I'm contemplating several changes to the Healer Feat. I'm not sure which way to go yet, and looking for some advice.
RAW: As an action, you can spend one use of a healer's kit to tend to a creature and restore 1d6 + 4 hit points to it, plus additional hit points equal to the creature's maximum number of Hit Dice. The creature can't regain hit points from this feat again until it finishes a short or long rest.
1a) Instead of the base "d6", you get "patient's largest unspent HD". Minimum, that's a d6, but could be up to a d12.
----> This makes the healing is proportional to the patient.
1b) Instead of the base "d6+4", you get *two* of "patient's largest unspent HD".
----> This makes a bigger bell curve, extra-rewards fighting classes, but risks a low minimum.
2a) Instead of the base "d6", you get "patient's largest unspent HD+CON Bonus"... but it costs you a HD. If you don't have a HD available, you get something less.
----> This emphasizes that this is *natural* healing, accelerating the body's resources but not supplementing them. This is both a boost (up to d12+5!) and a nerf (costs a HD).
----> "Something less" I was thinking would be "(CON bonus + Level) halved, rounded up, min 1"
2b) Instead of the base "d6", you get *two* of "patient's largest unspent HD"... but it costs you a HD. If you don't have a HD available, you get something less.
----> Option 1b and 2a combined.
3) Instead of the base "d6+4", you get "half the Healer's Medicine check, rounded up".
----> This works in a gradual increase from proficiency, and rewards expertise in Medicine. With WIS 10 and no skill, this results in a range of 1 to 10 at 1st level; more commonly, this will probably be a 16 WIS cleric with proficiency in Medicine, for a range at 1st level of 3 to 13. This is actually about the same - average 8 vs. average 7.5 at 1st level - but will increase over time... and also has a higher random swing (3-13 vs. 5-10).
4) .... make a suggestion?
All of these options would still provide the "+Level" additional bonus. So if the rule ended up being, say, "2b", an injured level 10 Barbarian would receive "2d12+10" healing from the Healer feat, at the cost of a HD; if he had no HD left for the day, he'd get only 5pts... (or maybe not halved, get 10 points?).
Thoughts? I really like tying this powerful feat to the patient's HD, so I'm tending towards some kind of Option 2. That rewards warriors, penalizes no one, but also slightly nerfs the feat - which is effectively the same as "4 cure wounds (Level 2) per day"... way more powerful than, say, Magic Initiate (Cleric)!
Personally I like 1d6+4 over the possibility of getting 2-3 healing out of a charge. Especially if your party is relying on this, having a decent floor on that curve could be the difference between life and death.
So, we only had 1.5 fights in the session, and the Healer feat wasn't used. Stay tuned!
[Edit/Update] We missed a session or two. Last session had puzzle missions, and a "walkover" battle. One PC got hit for 10 damage (more than 25% of his hits!). the cleric used Healer and gave him d8 (monk HD) + 9 (4+5th level) hp, easily healing him, at the cost of the patient's HD. Then they camped, HD was restored.
I'm contemplating several changes to the Healer Feat. I'm not sure which way to go yet, and looking for some advice.
RAW: As an action, you can spend one use of a healer's kit to tend to a creature and restore 1d6 + 4 hit points to it, plus additional hit points equal to the creature's maximum number of Hit Dice. The creature can't regain hit points from this feat again until it finishes a short or long rest.
1a) Instead of the base "d6", you get "patient's largest unspent HD". Minimum, that's a d6, but could be up to a d12.
----> This makes the healing is proportional to the patient.
1b) Instead of the base "d6+4", you get *two* of "patient's largest unspent HD".
----> This makes a bigger bell curve, extra-rewards fighting classes, but risks a low minimum.
2a) Instead of the base "d6", you get "patient's largest unspent HD+CON Bonus"... but it costs you a HD. If you don't have a HD available, you get something less.
----> This emphasizes that this is *natural* healing, accelerating the body's resources but not supplementing them. This is both a boost (up to d12+5!) and a nerf (costs a HD).
----> "Something less" I was thinking would be "(CON bonus + Level) halved, rounded up, min 1"
2b) Instead of the base "d6", you get *two* of "patient's largest unspent HD"... but it costs you a HD. If you don't have a HD available, you get something less.
----> Option 1b and 2a combined.
3) Instead of the base "d6+4", you get "half the Healer's Medicine check, rounded up".
----> This works in a gradual increase from proficiency, and rewards expertise in Medicine. With WIS 10 and no skill, this results in a range of 1 to 10 at 1st level; more commonly, this will probably be a 16 WIS cleric with proficiency in Medicine, for a range at 1st level of 3 to 13. This is actually about the same - average 8 vs. average 7.5 at 1st level - but will increase over time... and also has a higher random swing (3-13 vs. 5-10).
4) .... make a suggestion?
All of these options would still provide the "+Level" additional bonus. So if the rule ended up being, say, "2b", an injured level 10 Barbarian would receive "2d12+10" healing from the Healer feat, at the cost of a HD; if he had no HD left for the day, he'd get only 5pts... (or maybe not halved, get 10 points?).
Thoughts? I really like tying this powerful feat to the patient's HD, so I'm tending towards some kind of Option 2. That rewards warriors, penalizes no one, but also slightly nerfs the feat - which is effectively the same as "4 cure wounds (Level 2) per day"... way more powerful than, say, Magic Initiate (Cleric)!
the changes make sense, but this feels like a buff that feat really did not need at all.
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Personally I like 1d6+4 over the possibility of getting 2-3 healing out of a charge. Especially if your party is relying on this, having a decent floor on that curve could be the difference between life and death.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
The simplest smallest change is thematic, and switches out the d6 for a HD-type. That's a boost.
The other simple small change is also thematic: it *costs* a HD to receive the healing. That's a nerf.
I could do both, giving a tiny increase, a nerf, and making the feat more thematic. Sound good?
I just got rolling with brainstorm ideas, and then couldn't figure out what to do. Hence turning to the forums for advice!
[Edit: We're going to playtest this version - use target's HD, but spends a HD - next session. I'll let you know how it goes.]
So, we only had 1.5 fights in the session, and the Healer feat wasn't used. Stay tuned!
[Edit/Update] We missed a session or two. Last session had puzzle missions, and a "walkover" battle. One PC got hit for 10 damage (more than 25% of his hits!). the cleric used Healer and gave him d8 (monk HD) + 9 (4+5th level) hp, easily healing him, at the cost of the patient's HD. Then they camped, HD was restored.