Zardnaar
Legend
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.
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.