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That's a shame, I remember you were planning to combine the Healer feat with a Thief's Quick Hand's feature to make the healer of urchins and the downtrodden.
It was a cool character concept.
Only in D&D, does the phrase "Get a room!" becomes instead "Get a Rope Trick".
In a High Magic, Red Light district, " a Rope Trick" might very well be a real thing.
Of course and it is a great feature of the spell. But it is not an almighty solution. It greatly depends on the type of adventure and enemy type you are facing. The more intelligent and magic knowledgeable your opponents are, the more likely they will hunt you down with the fact that you have used these spells to "safely" recover. This is where devious enemies will ambush the players.
I have put my players on the defensive with these spells so now they are no longer problematic.
Greetings, I'm going to share this little comparative analysis I've made. I wanted to find out how the healing granted by the healer feat compares to the healing that a party can expect from hit dice expenditure.
Assumptions for the sake of the analysis:
PC parties are assumed to get 2,5 short rests per day. The DMG assumes 2 rests per day, but in my experience parties often need a third short rest to get through a challenging adventuring day, so I'm going to assume 2,5 rests: sometimes 2 rests, sometimes 3.
The average PC I'm going to use for the comparison is a d8 character with 14 Con at levels 1-11, 16 Con at levels 12-18, 18 Con at levels 19-20. I think this is a decent representation of a 5e PC of average toughness, but YMMV.
No song of rest.
Average healing done by healer feat over 2,5 short rests (so, 3,5 uses) on a single character
So, the healer feat appears to heal vastly more than total HD at very low levels, a bit more at low-mid levels, gradually going down at higher levels. At level 20, the healer feat heals a bit more than half of all daily HDs.
Over 20 levels, the average multiplier is 1,215: the feat is basically the equivalent of a little more than doubling your party's HD total.
If a campaign never reaches high levels, the average multiplier is much higher: for a level 1 - level 7 campaign, the multiplier would be 2,04: basically the equivalent of tripling your party's HD total (although the earliest levels, the ones where the feat is most powerful, require relatively low amounts of xp to go through).
So, why this comparison? I was entertaining the idea of a house rule that bans the healer feat, while increasing PC's HD total as compensation. Looking at these numbers, doubling the HD total might be fair enough, tripling might be overcompensation.
Hit dice are an expendable resource that the whole party rarely uses all of on any given adventuring day. So I’m not sure it’s a meaningful comparison.
I mean is all the healer feat buys you is not needing to use some hit dice that you normally would use then it’s really not that impressive.
I personally would compare it to magical after combat healing. Id potions are easy to buy then it’s comparable to those. Otherwise the true comparison is out of combat healing magic. Compare to prayer of healing or healing spirit.
I’d say the amount of healing the feat does early game is comparable to a level 2 spell per short rest. The biggest benefit is being able to save the spell slots for non-healing purposes. From level 1-6 level 2 spells are a huge deal. After that they start becoming a bit less important.
of course if potions are abundant then buy them instead and take a different feat.
The power of the healer feat is that it makes all characters able to second wind outside of combat. If you look at it this way, the feat is pretty strong and it does not prevent you from using HD or benefitting from a song of rest and/or a prayer of healing. If that is not strong, nothing is. But it isnot a game breaker. It simply give healer type characters a nice and easy way to save enough healing slot to use them on combat or exploration spells instead. The fact that a rogue or any other character can take it is also a big plus, giving even more room to healer type classes.
Also, I ran my own numbers using 2.5 uses on average, and lower CONs at higher levels since most PCs rarely exceed CON 16 IME. MY results were that by level 5, fulling using HD outstrips the used of the Healer's feat, and that by Tier 4, it is valued at a bit over 50% of using all HD. This more corresponds with my experience, where in Tier 1 the Healer's feat is invaluable, but by Tier 3 it isn't used as often due to other ways of healing.
In conclusion, I think it is a great feat, to be certain, but would never bother banning it as I've never seen it really abused (which is the only reason why I would ban anything in the game).
With 2,5 uses per day (1,5 short rests), your numbers are right if you also use all your HD in a single day. Helldritch correctly pointed out that you might only have half of your HD available, if you're adventuring day after day after day. In the end, it's not easy to make general assumptions because every table seems to handle shorts and long rests a little differently.
It does not specify the number of hands required, but does specify what you do with it. I would call it an interpretation, not a house rule.
At low levels - true. But the cost to get it at low levels is a lot of offense or utility lost.
It is a big investment. It is effective. It does not break the game. However, if you feel it is too strong, you may want to consider what the use of the feat actually would entail and require PCs to make available enough hands and resources to pull it off.
I'll surely bring your interpretation to the table's attention. It's not relevant to our current campaign, but it might be in future ones where healer isn't banned.
I have never had the Healer feat taken. The game doesn't break, but the increased spell slot expenditure for healing, means Long Rests are taken faster.
I would recommend more scrolls/potions be "found"
Not to thread jack, but, Olrox17 are you enjoying the Psi Knight?
It is the closet 5e experience to the 4e Battlemind, in my opinion, with the Telekinetic Feat.
The DM is allowing us to buy some basic potions. Lots of money down the drain, though (especially compared to what healing kits would cost).
I am enjoying the Psi Knight! The amount of damage it can prevent really adds up. A shame that apparently the surveys were not in favor of the psi die mechanic, I find it engaging. No telekinetic feat yet, I'll probably pick tower of iron will soonish. And I'm also a big fan of the 4e battlemind. Lodestone Lure for the win.
Hit dice are an expendable resource that the whole party rarely uses all of on any given adventuring day. So I’m not sure it’s a meaningful comparison.
I mean is all the healer feat buys you is not needing to use some hit dice that you normally would use then it’s really not that impressive.
I personally would compare it to magical after combat healing. Id potions are easy to buy then it’s comparable to those. Otherwise the true comparison is out of combat healing magic. Compare to prayer of healing or healing spirit.
I’d say the amount of healing the feat does early game is comparable to a level 2 spell per short rest. The biggest benefit is being able to save the spell slots for non-healing purposes. From level 1-6 level 2 spells are a huge deal. After that they start becoming a bit less important.
of course if potions are abundant then buy them instead and take a different feat.
I've compared the healer feat and HD healing because they both tend to work in conjunction with short rests (albeit in different ways), so if we wanted to give PCs some form of compensation for banning the healer feat, I think HD would be a good choice for a boost.
I have seen the feat used a bit more than that. Way bit more. But almost every time, it is a rogue who takes the feat exactly because he can use it as a bonus action. It is really good when used this way.
