D&D 5E Looking for Peer Review/Constructive Criticism on Homebrew D&D Class: Medic

[Christopher Siow]

A few notes: The goal of this class was to make a class that could heal a party without any magic or spellcasting whatsoever (this does not include magical properties found in some ingredients).

There are two paths of this healing class, Alchemical Medic and Combat Medic. The Alchemical Medic can modify their potions and remedies and is able to make unique remedies that the Combat Medic cannot make. The Combat Medic gains better armor, more Crowd Control and is to be closer to the frontlines than the Alchemical Medic.

In short, I wanted the Alchemical Medic to be squishier, hang back and heal when need be while the Combat Medic will be less hesitant to get into the thick of things.

I'm aiming to make this more of a Heal Over Time based healer since medicine isn't as potent as magic and requires time to take effect. This should have the potential to heal a great deal but done so in small increments over time. This would be good for tanky teams who could tank it out while the medicines take their effect whereas a mage might struggle to benefit from the heals if they keep taking damage.

The primary healing ability of the Medic is Herbal Medicine, an ability that heals an ally for 3d4 over 3 turns at level 1, so 1d4 per turn. This is a flat number and does not add a modifier bonus.

It's not entirely complete, things are subject to change and it's still a WIP. Things highlighted in dull pink need to be worked on. Some scalings on some features might not be present as of yet.

Here's the link for the Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H7WrlJuUXDwDoMFXKRTqPTc3XdKDrmfJxoyAZzxBLGk/edit?usp=sharing

If you could submit your thoughts or ideas on how to refine this, that would be appreciated as I would love for there to be a healing class with no reliance on spells or spellcasting that a majority of DMs would be okay with. This would be a party's primary healer, not a secondary one.

 

[Tony Vargas]

A few notes: The goal of this class was to make a class that could heal a party without any magic or spellcasting whatsoever (this does not include magical properties found in some ingredients).

Since 3.0 hit the shelves, support characters have not been boxed into all-in "band-aid" healers the way Clerics often tended to be back in the day. At times they've been wildly OP CoDzillas, instead, but, still, not just healers. As such, you might want to think about how to broaden the class's competence and range of support-oriented contributions to the party's success.

The Artificer could already be close to what you're looking for as an Alchemist, or at least have some ideas you could poach (it doesn't fit your criteria, as-is, because it's a half-caster in it's current incarnation).

I'm aiming to make this more of a Heal Over Time based healer since medicine isn't as potent as magic and requires time to take effect....
If you could submit your thoughts or ideas on how to refine this, that would be appreciated as I would love for there to be a healing class with no reliance on spells or spellcasting that a majority of DMs would be okay with. This would be a party's primary healer, not a secondary one.

Sounds like it's being set up to fail. If, by definition, it's supposed to both take the place of magical healing, and yet also be inferior to it.

 

[DeJoker]

Without looking at the class a question comes to mind -- which partially points to Tony Vargas last statement -- which is why are you making this class? What point is it supposed to serve. I mean if I want to play a class that specializes in healing what is wrong with the magic version that exists? Why is the Cleric (Life) not a viable option? I mean just because you can climb a mountain because it is there does not mean that doing so unprepared is a good idea. The preparation I am referring to here are the answers to the questions I have posed thus far and perhaps others that are waiting in the wings once these initial questions have been answered.

 

[Christopher Siow]

Here's some persective. I'm not a big fan of magic myself. I don't play as wizards in D&D or MMORPGs. I prefer warriors or those without magic through use of determination or ingenuity. My D&D is limited since I've only been playing biweekly since March of this year. Having more experience from MMORPGs, I've seen a recurring theme in healers. You have a powerful healer with a variety of healing capabilities at the cost of low offense abilities or being squishy, the Cleric can be seen as this role (low damage output, wide variety of heals). Then there's another healer who primarily focuses on one target at a time, uses large amounts of resources when compared to other healers but they heal in LARGE chunks. The Tranquility Monk's Healing Hands or the Paladin's Lay On Hands can be seen as this since they can huge large portions of HP with high resources. Then the final typical healer archetype is the HoT (Heal Over Time Healer). These healers could potentially outheal some of the other healers as the total numbers of healing done is larger but is done so in small increments. I'm trying to make something like this through non-magical means and medicine paired with HoTs seemed like a reasonable alternative.

 

[Christopher Siow]

Sounds like it's being set up to fail. If, by definition, it's supposed to both take the place of magical healing, and yet also be inferior to it.

Let me clarify. When I mean it's not as potent, I mean it won't heal as instantly as say a Cure Wounds used with a 3rd level spell slot. It can heal just as much and possibly more over a duration of around 3 turns.

 

[DeJoker]

Hmmm well that is an interesting endeavor but is it needed ?? Most of that, because its a true RPG, gets handled in the down time situations where your heal over time will not be any better than a clerics ability to heal over time in a downtime situation because those are often fast-forwarded over. Thus the heal over time would be of minimal use in a normal game setting -- where in an online MMOPG (there is so little role in that it is not worth applying the R) it can be useful. You need to step back and understand the game as a whole before designing a class for it. K.I.S.S. is a very important concept, I know as I have gone down the road of too much too many times. Basically what you are doing is creating another form of "magic" even though you are not calling it that and what the system definitely does not need is more magic systems with different rules to make it even more complex.

 

[mellored]

Why not hit dice stuff?

i.e.
Medical Treatment: When a creature within reach spends a hit die durring a short rest, you can maximize it. Each short rest, you can maximize the number of dice equal to twice your healer level.
That's roughly 7HP per rest per level. 21 per day (comparied to the 5/level the paladin gets). And feels very non-magical feeling.

Level 11:
Triage: When a creature within reach spends a hit die to regain hit points, they can roll twice and take the higher result.

 

[FrogReaver]

medics are boring. They dose out pain mess and bandage you up so you don't die. Then you are flew to the hospital to recover...

What I am trying to say is that I don't think you can base a full class around the medic concept, there just isn't enough there IMO. It would make a great subclass or background benefit though.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

The biggest problem with this class is the default healing rules. Unless you do something to change it, all damage is healed after a long rest, which means any HP healing this class can perform is less significant than taking a nap.

Why would a dedicated healer even be a thing, in a world where damage heals overnight? It seems like the only medicine worth learning would be focused on disease or broken limbs, or something else that doesn't fall under the HP rules.

 

[Christopher Siow]

Hmmm well that is an interesting endeavor but is it needed ?? Most of that, because its a true RPG, gets handled in the down time situations where your heal over time will not be any better than a clerics ability to heal over time in a downtime situation because those are often fast-forwarded over. Thus the heal over time would be of minimal use in a normal game setting -- where in an online MMOPG (there is so little role in that it is not worth applying the R) it can be useful. You need to step back and understand the game as a whole before designing a class for it. K.I.S.S. is a very important concept, I know as I have gone down the road of too much too many times. Basically what you are doing is creating another form of "magic" even though you are not calling it that and what the system definitely does not need is more magic systems with different rules to make it even more complex.

Please let me know if I misunderstood what you're trying to say but it seems like you're talking about healing during long rests. In which case, why would any healer need to use their abilities when everyone can just sleep it off? This is not for downtime, this is for in combat scenarios. Look at it this way with a low level scenario. You have a Fighter with 18 ac, a Wizard with 11 AC and the Medic. If the fighter is getting attacked, he gets damaged and heals a 1d4 over 3 turns through the medic, he has the AC to not take the damage assuming the hits don't land and benefit fully from the heals. If the wizard was to get attacked over and over, they won't be able to benefit from the heals as much as the fighter can. I'm aiming to make this a non-magical healer that would better suit tanky teams.

I never did answer your question from earlier as to why Cleric is not a viable option. Simply put in the D&D society that I'm making, they generally don't use magic (only on certain occasions) so I'm trying to think of a healer that doesn't use magic, can get the healing job done and fits with the theme of the society.