You lance your hand to extract a portion of your life essence on the tip of a needle laced with the fruit of a belladonna. Choose a number of hit die to spend, up to a maximum of one, and one creature other than yourself that you can touch. You force the extracted essence into the target. For the number of hit dice chosen, the target regains a number of hit points equal to your spellcasting ability modifier (minimum 1).
You can cast this spell even if you do not have hit dice to spend. If you do so, you gain levels of exhaustion equal to the difference between the number you chose to spend and the amount of hit dice you have left to spend.
The spell increases the maximum number of hit die you may choose to spend when you reach higher levels: two dice at 5th level, three dice at 11th level, and four dice at 17th level.
* - (an ivory needle and the fruit of belladonna)
It is a 1 action casting time cantrip, that uses the casters short rest hit die pool to provide healing to others. Thought is that this will act as a limiter to how often it can be used, and the cost is heavy since it prevents future healing potential of the caster out of combat. It may currently be too weak even, since the cost is heavy. I also think that such a spell would be cool to allow one to over exert themselves and impose exhaustion levels if they keep casting once they run out of unspent hit dice. It is a necromancy spell, so I think it'd be suitable for school of necromancy Wizards to have access to this spell. Outside of that I think it'd fit Clerics, and maybe even Druids but the version I posted only has Clerics and School of Necromancy Wizards as options currently.
Because had it forced the amount that the caster uses, then you'd get less casts that don't cause exhaustion per day as you leveled since at level 4 you'd get at most 4 casts per traveling day, but at level 5 it'd drop to 2 casts with a third consuming your last hit die and giving 1 point of exhaustion. Design wise that seemed counter-intuitive to the player, so instead the caster chooses the amount of hit die usable. This means at level 20, assuming the character has all of their hit die unspent, they'd get a maximum of 20 casts if they chose 1 hit die before they start suffering exhaustion. Because of the power scaling at later levels, the spell was designed so the caster can't use it on themselves. Since healing is often used to bring people back up after getting knocked down to 0, the healing is low. Idea is that at later levels you don't really want a death prevention button that doesn't consume too many resources, so by keeping the healing value clamped and low without consuming more of the resource, it doesn't trivialize combat too much.
So 1 Hit Die spend equals 1 Hit Point gained? Seems a bit to much of a cost for "nothing" to gain. Out of Combat this Cantrip has no use at all and in Combat it may saves a life, but only for a round or two at best. I think if you are going to spend the Hit Die you should roll it to see how many Hit Points get healed.
What is a Hit Die ??? I think it is the inner ability to regenerate and push on, so Maybe give the character you choose to heal, the possibility to use it's own pool of Hit Dice. This way you could use it more freqently (thats what Cantrips are made for).
Choose a number of hit die to spend, up to a maximum of one, and one creature other than yourself that you can touch.
I know the Person before asked this but I still don't get it. Choose a number, whenyou only can use one? spend one hit die, that's a lot clearer I guess. And you should be able to heal yourself this way, I do not see a reason why you should not be able to do so.
I like the usage of Hit Die, because most of the tiime they are "ignored" somewhat I think ^^'
So 1 Hit Die spend equals 1 Hit Point gained? Seems a bit to much of a cost for "nothing" to gain. Out of Combat this Cantrip has no use at all and in Combat it may saves a life, but only for a round or two at best. I think if you are going to spend the Hit Die you should roll it to see how many Hit Points get healed.
What is a Hit Die ??? I think it is the inner ability to regenerate and push on, so Maybe give the character you choose to heal, the possibility to use it's own pool of Hit Dice. This way you could use it more freqently (thats what Cantrips are made for).
Choose a number of hit die to spend, up to a maximum of one, and one creature other than yourself that you can touch.
I know the Person before asked this but I still don't get it. Choose a number, whenyou only can use one? spend one hit die, that's a lot clearer I guess. And you should be able to heal yourself this way, I do not see a reason why you should not be able to do so.
I like the usage of Hit Die, because most of the tiime they are "ignored" somewhat I think ^^'
No, spending a hit die heals the target based on the casters spellcasting ability mod...so a 20 Wis cleric will heal 5 per hit die spent, while a point buy level 1, 16 Wis Cleric will heal 3 per spent die. It is enough to prevent death after going to 0 hp, which is how most use healing anyway, and if needed can provide a small heal that doesn't use a spell slot and let's you cast a bonus action spell if the class being played has one. The issue with granting it more usage though is that you effectively make it to where no one ever has to make death saving throws while you are around...so I intentionally started off with the spell probably on the weak side because even though it looks underwhelming on paper, my bet is that it fairs much better than one would assume at first glance because it is a cantrip so you don't have to worry about using a spell slot to get a party member up and can use it for after battle heals or damage/control spells. Basically you have to be very careful when designing a healing cantrip if you don't want to destroy encounter difficulty. Because of the limitation that the caster can't target themselves, and that I decided to change the spell from being a 30 ft range to a touch based spell, it may make sense to increase the healing but have the healing dice be a static amount rather than scaling with the HD the class uses, since the intent is to give this spell to Necromancy Wizards as well and it'd be weird for their efficacy to be less than a Cleric.
The idea of using someone else's hit die to accelerate healing is interesting, but I don't know if it fits the overall theme of the spell...I suppose it could, but I really thought the idea of giving away your own short rest healing potential to come to the aid of the party was cool and flavorful where I don't think it'd make a lot of sense to use an allies pool...the other issue is doing so opens the door to some weird things as the spell currently stands, because after you've exhausted their hit die, you would either give yourself exhaustion or them depending on how you added that in...and having to keep track of the parties hit die is more work than I think should be placed on a character. Not just that, but it'd then make it into a weird no save combat spell, where if you successfully inflicted paralysis, stunned, etc you could overheal an enemy to start forcing exhaustion levels....so allowing such a thing would require some serious rewording and retooling in general.
Either way, I plan on playtesting this a bit, and if anything really needed to change it would be the amount of healing provided due to the potential costs, meaning I may make it heal 1d4 plus your spellcasting ability mod per die or just 1d4 per die plus spell mod...the big thing is that I don't think a cantrip should be on par with a first level spell, hence the added resource requirement...but I may have gone even further than intended in regards to the earlier levels in its power. At 5th level though with an ASI, your cleric is going to be healing 4 per die. That's basically the average roll for a first level cure wounds if you use 2 hit dice instead of 1 at that level and it doesn't require a roll nor does it consume a spell slot. Also unlike cure wounds, it is intended to be usable on constructs and undead by design.
Overall I really don't think the amount it heals is that big of a problem (because once again, cantrip), and if need be I'd probably just remove the exhaustion stuff, even though it is super thematic and can make for a compelling narrative where some heroic character who is out of spell slots pushes themselves to the brink of death to ensure their unconscious friend doesn't die, or the nefarious necromancer who wants to ensure their favorite undead minion didn't fall in battle. Basically that is why I took on the challenge of making this though: making and balancing a healing cantrip that is more than just a weaker cure wounds is tough to do.
Oh, and since I forgot, the amount of hit die you can spend increases with leveling. The reason it says a maximum of one, is to keep the language consistent when you are higher levels, since what increases is the maximum number of dice you can spend, but you aren't forced to spend more than 1. Had the choice been forced, at level 5 you'd get less casts of it than at level 4 since the number of dice you can spend isn't per long rest, but per cast. Language used was intentional.
Yeah sorry I missed that spellcasting ability modifier part, under that circumstance, the spell is more potent than I thought it is. I guess not roling a dice should work in that regard.
Still I think, using the pool of an ally could be quiet potent, but you are right, the spell would need to be worded a way, that you can't use it against an unwilling creature (if there is no check to see if you hit). But since necromancy is the manipulation of lifeforce and more often than not the manipulation of someoneelses lifeforce it could fit the theme here. But having everyone to track and remember their Hit Die could be a pain in the ass …
I think I'd prefer to make them roll the hit die to add an element of randomness. 1d8 (assuming Cleric/Druid spell) averages out similarly to spellcasting mod and allows for variety. Although I do think both work OK!
I think I'd prefer to make them roll the hit die to add an element of randomness. 1d8 (assuming Cleric/Druid spell) averages out similarly to spellcasting mod and allows for variety. Although I do think both work OK!
Main reason I didn't go that route to start, is that healing 1 point on an action feels really bad...and I didn't want it just be a tweaked healing word by making it 1d4 + spell mod with just the die increasing because I think it takes away from the theme a bit. Outside of that making it just a die roll could work, but I don't know how I feel about making a cantrip which is potent on any class since then a 1 level dip into cleric would grant a character with low wis the ability to heal an ally 1d8 at low levels for a cantrip...Like I don't disagree that it is weak on paper, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it would be very abuseable if it were stronger due to letting you roll.
Yeah sorry I missed that spellcasting ability modifier part, under that circumstance, the spell is more potent than I thought it is. I guess not roling a dice should work in that regard.
Still I think, using the pool of an ally could be quiet potent, but you are right, the spell would need to be worded a way, that you can't use it against an unwilling creature (if there is no check to see if you hit). But since necromancy is the manipulation of lifeforce and more often than not the manipulation of someoneelses lifeforce it could fit the theme here. But having everyone to track and remember their Hit Die could be a pain in the ass …
I don't disagree, but it not only seems potent but unfun for the person having their HD removed to a degree. Basically to keep in theme with the spell, such a thing would work by taking Creature A's lifeforce to grant it to Creature B, not just utilizing your own latent pool of HD. And stealing potential healing from allies to use on yourself is basically what would happen, which I don't think would be fun for the other players and would make there be extra book keeping for the DM.
That being said, I did make a feat as well that utilizes hit die in a similar way but it is usable on your self only and has stronger limitations on how often the abilities can be used, which is another part of the reason why this spell behaves differently than using the hit die of A to heal A. For reference, here is the feat.
Supernal Rejuvenation Prerequisite: Requires a Constitution score of 13 or higher
Your bodies recuperative faculties have naturally tapped into the divine nature of restorative magic, granting it immense healing capability.
Your Constitution score increases by 1, up to a maximum of 20.
Your hit dice maximum is considered to be equal to your level plus your Constitution bonus for the purposes of a short rest.
Long rests restore an additional number of spent hit dice equal to your Constitution modifier.
In addition to the above, choose one of the following:
Once per short rest, you may use an action to spend a number of unspent hit dice up to your Constitution bonus (minimum 1). Roll the spent number of dice. For each dice rolled this way, add the result to your constitution bonus. You heal for the total.
As an action on your turn, you can spend 2 of your unspent hit dice to remove either 1 point of Exhaustion or one of the following Conditions from yourself: Blinded, Deafened, Stunned, Poisoned, Paralyzed. You can use this action a number of times per long rest equal to your Constitution bonus (minimum 1)
As a reaction, if an attack reduces you to 0 hitpoints you can choose to spend half of your unspent hit dice, rounded down. For each die spent this way, you heal an amount equal to your constitution bonus. This healing occurs before effects that are dependent on your current hit points. You may only use this ability once per long rest.
You may take this feat multiple times, but each time past the first only grants you an ability from the selections. The selected ability cannot have already been granted by this feat.
Basically I think that if you are using the spell I presented here, you should also be allowing the feat above. That way characters have a choice to take something which can let them tap into their own short rest pool if desired, but characters can never take short rest die from each other...if I were to make a spell that sapped HD, it'd be at least a first level spell.
Just for clarification, I did not intend to use Creature A's HD to heal Creature B, if you'd heal yourself, you would only use your own HD and if you heal Creature A, you could only use A's HD.
This feat seems fun and could work really well with your cantrip, nice harmony you got there. When you playtested your cantrip, please post how it went and if you tweaked it further :)
It doesn't really feel like a cantrip, what makes cantrips special is that they can be cast an unlimited amount of times, so this feels more like a class feature or an item, I do like the idea of using your own hit dice to hear your allies, but a cantrip might not be the best use for it.
As far as balance goes, Essence Transfer is definitely best used by Wizards since they aren't giving up as much due to the fact that they have smaller hit dice, I could see it being an issue if you have two Wizards with high intelligence and mediocre constitution, but that's an unlikely scenario.
It doesn't really feel like a cantrip, what makes cantrips special is that they can be cast an unlimited amount of times, so this feels more like a class feature or an item, I do like the idea of using your own hit dice to hear your allies, but a cantrip might not be the best use for it.
As far as balance goes, Essence Transfer is definitely best used by Wizards since they aren't giving up as much due to the fact that they have smaller hit dice, I could see it being an issue if you have two Wizards with high intelligence and mediocre constitution, but that's an unlikely scenario.
I thought about making it a feature of a subclass for maybe a cleric, but I really wanted it to be something that School of Necromancy Wizards specifically could pick up because of how thematic it is and it seems like something that would fit their kit. So as it currently stands it is for Cleric's of all subclasses, and only for the Necromancy subclass for Wizards.
As to it being a cantrip...well a lot of it comes down to it being said that it is not possible to create a balanced healing cantrip lol. I also think that it should have to compete with other abilities that provide utility, so in it being a Cleric and Necromancy Wizard cantrip, it is in competition with other cantrips that can be used often, but don't provide extra chances to get a downed party member up without spending a spell slot, meaning such a cleric will be able to free healing spell slots for damage slots...that's quite powerful so I feel that balance wise it taking up a known cantrip, even though it could theoretically be added as an ability, is better than just being an ability.
Honestly I think it would be a good replacement for the level 2 School of Necromancy feature, since that feature does have a few problems, mainly the fact that there aren't any good damaging necromancy spells. But I'm not sure how I feel about the cantrip being exclusively for school of necromancy, since none of the other schools here exclusive cantrips it's kind of odd, also your don't pick your school until level 2, so you need to be at least a level 4 Wizard to get the cantrip, unless you multiclass or take magic initiate.
Honestly I think it would be a good replacement for the level 2 School of Necromancy feature, since that feature does have a few problems, mainly the fact that there aren't any good damaging necromancy spells. But I'm not sure how I feel about the cantrip being exclusively for school of necromancy, since none of the other schools here exclusive cantrips it's kind of odd, also your don't pick your school until level 2, so you need to be at least a level 4 Wizard to get the cantrip, unless you multiclass or take magic initiate.
I think the delayed time that it takes to get the cantrip is fine, since Wizard's shouldn't typically have healing anyway. More or less the theme fits well enough with the School of Necromancy Wizard to make the exception, plus I intentionally worded it so that the healing can be used on undead and constructs. For a Necromancer, that is probably going to be the primary use (or intended use) which is fine since they'll be able to pick it up a level before they get animate dead.
So far the polls show that multiple people find it overpowered, but have yet to describe why. This isn't your typical cantrip healing so I'd appreciate thoughts on why the belief is that it is still too strong, since the only opinions thus far have been why it isn't strong enough.
I don't Know why other people think that way, but I know that a lot of people don't take many sorry rests, so as a result they rarely use hit dice and thus Essence Transfer just gives the players free healing, and it further reduces the need for short rests.
Again, I'm not sure what others people think, but it's possible that their response could be related to the short rest economy,
I don't Know why other people think that way, but I know that a lot of people don't take many sorry rests, so as a result they rarely use hit dice and thus Essence Transfer just gives the players free healing, and it further reduces the need for short rests.
Again, I'm not sure what others people think, but it's possible that their response could be related to the short rest economy,
I thought this could be the case, the only thing I could think of is that people don't realize you only get half your total hit die back from taking a long rest, and think that the typical amount of healing granted will be much greater than it actually is. Like unless you have 2 long rests where you spent no hit die, at level 20 you will get at most 50 points of healing over 10 casts, only healing 5 each time. Now, being able to get someone knocked to 0 is strong, but only healing for 5 hp when you are fighting a foe that does AoE damage or hits for a lot harder than 5 which forces you to either use a leveled spell or use more HD because you'll be stuck in a dance of the individual getting knocked down and you giving them just enough life to get knocked down again...so in most cases you are going to want to heal more than 1 hit die at higher levels in combat when they fall, putting the healing granted on the weaker side of things.
I don't think people are taking that into account.
I don't Know why other people think that way, but I know that a lot of people don't take many sorry rests, so as a result they rarely use hit dice and thus Essence Transfer just gives the players free healing, and it further reduces the need for short rests.
Again, I'm not sure what others people think, but it's possible that their response could be related to the short rest economy,
I thought this could be the case, the only thing I could think of is that people don't realize you only get half your total hit die back from taking a long rest, and think that the typical amount of healing granted will be much greater than it actually is. Like unless you have 2 long rests where you spent no hit die, at level 20 you will get at most 50 points of healing over 10 casts, only healing 5 each time. Now, being able to get someone knocked to 0 is strong, but only healing for 5 hp when you are fighting a foe that does AoE damage or hits for a lot harder than 5 which forces you to either use a leveled spell or use more HD because you'll be stuck in a dance of the individual getting knocked down and you giving them just enough life to get knocked down again...so in most cases you are going to want to heal more than 1 hit die at higher levels in combat when they fall, putting the healing granted on the weaker side of things.
I don't think people are taking that into account.
For higher levels, you could quicken another healing spell and use this as your action. Not hyper effective but critical if you're out of slots.
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Essence Transfer
You lance your hand to extract a portion of your life essence on the tip of a needle laced with the fruit of a belladonna. Choose a number of hit die to spend, up to a maximum of one, and one creature other than yourself that you can touch. You force the extracted essence into the target. For the number of hit dice chosen, the target regains a number of hit points equal to your spellcasting ability modifier (minimum 1).
You can cast this spell even if you do not have hit dice to spend. If you do so, you gain levels of exhaustion equal to the difference between the number you chose to spend and the amount of hit dice you have left to spend.
The spell increases the maximum number of hit die you may choose to spend when you reach higher levels: two dice at 5th level, three dice at 11th level, and four dice at 17th level.
* - (an ivory needle and the fruit of belladonna)It is a 1 action casting time cantrip, that uses the casters short rest hit die pool to provide healing to others. Thought is that this will act as a limiter to how often it can be used, and the cost is heavy since it prevents future healing potential of the caster out of combat. It may currently be too weak even, since the cost is heavy. I also think that such a spell would be cool to allow one to over exert themselves and impose exhaustion levels if they keep casting once they run out of unspent hit dice. It is a necromancy spell, so I think it'd be suitable for school of necromancy Wizards to have access to this spell. Outside of that I think it'd fit Clerics, and maybe even Druids but the version I posted only has Clerics and School of Necromancy Wizards as options currently.
Any thoughts, concerns, or criticisms?
Why only a ‘Maximum of one’ if you an only use one? Why not put down ‘Choose one hit die’?
Extended Signature! Yay! https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/off-topic/adohands-kitchen/3153-extended-signature-thread?page=2#c21
Haven’t used this account in forever. Still a big fan of crawling claws.
Because had it forced the amount that the caster uses, then you'd get less casts that don't cause exhaustion per day as you leveled since at level 4 you'd get at most 4 casts per traveling day, but at level 5 it'd drop to 2 casts with a third consuming your last hit die and giving 1 point of exhaustion. Design wise that seemed counter-intuitive to the player, so instead the caster chooses the amount of hit die usable. This means at level 20, assuming the character has all of their hit die unspent, they'd get a maximum of 20 casts if they chose 1 hit die before they start suffering exhaustion. Because of the power scaling at later levels, the spell was designed so the caster can't use it on themselves. Since healing is often used to bring people back up after getting knocked down to 0, the healing is low. Idea is that at later levels you don't really want a death prevention button that doesn't consume too many resources, so by keeping the healing value clamped and low without consuming more of the resource, it doesn't trivialize combat too much.
So 1 Hit Die spend equals 1 Hit Point gained? Seems a bit to much of a cost for "nothing" to gain. Out of Combat this Cantrip has no use at all and in Combat it may saves a life, but only for a round or two at best. I think if you are going to spend the Hit Die you should roll it to see how many Hit Points get healed.
What is a Hit Die ??? I think it is the inner ability to regenerate and push on, so Maybe give the character you choose to heal, the possibility to use it's own pool of Hit Dice. This way you could use it more freqently (thats what Cantrips are made for).
Choose a number of hit die to spend, up to a maximum of one, and one creature other than yourself that you can touch.
I know the Person before asked this but I still don't get it. Choose a number, whenyou only can use one? spend one hit die, that's a lot clearer I guess.
And you should be able to heal yourself this way, I do not see a reason why you should not be able to do so.
I like the usage of Hit Die, because most of the tiime they are "ignored" somewhat I think ^^'
No, spending a hit die heals the target based on the casters spellcasting ability mod...so a 20 Wis cleric will heal 5 per hit die spent, while a point buy level 1, 16 Wis Cleric will heal 3 per spent die. It is enough to prevent death after going to 0 hp, which is how most use healing anyway, and if needed can provide a small heal that doesn't use a spell slot and let's you cast a bonus action spell if the class being played has one. The issue with granting it more usage though is that you effectively make it to where no one ever has to make death saving throws while you are around...so I intentionally started off with the spell probably on the weak side because even though it looks underwhelming on paper, my bet is that it fairs much better than one would assume at first glance because it is a cantrip so you don't have to worry about using a spell slot to get a party member up and can use it for after battle heals or damage/control spells. Basically you have to be very careful when designing a healing cantrip if you don't want to destroy encounter difficulty. Because of the limitation that the caster can't target themselves, and that I decided to change the spell from being a 30 ft range to a touch based spell, it may make sense to increase the healing but have the healing dice be a static amount rather than scaling with the HD the class uses, since the intent is to give this spell to Necromancy Wizards as well and it'd be weird for their efficacy to be less than a Cleric.
The idea of using someone else's hit die to accelerate healing is interesting, but I don't know if it fits the overall theme of the spell...I suppose it could, but I really thought the idea of giving away your own short rest healing potential to come to the aid of the party was cool and flavorful where I don't think it'd make a lot of sense to use an allies pool...the other issue is doing so opens the door to some weird things as the spell currently stands, because after you've exhausted their hit die, you would either give yourself exhaustion or them depending on how you added that in...and having to keep track of the parties hit die is more work than I think should be placed on a character. Not just that, but it'd then make it into a weird no save combat spell, where if you successfully inflicted paralysis, stunned, etc you could overheal an enemy to start forcing exhaustion levels....so allowing such a thing would require some serious rewording and retooling in general.
Either way, I plan on playtesting this a bit, and if anything really needed to change it would be the amount of healing provided due to the potential costs, meaning I may make it heal 1d4 plus your spellcasting ability mod per die or just 1d4 per die plus spell mod...the big thing is that I don't think a cantrip should be on par with a first level spell, hence the added resource requirement...but I may have gone even further than intended in regards to the earlier levels in its power. At 5th level though with an ASI, your cleric is going to be healing 4 per die. That's basically the average roll for a first level cure wounds if you use 2 hit dice instead of 1 at that level and it doesn't require a roll nor does it consume a spell slot. Also unlike cure wounds, it is intended to be usable on constructs and undead by design.
Overall I really don't think the amount it heals is that big of a problem (because once again, cantrip), and if need be I'd probably just remove the exhaustion stuff, even though it is super thematic and can make for a compelling narrative where some heroic character who is out of spell slots pushes themselves to the brink of death to ensure their unconscious friend doesn't die, or the nefarious necromancer who wants to ensure their favorite undead minion didn't fall in battle. Basically that is why I took on the challenge of making this though: making and balancing a healing cantrip that is more than just a weaker cure wounds is tough to do.
Oh, and since I forgot, the amount of hit die you can spend increases with leveling. The reason it says a maximum of one, is to keep the language consistent when you are higher levels, since what increases is the maximum number of dice you can spend, but you aren't forced to spend more than 1. Had the choice been forced, at level 5 you'd get less casts of it than at level 4 since the number of dice you can spend isn't per long rest, but per cast. Language used was intentional.
Yeah sorry I missed that spellcasting ability modifier part, under that circumstance, the spell is more potent than I thought it is. I guess not roling a dice should work in that regard.
Still I think, using the pool of an ally could be quiet potent, but you are right, the spell would need to be worded a way, that you can't use it against an unwilling creature (if there is no check to see if you hit). But since necromancy is the manipulation of lifeforce and more often than not the manipulation of someoneelses lifeforce it could fit the theme here. But having everyone to track and remember their Hit Die could be a pain in the ass …
Sounds pretty good!
I think I'd prefer to make them roll the hit die to add an element of randomness. 1d8 (assuming Cleric/Druid spell) averages out similarly to spellcasting mod and allows for variety. Although I do think both work OK!
Main reason I didn't go that route to start, is that healing 1 point on an action feels really bad...and I didn't want it just be a tweaked healing word by making it 1d4 + spell mod with just the die increasing because I think it takes away from the theme a bit. Outside of that making it just a die roll could work, but I don't know how I feel about making a cantrip which is potent on any class since then a 1 level dip into cleric would grant a character with low wis the ability to heal an ally 1d8 at low levels for a cantrip...Like I don't disagree that it is weak on paper, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it would be very abuseable if it were stronger due to letting you roll.
I don't disagree, but it not only seems potent but unfun for the person having their HD removed to a degree. Basically to keep in theme with the spell, such a thing would work by taking Creature A's lifeforce to grant it to Creature B, not just utilizing your own latent pool of HD. And stealing potential healing from allies to use on yourself is basically what would happen, which I don't think would be fun for the other players and would make there be extra book keeping for the DM.
That being said, I did make a feat as well that utilizes hit die in a similar way but it is usable on your self only and has stronger limitations on how often the abilities can be used, which is another part of the reason why this spell behaves differently than using the hit die of A to heal A. For reference, here is the feat.
Basically I think that if you are using the spell I presented here, you should also be allowing the feat above. That way characters have a choice to take something which can let them tap into their own short rest pool if desired, but characters can never take short rest die from each other...if I were to make a spell that sapped HD, it'd be at least a first level spell.
Just for clarification, I did not intend to use Creature A's HD to heal Creature B, if you'd heal yourself, you would only use your own HD and if you heal Creature A, you could only use A's HD.
This feat seems fun and could work really well with your cantrip, nice harmony you got there. When you playtested your cantrip, please post how it went and if you tweaked it further :)
Will do, may be a while before I get ample playtesting done but I shall get some good tests in to determine what if anything needs to change.
It doesn't really feel like a cantrip, what makes cantrips special is that they can be cast an unlimited amount of times, so this feels more like a class feature or an item, I do like the idea of using your own hit dice to hear your allies, but a cantrip might not be the best use for it.
As far as balance goes, Essence Transfer is definitely best used by Wizards since they aren't giving up as much due to the fact that they have smaller hit dice, I could see it being an issue if you have two Wizards with high intelligence and mediocre constitution, but that's an unlikely scenario.
I thought about making it a feature of a subclass for maybe a cleric, but I really wanted it to be something that School of Necromancy Wizards specifically could pick up because of how thematic it is and it seems like something that would fit their kit. So as it currently stands it is for Cleric's of all subclasses, and only for the Necromancy subclass for Wizards.
As to it being a cantrip...well a lot of it comes down to it being said that it is not possible to create a balanced healing cantrip lol. I also think that it should have to compete with other abilities that provide utility, so in it being a Cleric and Necromancy Wizard cantrip, it is in competition with other cantrips that can be used often, but don't provide extra chances to get a downed party member up without spending a spell slot, meaning such a cleric will be able to free healing spell slots for damage slots...that's quite powerful so I feel that balance wise it taking up a known cantrip, even though it could theoretically be added as an ability, is better than just being an ability.
Honestly I think it would be a good replacement for the level 2 School of Necromancy feature, since that feature does have a few problems, mainly the fact that there aren't any good damaging necromancy spells. But I'm not sure how I feel about the cantrip being exclusively for school of necromancy, since none of the other schools here exclusive cantrips it's kind of odd, also your don't pick your school until level 2, so you need to be at least a level 4 Wizard to get the cantrip, unless you multiclass or take magic initiate.
I think the delayed time that it takes to get the cantrip is fine, since Wizard's shouldn't typically have healing anyway. More or less the theme fits well enough with the School of Necromancy Wizard to make the exception, plus I intentionally worded it so that the healing can be used on undead and constructs. For a Necromancer, that is probably going to be the primary use (or intended use) which is fine since they'll be able to pick it up a level before they get animate dead.
So far the polls show that multiple people find it overpowered, but have yet to describe why. This isn't your typical cantrip healing so I'd appreciate thoughts on why the belief is that it is still too strong, since the only opinions thus far have been why it isn't strong enough.
I don't Know why other people think that way, but I know that a lot of people don't take many sorry rests, so as a result they rarely use hit dice and thus Essence Transfer just gives the players free healing, and it further reduces the need for short rests.
Again, I'm not sure what others people think, but it's possible that their response could be related to the short rest economy,
I thought this could be the case, the only thing I could think of is that people don't realize you only get half your total hit die back from taking a long rest, and think that the typical amount of healing granted will be much greater than it actually is. Like unless you have 2 long rests where you spent no hit die, at level 20 you will get at most 50 points of healing over 10 casts, only healing 5 each time. Now, being able to get someone knocked to 0 is strong, but only healing for 5 hp when you are fighting a foe that does AoE damage or hits for a lot harder than 5 which forces you to either use a leveled spell or use more HD because you'll be stuck in a dance of the individual getting knocked down and you giving them just enough life to get knocked down again...so in most cases you are going to want to heal more than 1 hit die at higher levels in combat when they fall, putting the healing granted on the weaker side of things.
I don't think people are taking that into account.
For higher levels, you could quicken another healing spell and use this as your action. Not hyper effective but critical if you're out of slots.