Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Round out our group!
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="RogueJK" data-source="post: 7547166" data-attributes="member: 170"><p>I agree that something like an armored Cleric or Paladin would be a natural way of filling your party's Tank and Healer roles. But there are other options that could work too. </p><p></p><p>Druids can both tank and heal, as already mentioned. </p><p></p><p>And Bards can actually make good Healers in 5e. A Bard with 1 level of Life Cleric and a good Con score would make a fairly effective Tank and Healer, thanks to the Bard's spell list (which contains some healing and defensive spells) plus Life Cleric's bonus on healing spells and ability to use a Shield and wear Medium or Heavy Armor (depending on your stats). You could then decide if you want to focus more on healing by getting additional healing/restoration spells that aren't on the Bard's list by going Lore College Bard, or if you want to focus more on boosting your melee ability by going Valor or Swords College Bard. Being a Bard will also allow you to be the Party Face, with Charisma as your primary stat plus high skill checks for social skills.</p><p></p><p>There are also some other fun alternate options for a Healer/Tank that I haven't seen mentioned yet, like a Favored Soul Sorcerer (basically a Sorcerer with access to Cleric spells) splashed with a level or two of something like Paladin, Cleric, or Hexblade Warlock for greater melee/tank/front line ability. You'll definitely want to boost your Con to compensate for the diminished HP, though. For example, something like a Hexblade1/Favored SoulX has Medium armor, Shields, a few extra Warlock cantrips and 1st level spells, and nearly full Cleric/Sorcerer spellcasting, and only needs to focus on Charisma and Constitution (with a lesser focus on Dexterity up to 14) since one-handed melee attacks for a Hexblade are based on Charisma instead of Strength/Dexterity. You won't have the Extra Attacks of a dedicated melee fighter, but taking the scaling melee cantrip Booming Blade and/or Green Flame Blade will help your one melee attack to continue pumping out decent melee damage as you level up. You can focus your spellcasting on Sorcerer and Cleric defensive spells and Cleric healing/restoration/support spells, plus a smattering of other stuff like a couple blasty Sorcerer AOE spells. And being primarily Charisma-based means you can grab some social skill proficiencies and be an effective Face (although you won't have quite as many skills as a Bard).</p><p></p><p>A Levistus Tiefling would be a good race for either one of the above alternate Tank/Healer options (BardX/LifeCleric1 or FavoredSoulSorcererX/Hexblade1). It has a bonus to Charisma, a bonus to Constitution, Darkvision so you're not the odd man out, and some nifty additional racial spells, including Armor of Agathys for 10 extra temp HP 1/day. Human, Half Elf, or Scourge Aasimar also gets you a bonus to Charisma and Constitution. Hill Dwarf might be another good choice, depending on how you roll, due to the constant speed when wearing armor no matter your Strength score, the Constitution bonus, and the extra HP each level, although the Wisdom bonus doesn't help as much.</p><p></p><p>You could also try to talk the Rogue into going Thief subclass and taking the Healer feat too, which can make for some handy additional in-combat healing options. A Thief can use items like a Healer's Kit or Healing Potion as a bonus action during a round, and the Healer feat lets Healer's Kits not only stabilize downed allies but actually heal HP too to bring them back up to consciousness. This gets even a bit more effective when they have a high movement rate (from stuff like the Mobile feat and/or a race like Tabaxi), and can zip around the battlefield like an ambulance when needed.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="RogueJK, post: 7547166, member: 170"] I agree that something like an armored Cleric or Paladin would be a natural way of filling your party's Tank and Healer roles. But there are other options that could work too. Druids can both tank and heal, as already mentioned. And Bards can actually make good Healers in 5e. A Bard with 1 level of Life Cleric and a good Con score would make a fairly effective Tank and Healer, thanks to the Bard's spell list (which contains some healing and defensive spells) plus Life Cleric's bonus on healing spells and ability to use a Shield and wear Medium or Heavy Armor (depending on your stats). You could then decide if you want to focus more on healing by getting additional healing/restoration spells that aren't on the Bard's list by going Lore College Bard, or if you want to focus more on boosting your melee ability by going Valor or Swords College Bard. Being a Bard will also allow you to be the Party Face, with Charisma as your primary stat plus high skill checks for social skills. There are also some other fun alternate options for a Healer/Tank that I haven't seen mentioned yet, like a Favored Soul Sorcerer (basically a Sorcerer with access to Cleric spells) splashed with a level or two of something like Paladin, Cleric, or Hexblade Warlock for greater melee/tank/front line ability. You'll definitely want to boost your Con to compensate for the diminished HP, though. For example, something like a Hexblade1/Favored SoulX has Medium armor, Shields, a few extra Warlock cantrips and 1st level spells, and nearly full Cleric/Sorcerer spellcasting, and only needs to focus on Charisma and Constitution (with a lesser focus on Dexterity up to 14) since one-handed melee attacks for a Hexblade are based on Charisma instead of Strength/Dexterity. You won't have the Extra Attacks of a dedicated melee fighter, but taking the scaling melee cantrip Booming Blade and/or Green Flame Blade will help your one melee attack to continue pumping out decent melee damage as you level up. You can focus your spellcasting on Sorcerer and Cleric defensive spells and Cleric healing/restoration/support spells, plus a smattering of other stuff like a couple blasty Sorcerer AOE spells. And being primarily Charisma-based means you can grab some social skill proficiencies and be an effective Face (although you won't have quite as many skills as a Bard). A Levistus Tiefling would be a good race for either one of the above alternate Tank/Healer options (BardX/LifeCleric1 or FavoredSoulSorcererX/Hexblade1). It has a bonus to Charisma, a bonus to Constitution, Darkvision so you're not the odd man out, and some nifty additional racial spells, including Armor of Agathys for 10 extra temp HP 1/day. Human, Half Elf, or Scourge Aasimar also gets you a bonus to Charisma and Constitution. Hill Dwarf might be another good choice, depending on how you roll, due to the constant speed when wearing armor no matter your Strength score, the Constitution bonus, and the extra HP each level, although the Wisdom bonus doesn't help as much. You could also try to talk the Rogue into going Thief subclass and taking the Healer feat too, which can make for some handy additional in-combat healing options. A Thief can use items like a Healer's Kit or Healing Potion as a bonus action during a round, and the Healer feat lets Healer's Kits not only stabilize downed allies but actually heal HP too to bring them back up to consciousness. This gets even a bit more effective when they have a high movement rate (from stuff like the Mobile feat and/or a race like Tabaxi), and can zip around the battlefield like an ambulance when needed. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Round out our group!
Top