D&D 5E Is the Healer Feat Broken?

[Zardnaar]

There have been a few threads about encounter guidelines not working and as a DM I have been wanting to play a featless game of 5E. I always get out voted by my players though and if I try and force the issue I might not have any players full stop.

Anyway the feats Great Weapon Master and Sharpshooter often get used as examples of broken feats in 5E but one feat strikes me as perhaps a little bit to good. That feat is the healer feat. Early on in 5E when I DMed the PCs did not use it. I was the 1st player to pick it as a light cleric as I liked at it and realized.

1d6+4+level is a better healing rate than a cure wounds spell. Better yet it is per person per short rest. In a 5 man party with the assumed 2 short rests it is an extra 15 cure spells. By level 10 it is not as good but it is still 1d6+14 points of healing per person per short rest. In effect it is almost a mass cure spell as a short rest instead of long rest ability.

It got even better with the thief subclass of the rogue with the quick hands ability. Due to the fact you use a healing kit you can now use it as a bonus action. This rapidly turned into an unlimited healing word effect as restoring 1 hp was functionally as good as 1d4+wisdom modifier. Odds are you would still be going down in one hit so no you have unlimited short range healing words + a very silly amount of short rest healing.

Suffice to say since then we have never left home without it. I get to play on occasion and sure enough one of my PCs is a Diviner and he has the healer feat. Rather than sit back and snipe with firebolt at low levels (1-4) and generally be useless I am often up on the front lines using the aid another action (granting advantage>firebolt when GWM Barbarian is in the mix) and using the healer feat as a medic. Even if you get hit you just heal yourself. In a different group where the DM gave everyone an extra feat no one took it or even a cleric leaving a Paladin as the sole source of healing. We do not always have a GWM or sharpshooter PC in the party, we always pick the healer feat it seems.

The thought has occurred to me that this feat might be contributing towards wrecking the game. We do not do anything particularly clever just out attrition the enemy by casting spells like bless (conserving spell slots) and healing up afterwards with the feat and occasionally prayer of healing or some other source of healing.

 

[Horwath]

Healing in combat is underpowered(even for a life cleric). It's better to boost attack/protection or disable enemies.

This gives a "healer" feel to character without spending precious daily resources of your spells or layonhands.

In combat it's not "mass heal" because to heal 5 people you need 5 rounds. In most battles, that is entire battle.

IMO inspiring leader is a better feat as it is proactive and can actually prevent TPKs if you blunder into some kind of "surprise nova" from mooks.


P.S. delete the duplicate thread

 

[Horwath]

Disclaimer: I'm sorry, didn't meant to press "laugh at this post".
The topic is valid.

BTW, can you undo the "laugh at this post" thing?

 

[Flamestrike]

It got even better with the thief subclass of the rogue with the quick hands ability. Due to the fact you use a healing kit you can now use it as a bonus action. This rapidly turned into an unlimited healing word effect as restoring 1 hp was functionally as good as 1d4+wisdom modifier. Odds are you would still be going down in one hit so no you have unlimited short range healing words + a very silly amount of short rest healing.

Assuming your thief is running around with a healing kit in hand.

Surely it takes two free hands to bind wounds, even if he can do it as a bonus action?

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

No, it's not broken.

Maybe it's not quite a fit for the style of game-play you want, but it works just fine as-is.

 

[Kreinas]

Regaining 1 HP when stabilizing a dying comrade one failed death save from dying is great. Not only do you save their life, but they can rejoin the battle immediately on their next turn. For non-healing classes or frontliners, it can be of great value.

1d6+4 HP is good. It's as good as a low level spell, and is available to non-magical classes. Adding HD to the value is the same as saying "scales with character's level", which is ALSO good. The scaling is enough to keep the ability relevant at later stages of the game. However, it takes an entire action. To call it overpowered would be akin to claiming Potions of Healing are overpowered.


Additionally, I would disagree with your usage of fast hands to make the heal. Assuming your character dropped weapons as a free action, then used interaction to pull out the healer's kit. As a bonus action you could USE the kit and stabilize someone to 1 HP. Fine. As an action you can then restore 1d4+4+HD to the creature. Great! However, the Healer feat specifically says "As an action, you can spend one use of a Healer's Kit..." To me, this is not compatible with the Bonus Action from fast hands. You are not USING the healer's kit as an object, but tending to it. The action of tending to the creature requires the components of the healing kit, which is why the use is spent, but the action of specifically tending to a creature is what restores the HP. You're taking your action to place a poultice, and bandage it over.

Of course, as with most things it all comes down to DM interpretation. My interpretation is that the Healer feat gives you an Action to use, not a buff to your object.

 

[Quartz]

It's a feat. It needs to be powerful. Remember that the PC is giving up +2 to a stat. Plus it's like Heavy Armour Mastery - very good at low levels but progressively less good as you rise. 1d4 + 4 + 20 isn't much at 20th level when that barbarian could have over 300 HP. (Max without magic is 20 * (12 (HD) + 7 (Con) + 2 (Toughness)) = 380 HP).

And you can't heal yourself if you're at 0 HP. Or restrained. Etc.

 

[Krachek]

We can applause immersive character playing when a player take healer feat for its rogue.
and we give give a mention the the player of the proud wizard who spend its time helping the gwm barbarian, it make great role play talk after the fight.

 

[Ancalagon]

Keeping in mind I still haven't started playing 5e yet, but from my point of view, I find the notion of someone bandaging people up after a fight a lot less eery than people healing up naturally at a freakishly fast rate after a short rest...

 

[Kreinas]

Keeping in mind I still haven't started playing 5e yet, but from my point of view, I find the notion of someone bandaging people up after a fight a lot less eery than people healing up naturally at a freakishly fast rate after a short rest...

The concept of Health can also be seen as a sort of battle endurance. When your health drops low in a fight, you are physically exhausted from the amount of punishment you have taken. If you feel like the wounds you have suffered should not be healed over in a short rest, this is an issue you should discuss with your DM.

For example, in a current session on Roll20, I play a fighter. The fighter has a high constitution; He can take a beating, and therefore has higher health points. This fighter uses a Shield +1 as well as chainmail for a combined AC of 19. When attacks miss my fighter, they are either dodged completely (a low attack roll) or are eaten by the armor/shield. When an attack connects, it is described as "You block the attack with your shield, but the strength of your opponent overwhelms you. You take X damage" or "The impact finds purchase in the joint of your armor, leaving a gash/cut in your arm. You take X damage". These are examples of wounds that will close over a short period of time (you have to remember you aren't just Joe from the merchant stall. You're an adventurer with abnormal strength/wisdom/Con/dex/etc).

Then come the crits. Last session, while fighting a bugbear wielding a morningstar, a crit was landed. The DM rolled a d100 to see where the attack lands, and it happened to be my Knee. Despite wearing Chainmail and having a significant amount of HP, the blow crushed my kneecap. As a result, my movement speed was quartered, and an athletics check was required on each turn to see if I could even hold myself up. When combat ended, and a short rest was taken, my HP was regained but the knee remained shattered.

Your DM can then allow you to take out-of-combat actions to try to remedy the situation. Using nearby scraps of wood and rope, our wizard (who was far more intelligent than my character!) crafted a splint for my leg. Movement penalty reduced to half speed. Our party then crafted a makeshift gurney out of a table in the keep's dining hall, and our barbarian made an athletics check to see how well he could pull it. With his strength and proficiency, and a roll resulting in 22, he was able to pull me back to town at full speed (where it would have been half speed if I had walked) and saved us a day of travel. Returning to the town, my character visited a healer who applied advanced poultices and casting, and was informed that the knee would be suitable for walking after a day of rest. We ended our session here, and the next time we play a day will have passed (when time sensitive quests are ongoing, this can be a huge detriment).


TL;DR

Damage isn't black and white, and it is the responsibility of the DM to describe damage in a manner that matches expectations. If your party/DM don't care about the realism, by all means remove a leg every time your character takes 6 damage, then sleep it off while you regrow another.