Only the ranger has access to a healing spell, which he is unlikely to take due to limited spell slots.
Do you have any tips for creating encounters, implementing house rules, or anything that could be useful for me to run the game as they do not have any healing, let alone a dedicated healer?
I was thinking of introducing a house rule of healing potions being a bonus action, but using one to bring up a downed party member is still a full action. I don't want the fights to be over quickly in a "hit hard or die trying" kinda way. The guys have created characters they want to play, rather than constructing a party together, so changing to alternate classes is not an option, I'm purely after anything that could be useful to bear in mind that there is no healer. Or is this not a problem to worry about?
Don't do anything about it. The Party seems very well suited for combat. Just give them access to enough healing potions at the early levels und the rest should be figured out by your players. I guess they'll be fine. Maybe make potions buyable for the players, so they have something to spend their money on.
Just in my opinion, survival and buff/debuff builds are better than healing builds in this version of D&D. I mean, as a 5th level Cleric you could Mass Cure Wounds your party or nuke the army of enemies that are attacking the group instead, with Dawn.
I'll add to what others have said - you don't really need a dedicated healer in 5e. There's lots of options for out of combat healing, and the hit dice mechanic does most of the heavy lifting anyway.
As for in combat healing, even most casters that can cast healing spells have better things to do with their actions mid combat. With how damage math works in 5e, prevention is much better than cure. Killing stuff faster to reduce incoming damage is almost always more efficient than healing it after the fact. Combats are quick and dirty this edition, with a healer or without.
Heal potions as a bonus action does tilt the action economy some, but not enough to warrant the "end of the world" placard to be posted just yet.
Don't sweat it too much. As has already been shared, a DM's time is better spent creating conflicts and coming up with interesting plot hooks than worrying about your party being too headstrong to know when to withdraw. Monsters know tha that being alive is better than not, and will attempt to withdraw when the opportunity allows. Your PCs need to know the same information. After a couple dicey combat encounters, you'll know what you can hit em with and not TPK.
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“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
I wouldn't do much about the party. Let the players play what they want to play. Besides they have a tank, two gish, either of which could off-tank, and ranged magic user, they will be alright. Also, with Tasha's the draconic bloodline sorcerer may want some heals and decide to switch to Divine Soul. So that is also an option.
That being said, being cognizant of your encounter difficulties and the use of tactics and terrain to impede or delay them will definitely help you not kill them faster. Additionally, allow potions to be purchasable in the towns. Maybe like one or two in the smaller towns that have a general store and increase it for larger towns that have apothecaries and practioners of magic. Also, if they bring it up you can have some of the players take training or study to be able to use the alchemy or herbalist kits or both to make potions.
Lastly, if you are really worried about it and this is an if and ONLY IF, sort of statement, you can use DMNPCs that specialize in healing. Have them show up for a session or two for one reason or another, preferably related or releveant to the story. An example being, they find a Divine Soul Sorcerer in an underground prison, this is the PC sorcerer's cousin that the elder had mention had gone missing. It can be as flimsy as that but it will feel a little more organic than, here is a heal bot cause I will kill you all without heals in the next encounter. Make them 1 to 3 levels lower than your PCs so that they cannot outshine them. Do not drop items for the DMNPCs, these are supposed to be heal bots they don't need to be tricked out unless it is important to the story. I would not use this one often but if it is done right it can be fun for everybody.
There is one, and only one, essential role that has to be filled in a party, and that is the Healer. When a Ranger is your healer, you can work around that, so long as you never run an encounter with a difficulty greater than medium, and never have more than 4 monsters per encounter. They will need a Long Rest between each and every encounter. Potions don't heal enough in combat to matter unless they are of a rarity very much higher than the Tier then are used in.
In a mathematical sense, the most effective strategy for the Ranger is to do as much damage in combat as possible, and save Cure Wounds (It's your only direct heal) for when one of the other damage dealers goes to zero hit points, then cast it just once, and go back to doing damage. The tank is actually the least important member of the party to heal. If they are at all well built, they won't need much healing, and if not, the party is doomed anyway. In D&D the best defense is to as much damage as possible so there aren't as many enemies doing damage to the party. Focus fire at all times, and make sure anything that goes down stays that way.
There is one, and only one, essential role that has to be filled in a party, and that is the Healer. When a Ranger is your healer, you can work around that, so long as you never run an encounter with a difficulty greater than medium, and never have more than 4 monsters per encounter. They will need a Long Rest between each and every encounter. Potions don't heal enough in combat to matter unless they are of a rarity very much higher than the Tier then are used in.
What kind of game are you playing? I agree that healers are fairly important, but potions can work just as well even without the bonus action rule. I'd run this party the same way as any other—around three Deadly encounters per long rest—and I think they'd do fine. Sure, a short rest after each encounter will be important, but that's par for the course anyway.
NPC's, a potion dealer, magic items, a hospital in the town, etc. There are a number of ways you could 'fix' this if you're worried about it. (TBH, I don't think any role is necessary. You can always incorporate something into your campaign)
I've given my party the option of spellwrought tattoos with cure wounds or healing word - temporary at lower levels more permanent at higher levels when monsters do a ton of damage. If I really want to do a type of combat for plot reasons and I am concerned I might have overpowered it I have them find healing potions or create an NPC healbot - bard or cleric). Magic items can do the job. If there is a real issue, a traveling priest or bard can find the party (unless they are in a dungeon). Your players may find they are okay or may want to multiclass as clerics, druids or bards. In another campaign I was part of the sorcerer took magic initiate just to get Cure Wounds. Clever players find ways to heal themselves.
I always keep as a rule an unconscious character cannot drink a potion, period. SO they do not want to drop to zero and it keeps them up with keeping the Ranger's Cure Wounds as a hit the fan need spell. If the player ask later after they did not take the spell if they can swap out spells I would let them to keep the group feeling good.
As for drinking a potion, I use it as half movement. Which probably breaks the game some but I feel like it never has broke it too much.
But just have potion dealers in different towns, not as a commodity, but just available. Maybe in some towns have them be a shady black markey dealer or they need to work to find who would sell them.
Just build the encounters to be encounters. Don't cater to the party composition.
If you're building encounters (and this goes for puzzles, traps, social interactions and everything else) to match the party setup, you're actually removing some of the players' agency. The party have made their choices to play the characters they have chosen. It is down to them to work out ways to overcome the dangers that the DM puts in the way of their objectives. It isn't the DM's task to plan for the party to behave a certain way.
It's entirely possible to have a 'dedicated healer' who simply refuses to use healing spells. Short Rests are better than healing outside of combat until the higher levels (low level healing is useful only for getting a character up off 0 hit points and not much else, since most monster attacks out-damage equivalent level healing spells and abilities).
The party is all melee-focused, and 2 of 4 don't even carry a ranged weapon? You still hit them with wyverns.
The party has no tank and everyone is a spellcaster? The monsters still walk up to them and attack.
The entire party has dump-statted Charisma? They still need to make Persuasion and Deception checks.
No healer? Expect to Short Rest more often.
Set challenges that cause the party to think "Well, this would have been useful..." I had this with a Barbarian recently who is super happy charging up to anything to smash it, but found that in a fight with magical Darkness and flying enemies, he really couldn't close the range to them and felt a bit useless. So he took a level in Sorcerer, becoming a more versatile, less min-maxed character with added depth.
I do tend to assume that the intention is for the party to survive. Kind of silly of me. That's just how I tend to do things, I like to work with my players and help them. That's probably a mistake.
If you just let the chips fall where they may, even a Medium encounter can sometimes kill off a member of the party if the monsters get lucky, and even with the best tactics, a little bad luck can cause a member of the party to go down. At which point, they lose that member of the party until they drag the corpse of the player character somewhere it can be raised from the dead, or that player makes a new character.
I do tend to assume that the intention is for the party to survive. Kind of silly of me. That's just how I tend to do things, I like to work with my players and help them. That's probably a mistake.
If you just let the chips fall where they may, even a Medium encounter can sometimes kill off a member of the party if the monsters get lucky, and even with the best tactics, a little bad luck can cause a member of the party to go down. At which point, they lose that member of the party until they drag the corpse of the player character somewhere it can be raised from the dead, or that player makes a new character.
No need for the sarcasm. There's no wrong way to play D&D. I'm just surprised your game's lethality rate in low-challenge encounters is so high.
For example, I just wrapped up a 10-session game from levels one to five—most sessions had three Deadly encounters per long rest, the exceptions had more but easier encounters adding to the same budget. Oh, and all dice were rolled in the open, so no fudging on either side. Characters died only twice, once at first and once at second or third level, though there were a few more close calls. (They had both a cleric and a bard, so, to be fair, healing was available.) It felt about right.
But for my players, knowing death could be lurking behind the dice anytime is part of the fun—it's not exiting otherwise. I can imagine a softer group of players would enjoy less dangerous encounters. As long as your group enjoys your DMing style, that's all that matters.
Who is being sarcastic? It says right in my signature that there is no wrong way to play D&D. I said nothing about low-challenge encounters, I was talking about Medium.
You said that you ran 3 deadly encounters per long rest, that one character died at first level, one other died at 2nd or 3rd level, and that was with plenty of healing. Then you said that it felt about right. I honestly wonder why so few characters died. A Deadly encounter is defined as one in which the odds are good that you will get a TPK. A Hard encounter is one where at least one member of the party will probably die. Medium assumes that the only thing the player characters will lose is some resources.
Some years ago, I was trying a homebrew low-magic setting and it was a nightmare for me, and probably for my players. They had fun, but I kept trying to force "Local Heroes" (Tier 1) to feel like something grander by playing up how powerful they were compared to the Commoners. It's true, they are, but Commoners come in large groups when they have to deal with problems on their own.
Spending time on the forums has been an education. I'm still trying to learn about how not to coddle my player characters so they can feel like what they are supposed to be at each Tier. If I were to run 3 deadly encounters per day at a group of Tier 1 player characters who only had a Ranger for heals... I guess they would have fun making new characters.
Homebrew that drinking potions as either an action or a bonus action (player decides), that means your players can drink a healing potion and still attack/cast a spell.
Who is being sarcastic? It says right in my signature that there is no wrong way to play D&D. I said nothing about low-challenge encounters, I was talking about Medium.
“I like to work with my players and help them. Silly of me. Probably a mistake.” Sorry if I misinterpreted that, but it sounded pretty sarcastic to me.
You said that you ran 3 deadly encounters per long rest, that one character died at first level, one other died at 2nd or 3rd level, and that was with plenty of healing. Then you said that it felt about right. I honestly wonder why so few characters died. A Deadly encounter is defined as one in which the odds are good that you will get a TPK. A Hard encounter is one where at least one member of the party will probably die. Medium assumes that the only thing the player characters will lose is some resources.
If I were to run 3 deadly encounters per day at a group of Tier 1 player characters who only had a Ranger for heals... I guess they would have fun making new characters.
Theory doesn’t always work out in practice. In practice, I’ve found Deadly encounters to be rarely truly deadly, and Medium encounters to be fairly trivial. And I’ve run multiple long campaigns with the 3 Deadly per short rest rule. Some have had a little more death, others a little less, but it always comes out about right.
I get where you’re coming from, but actual experience tells me what I’m doing works.
Sorry if I’m coming across as harsh. I just want to share what I’ve personally experienced in game.
Who is being sarcastic? It says right in my signature that there is no wrong way to play D&D. I said nothing about low-challenge encounters, I was talking about Medium.
You said that you ran 3 deadly encounters per long rest, that one character died at first level, one other died at 2nd or 3rd level, and that was with plenty of healing. Then you said that it felt about right. I honestly wonder why so few characters died. A Deadly encounter is defined as one in which the odds are good that you will get a TPK. A Hard encounter is one where at least one member of the party will probably die. Medium assumes that the only thing the player characters will lose is some resources.
Some years ago, I was trying a homebrew low-magic setting and it was a nightmare for me, and probably for my players. They had fun, but I kept trying to force "Local Heroes" (Tier 1) to feel like something grander by playing up how powerful they were compared to the Commoners. It's true, they are, but Commoners come in large groups when they have to deal with problems on their own.
Spending time on the forums has been an education. I'm still trying to learn about how not to coddle my player characters so they can feel like what they are supposed to be at each Tier. If I were to run 3 deadly encounters per day at a group of Tier 1 player characters who only had a Ranger for heals... I guess they would have fun making new characters.
I genuinely don't know how you can challenge players with a Medium encounter, let alone approach knocking a character unconscious, and certainly not killing one, unless you are throwing 20 or more encounters at them per long rest. The CR ratings are set so oddly in 5e that to even cause a party to use some short/long rest cooldown abilities, it needs to be Deadly level in the encounter builder. PC damage output is just so high that even high CR monsters go down in 2 turns to relatively low level parties.
The party in my campaign are currently level 8. They broke away from what I had anticipated they'd do in a siege and attacked the BBEG head on. Since I allow them to do what they want, I scrambled together an airship map, and put the appropriate creatures aboard: the CR15 BBEG (who they were gunning for; he makes 4 attacks at +9 to hit per turn, for 4d8+6 damage, with 3 legendary actions that can all be used to attack again), 7 x CR4 Orc swarms (basically 4 orcs stuck together to make the numbers manageable, 4 attacks per turn, 60 hit points), and 4 CR4 Orc Berserkers (multiattack with greatswords). It should have been a wipe-fest. The characters still overcame the odds, and won the encounter. I do not go easy on them, and all dice are rolled in the open. The BBEG used dimension door to escape after sustaining 220 damage in 3 turns (they have nobody to counterspell - I don't know how they'll ever deal with his ability to escape, but I leave that to them.
2 Trolls and 1 Orc are supposed to be a Medium encounter for that party. My PCs killed off 2 trolls with little difficulty at level 5 even being surprised - by level 8 there is no possibility of the trolls even slowing them down. The damage output of 5 level 8 PCs is easily enough to kill off one troll before it even takes a turn, and possibly both (they dealt over 200 damage to my CR15, AC18, 300+ hit points BBEG in just 3 turns - and 2 of them weren't even attacking).
I consider Deadly encounters to be the standard challenging encounter, and my PCs are easily able to handle 3-4 in a day, assuming they get at least one short rest. They don't have all that much by way of magic items - a few +1 items, a Rare item and one Very Rare item.
However, I do also accept that many parties will not be the same as my players. They all min-max, they play together using group tactics that they discuss before fights, they optimise spells for coordination, they take actions that help each other deal damage (and we use optional flanking rules, which ups player damage hugely). I have seen streams where characters at level 8 are dealing 6 (1d8+2) damage per attack, while the blood hunter in my party deals 27 (1d10+1d6+1d6+15) damage per shot with his +1 crossbow (base damage, hex, crimson rite, marksman, dexterity, magic weapon bonus). I suspect the CR of creatures is set around the badly built guy with low ability scores, not my min-maxing blood hunter. Our barbarian also deals 25 (2d6+18) damage per attack while raging (great weapon master feat). It's not unusual for my guys to deal 50+ damage each per turn.
In my last session I threw an easy encounter at the party and one nearly died, so it can happen.
For the OP, I agree with those saying to not tailor the encounters to the party. I try to think of any non-random encounter (EG bandits have set up an ambush on the road for any passers by, goblin dungeon is set up to defend against or trap trespassers) as being built to deal with "normal people" - IE swinging swords and firing bows. Smarter enemies can plan for magic as well if they have encountered it.
As such, if the party is entirely comprised of sword-swinging and bow-firing individuals, whilst they are better at it than Average Joe the town guard, they will still find themselves coming up against things which are built to make their life difficult - battlements offering cover, arrow slits, hidden traps, drawbridges, ambushes from above in trees or on cliffs, and so on.
I recently posted a thread about how I was concerned about my encounter as it features magma mephits, who can cast heat metal, and my party has only 1 person with metal equipment (the other 4 are a wizard, a monk, a druid and an ooze). I was asking if I should tailor the encounter to make it less harsh on the artificer, and amid suggestions of including magmins instead of magma mephits, it was pointed out that as long as the players are having fun, it can actually be pretty good as it encourages them to try different tactics.
So, regarding your "issue" of not having a healer, the trick is to make sure these things are available, but don't give it to them for free. healing potions can be bought, healing can be given for donations to the church of life, and perhaps you can even hire a healer to come with you on your adventures. Make sure that the party always has the opportunity to buy healing stuff, and if they choose not to, then they might decide they want to either pick up some healing abilities or that they want to find something magical which heals them. If they keep going to a specific location (EG a potion shop) to get healing, you could have the shopkeeper talk to them and explain that she has a ring of healing which she would offer in exchange for a quest. Use their need for healing to plant plot-hooks in their path!
I am curious how many chars are in that party. But yeah, the DPS your crew is pumping out at level 8 seems high, if it is sustained over multiple attacks over at least 3 or 4 rounds.
So we got...
Level 8 Bloodhunter, Order of the Profane Soul. Dexterity 19, Archery fighting style, Crossbow Expert feat, Sharpshooter feat. Heavy Crossbow +1. Casts Hex on principle target if possible.
2 attacks, +10 to hit. Damage per attack is either 17 (1d10+1d6+1d6+5) or +5 to hit for 27 (1d10+1d6+1d6+15) using Sharpshooter. Tends to go for Sharpshooter if there's advantage on the target (most commonly from Guiding Bolt) or if the targets seem like low AC. Average damage if hits with everything: 34 or 54.
Level 7 Path of Wild Magic Barbarian, Level 1 Wild Magic Sorcerer. Strength 18, Great Weapon Master feat, Greatsword +1. Uses Reckless Attack every attack, Rage.
2 attacks, +8 to hit. Damage per attack is either 13 (2d6+6) or +3 to hit for 23 (2d6+16) using GWM. Gets to make a bonus action attack if he takes out an enemy, which he always tries to do to maximise his attacks. Uses GWM almost every swing since he gets Advantage from Reckless Attack. Average damage if hits with everything: 26 or 46.
Level 5 Swashbuckler Rogue, Level 3 Battlemaster Fighter. Superior Technique feat, Elven Accuracy feat. Scimitar +1, ordinary dagger, or a light crossbow. Sneak attack every turn either through barbarian being stuck in, or Rakish Audacity gives it if he's not there. We use Flanking optional rule, so usually has advantage on attacks.
1 attack at +8 for 8 (d6+5) + 10 (3d6) sneak attack + 4 (1d8) (Battlemaster manoeuvre), dagger +7 to hit for 6 (1d4+4) but getting the sneak attack in if the scimitar misses. Rolls 3 dice to hit when he has advantage, upping crit chance. Average damage if hits with everything: 23.
Level 8 Circle of Stars Druid, aka "Guiding Bolt Machine," Wisdom 20, Wand of the War Mage +1. Casts Guiding Bolts at +9 to hit, ranging between 15 (4d6+1) and 25 (7d6+1) damage and giving advantage to the others, plus Starry Form (archer) providing an additional bonus action attack at +9 to hit, for 9 (d8+5) damage. Average damage if hits with everything: 24 to 34.
Level 8 Tempest Cleric, Wisdom 20, tends to go for banishment on a large target first, and then it's spiritual weapon, sacred flame and more +8 to hit guiding bolts, plus Wrath of the Storm if he takes a hit, getting maxed out for 16 damage with Destructive Wrath. Not going to list average damage as often provides utility support.
So if 4 characters hit with everything, average damage is 104 per turn at the low end, 157 at the high end. Of course, not every attack will hit, but this doesn't take into account Action Surge, additional battle manoeuvres, wild magic table damage, the Tempest Cleric doing any damage at all, attacks of opportunity unless the boss just wants to wail on a resistant barbarian until it dies, the blood hunter using poison, or Critical Hits. Due to elven accuracy feat, advantage on rolls from constant guiding bolts, flanking and reckless attack, crits are more like 1 in 10, which for the Blood Hunter and the Rogue/Fighter are very high due to the number of dice they roll. GWM and Sharpshooter are easily offset by advantage on attack rolls and sometimes Bless.
I have deliberately omitted any Homebrew items and homebrew 'max damage dice plus roll dice again' crit rules that we play with from any calculations.
Any NPC with 100 hit points or so goes down in a single turn on pretty average rolls. The easiest way for me to counter some of the damage is monsters with AC20+, as they really impact how much the party can use their damage upping feats, and the party is also very weak against high-powered spellcasting. They also lack some utility, which is why the Barbarian took the Sorcerer dip, and the Bloodhunter is taking a 1 level Wizard dip next level. Their main weaknesses however are their lack of access to counterspell, and while 2 of them are half-elves and resistant to Charm effects, 3 of them dump statted wisdom and the BH dumped strength (8 lol) so immobilising/restraining effects are their worst nightmare.
Hey Guys,
I'm starting a new campaign tomorrow which will be completely homebrew. The players have chosen the following;
Fighter-Eldritch Knight
Ranger-Hunter
Barbarian-Totem Warrior (Bear)
Sorceror-Draconic Bloodline
Only the ranger has access to a healing spell, which he is unlikely to take due to limited spell slots.
Do you have any tips for creating encounters, implementing house rules, or anything that could be useful for me to run the game as they do not have any healing, let alone a dedicated healer?
I was thinking of introducing a house rule of healing potions being a bonus action, but using one to bring up a downed party member is still a full action. I don't want the fights to be over quickly in a "hit hard or die trying" kinda way. The guys have created characters they want to play, rather than constructing a party together, so changing to alternate classes is not an option, I'm purely after anything that could be useful to bear in mind that there is no healer. Or is this not a problem to worry about?
Don't do anything about it. The Party seems very well suited for combat.
Just give them access to enough healing potions at the early levels und the rest should be figured out by your players. I guess they'll be fine. Maybe make potions buyable for the players, so they have something to spend their money on.
Just in my opinion, survival and buff/debuff builds are better than healing builds in this version of D&D. I mean, as a 5th level Cleric you could Mass Cure Wounds your party or nuke the army of enemies that are attacking the group instead, with Dawn.
I'll add to what others have said - you don't really need a dedicated healer in 5e. There's lots of options for out of combat healing, and the hit dice mechanic does most of the heavy lifting anyway.
As for in combat healing, even most casters that can cast healing spells have better things to do with their actions mid combat. With how damage math works in 5e, prevention is much better than cure. Killing stuff faster to reduce incoming damage is almost always more efficient than healing it after the fact. Combats are quick and dirty this edition, with a healer or without.
Heal potions as a bonus action does tilt the action economy some, but not enough to warrant the "end of the world" placard to be posted just yet.
Don't sweat it too much. As has already been shared, a DM's time is better spent creating conflicts and coming up with interesting plot hooks than worrying about your party being too headstrong to know when to withdraw. Monsters know tha that being alive is better than not, and will attempt to withdraw when the opportunity allows. Your PCs need to know the same information. After a couple dicey combat encounters, you'll know what you can hit em with and not TPK.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
I wouldn't do much about the party. Let the players play what they want to play. Besides they have a tank, two gish, either of which could off-tank, and ranged magic user, they will be alright. Also, with Tasha's the draconic bloodline sorcerer may want some heals and decide to switch to Divine Soul. So that is also an option.
That being said, being cognizant of your encounter difficulties and the use of tactics and terrain to impede or delay them will definitely help you not kill them faster. Additionally, allow potions to be purchasable in the towns. Maybe like one or two in the smaller towns that have a general store and increase it for larger towns that have apothecaries and practioners of magic. Also, if they bring it up you can have some of the players take training or study to be able to use the alchemy or herbalist kits or both to make potions.
Lastly, if you are really worried about it and this is an if and ONLY IF, sort of statement, you can use DMNPCs that specialize in healing. Have them show up for a session or two for one reason or another, preferably related or releveant to the story. An example being, they find a Divine Soul Sorcerer in an underground prison, this is the PC sorcerer's cousin that the elder had mention had gone missing. It can be as flimsy as that but it will feel a little more organic than, here is a heal bot cause I will kill you all without heals in the next encounter. Make them 1 to 3 levels lower than your PCs so that they cannot outshine them. Do not drop items for the DMNPCs, these are supposed to be heal bots they don't need to be tricked out unless it is important to the story. I would not use this one often but if it is done right it can be fun for everybody.
There is one, and only one, essential role that has to be filled in a party, and that is the Healer. When a Ranger is your healer, you can work around that, so long as you never run an encounter with a difficulty greater than medium, and never have more than 4 monsters per encounter. They will need a Long Rest between each and every encounter. Potions don't heal enough in combat to matter unless they are of a rarity very much higher than the Tier then are used in.
In a mathematical sense, the most effective strategy for the Ranger is to do as much damage in combat as possible, and save Cure Wounds (It's your only direct heal) for when one of the other damage dealers goes to zero hit points, then cast it just once, and go back to doing damage. The tank is actually the least important member of the party to heal. If they are at all well built, they won't need much healing, and if not, the party is doomed anyway. In D&D the best defense is to as much damage as possible so there aren't as many enemies doing damage to the party. Focus fire at all times, and make sure anything that goes down stays that way.
<Insert clever signature here>
What kind of game are you playing? I agree that healers are fairly important, but potions can work just as well even without the bonus action rule. I'd run this party the same way as any other—around three Deadly encounters per long rest—and I think they'd do fine. Sure, a short rest after each encounter will be important, but that's par for the course anyway.
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
NPC's, a potion dealer, magic items, a hospital in the town, etc. There are a number of ways you could 'fix' this if you're worried about it. (TBH, I don't think any role is necessary. You can always incorporate something into your campaign)
"Hero of the Heavens" (Title by Drummer)
I've given my party the option of spellwrought tattoos with cure wounds or healing word - temporary at lower levels more permanent at higher levels when monsters do a ton of damage. If I really want to do a type of combat for plot reasons and I am concerned I might have overpowered it I have them find healing potions or create an NPC healbot - bard or cleric). Magic items can do the job. If there is a real issue, a traveling priest or bard can find the party (unless they are in a dungeon). Your players may find they are okay or may want to multiclass as clerics, druids or bards. In another campaign I was part of the sorcerer took magic initiate just to get Cure Wounds. Clever players find ways to heal themselves.
I always keep as a rule an unconscious character cannot drink a potion, period. SO they do not want to drop to zero and it keeps them up with keeping the Ranger's Cure Wounds as a hit the fan need spell. If the player ask later after they did not take the spell if they can swap out spells I would let them to keep the group feeling good.
As for drinking a potion, I use it as half movement. Which probably breaks the game some but I feel like it never has broke it too much.
But just have potion dealers in different towns, not as a commodity, but just available. Maybe in some towns have them be a shady black markey dealer or they need to work to find who would sell them.
Just build the encounters to be encounters. Don't cater to the party composition.
If you're building encounters (and this goes for puzzles, traps, social interactions and everything else) to match the party setup, you're actually removing some of the players' agency. The party have made their choices to play the characters they have chosen. It is down to them to work out ways to overcome the dangers that the DM puts in the way of their objectives. It isn't the DM's task to plan for the party to behave a certain way.
It's entirely possible to have a 'dedicated healer' who simply refuses to use healing spells. Short Rests are better than healing outside of combat until the higher levels (low level healing is useful only for getting a character up off 0 hit points and not much else, since most monster attacks out-damage equivalent level healing spells and abilities).
Set challenges that cause the party to think "Well, this would have been useful..." I had this with a Barbarian recently who is super happy charging up to anything to smash it, but found that in a fight with magical Darkness and flying enemies, he really couldn't close the range to them and felt a bit useless. So he took a level in Sorcerer, becoming a more versatile, less min-maxed character with added depth.
I do tend to assume that the intention is for the party to survive. Kind of silly of me. That's just how I tend to do things, I like to work with my players and help them. That's probably a mistake.
If you just let the chips fall where they may, even a Medium encounter can sometimes kill off a member of the party if the monsters get lucky, and even with the best tactics, a little bad luck can cause a member of the party to go down. At which point, they lose that member of the party until they drag the corpse of the player character somewhere it can be raised from the dead, or that player makes a new character.
<Insert clever signature here>
No need for the sarcasm. There's no wrong way to play D&D. I'm just surprised your game's lethality rate in low-challenge encounters is so high.
For example, I just wrapped up a 10-session game from levels one to five—most sessions had three Deadly encounters per long rest, the exceptions had more but easier encounters adding to the same budget. Oh, and all dice were rolled in the open, so no fudging on either side. Characters died only twice, once at first and once at second or third level, though there were a few more close calls. (They had both a cleric and a bard, so, to be fair, healing was available.) It felt about right.
But for my players, knowing death could be lurking behind the dice anytime is part of the fun—it's not exiting otherwise. I can imagine a softer group of players would enjoy less dangerous encounters. As long as your group enjoys your DMing style, that's all that matters.
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
Who is being sarcastic? It says right in my signature that there is no wrong way to play D&D. I said nothing about low-challenge encounters, I was talking about Medium.
You said that you ran 3 deadly encounters per long rest, that one character died at first level, one other died at 2nd or 3rd level, and that was with plenty of healing. Then you said that it felt about right. I honestly wonder why so few characters died. A Deadly encounter is defined as one in which the odds are good that you will get a TPK. A Hard encounter is one where at least one member of the party will probably die. Medium assumes that the only thing the player characters will lose is some resources.
Some years ago, I was trying a homebrew low-magic setting and it was a nightmare for me, and probably for my players. They had fun, but I kept trying to force "Local Heroes" (Tier 1) to feel like something grander by playing up how powerful they were compared to the Commoners. It's true, they are, but Commoners come in large groups when they have to deal with problems on their own.
Spending time on the forums has been an education. I'm still trying to learn about how not to coddle my player characters so they can feel like what they are supposed to be at each Tier. If I were to run 3 deadly encounters per day at a group of Tier 1 player characters who only had a Ranger for heals... I guess they would have fun making new characters.
<Insert clever signature here>
Homebrew that drinking potions as either an action or a bonus action (player decides), that means your players can drink a healing potion and still attack/cast a spell.
“I like to work with my players and help them. Silly of me. Probably a mistake.” Sorry if I misinterpreted that, but it sounded pretty sarcastic to me.
Theory doesn’t always work out in practice. In practice, I’ve found Deadly encounters to be rarely truly deadly, and Medium encounters to be fairly trivial. And I’ve run multiple long campaigns with the 3 Deadly per short rest rule. Some have had a little more death, others a little less, but it always comes out about right.
I get where you’re coming from, but actual experience tells me what I’m doing works.
Sorry if I’m coming across as harsh. I just want to share what I’ve personally experienced in game.
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
I genuinely don't know how you can challenge players with a Medium encounter, let alone approach knocking a character unconscious, and certainly not killing one, unless you are throwing 20 or more encounters at them per long rest. The CR ratings are set so oddly in 5e that to even cause a party to use some short/long rest cooldown abilities, it needs to be Deadly level in the encounter builder. PC damage output is just so high that even high CR monsters go down in 2 turns to relatively low level parties.
The party in my campaign are currently level 8. They broke away from what I had anticipated they'd do in a siege and attacked the BBEG head on. Since I allow them to do what they want, I scrambled together an airship map, and put the appropriate creatures aboard: the CR15 BBEG (who they were gunning for; he makes 4 attacks at +9 to hit per turn, for 4d8+6 damage, with 3 legendary actions that can all be used to attack again), 7 x CR4 Orc swarms (basically 4 orcs stuck together to make the numbers manageable, 4 attacks per turn, 60 hit points), and 4 CR4 Orc Berserkers (multiattack with greatswords). It should have been a wipe-fest. The characters still overcame the odds, and won the encounter. I do not go easy on them, and all dice are rolled in the open. The BBEG used dimension door to escape after sustaining 220 damage in 3 turns (they have nobody to counterspell - I don't know how they'll ever deal with his ability to escape, but I leave that to them.
2 Trolls and 1 Orc are supposed to be a Medium encounter for that party. My PCs killed off 2 trolls with little difficulty at level 5 even being surprised - by level 8 there is no possibility of the trolls even slowing them down. The damage output of 5 level 8 PCs is easily enough to kill off one troll before it even takes a turn, and possibly both (they dealt over 200 damage to my CR15, AC18, 300+ hit points BBEG in just 3 turns - and 2 of them weren't even attacking).
I consider Deadly encounters to be the standard challenging encounter, and my PCs are easily able to handle 3-4 in a day, assuming they get at least one short rest. They don't have all that much by way of magic items - a few +1 items, a Rare item and one Very Rare item.
However, I do also accept that many parties will not be the same as my players. They all min-max, they play together using group tactics that they discuss before fights, they optimise spells for coordination, they take actions that help each other deal damage (and we use optional flanking rules, which ups player damage hugely). I have seen streams where characters at level 8 are dealing 6 (1d8+2) damage per attack, while the blood hunter in my party deals 27 (1d10+1d6+1d6+15) damage per shot with his +1 crossbow (base damage, hex, crimson rite, marksman, dexterity, magic weapon bonus). I suspect the CR of creatures is set around the badly built guy with low ability scores, not my min-maxing blood hunter. Our barbarian also deals 25 (2d6+18) damage per attack while raging (great weapon master feat). It's not unusual for my guys to deal 50+ damage each per turn.
In my last session I threw an easy encounter at the party and one nearly died, so it can happen.
For the OP, I agree with those saying to not tailor the encounters to the party. I try to think of any non-random encounter (EG bandits have set up an ambush on the road for any passers by, goblin dungeon is set up to defend against or trap trespassers) as being built to deal with "normal people" - IE swinging swords and firing bows. Smarter enemies can plan for magic as well if they have encountered it.
As such, if the party is entirely comprised of sword-swinging and bow-firing individuals, whilst they are better at it than Average Joe the town guard, they will still find themselves coming up against things which are built to make their life difficult - battlements offering cover, arrow slits, hidden traps, drawbridges, ambushes from above in trees or on cliffs, and so on.
I recently posted a thread about how I was concerned about my encounter as it features magma mephits, who can cast heat metal, and my party has only 1 person with metal equipment (the other 4 are a wizard, a monk, a druid and an ooze). I was asking if I should tailor the encounter to make it less harsh on the artificer, and amid suggestions of including magmins instead of magma mephits, it was pointed out that as long as the players are having fun, it can actually be pretty good as it encourages them to try different tactics.
So, regarding your "issue" of not having a healer, the trick is to make sure these things are available, but don't give it to them for free. healing potions can be bought, healing can be given for donations to the church of life, and perhaps you can even hire a healer to come with you on your adventures. Make sure that the party always has the opportunity to buy healing stuff, and if they choose not to, then they might decide they want to either pick up some healing abilities or that they want to find something magical which heals them. If they keep going to a specific location (EG a potion shop) to get healing, you could have the shopkeeper talk to them and explain that she has a ring of healing which she would offer in exchange for a quest. Use their need for healing to plant plot-hooks in their path!
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So we got...
Level 8 Bloodhunter, Order of the Profane Soul. Dexterity 19, Archery fighting style, Crossbow Expert feat, Sharpshooter feat. Heavy Crossbow +1. Casts Hex on principle target if possible.
Level 7 Path of Wild Magic Barbarian, Level 1 Wild Magic Sorcerer. Strength 18, Great Weapon Master feat, Greatsword +1. Uses Reckless Attack every attack, Rage.
Level 5 Swashbuckler Rogue, Level 3 Battlemaster Fighter. Superior Technique feat, Elven Accuracy feat. Scimitar +1, ordinary dagger, or a light crossbow. Sneak attack every turn either through barbarian being stuck in, or Rakish Audacity gives it if he's not there. We use Flanking optional rule, so usually has advantage on attacks.
Level 8 Circle of Stars Druid, aka "Guiding Bolt Machine," Wisdom 20, Wand of the War Mage +1. Casts Guiding Bolts at +9 to hit, ranging between 15 (4d6+1) and 25 (7d6+1) damage and giving advantage to the others, plus Starry Form (archer) providing an additional bonus action attack at +9 to hit, for 9 (d8+5) damage. Average damage if hits with everything: 24 to 34.
Level 8 Tempest Cleric, Wisdom 20, tends to go for banishment on a large target first, and then it's spiritual weapon, sacred flame and more +8 to hit guiding bolts, plus Wrath of the Storm if he takes a hit, getting maxed out for 16 damage with Destructive Wrath. Not going to list average damage as often provides utility support.
So if 4 characters hit with everything, average damage is 104 per turn at the low end, 157 at the high end. Of course, not every attack will hit, but this doesn't take into account Action Surge, additional battle manoeuvres, wild magic table damage, the Tempest Cleric doing any damage at all, attacks of opportunity unless the boss just wants to wail on a resistant barbarian until it dies, the blood hunter using poison, or Critical Hits. Due to elven accuracy feat, advantage on rolls from constant guiding bolts, flanking and reckless attack, crits are more like 1 in 10, which for the Blood Hunter and the Rogue/Fighter are very high due to the number of dice they roll. GWM and Sharpshooter are easily offset by advantage on attack rolls and sometimes Bless.
I have deliberately omitted any Homebrew items and homebrew 'max damage dice plus roll dice again' crit rules that we play with from any calculations.
Any NPC with 100 hit points or so goes down in a single turn on pretty average rolls. The easiest way for me to counter some of the damage is monsters with AC20+, as they really impact how much the party can use their damage upping feats, and the party is also very weak against high-powered spellcasting. They also lack some utility, which is why the Barbarian took the Sorcerer dip, and the Bloodhunter is taking a 1 level Wizard dip next level. Their main weaknesses however are their lack of access to counterspell, and while 2 of them are half-elves and resistant to Charm effects, 3 of them dump statted wisdom and the BH dumped strength (8 lol) so immobilising/restraining effects are their worst nightmare.