issue is condition removal / reversal. If someone is poisoned, or cursed, or petrified, or dead, then the healer will be missing.

[Dork_Forge]

Okay so sources of none spell healing that fit your restrictions:

-Healer feat as laready mentioned (easily picked up as a V. Human), I've taken it as a Battle Smith and it was a crazy amount of healing on it's own

-Celestial Warlock's Healing Light and Circle of Dreams Druid's Balm of the Summer Court

-Paladin's Lay on Hands

-As mentioned the PDK (banneret) ability to share Second Wind

Aasimar isn't a monstrous race (that is a specific section of Volo's that includes the Goblinoids), if that changes anything it'll make things a lot easier for you.

Since you're wanting to avoid anything that gets the Spellcasting feature, I think your best option would be a PDK Fighter with the Healer feat, that gives you a bunch of healing per short rest that should keep your party topped up enough (especially since the party includes a Ranger and Bard, they both get access to healing magic).

[Chaosmancer]

Since the healer's feat and Inspiring Leader combo was already mentioned, I'll throw something else into the mix.

Using the Herbalism kit or Alchemist Kit to make healing potions. If you want more than the standard 2d4+2 potions, that might need some fiat, but my Rogue Thief has been using the healer's feat and the kits to make a ton of items that can aid the party (I'm also using a 3pp supplement to give us more types of potions and ways to make them that take less time)

But yeah, Banneret, Healer Feat, Inspiring Leader and the potions. That is about all the of the non-magical healing in the game.

And I'd recommend you look into your DM buffing the banneret a little if you go with that option. It needs a little polish

[SLOTHRPG95]

Besides healing, what are you interested in doing? As was already mentioned, Healer + Inspiring Leader is already pretty strong, but if you want to build on that then Thief, Banneret, or even Battlemaster can supplement your (T)HP buffing. If you want DPR with the option to occasionally trade for topping up THP, then the Rally maneuver should have you covered, letting you trade out some potential damage/riders for up to 26 average THP/SR when you first get it (assuming 14 CHA), up to 69/SR at 18th (w/ 20 CHA). It eats your bonus action, but assuming you don't use that for your normal attack iteration then it's fine. Banneret leaves your bonus action less crowded, and if you're already pumping Charisma, then expertise in Persuasion makes you a solid face. Thief has BA Healer, but if your DM rules that a healer's kit takes both hands to move, juggling between that and your weapon(s) becomes clunky, even with Fast Hands, so YMMV. If none of these fit your fancy, Swashbuckler provides returns beyond just boosting Inspiring Leader for boosting your Charisma, and it's still 100% magic-free.

Edit: and no matter what you pick, get Cook's Utensils as a proficiency, assuming your DM is using the XGtE expanded uses. Every bit of extra juice you can squeeze out of hit dice spent is gold when you don't have a magical healer.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

There is also the bard song of rest for extra healing.

From what I know healing isn't really useful in 5e because it was nerfed to the ground because they wanted to destroy the healer role in the party(I loved playing the healer in 3.5e, now it is not valid).

Just ignore the healing part of the game and heal in short rests with hitdie

[Dork_Forge]

There is also the bard song of rest for extra healing.

From what I know healing isn't really useful in 5e because it was nerfed to the ground because they wanted to destroy the healer role in the party(I loved playing the healer in 3.5e, now it is not valid).

Just ignore the healing part of the game and heal in short rests with hitdie

This doesn't help in a game with any real degree of challenge. Following this advice as soon as someone drops, you're outta luck. As soon as you run outta hit die (which seeing as you're relying on them more, isn't going to take that long), you run outta luck. Multiple encounters per short rest? Probably outta luck. Unable to take a short rest for some reason, you guess it, outta luck.

Healing is still important in 5e.

[Contrast]

The real issue with Inspiring Leader is that its best on a Cha focused character and most of those are spellcasters - it can work fine with a 14 in Cha though. A swashbuckler perhaps? Healer is more applicable to being slapped on any build.

My suggestion would probably be paladin with Inspiring Leader and just don't use the flashier spells and flavour things like Lay on Hands as more of the Aragorn style healing.

People have covered most of the non-spellcaster options really. That said, is healing an issue at the moment?

Edit -


This doesn't help in a game with any real degree of challenge. Following this advice as soon as someone drops, you're outta luck. As soon as you run outta hit die (which seeing as you're relying on them more, isn't going to take that long), you run outta luck. Multiple encounters per short rest? Probably outta luck. Unable to take a short rest for some reason, you guess it, outta luck.

Healing is still important in 5e.

They have a bard with Healing Word and a ranger who can presumably dish out Goodberries. Thief Rogue with a healers kit is the only non-magical option of getting people up if thats your criteria. In terms of multiple encounters per short rest - my experience is that is totally fine. Trying to heal with magic just means you'll be out of spell slots instead of hit die and I'd much rather have spell slots than hit die going into a fight. Sometimes you do need magical healing but its not like the party doesn't already have access to some.

Inspiring Leader and Healer are both good but it isn't OPs sole responsibility. Unless OP takes a thief Healer is equally effective on any of the party and Inspiring Leader would likely be better on the bard.

[Dork_Forge]

They have a bard with Healing Word and a ranger who can presumably dish out Goodberries. Thief Rogue with a healers kit is the only non-magical option of getting people up if thats your criteria. In terms of multiple encounters per short rest - my experience is that is totally fine. Trying to heal with magic just means you'll be out of spell slots instead of hit die and I'd much rather have spell slots than hit die going into a fight. Sometimes you do need magical healing but its not like the party doesn't already have access to some.

Inspiring Leader and Healer are both good but it isn't OPs sole responsibility. Unless OP takes a thief Healer is equally effective on any of the party and Inspiring Leader would likely be better on the bard.

I took the post as less "OP you don't really need healing in your circumstance) and more "healing in 5e is terrible period," if it was the former (and the Ranger and Bard actually have healing spells, they are Spells Known casters) then fair enough, though at my table (and I believe RAI, I think Chris Perkins tweeted about it once), you can't feed a Goodberry to an unconscious person.

[Scarytincan]

The real issue with Inspiring Leader is that its best on a Cha focused character and most of those are spellcasters - it can work fine with a 14 in Cha though.

Charisma can totally help with Inspiring Leader, but it's helped way more by levels. If you happen to have high cha, go ahead and take it earlier and if not, take it after healer feat instead and it'll still give a big chunk of THP, especially late game

[Luccan]

Why do you have to be the healer? What's wrong with the ranger taking on that role?

OP says UA is out, so the ranger can only know 11 spells (slightly more if it's an XGTE Ranger). Eating into their spells known could be a problem and they wouldn't be able to shift into the roll until next level anyway. Plus, I would guess from the current party make up that OP is already the healer (and may even likes the roll) with their Artificer. So it might make more sense to introduce a similar character.

That said, is the idea that you must be a non-spellcaster simply a desire to fit the mold laid out by the DM or a direct request from them? Because the rest of your party is still gonna be super magical.

[Nagog]

Why do you have to be the healer? What's wrong with the ranger taking on that role?

Both Ranger and Bard are capable of picking that up, but I can say with 99% certainty that they wont be doing so for the following reasons:
1. They are both first time players
2. They are all on board the "Deal damage at every opportunity" showboat.


Besides healing, what are you interested in doing? As was already mentioned, Healer + Inspiring Leader is already pretty strong, but if you want to build on that then Thief, Banneret, or even Battlemaster can supplement your (T)HP buffing. If you want DPR with the option to occasionally trade for topping up THP, then the Rally maneuver should have you covered, letting you trade out some potential damage/riders for up to 26 average THP/SR when you first get it (assuming 14 CHA), up to 69/SR at 18th (w/ 20 CHA). It eats your bonus action, but assuming you don't use that for your normal attack iteration then it's fine. Banneret leaves your bonus action less crowded, and if you're already pumping Charisma, then expertise in Persuasion makes you a solid face. Thief has BA Healer, but if your DM rules that a healer's kit takes both hands to move, juggling between that and your weapon(s) becomes clunky, even with Fast Hands, so YMMV. If none of these fit your fancy, Swashbuckler provides returns beyond just boosting Inspiring Leader for boosting your Charisma, and it's still 100% magic-free.

Edit: and no matter what you pick, get Cook's Utensils as a proficiency, assuming your DM is using the XGtE expanded uses. Every bit of extra juice you can squeeze out of hit dice spent is gold when you don't have a magical healer.

Honestly, I'd love to play Blood Hunter. It seems like a flavorful and interesting class, however the party has 2 melee Tanks (meaning melee is going to get crowded fast), 2 long range damage dealers (Ranger and Wizard) and a Rogue who joined last night, who's tried to get in on the Melee game with the Barbarian and Eldritch Knight, but mostly ended up skirmishing after that got crowded. So it looks like the only unfilled (and badly needed) role is Support and Healing. Which are roles I typically love to play, but with the heavy restrictions on race/class and world flavor, leaves me with the Artificer I'm already playing.

[SLOTHRPG95]

Honestly, I'd love to play Blood Hunter. It seems like a flavorful and interesting class, however the party has 2 melee Tanks (meaning melee is going to get crowded fast), 2 long range damage dealers (Ranger and Wizard) and a Rogue who joined last night, who's tried to get in on the Melee game with the Barbarian and Eldritch Knight, but mostly ended up skirmishing after that got crowded. So it looks like the only unfilled (and badly needed) role is Support and Healing. Which are roles I typically love to play, but with the heavy restrictions on race/class and world flavor, leaves me with the Artificer I'm already playing.

I'm not overly familiar with the Blood Hunter, but it's pretty easy to build Battlemaster for support, with Commander's Strike, Distracting Attack, and Maneuvering Attack all providing direct support, while Rally shores up the THP. Less directly, Goading Attack, Pushing Attack, and Trip Attack can also provide support when used tactically. Given how crowded melee is, my personal preference would lie with a bow, but you could also go S&B w/ Protection fighting style for even more support.

[pantastic]

I need to make a character that is not a spellcaster, has enough healing to support a large party (6 members) ... I'm currently playing an Artificer (Alchemist)

As mentioned: Healer feat with Healer kit seems pretty useful.

Also, have you considered reskinning some of the alchemy as drugs/chemical stimulants, and focusing on those healing mechanics? If you really wanted to, you could get Herbalism in the mix as well for plenty of 'potent' non-magical healing options.

Just a thought that seems like it might fit into your existing character reasonably. Whatever you do, hope it works out well for you and the party!

[HPisBS]

You already have a bard and a ranger; they should be capable of filling your healing needs just fine.

Other than that, you'd probably be fine with a herbalism kit from some background. Just craft healing potions in your downtime. The rules specifically call out healing potions as being separate from real magic items, so it fits your low-magic campaign just fine.

[animewatcha]

Is there anyway you can get UA allowed? Monk of Tranquility gets good healing and a few other abilities would be situationally useful and is more 'new player and less stepping on toes' friendly. That and the kung fu stuff. You could theme as Kwai Chang Caine.

[Civis Mundi]

Is there anyway you can get UA allowed? Monk of Tranquility gets good healing and a few other abilities would be situationally useful and is more 'new player and less stepping on toes' friendly. That and the kung fu stuff. You could theme as Kwai Chang Caine.

This is a fantastic suggestion. I know the Tranquility Monk ostensibly got scrapped, but I always really liked it as a main healer.

One other thing I wanted to add on the subject of a Healer Thief: all you need is 3 levels of Rogue (and the feat, potentially with Rogue 4). Beyond that, you could go any class you want, because Healer will scale with your character level. You could go Human Rogue 3/Blood Hunter+.