Hello ; my character has a Healer's Kit and the Healer feature, from its Hermit background. My I heal my dying friend with 0 hit dice + Proficiency Bonus ? Something like 3 hp at level 5 for example atm. Or do we need at least one hit dice ?
Thanks a lot, adventurers.
Battle Medic. If you have a Healer's Kit, you can expend one use of it and tend to a creature within 5 feet of yourself as a Utilize action. That creature can expend one of its Hit Point Dice, and you then roll that die. The creature regains a number of Hit Points equal to the roll plus your Proficiency Bonus.
Hello ; my character has a Healer's Kit and the Healer feature, from its Hermit background. My I heal my dying friend with 0 hit dice + Proficiency Bonus ? Something like 3 hp at level 5 for example atm. Or do we need at least one hit dice ?
Thanks a lot, adventurers.
Battle Medic. If you have a Healer's Kit, you can expend one use of it and tend to a creature within 5 feet of yourself as a Utilize action. That creature can expend one of its Hit Point Dice, and you then roll that die. The creature regains a number of Hit Points equal to the roll plus your Proficiency Bonus.
No, you can only expend a hit die if you have hit dice to expend. The feat doesn't say you can spend zero hit dice and just get the proficiency bonus, so you can't do that.
That said, you can still use the basic functionality of the Healer's Kit to stabilize a dying creature; that doesn't require spending hit dice.
The wording is ambiguous. The target has a choice, but the following benefit doesn't say it hinges on whether they spend a Hit Die or not. Usually WotC is better at wording when a benefit hinges on a choice, see the Chef feat:
Replenishing Meal. As part of a Short Rest, you can cook special food if you have ingredients and Cook’s Utensils on hand. You can prepare enough of this food for a number of creatures equal to 4 plus your Proficiency Bonus. At the end of the Short Rest, any creature who eats the food and spends one or more Hit Dice to regain Hit Points regains an extra 1d8 Hit Points.
It's a DM-call and I would be conservative and assume you have to spend a Hit Die to gain the Proficiency Bonus healing. The wording could have been more clear for either interpretation.
Delving a bit deeper:
The 2014 Healer feat (regular ASI-feat) could always spend a charge of a Healer's Kit to stabilize and restore 1 Hit Point to dying creatures. It also had a straight up healing benefit that was applicable once per long rest per creature and actually was a fairly good chunk of healing. The 2024 Origin feat has kinda melded those two together.
Most of the Origin feats are 2014-feats where they function the same or slightly different. Magic Initiate functions largely the same, with some new restrictions on spell lists you can choose from, but with QoL changes like choosing your own spellcasting ability and having the option to change the selected spells whenever you gain a level - I think most prefer the 2024-version. The Alert feat is mostly nerfed on its improvement of your initiative roll, but the swapping is new and for many a better benefit than disabling ADV against you from unseen attackers. The Tough feat is 1-to-1 the same.
As such it is difficult to say whether the Origin feat: Healer is supposed to be worse off, better, or just function differently than its 2014 counterpart. If we assumed it's supposed to be largely the same, I would argue it should be possible to heal just your Proficiency Bonus, so it covers the old benefit of always being able to pick-up dying creatures to conscious (>0 HP). This argument also follows the intend of making healing stronger in the 2024 rules, as we have seen with most healing options, especially spells.
And if we're talking balance, it is still an action - so in-combat healing it is super in-efficient and mostly beneficial the same way the 2014 counterpart would pick-up dying teammates - and that feat was nowhere near top remarks, replaceable by a Healing Potion for 50 GP (25 GP for a Herbalism Kit crafter). Out-of-combat healing it is 2-4 HP (the usual level range people play) per charge of a Healer's Kit (5 GP). Healer's Kits weigh 3 lbs and your usual Cleric/Druid (who might want the Healer feat) don't prioritize STR, but they can carry quite a lot of Healer's Kits (~20-40 for STR 8-10). Still... out-of-combat your healing is expected to be covered by Resting, so this benefit is mostly moot, unless your campaign is super pressed for time where resting is not a common option. Further still your DM can limit you by the number of Kits you can acquire. I don't think there's any problem here balance-wise.
But talk with your DM, focus on what you want to achieve in the game, you can use some of the points from this thread as talking points to have a more rounded discussion.
I think I actually would let you heal them for just +PB. It says the creature can spend a Hit Die, not that they must.
They can expend a hit die which means they don't have to, but if they don't, they don't get the PB worth of healing for free. They have to roll a die to get the modifier added on.
I also think it's pretty clear that regaining HP is the result of the character expending a hit die. No Hit Die, not healing. At least, per RAW and likely RAI.
Hello ; my character has a Healer's Kit and the Healer feature, from its Hermit background. My I heal my dying friend with 0 hit dice + Proficiency Bonus ? Something like 3 hp at level 5 for example atm. Or do we need at least one hit dice ?
Thanks a lot, adventurers.
Battle Medic. If you have a Healer's Kit, you can expend one use of it and tend to a creature within 5 feet of yourself as a Utilize action. That creature can expend one of its Hit Point Dice, and you then roll that die. The creature regains a number of Hit Points equal to the roll plus your Proficiency Bonus.
The creature need at least 1 Hit Dice to expend.
No, you can only expend a hit die if you have hit dice to expend. The feat doesn't say you can spend zero hit dice and just get the proficiency bonus, so you can't do that.
That said, you can still use the basic functionality of the Healer's Kit to stabilize a dying creature; that doesn't require spending hit dice.
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ModeratorI think I actually would let you heal them for just +PB. It says the creature can spend a Hit Die, not that they must.
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The wording is ambiguous. The target has a choice, but the following benefit doesn't say it hinges on whether they spend a Hit Die or not. Usually WotC is better at wording when a benefit hinges on a choice, see the Chef feat:
Replenishing Meal. As part of a Short Rest, you can cook special food if you have ingredients and Cook’s Utensils on hand. You can prepare enough of this food for a number of creatures equal to 4 plus your Proficiency Bonus. At the end of the Short Rest, any creature who eats the food and spends one or more Hit Dice to regain Hit Points regains an extra 1d8 Hit Points.
It's a DM-call and I would be conservative and assume you have to spend a Hit Die to gain the Proficiency Bonus healing. The wording could have been more clear for either interpretation.
Delving a bit deeper:
The 2014 Healer feat (regular ASI-feat) could always spend a charge of a Healer's Kit to stabilize and restore 1 Hit Point to dying creatures.
It also had a straight up healing benefit that was applicable once per long rest per creature and actually was a fairly good chunk of healing.
The 2024 Origin feat has kinda melded those two together.
Most of the Origin feats are 2014-feats where they function the same or slightly different. Magic Initiate functions largely the same, with some new restrictions on spell lists you can choose from, but with QoL changes like choosing your own spellcasting ability and having the option to change the selected spells whenever you gain a level - I think most prefer the 2024-version. The Alert feat is mostly nerfed on its improvement of your initiative roll, but the swapping is new and for many a better benefit than disabling ADV against you from unseen attackers. The Tough feat is 1-to-1 the same.
As such it is difficult to say whether the Origin feat: Healer is supposed to be worse off, better, or just function differently than its 2014 counterpart. If we assumed it's supposed to be largely the same, I would argue it should be possible to heal just your Proficiency Bonus, so it covers the old benefit of always being able to pick-up dying creatures to conscious (>0 HP). This argument also follows the intend of making healing stronger in the 2024 rules, as we have seen with most healing options, especially spells.
And if we're talking balance, it is still an action - so in-combat healing it is super in-efficient and mostly beneficial the same way the 2014 counterpart would pick-up dying teammates - and that feat was nowhere near top remarks, replaceable by a Healing Potion for 50 GP (25 GP for a Herbalism Kit crafter). Out-of-combat healing it is 2-4 HP (the usual level range people play) per charge of a Healer's Kit (5 GP). Healer's Kits weigh 3 lbs and your usual Cleric/Druid (who might want the Healer feat) don't prioritize STR, but they can carry quite a lot of Healer's Kits (~20-40 for STR 8-10). Still... out-of-combat your healing is expected to be covered by Resting, so this benefit is mostly moot, unless your campaign is super pressed for time where resting is not a common option. Further still your DM can limit you by the number of Kits you can acquire.
I don't think there's any problem here balance-wise.
But talk with your DM, focus on what you want to achieve in the game, you can use some of the points from this thread as talking points to have a more rounded discussion.
They can expend a hit die which means they don't have to, but if they don't, they don't get the PB worth of healing for free. They have to roll a die to get the modifier added on.
I also think it's pretty clear that regaining HP is the result of the character expending a hit die. No Hit Die, not healing. At least, per RAW and likely RAI.
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