Low Level Builds - Keep the Party Alive Healer
Being a 1st level character isn't easy. Virtually everything is out to get you. People want to kill you, and monsters want to eat you. To make matters worse, you have a better chance of finding an unguarded owlbear egg than a dedicated healer in your party. It's hard to convince yourself to heal and protect others when all you want to do is hit monsters.
Let's take a look at our low-level healer build. Besides keeping the party alive and having everyone forever in your debt, this build can later transition into an offensive character. Unless, of course, you've become addicted to passing out hit points like Oprah does cars.
The Healer
Race - Aasimar
Class: Fighter/Paladin
Stats - Str. 14, Dex. 10, Con. 14, Int. 10, Wis. 16, Cha. 10.
It never seems like there are never enough points to spread around, does it? We used the point buy system.
Skill Proficiencies - Insight, Medicine, Persuasion, Religion. Insight isn’t anything great with our build, so feel free to take a different proficiency if you choose. Medicine and Religion are both standards for a cleric. Persuasion is useful in a number of situations, even though another party member may have a higher modifier.
Background - Acolyte
Armor/Weapons - Chain Mail, Shield, Mace, Holy Symbol Emblem, Vestments, Explorer’s Pack.
Spells - Cantrips: Guidance, Resistance, Spare the Dying
The spells we decide to prepare will play an important role. Our healer character will also have the power to prevent you from taking damage. Getting healed is fine and dandy, but not getting in the first place is even better. Any bonus is nice when making an ability check or saving throw, so take guidance and resistance. Spare the dying is a no-brainer. It's always amazed me that this spell is a cantrip. Stabilizing a party member at 0 hit points sure does help everyone reach those higher levels. You have cure wounds always prepared, and taking healing word is a must. I love healing word. A bonus action healing spell is potent, even more so since you don't have much else to do with your bonus action right now. Bless is always a good spell to have prepared. Shield of faith helps with that whole not getting hit thing. A +2 bonus to your AC is no joke at lower levels. Guiding bolt is my go-to 1st level cleric spell. Sometimes you'll need to hit a monster so that you can heal your friends.
1st Level - Let's review the basics. We follow the Protector Aasimar stat increases, giving us a +2 to our Charisma and +1 to Wisdom. This allows us to save a couple of points when building our character and still have a 10 Charisma. We've also met the minimum for all the ability scores t multiclass into druid. Chain mail is the best we can do right now, and when you add a shield, you have a starting AC of 18. Not too shabby. We don't qualify for a Warhammer, so the mace will have to do.
As a Protector Aasimar, we have darkvision, resistance to radiant and necrotic damage, and know the light cantrip. Those are all nice (especially the resistance), but it's the Healing Hands ability we are most interested in. While we only have a single hit point of magical Assimar energy to share, it will continue to build as we increase our level. As I've stated before, a single hit point of healing can be the difference between life and death.
Our divine domain is obviously Life Cleric. We can use heavy armor, hence the chain mail. The Disciple of Life ability interests us the most since it amps our healing spells. That cure wounds spell provides an additional 2 hit points when cast, as individuals regain extra hit points equal to 2 + the spell's level when you cast a healing spell.
2nd Level - An interesting tidbit before we get started. When multiclassing into a druid, you'll see that it states that druids will not wear armor or use shields made of metal. Your shield can be made of wood, so that's not a problem. Chain mail is another story. Check with your DM about their feelings on this issue. Maybe you can talk them into splint mail, which has fewer metal parts than other heavy armors. If they decide to play by the letter of the law, trade-in your chain mail for hide armor and think about increasing your Dexterity at some point.
Not much happens for the druid at 1st level except for spells. Sure, you can speak Druidic, but how often are you hanging out with other druids, chatting in an obscure language? Regarding those spells, take the cantrips frostbite and magic stone. It's time to hit stuff since you already have guidance and resistance. You get to add a few simple attack spells that can do decent damage and scale decently for cantrips. If you don't like that it's a concentration spell, grab frostbite instead. I have a soft spot for create bonfire. I think it's hysterical that you can move this tiny little fire around. Weird, I know. Unfortunately, it doesn't fit here since we'll need to save our concentration for guidance and the like.
For your 1st level spells, goodberry is an absolute must. Do a quick internet search if you don't know the multitude of ways this spell can be abused. Everyone should have a pocket full of hit points. Detect poison and disease and purify food and drink were much more helpful in the early editions. You had to keep track of how many rations you had and if you failed your save vs. poison there was a good chance you died. Take them here since they fit the flavor of the build. You never know when you'll need them, and since you're not a prepared spell caster, it can't hurt. Finally, faerie fire is a great spell, but we run into the concentration issue again. Prepare longstrider and have a chance to run up and cast cure wounds on the dying barbarian that forgot to rage.
3rd level - We take our second level in druid, and it's not being able to wild shape or new spells that excites us. Being able to change into everything from a quipper to a wolf is neat, but we're a lover, not a fighter. Take whatever druid spell strikes your fancy, as we already have all the healing spells available. The big deal is choosing our circle, and we'll live in the land of dreams. The Circle of Dreams is the druid equivalent of being a life cleric, with the dreams druid's first ability being the Balm of the Summer Court. In my humble opinion, the best part is it's a bonus action feature, giving our character two bonus action healing abilities at its disposal.
So what is this ability? Fey creatures have blessed upon you a wealth of hit points you can share with your friends, which I think is very nice of them. You get a number of d6s equal to your druid level, so you get 2d6 at the moment. You can choose one creature, who we assume will be a close friend, and spend a number of those dice equal to half your druid level or less. They need to be within 120 feet, and if they aren't, well, then that's their fault, isn't it? Roll the spent dice and add them together, and they are healed that amount. If that isn't enough, they also gain 1 temporary hit point per die spent. It's like bonus hit points from a bonus action! You regain all expended dice when you finish a long rest.
So how much can we heal for? Let’s check some one-round numbers.
Action: 2nd lvl cure wounds - 2d8+7. Disciple of Life bonus 4 HP. Avg. 20, Max. 27. Bonus Action: Balm of the Summer Court - 2d6, 2 temp. hit points. Avg. 7, Max. 12.
Totals: Average 27, Max. 39, plus 2 temporary Hit Points.
Don’t forget, you can hand out hit point berries before a fight to all your friends.
4th level - Now a 2nd level cleric, we feel divine and have the power to channel that feeling. Every cleric can use their Channel Divinity to turn undead. The life cleric can also use their divinity to Preserve Life once per short rest. You can restore 5 times your level in hit points using an action. At the moment, you can gift 10 hit points, splitting them up amongst all creatures of your choice within 30 feet. You can restore a creature to no more than half of its hit point maximum, so spread the love around.
The downside is that we haven’t been able to access 2nd level spells. Everything has a silver lining, and ours is that we have three 2nd level spell slots available to heal our friends.
5th level - Taking our 3rd level in cleric may not seem very exciting until you realize we have a couple of 3rd level spell slots and 2nd level spells! As a life cleric, we’ll always have lesser restoration and spiritual weapon at the ready. Being blind, deaf, paralyzed, or poisoned sounds horrible, so I’m happy one of my companions can rid me of these maladies.
We want to re-evaluate the spells we have prepared. First and foremost, always have the aid spell prepared and be ready to use a 3rd level spell slot at the beginning of every day to cast it. Three of your friends (or two friends and yourself) increase their hit point maximum and current hit points increase by 10 for the next 8 hours. The only problem with this spell is choosing who to cast it on. Front line tanks will beg for those extra hit points so they can stand tall in the face of a horde of kobolds. Wizards will tempt you will magic items for the chance to not be the squishiest party member. Decisions, decisions.
Being the healer also means taking some damage, even if you never get hit. Swap out one of your non-healing spells and prepare warding bond. Taking the same amount of damage as one of your colleagues sounds like a horrible idea, but giving them a +1 AC bonus and saving throw bonus makes them harder to hit. Even when they are hit, both of you will take half the normal damage as they now have resistance to all damage. Yep, you read that right, all damage. It’s hard to take one for the team, but you’re only taking half of one in this case.
You have options as you cross the threshold into those low middle levels. Maybe you’ll start using wild shape more often. You could start preparing offensive spells and destroy your foes with radiant energy. The world is your oyster. That said, be prepared for everyone else at the table to beg and bribe you to stay the course, has those sweet sweet hit points you provide them in and out of combat are very addictive. The average number of rounds per combat is between 4 and 5. Using your spell slots wisely, you can do nothing but heal your friends with both your action and bonus action the entire combat, to say nothing of providing them with various buffs if you choose that route.
Hitting things is fun, but you can’t split that beholder in two if you’re dead. Keeping the party alive will make you the most popular person at the table without ever swinging your mace.
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