While this may be one clear option for this role, not all clerics are made for just healing, just as other classes may be viable as well. It would be easy to assume in D&D that the healing role falls directly on the shoulders of the Cleric. Classes!įinally for this first section, we need to discuss classes. All these factors need to be considered when deciding what options are available to you. Rests eat into your Time, which could be tight depending on the sort of adventure you are on. You can’t do much fighting if you are out of Hitpoints, and you can’t use your spells without Spell Slots. Hitpoints, Money, Spell Slots, Items, and even Time are all needed to be considered. It’s also a balancing act for resources the party has access to.

The healer themselves are responsible to make sure that the characters in the party are able to survive between these rests. If your party is able to survive well enough on these rests, you might not need a dedicated healer in the group. This is useful for short bursts of healing as you only need to rest for an hour to do so. A short rest however only lets you heal through Hit Dice, which your character level dictates how many you have, and your class level is what kind of dice you get to roll. A Long rest restores all hit points to the maximum value, clearing any conditions that can be normally cleared during a long rest, and lets you restore your spell slots, and half your max total of Hit Dice, at the sacrifice of normally 8 hours resting time. Your adventuring party can heal through two main methods, Long and Short rests. So we should discuss first the methods of how characters heal normally, and how a healer changes that dynamic.

Hopefully this guide may help out in these situations. However, there may be situations where you find your party lacks someone dedicated to that role, or maybe your DM has homebrewed a setting where healing through magical means is limited in some way. They are handy to have, and can keep the party from wiping entirely if things go bad. This can be through buffs, healing, stabilizing unconscious characters, or even bringing them back from the dead. The healer makes sure no one dies in the process, and keeping them in the fight longer. In a party composition, you could fill various roles for tactical purposes in combat, such as damage soaking ‘Tanks’, glass cannon characters with high damage output while with low survivability, or utility characters whose job is to help make problems disappear with various abilities. But what is a “Healer”?įor starters, let’s have a look at the healer role in 5e. This is a remake of an older article I made on the subject, now with more up to date information, less personal anecdote filler, and more usable content! It’s split into two parts, with why you would want a healer, and what options do you have as a player or dungeon master. I like to send my players pictures like this before a session, just so they can feel safe and welcomed.

D d 5e homebrew classes healer