D&D 5E Is the Healer Feat Broken?

[Noctem]

The main focus of playing 5e should be to buff defenses, saving throws, give temporary HP, etc.. instead of giving healing in general. Being Proactive vs Reactive respectively.

 

[Giant2005]

I'm not really seeing the greatness.
Sure it provides slightly more mitigation than Inspiring Leader, but Inspiring Leader has the benefit of being used proactively rather than reactively and that benefit can be the difference between surviving a hard encounter and not surviving a hard encounter. Also you don't need to bother with buying and lugging around dozens of healer's kits.

 

[jodyjohnson]

I find "whack-a-mole" distorts the framework of the game so I use Lingering Injuries/Wounds at 0 hp.

 

[CapnZapp]

I find "whack-a-mole" distorts the framework of the game so I use Lingering Injuries/Wounds at 0 hp.

And I track negative hp down to -10 hp.

The healer feat is nice, but the problem isn't that this particular feat is too good, but that the game is too generous with what's happening at 0 hp.

 

[FrogReaver]

IMO Healer is the strongest feat in the game. Inspiring leader is #2 (Though it's important to have moderate charisma for it).

 

[Jester David]

It's broken when you compare it to spells. But spells are a pretty weak source of healing until you get to heal. It's not really worth the spell slot, especially at mid-levels.

 

[FrogReaver]

I'm not really seeing the greatness.
Sure it provides slightly more mitigation than Inspiring Leader, but Inspiring Leader has the benefit of being used proactively rather than reactively and that benefit can be the difference between surviving a hard encounter and not surviving a hard encounter. Also you don't need to bother with buying and lugging around dozens of healer's kits.

You and many others have stated that sentiment and it's one I held a while back on the WOTC forums. I would disagree now unless the party has some very good between combat healing sources. Looking at the first combat of the day it is definetely true that inspiring leader is better for that combat. But there's going to be about 5 more encounters over the day. The ability that can cause more net hp gain is going to be much better in the later encounters unless there is enough healing in your party such that it's not very difficult to get back to full hp without the healer feat.

 

[DEFCON 1]

"Broken"? No. If it's only taken by a small subset of players in a small subset of builds but it proves to be very useful to them based upon how they play... then that's the mark of a good ability.

It's the abilities that every player that can take it does, and is so useful that it makes the other members of the party obsolete that you might assign the descriptor "broken".

"Broken" is the most incorrectly used word in D&D discussion threads I have found. Followed by "straw man" a close second.

 

[ninjayeti]

I agree it is a "must have" feat although I would not go so far as to say it is broken. Our group tends to use it more for between fight healing, which dramatically increases the number of encounters our parties can handle and insures that our clerics/druids/bards rarely burn spell slots for heals. At mid and high levels it feels it is usually better to go on the offense during combat than heal.

I would agree with the other posters who point out that the bigger issue is how trivial it is to bounce back from 0 HP. Our group now tracks negative HP and it has reduced the whack-a-mole factor.

 

[Tony Vargas]

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...

They do have an hour to bandage themselves, if that helps you visualize it.