So long story short I am supposed to bring in a level three healer by my next game session that I'm having with some friends.
I've looked around and done multiple things left and right but not quite sure what I would like to do.
I know straight healing doesn't work in 5e (well early levels it's more useful) and I like the possible idea of multiclassing as well... but I was just searching for any ideas that folks might want to share.
Druids make great healers. All you really need for healing in combat is a way to get someone back up from 0 HP, and the rest you can do after the threats are gone. Between goodberry, cure wounds, healing word, and healing spirit, you'll have both bases covered quite well. Be sure to spend all your remaining spell slots on goodberry right before taking a long rest so you have them the next day and they can basically serve as a pool of HP to dole out after combat is over without spending resources.
Some subclasses also greatly improve your healing ability. Circle of the shepherd's unicorn spirit totem turns all your healing spells into essentially AoE heals, circle of stars does similar but only for one other person, circle of dreams gives you a pool of healing dice you can spend as a bonus action.
If you go the druid route and want to supercharge your healing, a single level dip into life cleric makes your goodberries and other healing spells significantly more effective. Druids are versatile enough on their own that they don't need much out of other classes, but that dip is excellent and definitely worth it.
As someone who DMed for a Life Cleric/Sheppard Druid multiclass I gotta say, if there was ever a way to make a "dedicated healer" in 5e, thats it lol. Their healing is good enough to warrant in-combat healing outside of just bringing people up.
Mark of Hospitality Halfling Life Cleric Lets you create 10 Goodberries with a L1 slot, each of which heals 4 hit points. 40 hit points that you can distribute as you like (in multiples of 4) is really good for a first level slot. And the Goodberries last for 24 hours, so each evening, just before taking a long rest, you can spend your remaining spell slots on creating more Goodberries that you can use all of the next day, while having that day's spell slots available for other things.
If not the Mark of Hospitality Halfling, you could also take one of the Strixhaven backgrounds that lets you take a L1 Druid spell, which nets you Goodberry as well, without having to multiclass out of Life Cleric.
One of the best parts about this is that you can hand out the Goodberries, so if anyone drops, anyone else can feed them a Goodberry as an action, distributing the healing so it's not all on you, even though you're providing the magic for it.
As someone who DMed for a Life Cleric/Sheppard Druid multiclass I gotta say, if there was ever a way to make a "dedicated healer" in 5e, thats it lol. Their healing is good enough to warrant in-combat healing outside of just bringing people up.
It is great, but the ubiquitous twilight cleric is better - if it isn’t banned.
I’m a big fan of Wizards. Last Wizard I played was a vHuman and I took Magic Initiate (Druid) feat because we didn’t have any healer in our party, not even a Paladin or Ranger.
So I got Goodberry and through my several minions (Familiar, Unseen Servant, Tiny Servant, etc), I was giving the berries to unconscious allies. It was super effective action economy-wise.
I’m a big fan of Wizards. Last Wizard I played was a vHuman and I took Magic Initiate (Druid) feat because we didn’t have any healer in our party, not even a Paladin or Ranger.
So I got Goodberry and through my several minions (Familiar, Unseen Servant, Tiny Servant, etc), I was giving the berries to unconscious allies. It was super effective action economy-wise.
Another good trick is to play a Cleric of Life and get Goodberry (Magic Initiate or 1 level). But ask your DM before trying this trick, he may not allow it.
If the DM allows it, any person that eats one of your ten goodberry created by this PC gets: 1 hp (spell) + 2 + cleric level. So at 1st level your goodberry spell does 4 hp per berry, 10 berries = 40 hp
This lets you do things like take 1 level of Cleric of Life and the rest in Druid or Ranger.
Another good trick is to play a Cleric of Life and get Goodberry (Magic Initiate or 1 level). But ask your DM before trying this trick, he may not allow it.
If the DM allows it, any person that eats one of your ten goodberry created by this PC gets: 1 hp (spell) + 2 + cleric level. So at 1st level your goodberry spell does 4 hp per berry, 10 berries = 40 hp
This lets you do things like take 1 level of Cleric of Life and the rest in Druid or Ranger.
Taking Variant Human or Custom Lineage to get a feat at L1 (for Magic Initiate), definitely works, but if allowed in a setting, I think the opportunity cost of taking the Witherbloom Student background is much lower, since it doesn't tie you to one race, and if you decide to be a Variant Human or Custom Lineage, you can still use that feat for something else, like Warcaster.
Any DM should allow the Goodberries of a Life Cleric to heal 4hp each, because it's exactly rules as written, and there are no signs that it contradicts rules as intended. And if a DM doesn't, that should be stated as a house rule in session zero.
Another good trick is to play a Cleric of Life and get Goodberry (Magic Initiate or 1 level). But ask your DM before trying this trick, he may not allow it.
If the DM allows it, any person that eats one of your ten goodberry created by this PC gets: 1 hp (spell) + 2 + cleric level. So at 1st level your goodberry spell does 4 hp per berry, 10 berries = 40 hp
This lets you do things like take 1 level of Cleric of Life and the rest in Druid or Ranger.
Taking Variant Human or Custom Lineage to get a feat at L1 (for Magic Initiate), definitely works, but if allowed in a setting, I think the opportunity cost of taking the Witherbloom Student background is much lower, since it doesn't tie you to one race, and if you decide to be a Variant Human or Custom Lineage, you can still use that feat for something else, like Warcaster.
Any DM should allow the Goodberries of a Life Cleric to heal 4hp each, because it's exactly rules as written, and there are no signs that it contradicts rules as intended. And if a DM doesn't, that should be stated as a house rule in session zero.
The argument against Goodberry working with Life Cleric is:
" Whenever you use a spell of 1st level or higher to restore hit points to a creature, the creature regains additional hit points equal to 2 + the spell's level."
The DM says "Whenever" means it only applies when the spell is cast as that is when you are using the spell. Not saying I agree with it, but that is what I have heard and did not argue with the DM.
It DEFINITELY contradicts the RAI of the Life cleric as it is supposed to increase the spell's healing on a single creature only once per casting of the spell, not 10 times because you spread it out over 10 berries.
A compromise is to let Life Cleric 's ability work only once per use of the spell, so only the first goodberry eaten gets the bonus.
I love this combo, but not all DM's will allow it, best to check before you try.
While from PHB it is not clear whether goodberry is a spell that heals or one that creates berries SAC confirms goodberry does work with life cleric. I do know dms that rule goodberries need to be eaten and therefore can not be used to bring back an unconcious character.
If the DM plays intelligent NPCs as knowing an unconcious character is a healing word or goobbery away from being fully functional and therefore will keep attacking until dead you may want a healing focus character such as those suggested above. If not if not you may just need a character with some healing. Bards, clerics, non moon druids, divine soul sorcerers artificers, and paladins are all perfectly capable of the later and can do a variety of other things when no healing is required.
Current build I'm running with is a Mark of Hospitality Halfling with Celestial Warlock for class. A single level dip into Life Cleric is also probably a good idea but I haven't done it yet (I'm only level 4 for now).
Mark of Hospitality sort of breaks Warlock's unique casting mechanic, since it gives you access to a bunch of spells that have a duration longer than an hour. This breaks things significantly since you can suddenly cast multiple spells and just rest to get back the slots. The two key spells are Goodberry and Aid.
Goodberry has been talked about already, both on it's own and in combination with Life Cleric, but if you combine that with a primary Warlock's spellcasting, suddenly you can make a batch of 20 that scale with your spell slot, and then short rest to make more. Rinse and repeat. This gets even better if you are doing travelling/have enough periods of time while adventuring where you can take multiple short rests in a row (AKA having to wait around a few hours before a specific thing happens), or you have time after an adventure segment but more than enough time for a long rest before you launch into the next big thing tomorrow.
The second spell worth noting from the race is Aid. Aid on it's own isn't really a fantastic spell, but it isn't bad giving 15 hp at a level 2 spell slot. The spell scales pretty well though since it's giving 3 creatures +5 hp for every slot level past the first, so a 4th level slot gives everyone 15 hp or 45 total. This is also "preemptive healing" since it adds to their maximum health and also works with Temp hp.
Inspiring Leader as a feat also plays well with this build, you give out temp hp at the end of every short rest to the party before you rush into combat, and it scales both with your level and your high casting stat.
At level 4, I'm handing out an extra 13 hp to the entire party at the start of every day, giving them 8 hp every short rest, have been regularly producing 60+ goodberries each adventuring day, and am able to act as both a competent party face and I'm still able to do everything a Celestial Tome Pact Warlock is expected to do with in combat healing and assorted ritual spell utility and EB spam.
If your focus is going to be on healing, my initial choices would be:
Cleric(Life Domain): Extra healing with your spells, heavy armor and bonus damage to your weapon attacks so you're tankier and don't need to rely on spells to do damage, healing yourself when you heal others so you can focus on keeping your party alive. The domain spells are mostly ones you would have taken anyway so you get them for free and can try out Cleric spells you might otherwise have skipped.
Cleric(Grave Domain): Bonus Action Spare The Dying, extra healing when bringing someone back from 0 HP, negating critical hits to prevent rather than heal damage(and hoo boy, telling your DM that the nat20 they just rolled isn't a critical hit after all is VERY satisfying)
Druid(Circle Of Dreams): a pool of Bonus Action ranged healing that doesn't consume spell slots is AWESOME. And since it's not a spell, you can use it while you're Wildshaped.
Druid(Circle Of The Shepherd): "splash" healing with the Unicorn Spirit Totem, especially useful if your party isn't going to be too spread out in a fight. Though its usefulness will depend on how much the DM is spreading the enemy's attacks around your party.
Now, the question I don't think has been asked is, will this be a short- or long-term character? Because if you won't be playing them much past Level 3, then the higher-level abilities don't need to be factored in.
Personally, a mix I found that seems to balance nicely is Cleric to 4 then Sorc (I chose Clockwork) for the remainder. You get some basic healing at 1st, then Prayer of Healing at 4, for between fights, and using Sorc points to distant spell a Cure Wounds when needed, or Twinning it adds to the mileage you get from spell slots. You immediately start getting "upcast slots" meaning spell slots you don't yet have spells for, so upcasting is the only real use for them, opening more options.
I also have a character ready to go for a new campaign we're going to kick off, who will be starting as a Celestial Warlock, then swapping to Sorc at 5. Spell slot free heals from the Warlock, then actual slots for other heals come in with the multi-class. Doesn't give you much for actual combat healing (Mass Cure Wounds would be nice) but not too bad overall. I guess you could go Divine Soul for the Sorc and eventually end up with Mass Cure Wounds, if you wanted and the campaign ran long enough.
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Talk to your Players.Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
If your focus is going to be on healing, my initial choices would be:
Cleric(Life Domain): Extra healing with your spells, heavy armor and bonus damage to your weapon attacks so you're tankier and don't need to rely on spells to do damage, healing yourself when you heal others so you can focus on keeping your party alive. The domain spells are mostly ones you would have taken anyway so you get them for free and can try out Cleric spells you might otherwise have skipped.
Cleric(Grave Domain): Bonus Action Spare The Dying, extra healing when bringing someone back from 0 HP, negating critical hits to prevent rather than heal damage(and hoo boy, telling your DM that the nat20 they just rolled isn't a critical hit after all is VERY satisfying)
Druid(Circle Of Dreams): a pool of Bonus Action ranged healing that doesn't consume spell slots is AWESOME. And since it's not a spell, you can use it while you're Wildshaped.
Druid(Circle Of The Shepherd): "splash" healing with the Unicorn Spirit Totem, especially useful if your party isn't going to be too spread out in a fight. Though its usefulness will depend on how much the DM is spreading the enemy's attacks around your party.
Now, the question I don't think has been asked is, will this be a short- or long-term character? Because if you won't be playing them much past Level 3, then the higher-level abilities don't need to be factored in.
The main problem is the DM of the campaign doesn't entirely like higher levels, although all the players did agree if they ever got to the point of not feeling like things were getting better and the campaign wasn't over (the DM is notorious for not wanting to level up some times, it's quite eerie the way this one's playing out in my opinion). So I've been trying to consider my options as never reaching a level past level three (which that probably won;t be the case) and the main issue has is I'm seeing decent options but none that seem like the "fun" I mean they could be just doesnt seem like it could be as fun.
If your focus is going to be on healing, my initial choices would be:
Cleric(Life Domain): Extra healing with your spells, heavy armor and bonus damage to your weapon attacks so you're tankier and don't need to rely on spells to do damage, healing yourself when you heal others so you can focus on keeping your party alive. The domain spells are mostly ones you would have taken anyway so you get them for free and can try out Cleric spells you might otherwise have skipped.
Cleric(Grave Domain): Bonus Action Spare The Dying, extra healing when bringing someone back from 0 HP, negating critical hits to prevent rather than heal damage(and hoo boy, telling your DM that the nat20 they just rolled isn't a critical hit after all is VERY satisfying)
Druid(Circle Of Dreams): a pool of Bonus Action ranged healing that doesn't consume spell slots is AWESOME. And since it's not a spell, you can use it while you're Wildshaped.
Druid(Circle Of The Shepherd): "splash" healing with the Unicorn Spirit Totem, especially useful if your party isn't going to be too spread out in a fight. Though its usefulness will depend on how much the DM is spreading the enemy's attacks around your party.
Now, the question I don't think has been asked is, will this be a short- or long-term character? Because if you won't be playing them much past Level 3, then the higher-level abilities don't need to be factored in.
The main problem is the DM of the campaign doesn't entirely like higher levels, although all the players did agree if they ever got to the point of not feeling like things were getting better and the campaign wasn't over (the DM is notorious for not wanting to level up some times, it's quite eerie the way this one's playing out in my opinion). So I've been trying to consider my options as never reaching a level past level three (which that probably won;t be the case) and the main issue has is I'm seeing decent options but none that seem like the "fun" I mean they could be just doesnt seem like it could be as fun.
At level 3 your best bet is probably a Celestial Chainlock, in terms of fun.
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So long story short I am supposed to bring in a level three healer by my next game session that I'm having with some friends.
I've looked around and done multiple things left and right but not quite sure what I would like to do.
I know straight healing doesn't work in 5e (well early levels it's more useful) and I like the possible idea of multiclassing as well... but I was just searching for any ideas that folks might want to share.
A Celestial Warlock combines a good blend of offense with great healing capabilities.
Druids make great healers. All you really need for healing in combat is a way to get someone back up from 0 HP, and the rest you can do after the threats are gone. Between goodberry, cure wounds, healing word, and healing spirit, you'll have both bases covered quite well. Be sure to spend all your remaining spell slots on goodberry right before taking a long rest so you have them the next day and they can basically serve as a pool of HP to dole out after combat is over without spending resources.
Some subclasses also greatly improve your healing ability. Circle of the shepherd's unicorn spirit totem turns all your healing spells into essentially AoE heals, circle of stars does similar but only for one other person, circle of dreams gives you a pool of healing dice you can spend as a bonus action.
If you go the druid route and want to supercharge your healing, a single level dip into life cleric makes your goodberries and other healing spells significantly more effective. Druids are versatile enough on their own that they don't need much out of other classes, but that dip is excellent and definitely worth it.
As someone who DMed for a Life Cleric/Sheppard Druid multiclass I gotta say, if there was ever a way to make a "dedicated healer" in 5e, thats it lol. Their healing is good enough to warrant in-combat healing outside of just bringing people up.
Mark of Hospitality Halfling Life Cleric Lets you create 10 Goodberries with a L1 slot, each of which heals 4 hit points. 40 hit points that you can distribute as you like (in multiples of 4) is really good for a first level slot. And the Goodberries last for 24 hours, so each evening, just before taking a long rest, you can spend your remaining spell slots on creating more Goodberries that you can use all of the next day, while having that day's spell slots available for other things.
If not the Mark of Hospitality Halfling, you could also take one of the Strixhaven backgrounds that lets you take a L1 Druid spell, which nets you Goodberry as well, without having to multiclass out of Life Cleric.
One of the best parts about this is that you can hand out the Goodberries, so if anyone drops, anyone else can feed them a Goodberry as an action, distributing the healing so it's not all on you, even though you're providing the magic for it.
It is great, but the ubiquitous twilight cleric is better - if it isn’t banned.
I’m a big fan of Wizards. Last Wizard I played was a vHuman and I took Magic Initiate (Druid) feat because we didn’t have any healer in our party, not even a Paladin or Ranger.
So I got Goodberry and through my several minions (Familiar, Unseen Servant, Tiny Servant, etc), I was giving the berries to unconscious allies. It was super effective action economy-wise.
Ooh, interesting idea!
Another good trick is to play a Cleric of Life and get Goodberry (Magic Initiate or 1 level). But ask your DM before trying this trick, he may not allow it.
If the DM allows it, any person that eats one of your ten goodberry created by this PC gets: 1 hp (spell) + 2 + cleric level. So at 1st level your goodberry spell does 4 hp per berry, 10 berries = 40 hp
This lets you do things like take 1 level of Cleric of Life and the rest in Druid or Ranger.
Taking Variant Human or Custom Lineage to get a feat at L1 (for Magic Initiate), definitely works, but if allowed in a setting, I think the opportunity cost of taking the Witherbloom Student background is much lower, since it doesn't tie you to one race, and if you decide to be a Variant Human or Custom Lineage, you can still use that feat for something else, like Warcaster.
Any DM should allow the Goodberries of a Life Cleric to heal 4hp each, because it's exactly rules as written, and there are no signs that it contradicts rules as intended. And if a DM doesn't, that should be stated as a house rule in session zero.
The argument against Goodberry working with Life Cleric is:
" Whenever you use a spell of 1st level or higher to restore hit points to a creature, the creature regains additional hit points equal to 2 + the spell's level."
The DM says "Whenever" means it only applies when the spell is cast as that is when you are using the spell. Not saying I agree with it, but that is what I have heard and did not argue with the DM.
It DEFINITELY contradicts the RAI of the Life cleric as it is supposed to increase the spell's healing on a single creature only once per casting of the spell, not 10 times because you spread it out over 10 berries.
A compromise is to let Life Cleric 's ability work only once per use of the spell, so only the first goodberry eaten gets the bonus.
I love this combo, but not all DM's will allow it, best to check before you try.
While from PHB it is not clear whether goodberry is a spell that heals or one that creates berries SAC confirms goodberry does work with life cleric. I do know dms that rule goodberries need to be eaten and therefore can not be used to bring back an unconcious character.
If the DM plays intelligent NPCs as knowing an unconcious character is a healing word or goobbery away from being fully functional and therefore will keep attacking until dead you may want a healing focus character such as those suggested above. If not if not you may just need a character with some healing. Bards, clerics, non moon druids, divine soul sorcerers artificers, and paladins are all perfectly capable of the later and can do a variety of other things when no healing is required.
Current build I'm running with is a Mark of Hospitality Halfling with Celestial Warlock for class. A single level dip into Life Cleric is also probably a good idea but I haven't done it yet (I'm only level 4 for now).
Mark of Hospitality sort of breaks Warlock's unique casting mechanic, since it gives you access to a bunch of spells that have a duration longer than an hour. This breaks things significantly since you can suddenly cast multiple spells and just rest to get back the slots. The two key spells are Goodberry and Aid.
Goodberry has been talked about already, both on it's own and in combination with Life Cleric, but if you combine that with a primary Warlock's spellcasting, suddenly you can make a batch of 20 that scale with your spell slot, and then short rest to make more. Rinse and repeat. This gets even better if you are doing travelling/have enough periods of time while adventuring where you can take multiple short rests in a row (AKA having to wait around a few hours before a specific thing happens), or you have time after an adventure segment but more than enough time for a long rest before you launch into the next big thing tomorrow.
The second spell worth noting from the race is Aid. Aid on it's own isn't really a fantastic spell, but it isn't bad giving 15 hp at a level 2 spell slot. The spell scales pretty well though since it's giving 3 creatures +5 hp for every slot level past the first, so a 4th level slot gives everyone 15 hp or 45 total. This is also "preemptive healing" since it adds to their maximum health and also works with Temp hp.
Inspiring Leader as a feat also plays well with this build, you give out temp hp at the end of every short rest to the party before you rush into combat, and it scales both with your level and your high casting stat.
At level 4, I'm handing out an extra 13 hp to the entire party at the start of every day, giving them 8 hp every short rest, have been regularly producing 60+ goodberries each adventuring day, and am able to act as both a competent party face and I'm still able to do everything a Celestial Tome Pact Warlock is expected to do with in combat healing and assorted ritual spell utility and EB spam.
If your focus is going to be on healing, my initial choices would be:
Cleric(Life Domain): Extra healing with your spells, heavy armor and bonus damage to your weapon attacks so you're tankier and don't need to rely on spells to do damage, healing yourself when you heal others so you can focus on keeping your party alive. The domain spells are mostly ones you would have taken anyway so you get them for free and can try out Cleric spells you might otherwise have skipped.
Cleric(Grave Domain): Bonus Action Spare The Dying, extra healing when bringing someone back from 0 HP, negating critical hits to prevent rather than heal damage(and hoo boy, telling your DM that the nat20 they just rolled isn't a critical hit after all is VERY satisfying)
Druid(Circle Of Dreams): a pool of Bonus Action ranged healing that doesn't consume spell slots is AWESOME. And since it's not a spell, you can use it while you're Wildshaped.
Druid(Circle Of The Shepherd): "splash" healing with the Unicorn Spirit Totem, especially useful if your party isn't going to be too spread out in a fight. Though its usefulness will depend on how much the DM is spreading the enemy's attacks around your party.
Now, the question I don't think has been asked is, will this be a short- or long-term character? Because if you won't be playing them much past Level 3, then the higher-level abilities don't need to be factored in.
Personally, a mix I found that seems to balance nicely is Cleric to 4 then Sorc (I chose Clockwork) for the remainder. You get some basic healing at 1st, then Prayer of Healing at 4, for between fights, and using Sorc points to distant spell a Cure Wounds when needed, or Twinning it adds to the mileage you get from spell slots. You immediately start getting "upcast slots" meaning spell slots you don't yet have spells for, so upcasting is the only real use for them, opening more options.
I also have a character ready to go for a new campaign we're going to kick off, who will be starting as a Celestial Warlock, then swapping to Sorc at 5. Spell slot free heals from the Warlock, then actual slots for other heals come in with the multi-class. Doesn't give you much for actual combat healing (Mass Cure Wounds would be nice) but not too bad overall. I guess you could go Divine Soul for the Sorc and eventually end up with Mass Cure Wounds, if you wanted and the campaign ran long enough.
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
The main problem is the DM of the campaign doesn't entirely like higher levels, although all the players did agree if they ever got to the point of not feeling like things were getting better and the campaign wasn't over (the DM is notorious for not wanting to level up some times, it's quite eerie the way this one's playing out in my opinion). So I've been trying to consider my options as never reaching a level past level three (which that probably won;t be the case) and the main issue has is I'm seeing decent options but none that seem like the "fun" I mean they could be just doesnt seem like it could be as fun.
Star druid with Chalice form makes healing really potent. Could even couple it with Life Cleric or Twilight cleric.
At level 3 your best bet is probably a Celestial Chainlock, in terms of fun.