Healing cantrips will never be balanced, as the point of healing is that it's a limited resource. The only way I might say it could work - and this is still a big maybe - is if you took damag equal to the amount healed in someone else.
Short answer, it seems like you purposely designed the spell to be imbalanced. You are letting people cast both Lesser Restoration and Greater Restoration for free, with only a level requirement as a balancing factor. For reference, there's already a spell that heals a lot over the course of 10 minutes (I believe Healing Spirit but I'm on mobile and don't want to check). Your *cantrip* either equals or outperforms a *2nd-level* spell at all points of character progression.
This is all as I see it. If you/your dm is cool with it, then go for it! But if you want it balanced against the other spells, you'll need to tone it back a lot.
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Seems very extreme. You permanently lose 2 * class level hp per usage of this cantrip which cannot be restored, I know it's impossible to make a healing spell that takes 0 resources, but killing yourself to restore someone to half hp is a bit too extreme. It also uses very awkward language not seen in 5E, being outside of combat is not really a thing in 5E. There are no real definition for "relaxed and comfortable position." That can make good flavor text, like "the target is put into a relaxed and comfortable position" for example, but like something like that is a bit too opinion-based.
I would advise taking some inspiration form other people who have attempted this, and avoid things like permanent damage. Even wish doesn't do permanent damage if you try wishing for something outside normal boundaries.
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if I edit a message, most of the time it's because of grammar. The rest of the time I'll put "Edit:" at the bottom.
As VanZoeren and 4yulming4 say, this is a bit extreme sadly, and too complicated and dangerous as well, making it a very strange spell to add.
Personally if I were to homebrew a healing cantrip it'd maybe heal 1d4/2d4/3d4/4d4 at range at 1st/5th/11th/16th levels, but give either you or your target (or both) a point of exhaustion. So it'd basically be Healing Word but with a different cost, as while one point of exhaustion isn't a big deal in combat, two or three are brutal, and it takes spells to recover on the go, making it a "use it once if you need it" or a "running on fumes and I need to keep my allies fighting" type option.
Though of course I'm not sure if I'd use such a thing anyway; there's already relatively good access to healing from abilities, potions and spells.
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If I were to make a healing cantrip, it would just be to allow a target you touch to expend a hit die and gain that amount of hp, but only one use per target per long rest.
I made a healing cantrip that heals 1HP (2@5th, 3@11th, 4@17th) but costs 10gp worth of powdered diamonds/HP. The only reason it is even remotely close to balanced is because it’s more expensive to use than a basic potion of healing.
Edit: It’s an Action to Cast, Range of Touch, and only works if the target is already stable. Can’t use it for in combat yo-yoing unless you already cast Spare the Dying on them or stabilize them in some other way first. I called it “Cure Light Wounds.”
takes a minute to cast and concentration, which means you'd knock 2 people out of combat instead of one....so never in combat. out of combat...like others, i can't see this being used the way my groups play. and ya, way too much text for a cantrip...barely less than a wish spell's worth of reading. :o
I made a healing cantrip that heals 1HP (2@5th, 3@11th, 4@17th) but costs 10gp worth of powdered diamonds/HP. The only reason it is even remotely close to balanced is because it’s more expensive to use than a basic potion of healing.
hmm, cool idea ...although i'd say its actually way cheaper than a healing potion. You're saying the value of each hit point healed is equal to every other hit point healed...but i'd say almost all the value in both the potion and the cantrip is in that very first HP which allows a character to pop back - the extra healing from the potion is just chump change. IMO, it really is as simple as heal for 10gp or heal for 50 gp. I'd make the cantrip consume a full 50gp worth of gems (or even better...consume 50 gp worth of gold pieces and leave the character with a gold tint to its skin for an hour. :p
I made a healing cantrip that heals 1HP (2@5th, 3@11th, 4@17th) but costs 10gp worth of powdered diamonds/HP. The only reason it is even remotely close to balanced is because it’s more expensive to use than a basic potion of healing.
hmm, cool idea ...although i'd say its actually way cheaper than a healing potion. You're saying the value of each hit point healed is equal to every other hit point healed...but i'd say almost all the value in both the potion and the cantrip is in that very first HP which allows a character to pop back - the extra healing from the potion is just chump change. IMO, it really is as simple as heal for 10gp or heal for 50 gp. I'd make the cantrip consume a full 50gp worth of gems (or even better...consume 50 gp worth of gold pieces and leave the character with a gold tint to its skin for an hour. :p
I forgot to mention, it is touch range only and the target has to be stable so it doesn’t work unless you’ve already cast Spare the Dying on them first.
I forgot to mention, it is touch range only and the target has to be stable so it doesn’t work unless you’ve already cast Spare the Dying on them first.
I forgot to mention, it is touch range only and the target has to be stable so it doesn’t work unless you’ve already cast Spare the Dying on them first.
ah, that makes sense
Yeah. That’s how weak a healing cantrip needs to be to be anything close to balanced.
I forgot to mention, it is touch range only and the target has to be stable so it doesn’t work unless you’ve already cast Spare the Dying on them first.
ah, that makes sense
Yeah. That’s how weak a healing cantrip needs to be to be anything close to balanced.
Why not a healing cantrip that spends a hit die, requires 1 minute casting time, somatic and material, touch range, target a creature. (Naturally scales, but 1 minute makes it out of battle only and you use your hit die up and only yours.)
Edit: Sorry. Forgot to add that you spend the hit die, but roll a 1d4.
I forgot to mention, it is touch range only and the target has to be stable so it doesn’t work unless you’ve already cast Spare the Dying on them first.
ah, that makes sense
Yeah. That’s how weak a healing cantrip needs to be to be anything close to balanced.
Why not a healing cantrip that spends a hit die, requires 1 minute casting time, somatic and material, touch range, target a creature. (Naturally scales, but 1 minute makes it out of battle only and you use your hit die up and only yours.)
Because then spending 1 minute/party member for the rough equivalent of a short rests’s worth of hit dice could eliminate the need for short rests entirely of the party is full of classes that don’t recharge anything on a short rest.
I forgot to mention, it is touch range only and the target has to be stable so it doesn’t work unless you’ve already cast Spare the Dying on them first.
ah, that makes sense
Yeah. That’s how weak a healing cantrip needs to be to be anything close to balanced.
Why not a healing cantrip that spends a hit die, requires 1 minute casting time, somatic and material, touch range, target a creature. (Naturally scales, but 1 minute makes it out of battle only and you use your hit die up and only yours.)
Because then spending 1 minute/party member for the rough equivalent of a short rests’s worth of hit dice could eliminate the need for short rests entirely of the party is full of classes that don’t recharge anything on a short rest.
I may have edited after you saw it, my bad. You lose the hit die, but roll a 1d4 instead. Forgot to add it originally.
Also, only the caster can lose their hit die this way. So it's use is limited by your level and yours alone. Also make it cleric and druid only, so not everyone has access to it.
I think it's fair because: It's use is limited by your hit die count so it can't be spammed, you add no modifier like lvl 1 healing spells do, you lose a hit die (only yours is able to be used to heal), you can only consume 1 hit die per casting which makes a mini rest to use multiple times, and takes 1 min so not really battle effective.
I think It would work, but only because you sacrifice some of your own health, otherwise, a healing cantrip would be too powerful. however, having to sacrifice some of your blood makes it a little hard to use in the sense that cantrips are spells you can cast on any turn, without limited use, and sacrificing some of your blood makes it sort of have a limited use.
I have been using a healing cantrip for quite some time at my table. Look at the First Aid Cantrip (not written by me).
A few of things I do change about the spell as written:
it's Abjuration spell and not Evocation, I did this simply to keep it in line with the majority of Healing spells as written (I could argue that all Healing spells should actually be Evocation)
add a Material component * - gems equaling 50+ GP, which the spell consumes (the costs of a Potion of Healing)
can be affected by any other effects that effect healing spells
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So here's the deal, I was working on this cantrip... that heals.
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The thing this DM said to me was... a cantrip that heals?!
*Hurumph*
There's not place for that in my game!
Let me know what you think, be it a comment or just answering the poll!
Healing cantrips will never be balanced, as the point of healing is that it's a limited resource. The only way I might say it could work - and this is still a big maybe - is if you took damag equal to the amount healed in someone else.
Short answer, it seems like you purposely designed the spell to be imbalanced. You are letting people cast both Lesser Restoration and Greater Restoration for free, with only a level requirement as a balancing factor. For reference, there's already a spell that heals a lot over the course of 10 minutes (I believe Healing Spirit but I'm on mobile and don't want to check). Your *cantrip* either equals or outperforms a *2nd-level* spell at all points of character progression.
This is all as I see it. If you/your dm is cool with it, then go for it! But if you want it balanced against the other spells, you'll need to tone it back a lot.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Seems very extreme. You permanently lose 2 * class level hp per usage of this cantrip which cannot be restored, I know it's impossible to make a healing spell that takes 0 resources, but killing yourself to restore someone to half hp is a bit too extreme. It also uses very awkward language not seen in 5E, being outside of combat is not really a thing in 5E. There are no real definition for "relaxed and comfortable position." That can make good flavor text, like "the target is put into a relaxed and comfortable position" for example, but like something like that is a bit too opinion-based.
I would advise taking some inspiration form other people who have attempted this, and avoid things like permanent damage. Even wish doesn't do permanent damage if you try wishing for something outside normal boundaries.
if I edit a message, most of the time it's because of grammar. The rest of the time I'll put "Edit:" at the bottom.
As VanZoeren and 4yulming4 say, this is a bit extreme sadly, and too complicated and dangerous as well, making it a very strange spell to add.
Personally if I were to homebrew a healing cantrip it'd maybe heal 1d4/2d4/3d4/4d4 at range at 1st/5th/11th/16th levels, but give either you or your target (or both) a point of exhaustion. So it'd basically be Healing Word but with a different cost, as while one point of exhaustion isn't a big deal in combat, two or three are brutal, and it takes spells to recover on the go, making it a "use it once if you need it" or a "running on fumes and I need to keep my allies fighting" type option.
Though of course I'm not sure if I'd use such a thing anyway; there's already relatively good access to healing from abilities, potions and spells.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
If I were to make a healing cantrip, it would just be to allow a target you touch to expend a hit die and gain that amount of hp, but only one use per target per long rest.
I made a healing cantrip that heals 1HP (2@5th, 3@11th, 4@17th) but costs 10gp worth of powdered diamonds/HP. The only reason it is even remotely close to balanced is because it’s more expensive to use than a basic potion of healing.
Edit: It’s an Action to Cast, Range of Touch, and only works if the target is already stable. Can’t use it for in combat yo-yoing unless you already cast Spare the Dying on them or stabilize them in some other way first. I called it “Cure Light Wounds.”
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takes a minute to cast and concentration, which means you'd knock 2 people out of combat instead of one....so never in combat. out of combat...like others, i can't see this being used the way my groups play. and ya, way too much text for a cantrip...barely less than a wish spell's worth of reading. :o
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hmm, cool idea ...although i'd say its actually way cheaper than a healing potion. You're saying the value of each hit point healed is equal to every other hit point healed...but i'd say almost all the value in both the potion and the cantrip is in that very first HP which allows a character to pop back - the extra healing from the potion is just chump change. IMO, it really is as simple as heal for 10gp or heal for 50 gp. I'd make the cantrip consume a full 50gp worth of gems (or even better...consume 50 gp worth of gold pieces and leave the character with a gold tint to its skin for an hour. :p
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I forgot to mention, it is touch range only and the target has to be stable so it doesn’t work unless you’ve already cast Spare the Dying on them first.
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ah, that makes sense
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Yeah. That’s how weak a healing cantrip needs to be to be anything close to balanced.
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Why not a healing cantrip that spends a hit die, requires 1 minute casting time, somatic and material, touch range, target a creature. (Naturally scales, but 1 minute makes it out of battle only and you use your hit die up and only yours.)
Edit: Sorry. Forgot to add that you spend the hit die, but roll a 1d4.
Because then spending 1 minute/party member for the rough equivalent of a short rests’s worth of hit dice could eliminate the need for short rests entirely of the party is full of classes that don’t recharge anything on a short rest.
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I may have edited after you saw it, my bad. You lose the hit die, but roll a 1d4 instead. Forgot to add it originally.
Also, only the caster can lose their hit die this way. So it's use is limited by your level and yours alone. Also make it cleric and druid only, so not everyone has access to it.
I think it's fair because: It's use is limited by your hit die count so it can't be spammed, you add no modifier like lvl 1 healing spells do, you lose a hit die (only yours is able to be used to heal), you can only consume 1 hit die per casting which makes a mini rest to use multiple times, and takes 1 min so not really battle effective.
Ah. I had read it that it allowed the target to spend their Hit Die.
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I think It would work, but only because you sacrifice some of your own health, otherwise, a healing cantrip would be too powerful. however, having to sacrifice some of your blood makes it a little hard to use in the sense that cantrips are spells you can cast on any turn, without limited use, and sacrificing some of your blood makes it sort of have a limited use.
For a cantrip it would have to real week and limited.
Make it a necromancy spell.
A touch spell only.
And its only a life transference spell.
The recipient rolls 1d4 with no modifiers. The caster loses twice the HP given.
Now any caster can cast it all he wants or at least until he kills himself.
I have been using a healing cantrip for quite some time at my table. Look at the First Aid Cantrip (not written by me).
A few of things I do change about the spell as written: