Have proficiency in the healer's kitHerbalism Kit tool.
skill proficiency in Medicine
Without Multiclassing?
take the Healer Feat.
Anyone you stabilize with a healer's kit gets 1 HP and it up instead of at 0.
Once per Creature per Short Rest as an action you can heal a creature 1d6+4 +their level.
With Multiclassing?
1 level of any class with healing. Wis:13 Cleric (Life?), Cha:13: Bard or Divine Soul. Then have your Rogue take Arcane Trickster, you can use your Arcane Trickster spells to cast Cure Wounds.
If you take 1 level in Life Cleric when you have a Feat take Magic Initiate: Druid, with Goodberry as your lvl 1 spell. Once a day you can cast Goodberry and gives you 10 berries which eat heal 4hp. They can be administered as an Action. It's easy to flavor this as part of your "heal kit"
Healer's Kits aren't tools; you can't get proficiency in them.
Anyways, besides the Healer, take Inspiring Leader and Martial Adept (with one of your two maneuvers being Rally). Preferably, pick Variant Human as your race so you can start doing your thing at level 1. Consider Thief or Swashbuckler as your subclasses. Thief's Fast Hands lets you stabilize party members with Healer's Kits as a bonus action (and put them back in the fight if you have the Healer feat). Swashbuckler's Rakish Audacity and Panache make use of CHA, which need at least some of to get Inspiring Leader.
But honestly, it sounds more like you want to be a College of Swords Bard.
Herbalism Kit. This kit contains a variety of instruments such as clippers, mortar and pestle, and pouches and vials used by herbalists to create remedies and potions. Proficiency with this kit lets you add your proficiency bonus to any ability checks you make to identify or apply herbs. Also, proficiency with this kit is required to create antitoxin and potions of healing.
Also, I don't think you can use Cunning Action to use a Healer's Kit. It's possible.
Starting at 3rd level, you can use the bonus action granted by your Cunning Action to make a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check, use your thieves’ tools to disarm a trap or open a lock, or take the Use an Object action.
Healer's kit says "As an action", so I'm not sure if it counts as an Use an Object or if the specifics of the rule requires it to be an Action.
This kit is a leather pouch containing bandages, salves, and splints. The kit has ten uses. As an action, you can expend one use of the kit to stabilize a creature that has 0 hit points, without needing to make a Wisdom (Medicine) check.
Potions of Healing are magic items. They follow the magic item creation rules in the DMG, which require finding a formula for the item and being at least a 3rd level spellcaster (or having one handy). The Herbalism Kit is required, but not sufficient.
As for the Fast Hands, the Use An Object action covers that case:
Use an Object
You normally interact with an object while doing something else, such as when you draw a sword as part of an attack. When an object requires your action for its use, you take the Use an Object action. This action is also useful when you want to interact with more than one object on your turn.
I'm not as sure about the healing feature of the Healer feat, because that action is granted by the feat itself, but stabilizing creatures is a normal feature of the item.
Potions of Healing are magic items. They follow the magic item creation rules in the DMG, which require finding a formula for the item and being at least a 3rd level spellcaster (or having one handy). The Herbalism Kit is required, but not sufficient.
Arcane Trickster it is, then.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
That still leaves the problem of the DM allowing you to find the formula for creating them. Fortunately if your DM allows Xanathar's Guide to Everything rules, proficiency with a Herbalism Kit really is all you need in the new magic item creation rules.
I still think College of Swords is perfect for what they want. It's much easier to bend the Bard class in the Rogue direction than to try to bend the Rogue class in the healer direction. You'd miss out on Cunning Action and Sneak Attack, but still get Expertise, and get Jack of all Trades too.
Why NOT?!?! If someone wants to play a support rogue, there's nothing wrong with that. A healer rogue sounds like it would make a more interesting party member compared to:
- A typical rogue that lived a hard life and steals from everyone
- The edgy rogue that doesn't trust anyone and doesn't have a single person left that they care about.
I prepared a good rogue-thief for that, in case of we have to make a one-shot. The gameplay could be fun, but but but I would not run it for a big scenario. So, the rogue I plan to play could be use at level 1 but better at level 4. Hermit background for Medicine skill and Herbalist kit, he's a plague doctor, preparing his own medicines.
You start Variant Human with - Healer feat - +1 in Int and Dex.
You can reach 16 Dex, and 14 in Int/Cons, allowing you to take kicks and use Int skills including Medicine with expertise. It sounds like a waste but it's thematically cool. Sleight of Hand is also pretty neat for this character concept. Level 4, you take Mobility feat, +10ft, auto disengage on the creature that you attacked and a small but practical bonus for your Dash, available with your Cunning Action.
How to play:
So obviously you can go for sneak attack with a shortbow, but why are you playing a doctor? Noooo, you can run 40ft around, 80 with dash, you will use all your movement every turn. Fast Hands is a wonderful and underestimate bonus. You have a couple of objects that you can use, including what's around you (tables, chairs, traps, ...). You can also use it to steal stuff from your opponents, like their component pouch. Your sleight of hand can be use for funny actions, both to steal of to put stuff in other's pockets during a fight (flask of oil, a rock under the effect of the Light cantrip, ...).
Imagine, one ally drops to 0HP, you Dash all the map to STAB HIM WITH YOUR MEDICINES! You saw Pulp Fiction? When they give a shot to the lady to kick-start her heart? Same same. Or, if you don't have to Dash, you STAB HIM WITH YOUR MEDICINES! (Yeah!) He wakes up with a scream, looks at you with pain and incomprehension (and 1HP), you look at him for 2 seconds... AND STAB HIM AGAIN to heal 1d6+4+his level. Your action THEN your bonus action, both to use Healer's Kit.
A big bad guy with a two hands sword will do some bad stuff to your face? At level 6 you can get expertise in acrobatic, so you can use your action to Disarm, pick his toy, look at him for 2 seconds... then Dash away screaming, or droping Caltrops behind you. With 40ft he won't be able to catch you anyway. Depending of your DM, Disarm could also trigger the Disengage effect of the Mobil feat, so he won't punch your back.
Using a potion can't be done with your bonus action since it's a Magic Item. But you could run to the bleeding fighter and say "here, here, drink this cough syrup, I made it with a strawberry flavor, it will help you to support the fact that I STAB YOU WITH MY MEDICAL NEEDLE!" Healing Potion + Healer's Kit will give him enough to fight for couple of rounds. And if he drops to 0HP again, you can also give him +1HP (healer's feat again) then use your action to put him back on his feet.
Just think about combos you can do with objects, and play like an annoying monkey! It just doesn't really work at high level, when any random spells will do 20x more effects than your objects. At this time, Sneak Attack will be far more interesting than trying to stop a ancient blue dragon with your caltrops.
For the Disarm Action, the official rule is pretty simple. You do an attack roll to hit your opponent weapon, then it has to make an Athletic or Acrobatic (its choice) check. If you roll more than your opponent, the attack deals no damage but disarm. Otherwise nothing happens.
So you can take your sword, roll 1d20 + Str or Dex + Proficiency bonus if you're proficient in this weapon, and your opponent has to roll 1d20 + Str or Dex + Proficiency if it has Athletic or Acrobatic skill. One variant rule (Homebrew) is to make your character roll for Athletic/Acrobatic instead of an attack roll, allowing your character to use Expertise in its skill (1d20 + Str or Dex + 2*Proficiency).
There is no natural way to start a rogue with a Healer's kit. BUT BUT BUT The Hermit background gives you the Herbalist Kit and 5 golds. You know what worth 5 gold pieces? The Healer's Kit! So if your DM allows it (part of your background) you could ask him to start with 0 gold piece and a Healer's Kit, assuming you bough one before showing up because... you're a healer! The healer's kit as 10 "charges", so each time you use it is like you're spending 0.5 gold. To be honest, it's pretty cheap!
Another possibility: Take the feat Magic Initiate.
Then learn Spare the Dying, and either Cure Wounds or Healing Word.
It's not the greatest healing loadout, per se, but you'll be capable of keeping people alive, basically what you're looking for from the Healer's Kit anyhow.
Thank you so much for the clarification, I actually discussed this with my DM if I could do an athletics/acrobatics contest for disarming and he agreed. The build so far is soooooooo much fun to play and theory craft, so thank you so much :).
Since I'm so new, I've never really played around with character creation too much, so I was flipping through my PHB vehemently trying to keep up with all your tips. About two weeks ago, we started a new campaign and the party realized we had no healers. I'm usually the one who doesn't mind switching to cleric or something, but this time I had already written out a backstory and prepped a rogue. After finding this I changed my background to hermit, race to variant human, and modified my backstory to fit; researched as much as I could, and voila, a rogue healer was born. I rolled fairly bad on all my stats (+1 modifier to my dex, feels bad) so all I plan on doing is running around, stealing, disarming, and healing.
I think the other players are quite skeptical of my usefulness but I've been brainstorming all sorts of things I can do with this build, I think it will catch em off guard. A last minute Paladin decided to join our game and I am making it a personal competition of who can out-heal who. Fortunately, the game started off with us completing a quest for 50gp each member, so I was able to convince whomever sells medical supplies to sell me 6 healer's kits for 20gp. That was before I realized each kit holds 10 charges, so I think I will be going ham with all that.
I do have 2 other questions if you don't mind:
Is there an official rule for the Herbalist Kit on making healing potions. My DM said he'd allow me to make one per night (or during a long rest, I kind of forgot) but it seems a tad broken. I feel like we're missing something.
Also, can I force use potions on someone else? Although I doubt I'll be doing this often due to how many healer's kits I purchased, I just want to be sure just in case it ever happens.
Thanks for the Magic Initiate idea, I'll keep it in mind. I was actually considering that as well once I learned what feats were and how to acquire them. Only issue is I'd have to invest in my wisdom stat so I would heal for a bit more. I feel like the Healer's kit is a solid heal for me since it scales off of player level instead of my spellcasting ability modifier. The scaling isn't huge but it is something.
In fact, it requires one full day and 25 golds of components to craft a simple potion of healing. As a DM, I allowed my players to use their tools during a long rest (otherwise you never really use your tools in D&D). So one potion of healing will take 3 long rests to craft. For components, you can also get them in a forest if your DM allows you to take some time to harvest.
Use a potion on someone else:
You can use your action for that, assuming your target is consent. So you can't force an enemy to drink poison, but it's OK to heal a creature with a healing potion. It's considered as a magical item so you can't do it with your cunning action! It's also pretty good to use, the healer's feat can heal 1d6+4+level only once per rest, so keep a healing potion with you, it will always help!
Magic Initiate:
The cantrip Spare the Dying is not as good as using the healers kit with the healer's feat. Spare the Dying stabilize your target, using the healer's kit give it 1HP. Healing word is good since it's a bonus action and as a good range, but you can cover this range with the Mobil feat, and Magic Initiate lets you use a 1st level spell only once per long rest. The healer's kit is still better!
Low dexterity rogue:
What I suggest in that case is to use your expertises in dexterity skills to double your proficiency. The Mobil feat makes your target unable to catch you with an opportunity attack if you attack it during your turn EVEN IF YOU MISS YOUR ATTACK. So you don't need a huge dex to be able to run away. However, low dex means no AC, so if your cons is also low, you will have some trouble to stay alive. Or you could multi-class in Forge Cleric to get the heavy armor proficiency, but you need at least 15 strength to carry one, 13 wisdom to multi-class and also a good RP reason to justify that now you're also a priest.
1 level fighter is also to consider, let me explain briefly: You gain Medium Armor, Shield and Martial Weapons proficiency + what a fighter get at it's first level (Fighting Style and Second Wind).
Armor:
For medium armors, you gain a bonus to your AC and you can add your dexterity modifier with a maximum of +2. You have two choices to consider: - Half Plate, 15AC + Dex modifier (max +2) but it gives you disadvantage on stealth check - Breast Plate, 14AC + Dex modifier (max +2).
A shield gives you +2 AC, so you could have a good armor class of 14 + 1 (dex) + 2 (sheild) for a total of 17. You can go to 18 if you don't plan to be stealthy.
Then you can add the Defense Fighting Style (fighter feature), it gives you an extra +1 AC and it's easily the best fighting style for this character concept. So you end up with 18 to 19AC, it's suuuuper comfortable!
Weapon:
Yay! Martial weapons! You can use a long bow with a super range! Take one in case of, it's always useful.
BUT the best is the Whip. It deals 1d4 damages and you can use your dex, same as a dagger, BUT has the Reach effect, it means you can use it on targets who are 10ft away! Ok so you are not here to deal damages, but in case of, it's always good to have a reach. And even if 1d4 seems pretty low, rogues use their Sneak Attack to deal damages, not their weapon damage. So it's worthy, even if you don't plan to be a damage dealer.
Fighter Feature:
You gain one fighting style, we already talked about it, but also Second Wind. It heals you 1d10+your level by using your bonus action once per short or long rest. It's like using a charge of your healing kit on yourself for free. If you're in a bad situation, you can spend your full turn using your action for the healer's kit + your bonus action for Second Wind to heal yourself 1d10+1d6+4+(2*your level). It's HUGE and you could do it every short or long rest.
__________
So you have a couple of good reasons to multiclass 1level in fighter, it will help you to survive better even if you have a low dexterity. You can consider it after your level 4 (once you get your 2nd feat OR your ability score improvement) to see if you really need more protection for yourself or not.
Thank you so much for all the ideas. Sorry for the delayed response but since I'm in several campaigns I get to touch my rogue healer about 1-2 times per month. Since I play several characters and am in several campaigns I have learned so much about the game and can actually understand your lingo now :p. He is probably my most interesting character mechanically.
So far my whole party has been astonished by my healing output, especially the DM. It definitely caught everyone off guard. The mobile feat also makes me extremely slippery, its honestly amazing and pairs so well with the rest of his kit. Enemies can't touch me and I'm keeping people alive, I'm equivalent to a medical ninja from Naruto. We just hit level 6 and his usefulness is starting to wither a bit, especially since most of my party are becoming mage gods for some reason, but I am pushing through.
The fighter idea seems actually pretty good but thematically does not fit my idea for my character. The whip sounds sooooo juicy though. I can see doing so much with it aside from fighting. Tying stuff to the end of it like a sand bag and flinging it around, etc. Curious if my DM would allow me to use it to have extended grab for picking up stuff, swinging from stuff, or pulling levers. I do not have much need for second wind cause I am pretty good at positioning and avoiding damage. I will keep this in mind though if I feel my character has a change of heart.
A lot of people tell me the thief archetype falls off heavily and I am scared I am going to feel it, but I'm super hoping my creativity can get me through it. If you have anymore ideas I am more than willing to learn, been loving your tips so far.
Happy to see that you're enjoying this Healer Rogue!
So, you're right. The Thief archetype doesn't shine that much once you level up. The only game-changing bonus you get is at level 17, it allows you to take 2 turns at the first round of any fights (so 2 sneak attacks). The bonus you get at level 13, allowing you to use magic items without taking care of their requirements, can be wonderful if you find good magic items, but it highly depends on what you will find in the treasure chest.
At this point, the rogue (any archetype) has some trouble to keep in touch with god-like magic users and martial fighters. But you're not useless! There is three things you can abuse to impress your party!
- Good use of the "Thieve's Cant" feature
Go to a merchant and ask him "Do you have a good perfume for my mother-in-law? Something strong enough to take her breath out, I really need to impress her! She can be a real demon so I don't think a basic floral fragrance would do the job, maybe some musk from uncommon animals?" If your DM agrees to play this game, you could then have access to strong poisons. Adapt your speech according to what you are looking for!
- Good use of Thieve's archetype
Starting level 3 you have the ability to make longer jumps and to climb without lowering your movement, Jumping could allow you to set-up a hidden bear trap, then bring an opponent into it by running then jumping over. The ability to climb everywhere turn the 2D map into a 3D map for you. You might have to make acrobatic checks to do ninja stuff like climbing the ceiling to approach your target in a sneaky way, but usually it is not a big issue. Take a rope with you and watch some spy movies to get inspiration.
Starting level 9, you're sneaker! The sneakiest! Using only half your movement (20ft) to gain advantage on your Stealth check helps you to do your Thief job. Go around walking on tiptoe to steal stuff and spy.
- Good use of Expertise
Doubling your Proficiency bonus is noice. Very noice. It means that you can take Charisma skills with 8 Cha but still get a good chance to succeed. Usually I like to use Expertise for Int skills, they are not always useful so nobody take them (like seriously, Clerics don't take Religion), having expertise on them allows your Rogue to be an encyclopedia. It might be more useful than expected! Check with your team what skills they are good at first.
________
To resume, you're fighting options won't change that much by leveling up. Only your damage output thanks to Sneak Attack. It doesn't mean you are useless! Thanks to your skills, you can have a strong impact on your team progression outside fights!
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Any ideas on how to make a rogue that specializes in healing, preferably without multi classing.
No matter what you do:
Have proficiency in the
healer's kitHerbalism Kit tool.skill proficiency in Medicine
Without Multiclassing?
take the Healer Feat.
With Multiclassing?
1 level of any class with healing. Wis:13 Cleric (Life?), Cha:13: Bard or Divine Soul. Then have your Rogue take Arcane Trickster, you can use your Arcane Trickster spells to cast Cure Wounds.
If you take 1 level in Life Cleric when you have a Feat take Magic Initiate: Druid, with Goodberry as your lvl 1 spell. Once a day you can cast Goodberry and gives you 10 berries which eat heal 4hp. They can be administered as an Action. It's easy to flavor this as part of your "heal kit"
Healer's Kits aren't tools; you can't get proficiency in them.
Anyways, besides the Healer, take Inspiring Leader and Martial Adept (with one of your two maneuvers being Rally). Preferably, pick Variant Human as your race so you can start doing your thing at level 1. Consider Thief or Swashbuckler as your subclasses. Thief's Fast Hands lets you stabilize party members with Healer's Kits as a bonus action (and put them back in the fight if you have the Healer feat). Swashbuckler's Rakish Audacity and Panache make use of CHA, which need at least some of to get Inspiring Leader.
But honestly, it sounds more like you want to be a College of Swords Bard.
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Healer's kit says "As an action", so I'm not sure if it counts as an Use an Object or if the specifics of the rule requires it to be an Action.
Potions of Healing are magic items. They follow the magic item creation rules in the DMG, which require finding a formula for the item and being at least a 3rd level spellcaster (or having one handy). The Herbalism Kit is required, but not sufficient.
As for the Fast Hands, the Use An Object action covers that case:
I'm not as sure about the healing feature of the Healer feat, because that action is granted by the feat itself, but stabilizing creatures is a normal feature of the item.
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Sorry for me asking but WHY!!!!!
Why NOT?!?! If someone wants to play a support rogue, there's nothing wrong with that. A healer rogue sounds like it would make a more interesting party member compared to:
- A typical rogue that lived a hard life and steals from everyone
- The edgy rogue that doesn't trust anyone and doesn't have a single person left that they care about.
- The Swashbuckling pirate
- (Insert cliche rogue backstory)
A healer rogue makes a swift medic that can dodge well...
I prepared a good rogue-thief for that, in case of we have to make a one-shot. The gameplay could be fun, but but but I would not run it for a big scenario.
So, the rogue I plan to play could be use at level 1 but better at level 4. Hermit background for Medicine skill and Herbalist kit, he's a plague doctor, preparing his own medicines.
You start Variant Human with
- Healer feat
- +1 in Int and Dex.
You can reach 16 Dex, and 14 in Int/Cons, allowing you to take kicks and use Int skills including Medicine with expertise. It sounds like a waste but it's thematically cool. Sleight of Hand is also pretty neat for this character concept.
Level 4, you take Mobility feat, +10ft, auto disengage on the creature that you attacked and a small but practical bonus for your Dash, available with your Cunning Action.
How to play:
So obviously you can go for sneak attack with a shortbow, but why are you playing a doctor? Noooo, you can run 40ft around, 80 with dash, you will use all your movement every turn.
Fast Hands is a wonderful and underestimate bonus. You have a couple of objects that you can use, including what's around you (tables, chairs, traps, ...). You can also use it to steal stuff from your opponents, like their component pouch. Your sleight of hand can be use for funny actions, both to steal of to put stuff in other's pockets during a fight (flask of oil, a rock under the effect of the Light cantrip, ...).
Imagine, one ally drops to 0HP, you Dash all the map to STAB HIM WITH YOUR MEDICINES! You saw Pulp Fiction? When they give a shot to the lady to kick-start her heart? Same same.
Or, if you don't have to Dash, you STAB HIM WITH YOUR MEDICINES! (Yeah!)
He wakes up with a scream, looks at you with pain and incomprehension (and 1HP), you look at him for 2 seconds... AND STAB HIM AGAIN to heal 1d6+4+his level. Your action THEN your bonus action, both to use Healer's Kit.
A big bad guy with a two hands sword will do some bad stuff to your face? At level 6 you can get expertise in acrobatic, so you can use your action to Disarm, pick his toy, look at him for 2 seconds... then Dash away screaming, or droping Caltrops behind you. With 40ft he won't be able to catch you anyway. Depending of your DM, Disarm could also trigger the Disengage effect of the Mobil feat, so he won't punch your back.
Using a potion can't be done with your bonus action since it's a Magic Item. But you could run to the bleeding fighter and say "here, here, drink this cough syrup, I made it with a strawberry flavor, it will help you to support the fact that I STAB YOU WITH MY MEDICAL NEEDLE!"
Healing Potion + Healer's Kit will give him enough to fight for couple of rounds.
And if he drops to 0HP again, you can also give him +1HP (healer's feat again) then use your action to put him back on his feet.
Just think about combos you can do with objects, and play like an annoying monkey!
It just doesn't really work at high level, when any random spells will do 20x more effects than your objects. At this time, Sneak Attack will be far more interesting than trying to stop a ancient blue dragon with your caltrops.
Awesome idea! I find this actually quite interesting and fun. I'm somewhat new to the game so if you don't mind clarifying somethings.
How does disarming work? I cannot seem to find it in my PHB and google is questionable.
Also, as a rogue is there any way to start the game with some healer kits?
Thanks!
For the Disarm Action, the official rule is pretty simple. You do an attack roll to hit your opponent weapon, then it has to make an Athletic or Acrobatic (its choice) check.
If you roll more than your opponent, the attack deals no damage but disarm. Otherwise nothing happens.
So you can take your sword, roll 1d20 + Str or Dex + Proficiency bonus if you're proficient in this weapon, and your opponent has to roll 1d20 + Str or Dex + Proficiency if it has Athletic or Acrobatic skill.
One variant rule (Homebrew) is to make your character roll for Athletic/Acrobatic instead of an attack roll, allowing your character to use Expertise in its skill (1d20 + Str or Dex + 2*Proficiency).
There is no natural way to start a rogue with a Healer's kit.
BUT BUT BUT The Hermit background gives you the Herbalist Kit and 5 golds. You know what worth 5 gold pieces? The Healer's Kit!
So if your DM allows it (part of your background) you could ask him to start with 0 gold piece and a Healer's Kit, assuming you bough one before showing up because... you're a healer!
The healer's kit as 10 "charges", so each time you use it is like you're spending 0.5 gold. To be honest, it's pretty cheap!
Another possibility: Take the feat Magic Initiate.
Then learn Spare the Dying, and either Cure Wounds or Healing Word.
It's not the greatest healing loadout, per se, but you'll be capable of keeping people alive, basically what you're looking for from the Healer's Kit anyhow.
Thank you so much for the clarification, I actually discussed this with my DM if I could do an athletics/acrobatics contest for disarming and he agreed. The build so far is soooooooo much fun to play and theory craft, so thank you so much :).
Since I'm so new, I've never really played around with character creation too much, so I was flipping through my PHB vehemently trying to keep up with all your tips. About two weeks ago, we started a new campaign and the party realized we had no healers. I'm usually the one who doesn't mind switching to cleric or something, but this time I had already written out a backstory and prepped a rogue. After finding this I changed my background to hermit, race to variant human, and modified my backstory to fit; researched as much as I could, and voila, a rogue healer was born. I rolled fairly bad on all my stats (+1 modifier to my dex, feels bad) so all I plan on doing is running around, stealing, disarming, and healing.
I think the other players are quite skeptical of my usefulness but I've been brainstorming all sorts of things I can do with this build, I think it will catch em off guard. A last minute Paladin decided to join our game and I am making it a personal competition of who can out-heal who. Fortunately, the game started off with us completing a quest for 50gp each member, so I was able to convince whomever sells medical supplies to sell me 6 healer's kits for 20gp. That was before I realized each kit holds 10 charges, so I think I will be going ham with all that.
I do have 2 other questions if you don't mind:
Is there an official rule for the Herbalist Kit on making healing potions. My DM said he'd allow me to make one per night (or during a long rest, I kind of forgot) but it seems a tad broken. I feel like we're missing something.
Also, can I force use potions on someone else? Although I doubt I'll be doing this often due to how many healer's kits I purchased, I just want to be sure just in case it ever happens.
Again, thanks for the ideas and answers!
Thanks for the Magic Initiate idea, I'll keep it in mind. I was actually considering that as well once I learned what feats were and how to acquire them. Only issue is I'd have to invest in my wisdom stat so I would heal for a bit more. I feel like the Healer's kit is a solid heal for me since it scales off of player level instead of my spellcasting ability modifier. The scaling isn't huge but it is something.
Crafting a Healing Potion:
In fact, it requires one full day and 25 golds of components to craft a simple potion of healing. As a DM, I allowed my players to use their tools during a long rest (otherwise you never really use your tools in D&D). So one potion of healing will take 3 long rests to craft. For components, you can also get them in a forest if your DM allows you to take some time to harvest.
Use a potion on someone else:
You can use your action for that, assuming your target is consent. So you can't force an enemy to drink poison, but it's OK to heal a creature with a healing potion. It's considered as a magical item so you can't do it with your cunning action!
It's also pretty good to use, the healer's feat can heal 1d6+4+level only once per rest, so keep a healing potion with you, it will always help!
Magic Initiate:
The cantrip Spare the Dying is not as good as using the healers kit with the healer's feat. Spare the Dying stabilize your target, using the healer's kit give it 1HP.
Healing word is good since it's a bonus action and as a good range, but you can cover this range with the Mobil feat, and Magic Initiate lets you use a 1st level spell only once per long rest. The healer's kit is still better!
Low dexterity rogue:
What I suggest in that case is to use your expertises in dexterity skills to double your proficiency. The Mobil feat makes your target unable to catch you with an opportunity attack if you attack it during your turn EVEN IF YOU MISS YOUR ATTACK. So you don't need a huge dex to be able to run away. However, low dex means no AC, so if your cons is also low, you will have some trouble to stay alive.
Or you could multi-class in Forge Cleric to get the heavy armor proficiency, but you need at least 15 strength to carry one, 13 wisdom to multi-class and also a good RP reason to justify that now you're also a priest.
1 level fighter is also to consider, let me explain briefly:
You gain Medium Armor, Shield and Martial Weapons proficiency + what a fighter get at it's first level (Fighting Style and Second Wind).
Armor:
For medium armors, you gain a bonus to your AC and you can add your dexterity modifier with a maximum of +2. You have two choices to consider:
- Half Plate, 15AC + Dex modifier (max +2) but it gives you disadvantage on stealth check
- Breast Plate, 14AC + Dex modifier (max +2).
A shield gives you +2 AC, so you could have a good armor class of 14 + 1 (dex) + 2 (sheild) for a total of 17. You can go to 18 if you don't plan to be stealthy.
Then you can add the Defense Fighting Style (fighter feature), it gives you an extra +1 AC and it's easily the best fighting style for this character concept. So you end up with 18 to 19AC, it's suuuuper comfortable!
Weapon:
Yay! Martial weapons! You can use a long bow with a super range! Take one in case of, it's always useful.
BUT the best is the Whip. It deals 1d4 damages and you can use your dex, same as a dagger, BUT has the Reach effect, it means you can use it on targets who are 10ft away!
Ok so you are not here to deal damages, but in case of, it's always good to have a reach. And even if 1d4 seems pretty low, rogues use their Sneak Attack to deal damages, not their weapon damage. So it's worthy, even if you don't plan to be a damage dealer.
Fighter Feature:
You gain one fighting style, we already talked about it, but also Second Wind. It heals you 1d10+your level by using your bonus action once per short or long rest. It's like using a charge of your healing kit on yourself for free. If you're in a bad situation, you can spend your full turn using your action for the healer's kit + your bonus action for Second Wind to heal yourself 1d10+1d6+4+(2*your level). It's HUGE and you could do it every short or long rest.
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So you have a couple of good reasons to multiclass 1level in fighter, it will help you to survive better even if you have a low dexterity. You can consider it after your level 4 (once you get your 2nd feat OR your ability score improvement) to see if you really need more protection for yourself or not.
Thank you so much for all the ideas. Sorry for the delayed response but since I'm in several campaigns I get to touch my rogue healer about 1-2 times per month. Since I play several characters and am in several campaigns I have learned so much about the game and can actually understand your lingo now :p. He is probably my most interesting character mechanically.
So far my whole party has been astonished by my healing output, especially the DM. It definitely caught everyone off guard. The mobile feat also makes me extremely slippery, its honestly amazing and pairs so well with the rest of his kit. Enemies can't touch me and I'm keeping people alive, I'm equivalent to a medical ninja from Naruto. We just hit level 6 and his usefulness is starting to wither a bit, especially since most of my party are becoming mage gods for some reason, but I am pushing through.
The fighter idea seems actually pretty good but thematically does not fit my idea for my character. The whip sounds sooooo juicy though. I can see doing so much with it aside from fighting. Tying stuff to the end of it like a sand bag and flinging it around, etc. Curious if my DM would allow me to use it to have extended grab for picking up stuff, swinging from stuff, or pulling levers. I do not have much need for second wind cause I am pretty good at positioning and avoiding damage. I will keep this in mind though if I feel my character has a change of heart.
A lot of people tell me the thief archetype falls off heavily and I am scared I am going to feel it, but I'm super hoping my creativity can get me through it. If you have anymore ideas I am more than willing to learn, been loving your tips so far.
Happy to see that you're enjoying this Healer Rogue!
So, you're right. The Thief archetype doesn't shine that much once you level up. The only game-changing bonus you get is at level 17, it allows you to take 2 turns at the first round of any fights (so 2 sneak attacks).
The bonus you get at level 13, allowing you to use magic items without taking care of their requirements, can be wonderful if you find good magic items, but it highly depends on what you will find in the treasure chest.
At this point, the rogue (any archetype) has some trouble to keep in touch with god-like magic users and martial fighters. But you're not useless! There is three things you can abuse to impress your party!
- Good use of the "Thieve's Cant" feature
Go to a merchant and ask him "Do you have a good perfume for my mother-in-law? Something strong enough to take her breath out, I really need to impress her! She can be a real demon so I don't think a basic floral fragrance would do the job, maybe some musk from uncommon animals?"
If your DM agrees to play this game, you could then have access to strong poisons. Adapt your speech according to what you are looking for!
- Good use of Thieve's archetype
Starting level 3 you have the ability to make longer jumps and to climb without lowering your movement,
Jumping could allow you to set-up a hidden bear trap, then bring an opponent into it by running then jumping over.
The ability to climb everywhere turn the 2D map into a 3D map for you. You might have to make acrobatic checks to do ninja stuff like climbing the ceiling to approach your target in a sneaky way, but usually it is not a big issue. Take a rope with you and watch some spy movies to get inspiration.
Starting level 9, you're sneaker! The sneakiest! Using only half your movement (20ft) to gain advantage on your Stealth check helps you to do your Thief job. Go around walking on tiptoe to steal stuff and spy.
- Good use of Expertise
Doubling your Proficiency bonus is noice. Very noice. It means that you can take Charisma skills with 8 Cha but still get a good chance to succeed. Usually I like to use Expertise for Int skills, they are not always useful so nobody take them (like seriously, Clerics don't take Religion), having expertise on them allows your Rogue to be an encyclopedia. It might be more useful than expected!
Check with your team what skills they are good at first.
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To resume, you're fighting options won't change that much by leveling up. Only your damage output thanks to Sneak Attack. It doesn't mean you are useless! Thanks to your skills, you can have a strong impact on your team progression outside fights!