D&D 5E Building a self healing caster

[Yunru]

You don't need strength to wear heavy armor. You'll just be slower in it if you don't.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Wondering if you could give some advice on an idea I'm working on. I want to build a Warlock that has made a deal for an extended life. The Undying Patron seems underwhelming so I have been trying to multiclass something more interesting.

My current thought is Life Cleric (1)/Necromancy Wizard (2)/Fiend Warlock (5+).

Life Cleric is for Disciple of Life. Necromancy Wizard is for Grim Harvest. Fiend Warlock for Dark One's Blessing and Fiendish Vigour for an initial 8thp.

Attack wise I plan to use Eldrich Blast initially and then move to using Vampiric Touch when I need things seem weakened/ I need hp
For Vampiric Touch (3rd Level): 10.5 damage, 5hp healed, +5hp further from Disciple of Life, on top of that on a kill +9hp from Grim Harvest, +7thp from Dark One’s Blessing.

Obviously this is very MAD needing 13+ in WIS, INT, and CHA so any modification suggestions would be ideal.

I just want to put in a plug here for what I've started calling a Combat Medic: a Sorcerer 3/Life Cleric 1/Lore Bard 6 who can be healing 2000 HP per long rest by level 10. Key observation is that Aura of Vitality does 70 HP for a third level slot right out of the box; Extended Spell doubles that to 140 HP; and then Disciple of Life boosts that again to 240. Between heavy armor proficiency, the Shield spell, and Booming Blade/etc. you are surprisingly gishy too, and if you take the Mobile feat to offset movement penalty from plate armor you're practically SAD as well. (Requires Wis 13, Cha 14ish.) Or you can take Inspiring Leader just for even more temp HP for everybody.

You could combine this build with Warlock 5/Necromancer 2 to get the Vampiric Touch combo you mentioned in your OP, but really once you have 2000+ HP of healing on tap, Vampiric Touch becomes almost superfluous. At any rate, I never find that myself using it in combat despite having optimized a Necromancer PC to have it as an option. Maybe if I did more solo adventuring it would see more screen time.

Final note: Grim Harvest fires once per turn, not once per round, so a spell like Evard's Black Tentacles that does damage at the start of an enemy's turn can wind up granting you HP multiple times per round. And BTW Grim Harvest + Armor of Agathys + Fire Shield is expensive but hilariously awesome as long as enemies keep attacking.

 

[williams290894]

I just want to put in a plug here for what I've started calling a Combat Medic: a Sorcerer 3/Life Cleric 1/Lore Bard 6 who can be healing 2000 HP per long rest by level 10. Key observation is that Aura of Vitality does 70 HP for a third level slot right out of the box; Extended Spell doubles that to 140 HP; and then Disciple of Life boosts that again to 240. Between heavy armor proficiency, the Shield spell, and Booming Blade/etc. you are surprisingly gishy too, and if you take the Mobile feat to offset movement penalty from plate armor you're practically SAD as well. (Requires Wis 13, Cha 14ish.) Or you can take Inspiring Leader just for even more temp HP for everybody.

You could combine this build with Warlock 5/Necromancer 2 to get the Vampiric Touch combo you mentioned in your OP, but really once you have 2000+ HP of healing on tap, Vampiric Touch becomes almost superfluous. At any rate, I never find that myself using it in combat despite having optimized a Necromancer PC to have it as an option. Maybe if I did more solo adventuring it would see more screen time.

Final note: Grim Harvest fires once per turn, not once per round, so a spell like Evard's Black Tentacles that does damage at the start of an enemy's turn can wind up granting you HP multiple times per round. And BTW Grim Harvest + Armor of Agathys + Fire Shield is expensive but hilariously awesome as long as enemies keep attacking.

Just wondering, with your Combat Medic how much is self healing and how much heals others? How I plan to RP this character is very much he will likely only heal others when he is at full HP or them going down will affect him directly.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Just wondering, with your Combat Medic how much is self healing and how much heals others? How I plan to RP this character is very much he will likely only heal others when he is at full HP or them going down will affect him directly.

That 2000 HP of healing I mentioned can be directed at anybody. When you heal 240 HP with a single third-level spell, it's pretty much a given that you can keep yourself and anybody else you care about topped off on HP pretty much all the time, but if you for some reason want to keep your healing entirely to yourself you can certainly do so. Or you could just let others have the "leftovers" when you cast a healing spell after you heal yourself back up to full. That's an interesting roleplaying choice--how are you planning on presenting that choice in-character? Is it a gruff "shoulda been more careful" tough love kind of deal, or a mercenary "I only do what someone pays me to do" attitude?

If you don't want to deal with that dilemma, then maybe you should indeed stick to Vampiric Touch instead of Aura of Vitality so that healing others isn't even an option.

 

[williams290894]

That 2000 HP of healing I mentioned can be directed at anybody. When you heal 240 HP with a single third-level spell, it's pretty much a given that you can keep yourself and anybody else you care about topped off on HP pretty much all the time, but if you for some reason want to keep your healing entirely to yourself you can certainly do so. Or you could just let others have the "leftovers" when you cast a healing spell after you heal yourself back up to full. That's an interesting roleplaying choice--how are you planning on presenting that choice in-character? Is it a gruff "shoulda been more careful" tough love kind of deal, or a mercenary "I only do what someone pays me to do" attitude?

If you don't want to deal with that dilemma, then maybe you should indeed stick to Vampiric Touch instead of Aura of Vitality so that healing others isn't even an option.

The character basically wants to live forever (or as long as possible). He tried out necromancy but it didn't have the answers, even tried following a god and thought that would be that simple but turned out to be far too much effort. So he made a pact with a Patron.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

The character basically wants to live forever (or as long as possible). He tried out necromancy but it didn't have the answers, even tried following a god and thought that would be that simple but turned out to be far too much effort. So he made a pact with a Patron.

Ah. In that case, you'll want to exploit your ability to cast Death Ward (8 hours, no concentration) twice per short rest starting at level 7. In some ways it is better than healing.

Too bad you can't really combo it with Death Monk for temp HP and Mastery of Death. It would be cool, but the level requirements are basically infeasible (you don't get your signature ability until Death Monk 11) for someone who also wants to be a warlock.