D&D (2024) Healer Feat

[DEFCON 1]

Based on the 8 years of complaints regarding no true Warlord representation in 5E even with the Healer feat as an option... it's not surprising WotC has decided to change up the mechanics to allow it to be useful for magical healers too.

When you throw a bone and it gets crapped on... there's not much reason to throw the bone again.

 

[the Jester]

Again: comparing a level 1 character of 5e to a level 1 charachter of 4e is a bad Idea. 4e are stronger at level 1.

You're missing the point. Comparing 4e healing to (any other edition, including) 5e healing, is always fraught, because they're very different on every level. The important comparison is exactly how effective it is in the context of that edition at a given level.

As written, the new version of Healer totally sucks for low level pcs without magical spells to aid them. The old version totally rocked. That's the relevant comparison.

The fact that the feat is a bone to warlord players underlines just how bad the new version is. It changes the nonmagical healer paradigm from "effective, even at low levels, but less so at high levels" to "terrible at low levels, better at high levels, but never very good".

If course HD and healing surges serve a slightly different purpose, but the healer feat is more similar to warlord healing than the old one: the receipient spends a surge and heals hp with a bonus. Not limited to once per rest.

It really isn't, because now it sucks at low levels and improves to "pretty bad" at high levels, and warlords were effective healers at all levels.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Ah yeah I got that confused with Savage Attacker which is abysmally bad.

But rerolling a die that comes up 1 is not very good either. That's worth 0.5 HP per die rolled on average. So a cure wounds cast via a 9th-level slot would restore an extra... 4.5 HP on average. And that assumes you're upcasting cure wounds instead of just using heal for some reason, which doesn't roll dice.

I've long since taken just about every feat or feature that says "re-roll a 1, keep the new result" and taken it to say "re-roll a 1, the minimum result of the new roll is 2"

It doesn't help, per se, but it does prevent that wayward double one's, which suck.

 

[Leatherhead]

My main problem with the healer feat is that it only applies to HP healing and not status curing.
Like there should be a way for them to cure poison and other conditions at least.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Again: comparing a level 1 character of 5e to a level 1 charachter of 4e is a bad Idea. 4e are stronger at level 1.

I still don't see the big difference. If a warlord heals up all your surges, you can't heal with second wind anymore.

If course HD and healing surges serve a slightly different purpose, but the healer feat is more similar to warlord healing than the old one: the receipient spends a surge and heals hp with a bonus. Not limited to once per rest.

That does not mean that HD are now healing surges...

I'm sorry, didn't you say that the 3.X version was three times for 1/3 of their health?

A level one character in 5e has a SINGLE HD. So, the healer feat isn't once per short rest at level 1, it is once per day. And if the character has a Con of 16, it is WORSE than just taking a short rest (+2 versus +3)

It really doesn't matter if you feel 4e characters are too strong to compare this too, because you are the one who brought up the Warlord starting the 4e discussion. And it isn't "in the spirit of the warlord" because the warlord could heal 4 OR MORE times per day, for a standard amount, 25% of the target hp if memory serves me, never any less.

This feat is very weak compared to what it should be.

 

[Chaosmancer]

No. But the other benefit (if it at least gets clarified that the con bonus is included) to which the reroll of a 1 also counts.
The reroll of 1's on healing spells is just a nice ribbon ability.

Now ask yourself: is having 2 more cantrips worth a feat if you probably can't exploit the few overpowered cantrips and the one time extra casting of a single level 1 spell?
The answer is probably: depends which class you had before and if shield was on your class spell list.

Which ones are the "few overpowered" ones?

All the melee weapon cantrips are amazing for multiple classes
Mold earth and Shape Water have tons of utility, along with some of the more classic ones
Ranged cantrips give classes without good ranged options excellent ranged options

You'd have to try pretty hard to find more than 4 or 5 bad cantrips. (Resistance, True Strike, Acid Splash, Druidcraft....)

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Current version is better than the old one. It allows easy use of a character’s hit dice, and unlike the old version does not require the target take a short or long rest before they can benefit from it again.

 

[Haplo781]

Current version is better than the old one. It allows easy use of a character’s hit dice, and unlike the old version does not require the target take a short or long rest before they can benefit from it again.

Except that it's limited by the number of hit dice the target has, and in a lot of cases restores fewer HP than just spending a HD during a short rest.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Except that it's limited by the number of hit dice the target has, and in a lot of cases restores fewer HP than just spending a HD during a short rest.

Yeah, and I view that as good. It make's it a solid alternative to a short rest, but does not outright replace it, and the HD replenishment depends on the Con Mod of the Target. In many cases the Proficiency will be the same or higher than the Con Mod, plus it can be rerolled if it's a 1.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

You're missing the point. Comparing 4e healing to (any other edition, including) 5e healing, is always fraught, because they're very different on every level. The important comparison is exactly how effective it is in the context of that edition at a given level.

Maybe it was too good before at low level.
Also, I stop arguing with you about the similarities and differences of HD amd healing surges, since this seems a loaded topic, where you can't discuss because it is always seen as an attack.