help me build a melee healer

[Ashera]

I'm playing in a rather deadly campaign(open rolls from DM), and last night, my war cleric died just after joining the game... so now I need something else

My previous character was a ranged cleric (arcana), so I'd like something melee for once.. preferably something that can heal as well - since all we have that as of now, is a paladin

My stats (rolled) are 15,15,15,14,12,8 so I'm almost having too many options.

We expect to reach lvl 8 in the campaign so no lategame builds

We can use pretty much all official sources but I'm lacking ideas for a build this time :)

can someone come up with something fun?

[Kane0]

Celestial Bladelock? Bonus action heals are generally what youre looking for so you can pick someone up off the ground without stopping you also clobbering goons.

Edit: The other class with built-in BA heals is dreams druid, but you also have the thief rogue leveraging the healer feat.

[ciopo]

I like (life?) cleric 2 / eldritch knight 6

With those stats, I would go with variant human taking the heavy armor mastery feat, for starting abilities of str 16 dex 12 con 16 int 14 wis 16 cha 8

I am not sure at all about what I'd do with the ASI at 6th and 8th level, assuming first two levels are (cleric with heavy armor)

[diplomancer]

Another possibility is the Mercy Monk, you can substitute one of your flurry of blows attacks for an use of a Hands of Healing, which is very efficient, but unlike the Celestial Warlock, you've got to be somewhat close to the downed character. Another advantage of the Mercy Monk is that they can turn any unspent ki before a SR into healing "for free".

Bugbears are crazy good for Monks now. If you play one, put the +2 into Wis, +1 into Dex, get fey touched (gift of alacrity) at 4, and raise your Dex at 8. If by any change the game continues after that, or you keep the character in a different game, get Crusher to get your Constitution to 16 at 12, and raise your Dex and Wis to 20 by endgame.

[Itsfrank]

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?643790-Hello-all-Can-you-help-me-make-a-party-full-of-healers

This is a post I started that could give you some ideas. It's been really fun!

[Burley]

I know you already have a paladin, but, in my experience, a paladin can heal pretty okay and hold their own in melee very well. I've got a 6th level Devotion Paladin with AC 20 (Heavy armor and a shield); with the Interception fighting style, I can use my reaction to reduce damage to an ally by 1d10+3, which really is like healing an ally as a reaction. Allies within 10ft get a +2 on all saves (RAW includes death saves).

If you really want a melee healer, I say you add another paladin to the party.

[nickl_2000]

Hexblade 1/2, then divine soul sorcerer. You have tools for all occasions

Melee with BB/GFB. Ranged with EB. Cha to attack. Medium Armor and shield. Healing from Divine Soul.

Also:
I also haven't seen any recommendations on a Druid. They can make a pretty decent melee character. with medium armor and shields, especially if the DM let's you buy armor with things like Ironwood or dragonscale instead of metal.

Variant Human Life Cleric 1/Wildfire Druid X.
-Ask your DM if they will allow Life Cleric healing to boost goodberries (ymmv, but JC has said it works. my DM gives extra goodberries instead).
-Take Magic Initial: Wizard at 1 for GFB/BB and shield.
-Take the Shillelagh cantrip to attack with Wisdom on your staff and do d8 damage with a shield
-Use your spell slots for healing and buffs, since there are plenty of those
-You can get level 1 Cleric and Druid rituals
-If/when you make it to level 6 Wildfire Druid you get bonus damage each time you cast GFB

[strangebloke]

I'm going to echo Mercy Monk and Life Cleric. Life Clerics have so much healing its stupid, and you're still a cleric, you can still cast spirit guardians and spiritual weapon and wear heavy armor. With your generous stats you can do something like play a high elf using Booming Blade or Greenflame Blade.

Mercy Monk lets you have extra attack and pull off a flurry of heal. Just before you take a short rest you can use all your excess ki on healing.

For more specifics, try out these:
Tough Guy
MPMM Goliath Life Cleric
15/12/16/14/17/8
Level 4: HAM (+1 STR)
Level 8: +2 WIS

proficiency times per day, you can resist 1d12+CON, you automatically resist 3 damage from nonmagical BSP. You can heal up the whole party to half with a CD. You are also a cleric.

Alucard the Sage
Dhampir Mercy Monk 8
8/16/16/14/16/12
Level 4: +2 Dex
Level 8: +2 Dex

So, the bite is a monk weapon. You can replace the 1d4+CON damage with 1d6+CON damage, and heal yourself when you attack with it, sometimes with advantage. You can also heal others efficiently as mentioned above (flavored as blood transfusions) and you can run on ceilings/up walls extremely quickly. Hands of harm is also hella flavorful and strong here. You can also dip cleric for utility if you like, or apportion your stats differently if you want to fit in a feat (like fey-touched. Very strong and on flavor)

[RogueJK]

You said that the campaign won't go much past Level 8, but what level are you starting at?

Besides a Paladin, who else is in your party?

And by "melee healer" do you mean a durable healer who can afford to stand on the front lines in melee range of enemies, or a healer who puts out solid melee damage? (The first one is simpler; the second one will require some compromises.)


For a healer who stands on the front lines, a Cleric can easily fill the role. Focus on WIS and CON. Wear Medium/Heavy Armor and a shield. Invest in a means to boost your Concentration (Warcaster and/or Resilient CON). Then pick a subclass that boosts your healing capabilities, with the two standouts being Life (as already mentioned) or Twilight. The Twilight Cleric's Channel Divinity gives you and the party massive amounts of Temp HP throughout the day, which effectively "heals" by mitigating incoming damage and re-upping Temp HP each round, plus you're still a Cleric on top of that with all the healing/status mitigation that comes along with that class.

That'd look something like this:
Custom Lineage Life/Twilight Cleric:
STR 15
DEX 14
CON 15
INT 12
WIS 15+2
CHA 8
ASIs: Resilient CON (16 CON) at Level 1, WIS Half-Feat like Fey Touched/Skill Expert/Chef/etc. (18 WIS) at Level 4, then +2 WIS or Warcaster at Level 8.
Wear Medium/Heavy Armor and carry a shield, but leave your other hand free for casting. Frontline Cleric routine is Cantrip/Dodge/Help Action + Spirit Guardians Concentration + Spiritual Weapon Bonus Action.


For the second one, a healer with semi-optimized melee damage output, consider a specialized build like LudicSavant's Arcana Cleric Frontliner or Celestial Warlock Generalist. The Arcana Cleric Frontliner build doesn't fully come online until Level 8ish, and you've just finished playing an Arcana Cleric anyway, so that one probably isn't a good option here. Therefore, check out the Celestial Warlock Generalist build: https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?583957-An-Eclectic-Collection-of-Fun-and-Effective-Builds That'd look something like this:
Variant Human Celestial Warlock
STR 15
DEX 14
CON 15+1
INT 8
WIS 12
CHA 15+1
ASIs: Moderately Armored (16 STR) at Level 1, and +2 CHA at Levels 4 and 8.
Wear Medium Armor and use a Staff and Shield, attacking with STR until Level 3, then go Tomelock for CHA-based Shillelagh+Green Flame Blade attacks. Take the Eldritch Mind Invocation to boost your Concentration. Starting at Level 6, your Green Flame Shillelagh melee attack each turn is dealing 2d8+8, since you get to apply your +4 CHAMOD to damage twice (once from Shillelagh and again from Radiant Soul). This then becomes +10 when you get to 20 CHA at Level 8. Plus you get to play around with all the various Warlock spells and nifty Invocations, including having access to all Ritual spells via Book of Ancient Secrets, which is very nice if the party is lacking a Wizard.


Or if you're willing to compromise on a bit of your healing capabilities in favor of damage output, a Paladin 2/Divine Soul Sorcerer X can also be a solid melee damage dealer, combining Green Flame/Booming Blade + sometimes Quickened Green Flame/Booming Blade, with the ability to Divine Smite on either of the two attacks using Sorcerer spell slots. You also having some healing capabilities from a little bit of Lay on Hands plus Divine Soul's access to Cleric healing/status mitigation spells. (But this route runs the risk of stepping on the toes of the existing party Paladin...) That could look something like this:
Variant Human Paladin 2 -> Divine Soul Sorcerer X
STR 15+1
DEX 14 or 12
CON 15
INT 8
WIS 12 or 14
CHA 15+1
ASIs: Resilient CON (16 CON) at Level 1, then +2 CHA or STR at Sorcerer 4
Wear Heavy Armor, wield a 2H weapon like a Greatsword or Maul, and take the Defense Fighting Style.
(Or if you're starting at Level 2+, you can start with Sorcerer at Level 1 for CON save proficiency, begin with 14 DEX/16 CON/16 CHA, wear Medium Armor, and take something like Crusher/Slasher for 16 STR as your Level 1 feat.)

[nickl_2000]

For the second one, a healer with semi-optimal melee damage output, consider a specialized build like LudicSavant's Arcana Cleric Frontliner or Celestial Warlock Generalist. The Arcana Cleric doesn't fully come online until Level 8ish, and you've just finished playing one of those anyway, so that one probably isn't a good option here. Check out the Celestial Warlock Generalist: https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?583957-An-Eclectic-Collection-of-Fun-and-Effective-Builds That'd look something like this:
Variant Human Celestial Warlock 15,15,15,14,12,8
STR 15
DEX 14
CON 15+1
INT 8
WIS 12
CHA 15+1
ASIs: Moderately Armored (16 STR) at Level 1, Warcaster at Level 4, +2 CHA at Level 8.
Use a Staff and Shield, attacking with STR until Level 3, then go Tomelock for CHA-based Shillelagh.


I can confirm that this is a good build. We have a player in our campaign doing almost the exact thing, but with point buy. He's a good healer, he's an effective character, and good in both melee and ranged. He doesn't tank as well as the Paladin, but he can easily get in there and do the job.

[Corran]

Shepard druid if level 5 is not too far away. You'll spam summons which can act as meatshields thus sparing the pc's some pain (alternatively, assuming the enemies mostly ignore them, they'll deal a lot of damage -with good placement you'll get more of this from their OA's, so that makes fights easier in a different way). They also get some abilities that heal or grant temporary hp at a good rate. Just boost your concentration and keep wildshape mostly for defense, excpet for when you really need to contribute to the party's hp a little bit more via your wildshaped forms. Boost concentration enough and I think you're good. For a more dedicated melee approach a moon druid could do the trick. More HP up front in the party's service, less hp recover/ temp hp generation from lacking the shepard's abilities. I'd say that moon would be preferable at these levels only if the druid summons are not enough on their own to boost your frontline.

[RogueJK]

Shepard druid if level 5 is not too far away. You'll spam summons which can act as meatshields thus sparing the pc's some pain

It would depend on how "melee-focused" they want to be. Standing in the back while your Summons do the fighting may not be what they're after.

On the other hand, rolling melee attack rolls for a Summon is basically the same thing as rolling melee attack rolls for a Fighter PC, so...

[Eldariel]

How about simple Bladesinger with Mark of Healing Halfling? With those stats you'll do just fine and you can naturally enter melee and smack things while possessing a vast array of healing powers.

Lifeberry is probably even stronger; just go Liferic 1/Moon Druid X and spend your time eating face while people heal for 4+ off your Goodberries. Hell, go Ritual Caster: Wizard to get a familiar and a potential Unseen Servant to feed them to people (you can do it yourself but why bother). Healing Spirit with Liferic is pretty sweet too.

[Corran]

It would depend on how "melee-focused" they want to be. Standing in the back while your Summons do the fighting may not be what they're after.

On the other hand, rolling melee attack rolls for a Summon is basically the same thing as rolling melee attack rolls for a Fighter PC, so...
It's not melee focused in the usual sense, definitely. I initially wanted to suggest a moon druid and throw the shepard idea as an additional suggestion, but ended up doing the opposite. Partly because of the cap being at 8 level and partly because since you can fill the front lines anyway with summons I thought it more efficient to change better wildshaped forms (that wont reach elemental form) for a (pressumably) better chance to protect concentration and for the healing/temp hp AoE. Though now that I think of it a stars druid would be comprable to the shepard since at these levels you may not need to count on summons bypassing damage resistance too often. But yeah, I admit I went off topic there with the shepard druid suggestion.

Edit: @OP: If pc's die in a high rate, there are usually two ways to deal with it in terms of prefered positioning.
1) You either try to clear your "front line", by which I mean that up to one pc tries to become a lobster and everyone else optimize getting out of harm's way and operating efficiently from a safe distance (there's not a single way to make this happen, but I'd expect most such approaches to include a few warlock dips).
2) Or you try to flood your frontline, and the best way to do this is with minions.
Such approaches wont solve all your problems obviosuly, nor is it as simplistic as I described it to make them work. So, consider that a melee approach is not necessarily helpful by default. Sometimes the best idea is to use a pc that will be efficient at staying out of harms way and thus minimize the times you are being a liability, while prompting someone else to act as a very uncooperative (to the enemies) punching bag. If melee is just for style/preference, then I digress.

[Ashera]

Thank you for all the replies :) I think I'll go with the celestial warlock - and save the rest of the ideas for future characters

[Garresh]

Wait!

*huff* *huff*

I came as soon as I could.

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?545797-This-Hurts-You-More-Than-It-Hurts-Me-A-Healer-s-Handbook

*Falls over from exhaustion*

[RogueJK]

*Falls over from exhaustion*

Man, I hate it when the healer is the one who goes down...

Guess we'll have to cart him over to the temple for a Greater Restoration casting.