PAID SPONSOR: GRIM HOLLOW bit.ly/30jEV97 We don't need healers anymore. I mean you definitely should have them but you don't need them Potion brewing rules from Xanathars Guide To Everything Musicians: David Benedict Benj Herd
I literally gave my party an NPC robot that heals them when they put coins in him like a vending machine because no one wanted to play a healer. HealBot is an excellent gold sink.
weird people. Healers are cool and generally should get a shit ton of money in their downtime between quests considering they have a PhD in healing while the other people just have a criminal records with aggravated assaults.
To be honest he is right :P Besides maybe Prayer of Healing all healing spells heal significantly less than their damage equivalents. It is often better to kill quickly and heal only people who are down. For example, mass healing word is 1d4 + 5 = 7 so if you have party of 4 you will heal about 28 points (ussually less since some people are at full) vs. fireball 8d6 = 28 per enemy!
@@MarvelOfRain or you can pop Spirit guardians and run between enemies after 2rounds you deal the same dmg as you would with fireball while slowing them.
Related DM tip: if none of your players want to play a healer, just give them more potions as loot. You can basically play this game however you want if the DM is willing.
No that makes them reliant on them. It’s better for them to learn to play smarter and be better at resource management. Giving them get out of jail free cards isn’t helpful
@@marcdavis4509 and having a healer in the party.... Isn't a get out of jail free card? You can just monitor the party inventory to make sure they aren't hoarding too many
Before anyone says anything I'M SORRY I KNOW A ROGUE CAN'T REALLY WEAR SHADS BRIGANDINE Let's just pretend he took a feat haha. It looked too cool, I know he said not to do it but I couldn't help myself! Also this is probably a good test to see how many other shadiversity fans there are in here :)
Shadiversity fan in here! Niceee you watch Shad too? I personally like to use his fantasy rearmed series as inspiration for how races behave in my homebrewed world.
I get that this is a joke, but if a player would ever actually decide to let another player die (aside from ya know, betrayal twists and such), there's a problem.
Minor correction: Checking the deluxe edition of Xanathar's (p. 129): "To complete a magic item, a character also needs whatever tool proficiency is appropriate, as for crafting a nonmagical object, or proficiency in the Arcana skill." Arcana, in other words, lets a wizard create magical armor even if he isn't a blacksmith... but it also means that any sufficiently skilled smith can create magical weapons and armor. All that's important is having the recipe, collecting the ingredients, and putting everything together correctly.
@@linkerspinkers I like the idea of a cleric multiclassing into necro to heal, even if he is too late. Necromancy has some interesting defensive and even restorative spells
@@Magni_Prime You don't need to multiclass. Clerics are one of the best classes for a necromancer character. They might even be the best class for it, depending on who you ask, but they suffer from the serious flaw of not being a wizard.
I had a grave cleric who became cleric out if spite because the universe wouldn't let her die, so she made a vow that so long as she lived no one would die. Didn't mean she healed people just means she spared the dying everyone, a famous line of hers is, "Don't go thanking me because I'm not a healer, and I really don't care."
@@wert1234576 I played a sociopathic cleric (we... more or less disregard alignment in our games due to it being pretty much raw flavor) who saw his party as, essentially, a source of revenue among other things, as such he was incentivized to keep his party, at minimum, in fighting shape. He did also have a... "fascination" with death, so on one occasion he let 2 party members outright die so that he could watch. That character was fun. Proficient in Deception and Persuasion so he could manipulate people outside the party.
Other than the Brigandine that Shadiversity uses four straps and the studs don't mysteriously disappear and reappear while walking! It's awesome to see Brigandine get it's deserved exposure.
That's actually one of my favourite builds, front line support tank healer; give 'em Protective fighting style for reaction, Shield of Faith for bonus, main action can be attacking/Lay on Hands for 1 on a downed ally to get them back up (if only on 1! but they can still run/drink potion). If you really want; Magic Initiate bonus feat with Human, take Resistance/Spare the Dying cantrip, and Sanctuary as 1st level spell. Making friends getting hit harder to happen, easy to bring them back up if downed and once per rest offer further protection to a vulnerable ally/squishy support caster.
I literally did this as a substitute for healing potions at early levels in a poverty level campaign. The players could buy fine whiskey for 5 GP that gave them 8 temporary HP. Much cheaper than healing potions, but you had to take them preemptively to protect yourself.
@@Hakaanu there is no "surprise round" as in 3.5, but there is something even stronger. Surprise itself. It more or less plays out exactly like the 3.5 surprise round but the characters who aren't surprised aren't limited in their actions in any way. PHB 189: "The DM determines who might be surprised. If neither side tries to be stealthy, they automatically notice each other. Otherwise, the DM compares the Dexterity (Stealth) checks of anyone hiding with the passive Wisdom (Perception) score of each creature on the opposing side. *Any character or monster that doesn’t notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter. If you’re surprised, you can’t move or take an action on your first turn of the combat, and you can’t take a reaction until that turn ends* . A member of a group can be surprised even if the other members aren’t." the bold part in this paragraph is basically the surprise round, just without any limitations to anyone who isnt surprised. this makes surprise stronger than in previous editions.
I use my cleric as a Tanky beat stick who uses healing word as a “no one gave you permission to stop fighting and die” bonus action. We’re in the Curse of Strahd campaign so my damage abilities are required. We don’t have a wizard or sorcerer in our group and guiding bolt is fantastic against a lot of our enemies. No need to be a heal bot.
My Druid is a Moon Circle orc and absolutely made of beef. Shapeshifts for extra layers of hp, using Healing Word and Healing Spirit so he can slaughter and regen in the same round. He heals his allies if necessary but regards then as soft, pitiful things for being so in need of his power. Threw in a few fighter levels too (was thinking barb, but can't concentrate or cast while raging) and he's tough as nails.
@@getthegoons It's solid as hell. Even better if an ally has Sharpshooter or Great Weapon Master because advantage effectively evens out that-5 to hit.
I will say Zee, I actually really enjoy playing my healbot character. I play in a Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage and my original character died, so I had no clue what to play, then I decided that since we have nobody in the group who could even cast Cure Wounds, That I'd make a healer character, but he became so much more. Monse Ardor is a water genasi whose a mix of both Cleric and Druid, following Chauntea, goddess of life and grain. He's a hermit who lived on a deserted island along with his kobold Arcane Archer/Druid friend Krasi. Mechanically speaking Monse is just a Circle of Dreams druid along with Life Domain cleric, but he puts in WORK with his healing. He's kind of cowardly but if he needs to, he'll fight for his friends, and he's even died for his friends (Having a stowed away Revivify is really handy) So I think someone can make a great healbot, as long as they WANT to help their friends and WANT to play that role, it's a lot of fun and Monse is one of my favorite characters
The way he walks with his knives makes me terribly uncomfortable and I'm not entirely sure why -- it's somewhere on the spectrum between being excessively flamboyant, an affront to the laws of swordplay, and an OSHA violation.
In my games, I like to have potion healing and divine/magical healing act different. Potions accelerate the healing process by accelerating your body’s own healing rate. This in turn means your more severe injuries will leave scars across your body. Divine/magical healing just repairs/reverses the injury from happening. This way no physical scaring appears. They effectively do the same thing in game but it allows my players to RP if they want. It’s not something I force upon them, it’s just there if they want it.
@@Ed-1749 One level 1 caster who can cast sleep = dead level 1 party. More than 1? oof. Very high chance of any melee attack on a sleeping party member to just kill them outright since the highest hp you'll have on your barb at that level is 16 if they're a dwarf + 16 con with everyone else having anywhere from 6 to 10.
Anyone can throw a deadly encounter at a party. It takes skill to create a challenging encounter/adventure that is enjoyable and not just overwhelming and frustrating.
I am annoyed that the crafting bonuses for artificers got nerfed so hard in the final release compared to the UA where it started at 3rd level instead of 10th and worked on all rarities but one type of Magic item instead of all Magic items but Only common and uncommon
@@Titan360 Well my Soldier background Artificer would beg to differ. Why have a cleric when you can supply an army with potions and they can heal themselves, eh?
I one day want to play as a character that refuses magical healing and role plays having a health potion addiction, when in reality he just doesn't trust magic.
5E actually has a neat self healing variant rule called Healing Surge "As an action, a character can use a healing surge and spend up to half his or her Hit Dice. For each Hit Die spent in this way, the player rolls the die and adds the character's Constitution modifier. The character regains hit points equal to the total. The player can decide to spend an additional Hit Die after each roll. A character who uses a healing surge can't do so again until he or she finishes a short or long rest." Cool for if your party doesnt have a main healer and doesnt want one
I like Darkest Dungeon in that regard. There's a bunch of classes with minor heals so you didn't need the dedicated healer class if you did it right, each of them could throw the minor heals down to keep the mission going.
Darkest Dungeon was pretty neat for alot of reasons and this is one of them. Different classes ususlly have some healing, but in a limited fashion (ex, one might heal alot but can only heal one at a time, one might heal everyone but only a small amount, one might heal only a little yo one but also remove alot of debuffs, one might only be able to heal themself etc). It made an interesting puzzle out of figuring what type of healing to bring with the group to balance things out well.
Had an idea a while back about how there was a MAJOR shortage of healing potions because the businesses that brew them were coming under siege by unknown forces... So the party couldn't buy them until they fixed the problem. THAT'S how you motivate a D&D group that's seen a few things.
@@bismuthcrystal9658 or to be more topical, have healing potions be outlawed because they can be used offensively. People were using them to survive against the masked assassins who the evil nobles are using to silence dissent, so the businesses were all accused of usury.
Was looking for someone else who got this kind of vibe.. I was like, "A bunch of pillaging hermit outlaws, but they make their own healing potions? Sure, so how would you flavor that-?" "...ah. By brewing moonshine." ( In either sense ;) )
When I was running Ice Spire Peak, I distinctly remember it stating before the dragon boss, the players find x number of potions per player, if there is no healer in the group. And other similar places in the module, the implication I took was that the game is balanced on the assumption that the DM will insure the party comes across some amount of healing no matter what. However you can lead a party to treasure, but you can't make them loot
They are viable if you house rule them which most people do. So they are a Bonus Action to consume or an Action to feed to someone else. Otherwise using them on yourself the Action economy makes them a liability. 2d4+2, even a single attack from an enemy is probably going to be more than that. SO killing the enemy faster is almost always better. My first TPK was from a new party trying to keep each other topped up, rather than spike down the enemy. 4 Kenku should not wipe out a level 3 party.
I am sorry but I main both Life Clerics and Wildshape Druids, half the time I end up as the last one standing. So I am fine with being a heal bot. DPS Life Cleric is great, as long as you are careful with your spell slots. Spirit Guardian, Spiritual Weapon all the way.
Oh yes when i was playing 5E a few years back we had one player who would just smash out potions like there was no tomorrow, we never lost a fight (other then tactical retreats)
@@Leivve *The cleric kneels down and starts praying* Paladin: Ah ha! So I see you give up. Very well, I shall end thi-AAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaahhhhhh...! *The paladin is sent flying with a kick from a giant foot coming from the sky*
There’s also the Healer feat, as well as this alternative option: Don’t have a dedicated Healer. Make everyone a little bit of a healer. Get a cleric/Druid who kinda invests in healing, find a divine soul sorcerer, search out a celestial patron for that warlock pack, devote resources into Paladinship, have your ranger take cure wounds, have an Artificer... just have an Artificer. Alchemist works best. Or, like I said, take the Healer feat. I can say from experience that it’s actually quite a bit more fun not to have a dedicated healer, but rather multiple party members prepare to heal. Critical Role even does this with Jester, Cadeuceus, Fjord, and the occasional Yasha Aasimar heal. Is it much? no, but it makes the burden much more manageable, and it makes sure you’re less screwed when your healer goes down. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, have multiple healing sources whenever you get the chance.
You joke but my chance my party has: A Paladin, a Bard, a Divine Soul Sorcerers, and an Artificer. The only people who don't have access to heals is the Barbarian, who is planning to multi-class into Cleric, and me the Rouge.
Another big benefit of spreading the healing duty around is that you are more likely to get a quick heal onto an unconscious ally before they take 2 melee bites from an enemy and just flat out die. A dedicated healer may just be in the wrong initiative to properly provide emergency healing.
Card Well if you want your Rogue to have some healing, pick up either some healers kit, the healer feat, or just carry the healing potions, or get proficiency in and Herbalism Kit/Alchemists Supplies. Or not, idk it’s your character
Life cleric with a 1 level dip in fighter for the protection fighting style. Best healer I've ever played and I still get to stand up front and be very un-healery whenever I want to.
I love playing support, druid mostly, and I don't think it makes my characters killjoys to the parties madness very often. A druid of mine once convince the party to turn on our employer in favor the demons he had asked us to hunt. We murdered him along with several guards, I sold the employers soul (trapped in a ring of mind trapping or something) to a bearded devil, and we all got paid in imps.
"The answers only truly lie in our hopes, our hearts, Jay Craw's galaxy brain and obviously in your DM" - might be my favorite quote in D&D youtube history!
I loved watching you make this video, the kermit the frog jokes and numerous takes of you yelling FFFFFFFFFFUCKING SQUARE IN THE GROUP to the corner of your room just made my day
I was thinking of a total battle medic build. Inspiring leader for temp HP. Healer because that is FRAKING awesome. Along with proficiency with cook's utensils. That last one is highly dependent of your DM. It XGtE the artisan tools were given functionality. Cook's utensils can add +1 per hit dice spent as long as you have access to food and the utensils. Sure +1 per hit die doesn't sound like a lot but if you spend 6 you almost gain one extra dice. If you spread it out over the campaign then that could be 100s of extra.
Hey Zee! I said this a long time ago, but your videos are always the best. Short, info filled snippets that are given across with humor to make sure they're interesting. I play pathfinder these days, but I always value your input in videos so I just wanted to say thanks again! You've helped me and my party out a lot with hidden shenanigans and ideas! Keep making fantastic content.
We also house rule that Healing Potions heal for the max amount when out of combat, so it becomes a choice as to weather you want to try and wait out the encounter, or go for that heal in battle and get potentially less HP back.
Meanwhile here I am trying to DM a campaign where everyone is either a healer or off-healer. Them: "Hey, why don't any of the shops have healing potions?" Me, to the group of two clerics, a bard, and a paladin: "THEY JUST DON'T OKAY?"
There's a UA Wizard's came out some time ago where, at 1st level, a wizard or warlock can magically create a standard healing potion. It lasts for 24 hours, requires a 1st level spell slot, and uses Alchemical Supplies as its material base (doesn't consume). Once the duration is up, or the contents are consumed, everything vanishes. Have been homebrewing that there's 2d4+2 empty vials in the supplies that are only found within, and people with that spell can ONLY use those vials. Using a vial that is not specifically from an AS with cause the spell to fizzle, the vial breaks, and they lose a spell slot. It's an OP spell at first level, and if any of you allow it in your game, it's recommended you guys limit it in some way.
I love watching your animations improve as well as how entertaining it is to watch with the clever additional commentary added for t like the healing bit. Again love your videos and always jump in joy when I get a notification you have an animation posted.
For whatever reason, this is my favorite of your animations. Both the wonky visuals, the high paced information dense content, and the overall attitude give it a unique feel I'd like to see more of.
Action economy wise, the bonus-action "healing word" that many classes get seems more efficient than the standard action of pouring a heal-pot down the throat of your unconscious compatriot. There's no negative HP rules in 5e, so isn't it most efficient to heal someone up from dying (0) then waste time trying to get them up to max? Every enemy deals more than you can heal a turn, so it's a race you can't win anyway. But 7 HP per heal pot + short rest seems great for healing out of combat.
Or just take the frigging healer feat. A single charge of a healer's kit costs 1/50 the price of a healing potion, and provides better healing that scales up over time.
@@darkgloomie Also, a single creature can only benefit from the healing once per short or long rest. If you're in the middle of a life or death battle, you need as much healing as you can get. This is what healing potions are for.
i love how the music stops and everything get's serious when zee said "disregard this video entirely" and then music resumes but it's bright and cheerful.
Right, but if you're level 10 and just downing a potion in combat to keep from being downed, you'll need one of the bigger ones in order to not just immediately lose that HP again on the next turn.
This was something I’ve always wanted to see! I’ve always wanted to be able to do more with healing potions considering how often my party gets hurt, thanks Zee!
Zee if you see this, I just want you to know you are awesome. Never change. When I got to "fucking SQUARE in the group" I had to pause the video for a solid 30 laugh. Your style of humor never fails to put a smile on my face.
Healers are my favorite role in any game, but having to rely on potions makes for a pretty sexy lethality to the party. You're not /totally/ fucked, you just have a resource to manage.
They are pretty fucked if you consider that they can't counter nor dispel spells, nor remove conditions if they can't use an action to drink a pre-acquired potion. You can end with a full exhausted starving cursed scared mind-controlled blind and deaf Rogue Squad, ez pz.
@Zee Bashew - At the top of page 130 of *Xanathar's Guide To Everything* lists that Healing Potions are an exception to the normal magical item crafting rules and only require proficiency in the herbalism kit. You do not need Arcana or spells or anything like that.
@@bigblue344 I let my players choose between standard, spell points (actually a homebrew variant I call mana points that combines with sorcery/psi points and ditches the per-slot level limit - IDGAF if the player wants to blow their load on all the highest level spell slot they can cast or dozens of small spells), and vancian (assign spells to spell slot at preparation, clerics/druids/paladins/rangers/wizards ignore the # of unique spells they can prepare if using this homebrew method). I let the players try out each method if they want, but most stick to standard, and the smart ones learn which favors their play style best quickly. I also enforce that if they don't tell me which spells they prepare, they get nothing but cantrips - they learn pretty fast as a result. *Edit: to clarify on Mana Points, class rules still apply, like warlocks can only expend points equal to the highest-level they can cast for the spell, and sorcerers still have to manage sorcery points. I also have mystics allocate 1 point as "collateral" to activate a psionic focus - if they lose concentration the point is lost, if they deactivate the focus as a bonus action they get the point back.
I'm an old school player, but I recently got back in and have played in 3 5e campaigns. What I've noticed is that enough classes now get access to at least basic healing spells (cleric, druid, bard, paladin, ranger, divine sorcerers, and celestial warlocks) that healing can become a community effort. In one game, we had at one point a paladin , bard, and war cleric who could all heal in a pinch, PLUS a life cleric (and a rogue and fighter). It was INSANE. We could punch well outside our weight class just because of the yoyo effect. You basically had to drop the entire party in one turn (not round, turn) or somebody would start picking everyone back up. The other group was a paladin, ranger, forge cleric. The cleric said at the outset that he was NOT intending to be a heal bot, he was making a buff/debuff support character with melee capability. Even at low levels, we're able to spread healing around. The ranger and paladin basically reserve 1 spell slot for a heal, plus lay on hands, and the cleric can get by with another 1 or 2. The third campaign was where it got really interesting. It's a kids game- my 10yo and my buddies 13yo in their first game, plus him, me, and my dad. In this game I'm the only healer. I decided to try something different, I went bard with Inspiring Leader, and focus primarily on damage mitigation and buff/debuff. At 6th level with inspiring leader, the party gets i think 10 temp hp after each short/long rest. I make great use of faerie fire to help shorten the fights, and vicious mockery as a defensive tactic. When the kids play it right (they're learning), we can get through a level-appropriate combat at full hp with me and the sorcerer each using only 1 or 2 spell slots. My feat also helps encourage short rests, which song of rest slightly augments. So after a gigantic ramble, I think my point is, you don't need a heal bot OR potions, because almost everybody can be a mini heal bot, or you can find ways to prevent damage instead of healing it. Or both.
I feel the Healer feat is worth noting here. It allows you to treat healer’s kits - a vastly less expensive alternative to healing potions - as basically a cluster of stronger healing potions. The chef feat, too, provides some added healing and also temp HP. I imagine a party with one person using either feat, a few healing potions/crafting thereof, and well timed rests could get by pretty well
I watched the twitch stream earlier today and for the life of me couldn’t figure out what “boot juice” was the entire time . The scene was being replayed over and over and I’m just begging for some context, thank you for getting this out so early after the stream!
Homebrew option: Healing Crystals Uses an Action to be activated; consumed on use, range: touch. Healing Crystals scale directly to their Healing Potion counterparts and cost double the amount of gold to buy/craft; however, Healing Crystals will always heals the maximum amount. Recovery Examples: HP: 2d4+2 HC: +10 GHP: 4d4+4 GHC: +20 SHP: 6d4+6 SHC: +30 S.HP: 8d4+8 S.HC: +40
Someone on reddit recently mentioned their homebrew rule of allowing healing potions to be used as an action or a bonus action. A standard action would heal for the maximum amount whereas a bonus action usage would force a roll as normal. I like the idea of a more tactical usage.
First TTRPG I played, no one wanted to heal so I decided I probably should. This was how I became a cleric main. And how I learned to break systems by using whatever class the others didn't want.
