Xeviat
Dungeon Mistress, she/her
Hi everyone.
Feats aren't balanced. Not remotely. I love that feats are supposed to be balanced around a +2 ability score bonus. It gives us a good baseline for how good feats should be.
Many miss this mark.
I've been looking into healing in 5E. My DM style, having fewer, more challenging fights, has been requiring a lot of healing for my players' characters. So I was a little worried about how much healing was necessary. I envisioned characters wearing those hydration backpacks, but filled with healing potion: at 50 gp a swig, there's not much else to spend your money on after the basics without a magic item economy.
I once came in concerned about Bardlocks having short rest healing. Boy, was I worried about nothing. Somehow, I had overlooked the Healer feat. So, I wanted to look at the Healing and HP feats and see how they stack up to each other.
+2 Con
This should be our baseline. It grants +1 HP per level, +1 healing per HD (since these recover at 1/2 per day, this is +0.5 healing per level), +1 Con saves, and possibly +1 Con checks (though I feel like anything here would be a save). So, for hp, half a feat is nearly worth +1.5 hp over the course of the day.
Tough
This is the next most simple. +2hp per level. You lose out on the +1 con saves, but if you roll well on HD healing, you can get extra out of it. Seems pretty decent (I've used it on example builds at the end when I ran out of useful feats to take).
Durable
This depends on how you interpret it. Either, the 2x con mod floor is for the total (roll plus modifier), or the floor is for the roll and modifier is still added. If it's total roll, it's terrible, adding between +0.04 to 0.38 HP over the course of a day (remembering half HD recovery, so we're spending half each day). If the floor is on the dice rolls, at best it's +1.75 hp per level per day, and at worst +0.08.
It is a half feat, as it grants +1 con, so if Con is your only odd stat (doable with a +2/+1 stat race and the default array), it's better than +2 con. If we compare it to half a feat, (or half toughness, so +1 hp per level) then it is only worth it IF you read it as a floor on the dice roll AND you have a Con of 16 AND you have a d6 (a d8 is 0.94 hp per level, so almost good enough). If you have an 18 con, more opens up.
The fact that this feat is so widely different for different characters is annoying. A flat +2 healing per HD would be far more fair.
Magic Initiate
Okay, I'm stretching a little, but this kind of proves a point for me. Half of magic initiate is 1 1st level spell per day. You could take cure wounds. You get to heal 1d8+Wis or Cha mod, once per day. With a 14 stat, or 6.5 healing, it matches Tough's 6 HP at level 3. Past that, it's bad. I almost feel like it should scale in some fashion, especially after clarifications say that you can't use this spell with your slots unless your slots come from that class (so no magic initiate bard for you, warlocks).
For this purpose, don't do it.
Healer
Immediately, this is better than everything else. Healing for +1d6+4+level of target for the low low price of 5 sp? Sign me up. 3 times a day (with two short rests) on all your party members! That's potentially 90+(level*12) hp per day. Only on yourself it is 22.5+(level*3) hp per day. This is so good, I'd be surprised if it wasn't a "required" feat for a minmaxed group.
Inspiring Leader
Temp HP is basically healing as long as the temp HP doesn't expire before you use it. Like Healer, it works on the whole party, but this doesn't cost 5 hp per pop. With a 4 person party, three times a day (once per rest), it grants a grand total of up to (cha mod*12)+(level*3), or nearly as much as healer. Definitely a great feat. Even just on yourself it is (cha mod+level)*3 per day, which is more than Tough.
Durable is clearly weak, except when it's strong. Tough should be the baseline, along with +2 Con. Healer and Inspiring Leader are very strong. Magic initiate isn't good for 1 heal per day.
What do you think of these feats? I had been wanting to stealth nerf healer by making a default heal action for healer's kits and just having the healer feat provide a bonus. But that wouldn't affect Inspiring leader, which is in the same ballpark of healing.
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Feats aren't balanced. Not remotely. I love that feats are supposed to be balanced around a +2 ability score bonus. It gives us a good baseline for how good feats should be.
Many miss this mark.
I've been looking into healing in 5E. My DM style, having fewer, more challenging fights, has been requiring a lot of healing for my players' characters. So I was a little worried about how much healing was necessary. I envisioned characters wearing those hydration backpacks, but filled with healing potion: at 50 gp a swig, there's not much else to spend your money on after the basics without a magic item economy.
I once came in concerned about Bardlocks having short rest healing. Boy, was I worried about nothing. Somehow, I had overlooked the Healer feat. So, I wanted to look at the Healing and HP feats and see how they stack up to each other.
+2 Con
This should be our baseline. It grants +1 HP per level, +1 healing per HD (since these recover at 1/2 per day, this is +0.5 healing per level), +1 Con saves, and possibly +1 Con checks (though I feel like anything here would be a save). So, for hp, half a feat is nearly worth +1.5 hp over the course of the day.
Tough
This is the next most simple. +2hp per level. You lose out on the +1 con saves, but if you roll well on HD healing, you can get extra out of it. Seems pretty decent (I've used it on example builds at the end when I ran out of useful feats to take).
Durable
This depends on how you interpret it. Either, the 2x con mod floor is for the total (roll plus modifier), or the floor is for the roll and modifier is still added. If it's total roll, it's terrible, adding between +0.04 to 0.38 HP over the course of a day (remembering half HD recovery, so we're spending half each day). If the floor is on the dice rolls, at best it's +1.75 hp per level per day, and at worst +0.08.
It is a half feat, as it grants +1 con, so if Con is your only odd stat (doable with a +2/+1 stat race and the default array), it's better than +2 con. If we compare it to half a feat, (or half toughness, so +1 hp per level) then it is only worth it IF you read it as a floor on the dice roll AND you have a Con of 16 AND you have a d6 (a d8 is 0.94 hp per level, so almost good enough). If you have an 18 con, more opens up.
The fact that this feat is so widely different for different characters is annoying. A flat +2 healing per HD would be far more fair.
Magic Initiate
Okay, I'm stretching a little, but this kind of proves a point for me. Half of magic initiate is 1 1st level spell per day. You could take cure wounds. You get to heal 1d8+Wis or Cha mod, once per day. With a 14 stat, or 6.5 healing, it matches Tough's 6 HP at level 3. Past that, it's bad. I almost feel like it should scale in some fashion, especially after clarifications say that you can't use this spell with your slots unless your slots come from that class (so no magic initiate bard for you, warlocks).
For this purpose, don't do it.
Healer
Immediately, this is better than everything else. Healing for +1d6+4+level of target for the low low price of 5 sp? Sign me up. 3 times a day (with two short rests) on all your party members! That's potentially 90+(level*12) hp per day. Only on yourself it is 22.5+(level*3) hp per day. This is so good, I'd be surprised if it wasn't a "required" feat for a minmaxed group.
Inspiring Leader
Temp HP is basically healing as long as the temp HP doesn't expire before you use it. Like Healer, it works on the whole party, but this doesn't cost 5 hp per pop. With a 4 person party, three times a day (once per rest), it grants a grand total of up to (cha mod*12)+(level*3), or nearly as much as healer. Definitely a great feat. Even just on yourself it is (cha mod+level)*3 per day, which is more than Tough.
Durable is clearly weak, except when it's strong. Tough should be the baseline, along with +2 Con. Healer and Inspiring Leader are very strong. Magic initiate isn't good for 1 heal per day.
What do you think of these feats? I had been wanting to stealth nerf healer by making a default heal action for healer's kits and just having the healer feat provide a bonus. But that wouldn't affect Inspiring leader, which is in the same ballpark of healing.
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