Healer

[JNAProductions]

HIT POINTS
Hit Dice: d8
Hit Points at 1st Level: 8+Constitution Modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (5)+Constitution Modifier

PROFICIENCIES
Armor: All
Weapons: Simple
Tools: Healer's Kit

Saving Throws: Wisdom and Intelligence
Skills: Choose two from History, Insight, Medicine, Persuasion, and Religion

EQUIPMENT
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
-Any one simple weapon
-(a) scale mail, (b) leather armor, or (c) chain mail
-Any simple ranged weapon and 20 pieces of ammo
-(a) A priest's pack or (b) an explorer's pack
-A shield and divine focus

Healer

				—Spell Slots per Spell Level—
Level	Proficiency Bonus	Features	Cantrips Known	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th
1st	+2	Spellcasting, Disciple Of Life, Ritual Casting	3	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2nd	+2	Healer Archetype	3	3	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
3rd	+2	-	3	4	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
4th	+2	Ability Score Improvement	4	4	3	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
5th	+3	Blessed Healer	4	4	3	2	—	—	—	—	—	—
6th	+3	Archetype Feature	4	4	3	3	—	—	—	—	—	—
7th	+3	Give And Take	4	4	3	3	1	—	—	—	—	—
8th	+3	Ability Score Improvement	4	4	3	3	2	—	—	—	—	—
9th	+4	-	4	4	3	3	3	1	—	—	—	—
10th	+4	Archetype Feature	5	4	3	3	3	2	—	—	—	—
11th	+4	Radiant Strike, Potent Cantrips	5	4	3	3	3	2	1	—	—	—
12th	+4	Ability Score Improvement	5	4	3	3	3	2	1	—	—	—
13th	+5	-	5	4	3	3	3	2	1	1	—	—
14th	+5	Archetype Feature	5	4	3	3	3	2	1	1	—	—
15th	+5	Supreme Healing	5	4	3	3	3	2	1	1	1	—
16th	+5	Ability Score Improvement	5	4	3	3	3	2	1	1	1	—
17th	+6	Ageless	5	4	3	3	3	2	1	1	1	1
18th	+6	Archetype Feature	5	4	3	3	3	3	1	1	1	1
19th	+6	Ability Score Improvement	5	4	3	3	3	3	2	1	1	1
20th	+6	Sacrifice	5	4	3	3	3	3	2	2	1	1

Spellcasting-As a Wizard.

Disciple of Life-As the Life Cleric feature.

Ritual Casting-As a Wizard.

Healer Archetype-Choose whether you wish to be a Battle Medic or a Researcher.

Blessed Healer-As the Life Cleric feature.

Give And Take-Each time you make an attack with a weapon or a cantrip, you may grant temporary HP equal to your proficiency bonus to one ally within 30' of yourself.

Radiant Strike-Your weapon attacks now deal an extra 1d8 radiant damage when they hit.

Potent Cantrips-Any damaging cantrip you cast now deals extra damage equal to your Wisdom modifier.

Supreme Healing-As the Life Cleric feature.

Ageless-You no longer suffer any penalties due to age, and age five times slower than normal.

Sacrifice-You may now choose to take damage up to twice your max hit points as an action-note that this damage cannot be prevented by any means. You may either heal an ally for the same amount of damage dealt to you, resurrect an ally as if casting True Resurrection if you choose to deal the maximum possible damage, or deal the damage to an enemy within 60'. The enemy is entitled to a Wisdom saving throw to halve the damage, using your spell save DC. This action can only be taken once per long rest.

Battle Medic

Martial Weapon Proficiency-At level two, you gain proficiency in all martial weapons.

Extra Attack-At level six.

Defender-At level ten, you learn to wield a shield with added effectiveness. If wielding a shield and a one-handed weapon, you may add 3 to your AC, rather than 2. In addition, you may now use a two-handed weapon with your shield, but if you do so, the AC bonus decreases to 1.

Quick Recovery-At level fourteen, you regain hit points equal to your Intelligence modifier at the start of each of your turns if you are below half health.

Rouse-At level eighteen, once per long rest, you may rouse all allies within 60'. They are freed of all negative status conditions (except grappled) and are restored to 10 HP if they are at less.

Researcher

Spell Poacher-At level two, you may gain one first level spell and one cantrip from any spell list.

Medicine Expertise-At level six, you gain Expertise in the Medicine skill. If you already had proficiency in Medicine, pick any other skill and gain proficiency in it.

Spell Recovery-At level ten, whenever you cast a spell that heals other, you may gain an additional spell slot of two levels lower. These additional slots vanish after a long rest. (For instance, if you cast Healing Word at third level and have not spent any first level slots for this day, you would have five first level spell slots instead of four.) In addition, no spell slot made this way may be over 5th level.

Selfless Caster-At level fourteen, any spell that can only target one person can instead two, so long as it is a positive spell, the two targets both start within touching distance, and the two targets never move more than 30' away from each other. If they do move further, one target (your choice) immediately loses the effect of the spell. This can allow self-only spells to target other targets as well.

Economic Casting-At level eighteen, you may, once per long rest, ignore any material component when casting a spell.

Spoiler: Spell List

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Spoiler: Cantrips

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Guidance
Light
Mending
Resistance
Sacred Flame
Spare The Dying
Vicious Mockery
True Strike

Spoiler: First Level

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Bless
Command
Create Or Destroy Water
Cure Wounds
Detect Evil And Good
Detect Magic
Detect Poisons And Diseases
Guiding Bolt
Healing Word
Protection From Evil And Good
Purify Food And Drink
Sanctuary
Shield Of Faith
Faerie Fire
Feather Fall
Longstrider
Sleep

Spoiler: Second Level

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Aid
Calm Emotions
Continual Flame
Enhance Ability
Gentle Repose
Hold Person
Lesser Restoration
Prayer Of Healing
Protection From Poison
Warding Bond
Zone Of Truth
Detect Thoughts
Enthrall
See Invisibility
Gust Of Wind

Spoiler: Third Level

Show

Beacon Of Hope
Create Food And Water
Daylight
Dispel Magic
Glyph Of Warding
Magic Circle
Mass Healing Word
Protection From Energy
Remove Curse
Revivify
Speak With Dead
Spirit Guardians
Tongues
Plant Growth
Wind Wall
Aura Of Vitality
Fly
Haste

Spoiler: Fourth Level

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Control Water
Death Ward
Freedom Of Movement
Guardian Of Faith
Stoneskin
Aura Of Life
Aura Of Purity
Polymorph
Banishment
Otiluke's Resilient Sphere

Spoiler: Fifth Level

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Dispel Evil And Good
Greater Restoration
Hallow
Mass Cure Wounds
Raise Dead
Awaken
Dream
Hold Monster
Reincarnate
Wall Of Stone
Rary's Telepathic Bond

Spoiler: Sixth Level

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Contingency
Forbiddance
Harm
Heal
Heroes' Feast
True Seeing
Guards And Wards
Wind Walk
Globe Of Invulnerability

Spoiler: Seventh Level

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Conjure Celestial
Divine Word
Regenerate
Resurrection
Plane Shift
Reverse Gravity
Sequester
Teleport

Spoiler: Eight Level

Show

Control Weather
Holy Aura
Glibness
Power Word Stun
Antipathy/Sympathy
Demiplane

Spoiler: Ninth Level

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Mass Heal
True Resurrection
Foresight
Power Word Heal
Wish

[King539]

How do they learn spells, do they have a spell book, prepare off the list, or what?

[JNAProductions]

As a wizard does. So they have a book, based off Int, and start with four spells known, learning two more at each level up. They can also copy from scrolls.

[clash]

Just at a glance:

Defender is a bulky ability. I would suggest choosing what you want the ability to do and having it do only that.

Sacrifice runs into the problem that if you want to resurrect someone else you have to kill yourself. This seems like a bad mechanic.

I will look at it more later to determine balance.

[GalacticAxekick]

Defender has exactly one effect: "You gain +1 AC as long as you possess a shield". Doesn't get less bulky than that.

Everything JNA said is just an outcome of that clause, plus flavour:

• If you're swording and boarding, you get +2 from equipping the shield and +1 from simply having it. Total +3. The flavour explanation is that you possess incredible shield skills.
• If you're greatswording, you cannot equip your shield, but you get +1 from simply possessing it. Flavour explanation is that you can equip the shield tandem with a two-handed weapon, but that it loses some effectiveness..

[JNAProductions]

Think I should reword it, or is it okay as is?

[GalacticAxekick]

I think it's fine. King had only read it at a glance, after all.

[JNAProductions]

Added Ritual Casting. Not sure why I forgot it first go-round.

[demonslayerelf]

The whole thing looks pretty good, if literally just the "Healing Wizard."

My only complaint is with Sacrifice, because it allows the Healer to resurrect anything, and then a helpful cleric or another healer can simply revive them with a less-powerful magic, such as Revivify, or normal Resurrection, or Raise Dead, etc. I feel like it should be toned down, maybe with a special ritual that then weakens the Healer, or maybe make that aspect of it once per week or month or something.


I mean, Economic casting gives a similar problem, though. Save 25,000 gold on that True Resurrection, no down sides.

[JNAProductions]

The whole thing looks pretty good, if literally just the "Healing Wizard."

My only complaint is with Sacrifice, because it allows the Healer to resurrect anything, and then a helpful cleric or another healer can simply revive them with a less-powerful magic, such as Revivify, or normal Resurrection, or Raise Dead, etc. I feel like it should be toned down, maybe with a special ritual that then weakens the Healer, or maybe make that aspect of it once per week or month or something.


I mean, Economic casting gives a similar problem, though. Save 25,000 gold on that True Resurrection, no down sides.

Honestly, I don't see the huge deal. It's potent, yes, but it's the capstone of a dedicated healer class. In addition, since in 5E, money=/=power, obviating the need for material components just saves you more money for ales and whores roleplay.

Moreover, I've never had a party complain that the HEALER of the group was doing their role too well. Maybe a DM could complain, but most DMs tend to like their players and want them to succeed.

[demonslayerelf]

Maybe nobody complains about someone healing too well, but there are a ton of people who complain about how available resurrection magic is.

Me personally, I don't have a problem with it on it's own, but a ton of people do, since it makes death cheap or whatever the argument is.


Also, I just realized that combination Death Ward and sacrifice makes it totally free anyway. Might want to add a clause about that one.

[JNAProductions]

Maybe nobody complains about someone healing too well, but there are a ton of people who complain about how available resurrection magic is.

Me personally, I don't have a problem with it on it's own, but a ton of people do, since it makes death cheap or whatever the argument is.


Also, I just realized that combination Death Ward and sacrifice makes it totally free anyway. Might want to add a clause about that one.

Ah. Right you are about Death Ward. Not "free", unless you're already at 1 HP, but sufficiently abusive that I'll add in a clause saying the damage cannot be resisted or prevented in any way.

And I feel that, if the DM thinks resurrection is too easy to do, they'd be best off removing that spell line, rather than making sure the players are just always broke.

[endlessxaura]

At a glance, this seems to be an objectively better life cleric. You get all of the life cleric features earlier than the cleric does and can also gain a lot of powerful features on top of that. The only things that this class loses compared to the life cleric is Channel Divinity, Destroy Undead, Divine Strike, and Divine Intervention. For those sacrifices, you gain

• Heavy armor proficiency
• Healer kit proficiency
• Martial weapon proficiency OR a 1st level and a cantrip from any spell list
• Extra attack OR Expertise in medicine
• Radiant Strike (a mini-Divine Strike)
• +1 AC OR Spell Recovery (more than doubles your spell count past level 10)
• Rouse (which is almost a better cleansing touch) OR Economic Casting

Now, I recognize that the healer's spell list is far more limiting than the Clerics. Almost all of the spells you have access to are support spells. But even then, the healer still has a lot of good spells like Bless, Guiding Bolt, Command, and Hold Person. I guess what I'm trying to say is: Why would I play life cleric in a game where the GM lets me player a healer? I might be missing something, but I can't find a good reason. I think it would be balanced once you could answer that clearly.

[JNAProductions]

Life Clerics already get Heavy Armor.

Healer Kit Proficiency is honestly close to a ribbon.

Martial Weapon or Spell Poaching are nice, agreed.

Extra Attack is nice. Expertise in Medicine... Does what again? It's not far from a ribbon.

Life Clerics get Divine Strike, only their's scales.

+1 AC is nice. Spell Recovery is very nice, but note that it only works with healing spells. (In addition, I forgot to add the "Only 5th level or lower" slots clause, which all other recovery mechanics have, off the top of my head. Added it in now.)

Rouse is nice... it's also a level 18 feature. If you mean the Lay On Hands curing thing, that's available from level 1. This SHOULD be better. Economic Casting varies from incredibly nice (DM is stingy and you cannot otherwise resurrect people) to meh (DM is very free with money).

And why would you play a Cleric? You want the Channel Divinity, you want a more offensive spell list, you want to be a godly fellow rather than an atheistic madman.

Going back to this class's origin, I specifically wanted to play a support-type healer WITHOUT the god fluff, so I made this class. (DM hewed close to the PHB fluff for classes, but was open to brew.) I definitely agree-this class is a better healer than even the Life Cleric. That is intended-it's got less versatility and less offensive punch. Even the Battle Medic pales compared to the Cleric's more offensive spell list.

[Requilac]

So far the class seems rather reasonable, I just have a small amount of minor issues and suggestions for you

1) wouldn’t it make more sense if you gave battle medic heavy armor proficiency instead of the base class? Is there a specific reason for that?
2) why do they get proficiency in intelligence saving throws? I would suggest giving them proficiency with strength saving throws instead. It seems to make thematic sense to me.
3) if they prepare spells the same way a wizard does that means that intelligence is their spellcasting modifier, right? Also, you do not need to give healers the ritual casting trait because if they have the same spellcasting system as a wizard than that already gives them ritual casting. On a side note, do they use an arcane focus as a spellcasting focus too?
4) give and take grants the temporary hit points only when you make an attack roll, right? Causing an opponent to make a saving throw does not have the same effect if I understand it correctly. You said make an attack not make an attack roll so it could be interpreted either way...
5) This is a more of a comment than anythign else, but sacrifice seems fine to me.
6) so the defender feature basically gives you a +1 bonus to AC if you are dueling or wielding two-handed weapons? Isn’t that jsut a more constrained version of the defense fighting style? I would reccomned just giving them the defense fighting style instead
7) you may want to work on the wording of rouse a little bit. You do realize that people making life saving throws are incapacitated so that means that you could get people back in the fight with 0 HP remaining while they are still making death saving throws. To add on, It seems weird to me that it excludes the prone condition but not the other physical conditions like restrained and prone too.
8) for the case of medicine expertise, I think you made a typo because you basically said that you get expertise in the medicine skill, but only if you did not previously have proficiency in medicine. And wouldn’t it be better to make it so that if you already have expertise in the medicine skill to gain expertise in a pre-existing skill instead of gaining another seperate skill proficiency? I would change the wording to something like this
“At level six you gain proficiency with the medicine skill if you did not already have it. To add on, your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that use the medicine skill (regardless of whether you previously had it or not). If for some reason you already have expertise in medicine then you may choose a different skill you already have to gain expertise in.”
9) spell recovery is incredibly overpowered in its current form. I would highly suggest putting some limit on it like “you can only use this feature a number of times equal to your intelligence modifier per long rest”.

[endlessxaura]

Life Clerics already get Heavy Armor.

My bad >.<

Healer Kit Proficiency is honestly close to a ribbon.

I agree

Martial Weapon or Spell Poaching are nice, agreed.

Yes, and at level 2, I think this is balanced. At higher levels and with extra attack, this starts being a fairly big bonus. I'll explain my reasoning later.

Extra Attack is nice. Expertise in Medicine... Does what again? It's not far from a ribbon.

I agree on the Expertise, but Extra Attack is dank memes, dude.

Life Clerics get Divine Strike, only their's scales.

Yes, but you can have extra attack and this one procs on every attack.

+1 AC is nice. Spell Recovery is very nice, but note that it only works with healing spells. (In addition, I forgot to add the "Only 5th level or lower" slots clause, which all other recovery mechanics have, off the top of my head. Added it in now.)

This seems fairer.

Rouse is nice... it's also a level 18 feature. If you mean the Lay On Hands curing thing, that's available from level 1. This SHOULD be better. Economic Casting varies from incredibly nice (DM is stingy and you cannot otherwise resurrect people) to meh (DM is very free with money).

I misread that it's only once per rest. My bad again.

And why would you play a Cleric? You want the Channel Divinity, you want a more offensive spell list, you want to be a godly fellow rather than an atheistic madman.

I guess maybe we disagree here. In general, I think that Channel Divinity is a weak feature. For a life cleric, you can use it to Turn Undead or Preserve Life. Turn Undead is a fairly niche feature that can eventually destroy low CR undead. Plus, the turning is ended by attacking. Preserve Life, on the other hand, heals up to level * 5 HP but only heals up to half HP. It's a fair amount of healing, but you can only use it efficiently if a lot of the party has taken damage that put them at about a 1/4 or so.

In thinking about DPR, a level 11 Life Cleric does less damage, too. Although, I definitely see what you mean by the spell list. Maybe that is enough to put them on par, but if I had the choice, I would play this over a Life Cleric every time.

Attack damage output

	Life Cleric	Healer
Weapon	Greatclub	Greatsword
Attacks	1	2
Modifier	3	3
Damage Roll	1d8 (weapon) + 1d8 (Divine Strike) + 3 (modifier)	4d6 (weapon) + 2d8 (Radiant Strike) + 6 (modifier)
Average Damage	12	29

Offensive/Notable Spells up to 6th level spells

	Life Cleric	Healer
Bane	Y	N
Command	Y	N
Guiding Bolt	Y	Y
Inflict Wounds	Y	N
Hold Person	Y	Y
Spiritual Weapon	Y	N
Bestow Curse	Y	N
Spirit Guardians	Y	N
Guardian of Faith	Y	Y
Polymorph	N	Y
Contagion	Y	N
Flame Strike	Y	N
Insect Plague	Y	N
Contingency	N	Y
Harm	Y	Y
Planar Ally	Y	N

Something you might want to consider is giving them a powerful healing ability and dropping it to half-caster. As it stands, it seems awkwardly close to a Life Cleric at a point where it is either a) flatly better or b) basically the same (unless you disagree greatly with my thoughts on Channel Divinity). Further, there are some super interesting features here that could make the class stand out beside the Life Cleric as an equal alternative rather than a weird amalgam of it. Sacrifice and Give and Take could be reworked as class defining abilities that make its healing more consistent than a Life Cleric. To be honest, a whole class around those two abilities would be super interesting - it would basically turn HP into a contested resource. On another note, that would also REALLY fit the idea of an atheistic madman!

[JNAProductions]

So far the class seems rather reasonable, I just have a small amount of minor issues and suggestions for you

1) wouldn’t it make more sense if you gave battle medic heavy armor proficiency instead of the base class? Is there a specific reason for that?
2) why do they get proficiency in intelligence saving throws? I would suggest giving them proficiency with strength saving throws instead. It seems to make thematic sense to me.
3) if they prepare spells the same way a wizard does that means that intelligence is their spellcasting modifier, right? Also, you do not need to give healers the ritual casting trait because if they have the same spellcasting system as a wizard than that already gives them ritual casting. On a side note, do they use an arcane focus as a spellcasting focus too?
4) give and take grants the temporary hit points only when you make an attack roll, right? Causing an opponent to make a saving throw does not have the same effect if I understand it correctly. You said make an attack not make an attack roll so it could be interpreted either way...
5) This is a more of a comment than anythign else, but sacrifice seems fine to me.
6) so the defender feature basically gives you a +1 bonus to AC if you are dueling or wielding two-handed weapons? Isn’t that jsut a more constrained version of the defense fighting style? I would reccomned just giving them the defense fighting style instead
7) you may want to work on the wording of rouse a little bit. You do realize that people making life saving throws are incapacitated so that means that you could get people back in the fight with 0 HP remaining while they are still making death saving throws. To add on, It seems weird to me that it excludes the prone condition but not the other physical conditions like restrained and prone too.
8) for the case of medicine expertise, I think you made a typo because you basically said that you get expertise in the medicine skill, but only if you did not previously have proficiency in medicine. And wouldn’t it be better to make it so that if you already have expertise in the medicine skill to gain expertise in a pre-existing skill instead of gaining another seperate skill proficiency? I would change the wording to something like this
“At level six you gain proficiency with the medicine skill if you did not already have it. To add on, your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that use the medicine skill (regardless of whether you previously had it or not). If for some reason you already have expertise in medicine then you may choose a different skill you already have to gain expertise in.”
9) spell recovery is incredibly overpowered in its current form. I would highly suggest putting some limit on it like “you can only use this feature a number of times equal to your intelligence modifier per long rest”.

1) It's because the Healer is a more defensive class, so they should have full options when it comes to defense.

2) Because they're an Int-based caster.

3) I never did think fully about what they use for a focus, but yes, I suppose it would be arcane.

4) It's based on making an attack, not an attack roll. So Sacred Flame, for instance, still qualifies.

5) Thanks.

6) It requires you to be using a Shield to gain the AC bonus, specifically, not just in armor.

7) It heals you up to 10 HP if you're at less, so you cannot be cured of Incapacitated and still be at 0 HP. (Which would immediately Incapacitate you again, so it wouldn't matter.) That being said, do you have any idea how to word it well so it removes only sensible conditions?

8) It might be worded oddly, but basically, you gain Expertise in Medicine NO MATTER WHAT. But, if you already had Proficiency in it, you then gain Proficiency in another skill of your choice.

9) Spell Recovery was modified to only work for spells of 5th level or lower, like all other recovery mechanics. Does that make it better?

[Requilac]

1) It's because the Healer is a more defensive class, so they should have full options when it comes to defense.

2) Because they're an Int-based caster.

3) I never did think fully about what they use for a focus, but yes, I suppose it would be arcane.

4) It's based on making an attack, not an attack roll. So Sacred Flame, for instance, still qualifies.

5) Thanks.

6) It requires you to be using a Shield to gain the AC bonus, specifically, not just in armor.

7) It heals you up to 10 HP if you're at less, so you cannot be cured of Incapacitated and still be at 0 HP. (Which would immediately Incapacitate you again, so it wouldn't matter.) That being said, do you have any idea how to word it well so it removes only sensible conditions?

8) It might be worded oddly, but basically, you gain Expertise in Medicine NO MATTER WHAT. But, if you already had Proficiency in it, you then gain Proficiency in another skill of your choice.

9) Spell Recovery was modified to only work for spells of 5th level or lower, like all other recovery mechanics. Does that make it better?

1) fair enough (X)
2) that is true I suppose, all the classes get proficiency in the saving throw which corresponds to at least one of their main abilities (X)
3) I was mainly asking this more out of curiosity than anything else (X)
4) you may want to specify that in the wording of your spell that it works with saving throws too, someone could easily misinterpret that (!)
5) it looked fine to me (X)
6) i do not quite see how that matters at all, but I guess it matters to you so I will drop it (X)
7) just make rouse not effect the grappled or prone condition either, simple as that (!)
8) I am pretty sure I understood what you mean but the wording was confusing to me. I would suggest you reword it if possible to have it makes more sense (!)
9) I still have massive concerns about it, but if you think it seems fine that I will defer to your superior judgement here (X)

In short, I would work on rewording give and take, rouse and medicine expertise.

[Corey]

Medicine Expertise-At level six, you gain Expertise in the Medicine skill. If you already had proficiency in Medicine, pick any other skill and gain proficiency in it.

To reword that, you could replace the word "Expertise" by "proficiency" and then add the sentence:

Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make using the Medicine skill.

(I stole that wording from the Knowledge Cleric's "Blessing of Knowledge" http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/cleric:knowledge )

I'd also rename the benefit, perhaps to "Medical Savant".

[JNAProductions]

To reword that, you could replace the word "Expertise" by "proficiency" and then add the sentence:

Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make using the Medicine skill.

(I stole that wording from the Knowledge Cleric's "Blessing of Knowledge" http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/cleric:knowledge )

I'd also rename the benefit, perhaps to "Medical Savant".

I'm probably gonna swing by and clean this class up at some point. It definitely needs it.

[Bjarkmundur]

As an overly excited lurker I find myself asking....



... So we good? Is it finished, or did y'all just stop iterating for some reason?