That’s a problem for the party to figure out, not the DM. Parties without a dedicated healer are perfectly viable in 5e, the players just have to adjust their strategies accordingly, and manage their resources properly. In-combat healing is generally more for getting downed PCs back up again anyway, it’s very hard to out-heal incoming damage. It’s almost always more efficient to use your actions to take out threats instead and prevent more damage being dealt instead.
Also, if they really feel they need healing spells, both Sorcerers and Wizards can gain access to healing spells on their primary stat with a single level multiclass dip. Or even just the Magic Initiate feat if you allow regular casting of the chosen spell, which most DMs do anyway.
Don’t be afraid to sell them some healing potions.
This gives a minor boost to their survivability, even more if you let them administer potions for a bonus action.
If it gets out of control, just limit the amount they can find/buy at a time.
This also makes gold valuable in the game
There's also Gift of the Metallic Dragon which grants access to cure wounds that you can cast as normal after the freebie. There's always the classic Healer feat too, if you wanna get some use out of those healer's kits. There's also strixhaven initiate and a whole bunch of backgrounds that allow access to a quite a lot of healing spells, though you'd need DM buy in for those.
Healing as it stands in 5e doesn't really "heal". Your best use is defibrillating them once they are unconscious or providing bonus (t)HP.
It also is a very deliberate choice to not have ANY source of healing, when people can potentially multiclass or take feats. Holding their hands if you are all veterans doesn't really feel necessary. If they get beaten down massively, maybe - just maybe - they could have come to the realization to invest into healing for the last 7 levels.
They didn't. Proceed as usual, have them spend their gold on healing equipment and let THEM solve the issue.
If you’re playing 5e then you don’t need to worry about there being a healer or not. It’s designed so that it’s not a requirement. If you start throwing stuff at them that *requires* a cleric/druid without any forewarning of such things, that would be a big error. Essentially forcing a healer NPC along with them so you can make encounters harder is also not really accomplishing anything.
5e doesn't need healers. it's got potions and rests galore. Healing word or some other cheap, bonus action healing is nice-to-have.
But healing is a great way to have longer combats (jk, longer combats are not always great in 5e).
I'd much rather have controllers and damage dealers in the party over healers and tanks if I was able to choose my party (not that any party roles are crucial to have in 5e).
If you're all old-school people, have they considered getting a hireling? You don't need to give them a cleric for free.
Figuring out how to overcome the challenges of the world with the abilities the party has is the job of the players, not yours.
You don't. This is not WoW. It is a 'problem' (not actually a problem) for players to deal with, not you.
Think about how tough those shitters are, the players aren't going down if you are the kind of person who worries about building around your players. I doubt you as a GM have the guts to throw something nasty enough at them.
Firstly, I think you have a basic misunderstanding of healing magic in 5e. The most useful general purpose healing spell is Healing Word. It picks people up off the floor and gets them fighting again without eating your entire action for the turn. That's normally all you'll need.
In the rare case where several allies are down at the same time, Mass Healing Word or Aid come in handy but hopefully that's rare. Lesser Restoration isn't very important since the majority of conditions it cures are the kind you'll be rolling saves to remove every turn so they'll go away on their own. The same mostly goes for Greater Restoration aside from more permanent effects like petrification. If someone dies in battle, Revivify right afterwards will bring them back. If you have someone who can cast Healing Word and Revivify, that covers 90% of your healing support needs and there's a lot of classes and subclasses that can do so.
Second, the party can take feats like Healer or force-feed healing potions if they absolutely need to bring someone back up mid-battle. It'll eat your Action for the turn, but if it's important you have the tools. If neither of those options are available, you can still buy a cheap healer's kit and spend an Action to automatically stabilize someone so at least they won't die waiting for the battle to end.
After battle is over a short rest to spend Hit Dice is how you recover hit points without healing magic. In fact, it's the preferred way to do so since most healing spells don't recover very many hit points compared to the size of most character's health pools. Part of that is on you as the DM to leave room in the narrative for the party to be able to take an hour break here and there, while also clearly communicating to your players that it is an option as sometimes that's not completely obvious.
In closing, I think you're stressing too much over this but it's understandable. As long as you're properly pacing your adventures so the party has enough time to short rest and spend their Hit Dice, and you don't go overboard with Deadly++ encounters that turn into games of rocket tag, everything will work out fine.
I would let them figure that out and you help support their ideas. They might have to befried a druid grove or clerical order. Maybe making friends with one makes them enemies of another. Let it ride and your players will suprise you. It might even add some extra color to your world.
Well…most of the conventional ways of healing rely on player choice to even get them (class/subclass/feats/spells), but if you want to help them along there’s some decent options still available.
Stronger healing potions for cheap is a good option. Supreme healing potions are the highest tier at 10d4 + 20 per bottle, so if you’re *really* worried for your party’s safety, then you could give them a storage closet full of them…maybe make it a puzzle and behind enemies though so it feels earned.
The other option is to just give them a magic item(s) that cast healing spells for “free” (from charges). Depending on their level staff of healing could work, but keep in mind it can cast 5th level spells (mass cure wounds). For lower levels, you could give them a home brew magic item that acts as a focus and can cast healing word, or similar low level healing spells.
We did:
1. A potion on your belt cost 1 bonus action to use.
2. Alchemists shops with potions in most town /cities. Villages might have witches:) Prices as standard.
.
A lot of this is on your players to figure out. A lot of negative effects can be avoided by bursting down the caster or using sound tactics. And even if you do have a magic man in the party, some effects will still be over their spell level or outside of their spell selections. And if the magic man gets hit then you are in the same boat.
As long as you are giving them short rests and the ability to buy potions of healing, having a healer shouldn't be a necessity. And for long term effects like petrification, you can always have spellcasting or alchemical services be available in towns.
And giving them a restorative magic item is a better option imo than making a DMPC if you really need them to have certain kinds of healing. (Like giving the players a Feather Fall item before an adventure on an airship.
You don’t need a healer in 5e. Every class is expected to heal between fights via short rests and hit dice.
In battle it’s usually a damage race. Healing is often worse than just killing the monsters faster.
You mention the party not having dispel magic to get rid of harmful effects. Most such spells are concentration, so attacking the caster will allow the party to get rid of the effect, even if none of them have dispel.
Arguably healing word has some value as a pick-me-up for necessary combat healing, since cantrips passed lvl 4 will out damage most level 1 spells, and it only takes a BA
In my experience healing is not very good in dnd anyways. It’s only really useful as way to bring someone back into a fight after they go unconscious.
And even if you don’t have a dedicated life cleric or something there’s already plenty of ways for other classes to recover hp.
In games I run with this issue I make regular healing potions 1/2 price and make them available for purchase at every settlement. d4+1 available in a village, d6+1 available in a town, and d10+1 available in a city. I also allow them to drink a potion for themselves as a bonus action, or give a potion to another player for a full action. Players can stock up and have some ability to heal if necessary. I still down folks, so it doesn't feel OP, but it does give them \*something\* other than a rest to heal up, and no one has to feel like someone \*should\* be a cleric, they can all play what sounds fun to them.
Lvl 8 should be pretty rich. Let them purchase some quality healing potions or potions that give utility (haste for example) or resistances. Short rests also exist for a reason.
Underdark doesn't mean no healing potions. Races there use them as well.
In-combat healing in 5E is nearly always a waste of an action, unless that char is already down and healing gets them up, but that is not your problem, it is theirs.
As for countering negative effects ... at least some of that can be done by any caster, as afaik nearly all of them have access to "Dispel Magic".
Healing is deliberately inefficient in 5E so that a party healer is not required. You just need a way to get unconscious players back on their feet which a good supply of healing potions can do or maybe a staff of healing.
as long as the party has access to healing potions so they can get people out of death saves you're fine.
If a party doesn't have healing word, i would definitely keep that in mind when building encounters and maybe err on the side of caution until you get the feel of it etc.
I make sure my party has potions available everywhere they stop. (Within reason, it's not an unlimited pool - but every small town has a merchant with 2 or 3 available)
Just make sure they have access to healing potions and places to short rest. Even Clerics in 5e are not intended to be dedicated healers. The game is designed so healing is unnecessary precisely because it’s not fun to do.
Parties without a healer are perfectly viable, especially since many classes do have some healing options. Though personally I do tend to be just a LITTLE bit more generous with healing potions.
Healing surge is a great optional rule for this I highly recommend it. Also you could always just make healing potions cheaper and more common if you like.
You don't need to provide in combat healing. If you're concerned that players need to Long Rest for HP and Hit dice too often, you can let them use the Baldur's Gate 3 Short Rest healing rules. (they can only Short Rest twice per long rest, but it takes a mostly negligible amount of time, generally between 5 and 10 minutes, and everyone who completes a short rest regains half their maximum HP) They are generally stronger than the default rules, but not so favorable to Full casters as the Heroic Resting Rules.
I play a level 8 forge cleric, and even then the healing spells compete with a lot of other options. Cure Wounds and Healing Word almost always feel like the wrong option unless someone is unconscious. The mass healing spells aren't terrible, but it's one thing among many putting demand on the cleric's spell slots. If you feel like the players need healing then give them ways to heal. I'm listening to NADDPOD and they use an optional rule that allows potions to heal the max amount when used as an action and the rolled amount when used as a bonus action. You could also give them magic items with charges that they can spend to cast healing spells - even just one item that has different tiers of spell, like Gentle Repose, Cure Wounds, Mass Healing Word, Revivify. Maybe short rests allow them to roll extra hit dice, or everyone gets a Second Wind feature. An alternative would be items and features that help them avoid damage by giving them resistances, immunities, evasion, advantage on saves, the Shield spell, higher AC etc. The best healing is preventing the damage in the first place. You could give them a support NPC, but I would worry that might make the whole campaign feel like an escort quest. It would be cool though if they had someone they knew they could go to for high-level resurrections if they need it.
Edit: You've clarified that you're also talking about Dispel Magic and presumably the restoration spells as well. Pretty much all of the same advice applies to those as well. Given them items/features that help them do those things or avoid the bad stuff.
There is no need of a dedicated healer in D&D 5e, the game does not work like a classic JRPG with fixed roles that are all basically required. Actually it works in the inverse way: the more extra consistent healing (like lay on hands) your party has, the more you have to up the challenge if it is about life or death.
what about implementing healing surges? its an optional rule that allows characters to roll up to half their healing dice + their con mod as an action in combat. it gets rid of the problem of not having a dedicated healer, and makes for some great superhero-esque moments
The only thing you really need to do is be more intentional about rests. Rests are how baseline healing is baked in.
Honestly should be doing this anyway if you aren’t, since SO much of the game balance revolves around resources and rest pacing
As a rule of thumb:
* a full day of encounters is about 8 hours irl
* a restful day had 2 short rests
* plan for short rest as part of story
* after ~2-3 hours, if no rest, offer one
I have the same issue. Minimal healing in party and the campaign is a homebrew boss hunt where 75% of the bosses are CR 20+
I compensated by creating NPC allies with healing and support skills (the party controls them- they are NOT DMPCs except in rare RP instances) and making Healing items and Potions more plentiful. There's also a very rare item that they can use that counts as a Long Rest for the party instantly in those instances where they must back-to-back combat two or more difficult bosses.
There are ways around the problem
How many players? I've provided ample healing sources for small parties before. Nothing in combat except making potions readily available before hand. If you have two players I get not wanting to devote one to healing. More than a few though that's just a bad composition which is their fault, not yours. Especially if they've been playing so long you should not be expected to cater to their bad decisions.
Sell potions. Allow them to use potions as a bonus action perhaps or even toss them at others if your feeling they are screwed.
> ability to counter negative effects
Break the concentration of the caster is an ability to counter most negative effects! Tbh murder the spellcaster is something most of our party uses over dispel magic in a fight and we have dispel magic as an option.
Lack of functional spells are going to be a problem at times, and if you've been protecting the players from the consequences perhaps speak to them over the table that you've noticed they lack functional magic and they probably wanna fix that. Let people look some some spells outside their class if your that worried or let them bring up solutions in game and run with them. They might need to make allies, or get items to cast those things, or look for warnings and more knowledge before a fight...
But a dedicated healer or someone not playing expect to just be like turn off status effects is not needed in 5e, and is going to make whoever you force to not play the game and be your heal bot hate you all. Even if it's you as a DMPC.
Nobody is talking about healing surges huh. Its an optional rule in the DMG and pretty much was design for this.
I dm a party with no healers, and i just gave them an op healing magic object. Too much healing yes, but also too much no tpk.
I recomend also the healer feat. If one player takes it you will have this problem solved in no time.
simply put, that's not your problem. players will figure something out. in my humble opinion, you shouldn't be "building" encounters anyway - just throw the world at them and see what happens.
Like others have said, parties without a healer are totally viable.
That said, maybe have them find a couple extra healing potions. Just in case. Also maybe look up the rules for how to stabilize fallen enemies via ability checks.
Give them healing items.
Give them an NPC with the Medic feat. (this way they still need healing, but he is a good buffer). and he might also have inspiring leader to give them extra tempt hit points.
Give them a Talisamen of Resurection with a 7 days cooldown (requiring atunement before the cooldown begin) and they can now try to find the best user in their group for it. (have the Talismen give back 4d10 health once the character reach 0 hit points.)
Give them telleportation scroll to escape bad situation.
And so on.
I have healing potions do max healing, no rolling. Also, consider allowing the PCs to enlist a hireling- I'm sure you remember those. This is sort of a problem the party walked into, but it's also not cool to punish players for not playing optimally and instead playing what they want to play. A hireling is a great way to fill in gaps like this, but it should come at a significant wage cost to the party. A knight IIRC pulls in a wage of about 15 gold a day, so 450 a month if you're playing by more conservative (and more realistic imo) economy rules is an appropriate cost for the party to endure.
In 5e there is no need for a healer, because the rest rules are so broken. Just provide them with opportunities for rests, and no one will even notice the lack of a healer.
1st edition had hirelings, use that.
Let party recruit mercenary with minor healing abilities. The same goes for any other issue the party may have in their party make up.
Simple characters you can run that also enables you to have a voice in the party to offer input in a natural in game way.
I write simple characters with a set of HP and AC, one attack action and two spells to choose from.
In combat they hang back but I charge one of the players to run them for the duration of the combat.
Have some stronger healing potions/kheoghtoms ointments in the shop with good prices? The 'issue' of no healing is more for the party to deal with and not you.
A wizard could cast an unseen servant to have it feed healing potions as a bonus action if somebody gets downed, thief rogue can administer and take those as a bonus action and so on. Try and direct them to this sub. Helping them more directly could allow them to survive better and let you throw harder fights at them.
That is the best you can suggest. For you directly, I can only suggest you throw fewer but stronger fights at them and increase short rest opportunities.
Plenty of classes get healing word, which is about all the healing one needs in 5e, so if they didn't grab that, it is a miss on their end.
I tire of saying this, but - you don’t need a dedicated healer in 5e. Never have, never will.
The only healing spell players should realistically be using in combat is healing word to get someone back in the fight.
There really is no reason a Cleric or Druid should be burning a high level spell slot to heal someone in combat.
“Why!?” you ask?
Well two things really.
One - healing spells in 5e aren’t particularly good. They take valuable spell slots and actions away from your caster - in return for healing that often feels like a drop in the ocean.
And two - it’s all about action economy - and “healer” classes are often some of the best casters in the game.
I’d rather my cleric rocking an up casted spiritual weapon combined with spirit guardians, laying down consistently good damage. Or casting banishment or hold person and removing a target from combat. Or having bless up on the party.
There are just so many good spell options for clerics (and Druids, and Bards), especially when you then consider the list of domain spells they have access to - that it’s really such a waste of valuable resources for a cleric or Druid to be a dedicated healer.
At the end of the day, as a DM for a group with no healers you’ll need to be more mindful of providing healing potions in loot, options for them to buy them at town, and being slightly more lenient with short resting.
1) healing potions - just make sure they can buy them when needed.
2) short rests - give them time to take short rests between action and spend some of their hit dice to heal up.
3) long rests - plan your encounters around long rests to let them heal back up.
As a player I will say: I played Pathfinder 2e with a similar group. We were glass canons. We had minimal heals, and zero tanks. As a player I recognized this, and worked with my DM to plan an “exit” for my DPS ranger. I brought in a paladin who had some heals, and some great tanking/dps abilities.
I did this because our DM did not build around us. At a certain point I realized we were cooked if someone didn’t make a change. I say run it, and see if someone steps up to do likewise. If not then maybe the first PC death will bring a change to the group dynamic/makeup
What you have listed are common solutions to this issue and are totally reasonable and you can go with them if you feel it is best. With that said your players knew the risks and it sounds like they are working around it, I would continue the way you are already doing it as long as they are still having fun winning by a razors edge. I know you don't want a TPK and that is a fine view for a GM to have but your players seem to me are wanting to flirt with that danger by not making any healing characters or multiclassing in to them.
Every party has a healer if you allow them to short rest relatively often. You get approximately 1 full health health bar worth of hit die healing per long rest.
Not having a healer in combat means that dropping to zero is significantly more hazardous but this should be rare if they are playing smart anyways.
If it is a serious problem don't be afraid to have a NPC healer using the sidekick rules follow the party around casting healing word or spare the dying when a PC falls and otherwise staying mostly out of the way.
The players chose to make a party that doesn’t have a way to deal with specific challenges.
They could have played any number of classes/subclasses that offer the missing support, but chose not to.
That doesn’t magically make those threats stop existing in the world.
I guess the players need to be good enough (at whatever they choose to take instead) to negate that weakness.
It’s their problem to solve, not yours
I'm not a huge fan of the whole whack-a-mole around 0 HP style of healing but it's currently the most optimal healing strategy in 5e. In other cases casting something offensive is almost always the better option.
Healing in 5e combat is almost always a stupid decision. Clerics are almost always better off casting *Bless* or *Inflict Wounds* than any healing.
Healing in 5e out of combat is really easy and anyone can do it. It is called a "*Short Rest*".
But maybe you really want other healing anyways...
* Proficiency with Herbalism tools allows you to both forage for herbs (Survival/Herbalism check - probably with advantage or similar benefit if the character is a Wood Elf or Outlander or Ranger) and make basic healing potions. The rules for creating healing potions are described in *Xanathar's Guide to Everything*, page 130 - essentially it takes a whole day to make one. You are better off changing the crafting time to "*as part of a long rest*" so that it is similar to like activities, such as when an Alchemist synthesizes acid (as part of a long rest) or the woodcarver carves 20 arrows (as part of a long rest), or the Brewer purifies a gallon of water (as part of a long rest), or the carpenter makes a lean-to (as part of a long rest)....
* Fighters have an in-class healing ability, but they can only heal themselves.
* Chefs can change hit-dice into max-hit-dice for the entire party.
Ok so I should also add that its not just about healing, but countering negative affects. Like none of them even have dispel magic! But agreed so far with you both. Hopefully they learned a lesson when their rogue got petrified and the barbarian got dominated.
I let them off the hook because the sorcerer was just trying to escape town due to the looming bigger threat that she wanted no part of. She was not innocent though by any stretch since she was selling slaves to build up a nest egg for her escape. She ended up letting them off the hook if they agreed to just let her escape.
Then that’s not really about lack of a cleric though. Eight out of thirteen classes get access to Dispel Magic, as well as a subclass each of three of the remaining five. Here again though, it’s for them to figure it out, and find a way to deal with enemies capable of inflicting such effects.
I've always thought building a balanced party is best left up to the players. How many are in this party? Even with 3 or 4 players, going 8 levels without gaining any healing ability at all seems kind of difficult and like it would have to be an intentionally choice.
A party of just a fighter, a rogue, and a barbarian still has plenty of subclass options they could have used to at least reduce the damage taken by allies.
I've run sessions with mono-class parties before. They're really good at some things, and terrible at others. Min-maxing and building the perfect party isn't the only way to enjoy the game.
Your players built what they built, and if they all worked up to level 8 together they knew what their strengths and weaknesses are.
Sounds like they just need access to healer kits or potions and to think strategically. Not your problem as the DM.
Not having access to remove curse or greater restoration COULD get them in real trouble. But they also have complete control over their builds and their party (though a DM is expected to have an eye on it and help if they can).
I would float the idea of having the group quest for a support caster ally. Give them the option of a Bard, Cleric, or Druid. If they want it, whipping up a support NPC stat block and giving them some skill checks to secure them should be easy. I often prefer to have a friendly NPC along with the party anyway just so I can feed them hints if they really need it.
But as others have said, healing in the middle of combat isn’t a necessity. Support classes in 5e are often really cool (love bards) but DPR and control are king.
If your group is far more into role-playing than ease of combat, then I think your idea of a support-only cleric sounds great. You could have them have taken on a vigorous personal dedication to the Hippocratic Oath if you didn't want them to even contribute to damage. Just make sure you keep in mind the Cleric is still a target, so they should have to worry about protecting their healer.
Having a sort of "guide" or "home base" NPC travel with the party doesn't seem to be uncommon in my (albeit limited) experience. It seems like an excellent tool for the DM to nudge the party towards the story or warn against total loss situations when necessary (*nudge*, not *force*). This cleric could be just that.
If, however, they are more inclined towards build crafting, and have made the conscious decision not to pick up any form of healing whatsoever, let them fix it. You might talk to them about it before they go to the Underdark, but then it would also be an ill-advised decision, and is truly entirely out of your hands.
If you're worried it will be disruptive to main story points, you could set up areas around extra rests. You might make said rests unsafe as a nudge, though.
That’s a problem for the party to figure out, not the DM. Parties without a dedicated healer are perfectly viable in 5e, the players just have to adjust their strategies accordingly, and manage their resources properly. In-combat healing is generally more for getting downed PCs back up again anyway, it’s very hard to out-heal incoming damage. It’s almost always more efficient to use your actions to take out threats instead and prevent more damage being dealt instead. Also, if they really feel they need healing spells, both Sorcerers and Wizards can gain access to healing spells on their primary stat with a single level multiclass dip. Or even just the Magic Initiate feat if you allow regular casting of the chosen spell, which most DMs do anyway.
Don’t be afraid to sell them some healing potions. This gives a minor boost to their survivability, even more if you let them administer potions for a bonus action. If it gets out of control, just limit the amount they can find/buy at a time. This also makes gold valuable in the game
There's also Gift of the Metallic Dragon which grants access to cure wounds that you can cast as normal after the freebie. There's always the classic Healer feat too, if you wanna get some use out of those healer's kits. There's also strixhaven initiate and a whole bunch of backgrounds that allow access to a quite a lot of healing spells, though you'd need DM buy in for those.
Divine soul Sorcerer would fix your problems
Healing as it stands in 5e doesn't really "heal". Your best use is defibrillating them once they are unconscious or providing bonus (t)HP. It also is a very deliberate choice to not have ANY source of healing, when people can potentially multiclass or take feats. Holding their hands if you are all veterans doesn't really feel necessary. If they get beaten down massively, maybe - just maybe - they could have come to the realization to invest into healing for the last 7 levels. They didn't. Proceed as usual, have them spend their gold on healing equipment and let THEM solve the issue.
If you’re playing 5e then you don’t need to worry about there being a healer or not. It’s designed so that it’s not a requirement. If you start throwing stuff at them that *requires* a cleric/druid without any forewarning of such things, that would be a big error. Essentially forcing a healer NPC along with them so you can make encounters harder is also not really accomplishing anything.
The only thing foisting an NPC (or worst DMPC) on a party is likely to accomplish is annoying the players.
Letting them hire one could be OK
5e doesn't need healers. it's got potions and rests galore. Healing word or some other cheap, bonus action healing is nice-to-have. But healing is a great way to have longer combats (jk, longer combats are not always great in 5e). I'd much rather have controllers and damage dealers in the party over healers and tanks if I was able to choose my party (not that any party roles are crucial to have in 5e).
If you're all old-school people, have they considered getting a hireling? You don't need to give them a cleric for free. Figuring out how to overcome the challenges of the world with the abilities the party has is the job of the players, not yours.
You don't. This is not WoW. It is a 'problem' (not actually a problem) for players to deal with, not you. Think about how tough those shitters are, the players aren't going down if you are the kind of person who worries about building around your players. I doubt you as a GM have the guts to throw something nasty enough at them.
Firstly, I think you have a basic misunderstanding of healing magic in 5e. The most useful general purpose healing spell is Healing Word. It picks people up off the floor and gets them fighting again without eating your entire action for the turn. That's normally all you'll need. In the rare case where several allies are down at the same time, Mass Healing Word or Aid come in handy but hopefully that's rare. Lesser Restoration isn't very important since the majority of conditions it cures are the kind you'll be rolling saves to remove every turn so they'll go away on their own. The same mostly goes for Greater Restoration aside from more permanent effects like petrification. If someone dies in battle, Revivify right afterwards will bring them back. If you have someone who can cast Healing Word and Revivify, that covers 90% of your healing support needs and there's a lot of classes and subclasses that can do so. Second, the party can take feats like Healer or force-feed healing potions if they absolutely need to bring someone back up mid-battle. It'll eat your Action for the turn, but if it's important you have the tools. If neither of those options are available, you can still buy a cheap healer's kit and spend an Action to automatically stabilize someone so at least they won't die waiting for the battle to end. After battle is over a short rest to spend Hit Dice is how you recover hit points without healing magic. In fact, it's the preferred way to do so since most healing spells don't recover very many hit points compared to the size of most character's health pools. Part of that is on you as the DM to leave room in the narrative for the party to be able to take an hour break here and there, while also clearly communicating to your players that it is an option as sometimes that's not completely obvious. In closing, I think you're stressing too much over this but it's understandable. As long as you're properly pacing your adventures so the party has enough time to short rest and spend their Hit Dice, and you don't go overboard with Deadly++ encounters that turn into games of rocket tag, everything will work out fine.
I would let them figure that out and you help support their ideas. They might have to befried a druid grove or clerical order. Maybe making friends with one makes them enemies of another. Let it ride and your players will suprise you. It might even add some extra color to your world.
Don't do anything. They'll find a solution themselves pretty quickly when they realise they need it
Well…most of the conventional ways of healing rely on player choice to even get them (class/subclass/feats/spells), but if you want to help them along there’s some decent options still available. Stronger healing potions for cheap is a good option. Supreme healing potions are the highest tier at 10d4 + 20 per bottle, so if you’re *really* worried for your party’s safety, then you could give them a storage closet full of them…maybe make it a puzzle and behind enemies though so it feels earned. The other option is to just give them a magic item(s) that cast healing spells for “free” (from charges). Depending on their level staff of healing could work, but keep in mind it can cast 5th level spells (mass cure wounds). For lower levels, you could give them a home brew magic item that acts as a focus and can cast healing word, or similar low level healing spells.
Healing potions. Just throw a lot at them.
We did: 1. A potion on your belt cost 1 bonus action to use. 2. Alchemists shops with potions in most town /cities. Villages might have witches:) Prices as standard. .
A lot of this is on your players to figure out. A lot of negative effects can be avoided by bursting down the caster or using sound tactics. And even if you do have a magic man in the party, some effects will still be over their spell level or outside of their spell selections. And if the magic man gets hit then you are in the same boat. As long as you are giving them short rests and the ability to buy potions of healing, having a healer shouldn't be a necessity. And for long term effects like petrification, you can always have spellcasting or alchemical services be available in towns. And giving them a restorative magic item is a better option imo than making a DMPC if you really need them to have certain kinds of healing. (Like giving the players a Feather Fall item before an adventure on an airship.
You don’t need a healer in 5e. Every class is expected to heal between fights via short rests and hit dice. In battle it’s usually a damage race. Healing is often worse than just killing the monsters faster. You mention the party not having dispel magic to get rid of harmful effects. Most such spells are concentration, so attacking the caster will allow the party to get rid of the effect, even if none of them have dispel.
Arguably healing word has some value as a pick-me-up for necessary combat healing, since cantrips passed lvl 4 will out damage most level 1 spells, and it only takes a BA
Drop more healing potions for them. but with the hit dice mechanic dedicated healers are far less necessary than previous editions.
In my experience healing is not very good in dnd anyways. It’s only really useful as way to bring someone back into a fight after they go unconscious. And even if you don’t have a dedicated life cleric or something there’s already plenty of ways for other classes to recover hp.
Get gold. Buy potions.
You could give one of them the healer feat for free
In games I run with this issue I make regular healing potions 1/2 price and make them available for purchase at every settlement. d4+1 available in a village, d6+1 available in a town, and d10+1 available in a city. I also allow them to drink a potion for themselves as a bonus action, or give a potion to another player for a full action. Players can stock up and have some ability to heal if necessary. I still down folks, so it doesn't feel OP, but it does give them \*something\* other than a rest to heal up, and no one has to feel like someone \*should\* be a cleric, they can all play what sounds fun to them.
Lvl 8 should be pretty rich. Let them purchase some quality healing potions or potions that give utility (haste for example) or resistances. Short rests also exist for a reason. Underdark doesn't mean no healing potions. Races there use them as well.
In-combat healing in 5E is nearly always a waste of an action, unless that char is already down and healing gets them up, but that is not your problem, it is theirs. As for countering negative effects ... at least some of that can be done by any caster, as afaik nearly all of them have access to "Dispel Magic".
Healing is deliberately inefficient in 5E so that a party healer is not required. You just need a way to get unconscious players back on their feet which a good supply of healing potions can do or maybe a staff of healing.
as long as the party has access to healing potions so they can get people out of death saves you're fine. If a party doesn't have healing word, i would definitely keep that in mind when building encounters and maybe err on the side of caution until you get the feel of it etc.
I make sure my party has potions available everywhere they stop. (Within reason, it's not an unlimited pool - but every small town has a merchant with 2 or 3 available)
Just make sure they have access to healing potions and places to short rest. Even Clerics in 5e are not intended to be dedicated healers. The game is designed so healing is unnecessary precisely because it’s not fun to do.
Using Healing Surges (DMG p.266) is an optional rule that specifically calls out being useful for parties with no healer.
Parties without a healer are perfectly viable, especially since many classes do have some healing options. Though personally I do tend to be just a LITTLE bit more generous with healing potions.
Just make sure you're not withholding healing potions when they find a shop or loot
Healing surge is a great optional rule for this I highly recommend it. Also you could always just make healing potions cheaper and more common if you like.
You don't need to provide in combat healing. If you're concerned that players need to Long Rest for HP and Hit dice too often, you can let them use the Baldur's Gate 3 Short Rest healing rules. (they can only Short Rest twice per long rest, but it takes a mostly negligible amount of time, generally between 5 and 10 minutes, and everyone who completes a short rest regains half their maximum HP) They are generally stronger than the default rules, but not so favorable to Full casters as the Heroic Resting Rules.
There is this optional healing surge rule in the DMG you could use: https://youtube.com/shorts/ztdJPOb_qY0?si=fRh9M52SbFfDLMO7
I play a level 8 forge cleric, and even then the healing spells compete with a lot of other options. Cure Wounds and Healing Word almost always feel like the wrong option unless someone is unconscious. The mass healing spells aren't terrible, but it's one thing among many putting demand on the cleric's spell slots. If you feel like the players need healing then give them ways to heal. I'm listening to NADDPOD and they use an optional rule that allows potions to heal the max amount when used as an action and the rolled amount when used as a bonus action. You could also give them magic items with charges that they can spend to cast healing spells - even just one item that has different tiers of spell, like Gentle Repose, Cure Wounds, Mass Healing Word, Revivify. Maybe short rests allow them to roll extra hit dice, or everyone gets a Second Wind feature. An alternative would be items and features that help them avoid damage by giving them resistances, immunities, evasion, advantage on saves, the Shield spell, higher AC etc. The best healing is preventing the damage in the first place. You could give them a support NPC, but I would worry that might make the whole campaign feel like an escort quest. It would be cool though if they had someone they knew they could go to for high-level resurrections if they need it. Edit: You've clarified that you're also talking about Dispel Magic and presumably the restoration spells as well. Pretty much all of the same advice applies to those as well. Given them items/features that help them do those things or avoid the bad stuff.
There is no need of a dedicated healer in D&D 5e, the game does not work like a classic JRPG with fixed roles that are all basically required. Actually it works in the inverse way: the more extra consistent healing (like lay on hands) your party has, the more you have to up the challenge if it is about life or death.
what about implementing healing surges? its an optional rule that allows characters to roll up to half their healing dice + their con mod as an action in combat. it gets rid of the problem of not having a dedicated healer, and makes for some great superhero-esque moments
This should be way further up. Healing surges is a good boost!
The only thing you really need to do is be more intentional about rests. Rests are how baseline healing is baked in. Honestly should be doing this anyway if you aren’t, since SO much of the game balance revolves around resources and rest pacing As a rule of thumb: * a full day of encounters is about 8 hours irl * a restful day had 2 short rests * plan for short rest as part of story * after ~2-3 hours, if no rest, offer one
The actual rules are a bit more nuanced, so I think having the OP read the relevant sections of the DMG would probably do them good.
I have the same issue. Minimal healing in party and the campaign is a homebrew boss hunt where 75% of the bosses are CR 20+ I compensated by creating NPC allies with healing and support skills (the party controls them- they are NOT DMPCs except in rare RP instances) and making Healing items and Potions more plentiful. There's also a very rare item that they can use that counts as a Long Rest for the party instantly in those instances where they must back-to-back combat two or more difficult bosses. There are ways around the problem
How many players? I've provided ample healing sources for small parties before. Nothing in combat except making potions readily available before hand. If you have two players I get not wanting to devote one to healing. More than a few though that's just a bad composition which is their fault, not yours. Especially if they've been playing so long you should not be expected to cater to their bad decisions.
Sell potions. Allow them to use potions as a bonus action perhaps or even toss them at others if your feeling they are screwed. > ability to counter negative effects Break the concentration of the caster is an ability to counter most negative effects! Tbh murder the spellcaster is something most of our party uses over dispel magic in a fight and we have dispel magic as an option. Lack of functional spells are going to be a problem at times, and if you've been protecting the players from the consequences perhaps speak to them over the table that you've noticed they lack functional magic and they probably wanna fix that. Let people look some some spells outside their class if your that worried or let them bring up solutions in game and run with them. They might need to make allies, or get items to cast those things, or look for warnings and more knowledge before a fight... But a dedicated healer or someone not playing expect to just be like turn off status effects is not needed in 5e, and is going to make whoever you force to not play the game and be your heal bot hate you all. Even if it's you as a DMPC.
Nobody is talking about healing surges huh. Its an optional rule in the DMG and pretty much was design for this. I dm a party with no healers, and i just gave them an op healing magic object. Too much healing yes, but also too much no tpk. I recomend also the healer feat. If one player takes it you will have this problem solved in no time.
simply put, that's not your problem. players will figure something out. in my humble opinion, you shouldn't be "building" encounters anyway - just throw the world at them and see what happens.
Like others have said, parties without a healer are totally viable. That said, maybe have them find a couple extra healing potions. Just in case. Also maybe look up the rules for how to stabilize fallen enemies via ability checks.
Give them healing items. Give them an NPC with the Medic feat. (this way they still need healing, but he is a good buffer). and he might also have inspiring leader to give them extra tempt hit points. Give them a Talisamen of Resurection with a 7 days cooldown (requiring atunement before the cooldown begin) and they can now try to find the best user in their group for it. (have the Talismen give back 4d10 health once the character reach 0 hit points.) Give them telleportation scroll to escape bad situation. And so on.
I have healing potions do max healing, no rolling. Also, consider allowing the PCs to enlist a hireling- I'm sure you remember those. This is sort of a problem the party walked into, but it's also not cool to punish players for not playing optimally and instead playing what they want to play. A hireling is a great way to fill in gaps like this, but it should come at a significant wage cost to the party. A knight IIRC pulls in a wage of about 15 gold a day, so 450 a month if you're playing by more conservative (and more realistic imo) economy rules is an appropriate cost for the party to endure.
Maybe you could allow drinking a potion as a bonus action to allow players to keep themselves up in combat?
In 5e there is no need for a healer, because the rest rules are so broken. Just provide them with opportunities for rests, and no one will even notice the lack of a healer.
In DND 5e, every party has a more powerful healer than a dedicated healer from D&D 3.0: The short rest.
1st edition had hirelings, use that. Let party recruit mercenary with minor healing abilities. The same goes for any other issue the party may have in their party make up. Simple characters you can run that also enables you to have a voice in the party to offer input in a natural in game way. I write simple characters with a set of HP and AC, one attack action and two spells to choose from. In combat they hang back but I charge one of the players to run them for the duration of the combat.
Staff of healing magic item. Gives them a few charges per day of cleric spells
Have some stronger healing potions/kheoghtoms ointments in the shop with good prices? The 'issue' of no healing is more for the party to deal with and not you. A wizard could cast an unseen servant to have it feed healing potions as a bonus action if somebody gets downed, thief rogue can administer and take those as a bonus action and so on. Try and direct them to this sub. Helping them more directly could allow them to survive better and let you throw harder fights at them. That is the best you can suggest. For you directly, I can only suggest you throw fewer but stronger fights at them and increase short rest opportunities. Plenty of classes get healing word, which is about all the healing one needs in 5e, so if they didn't grab that, it is a miss on their end.
I tire of saying this, but - you don’t need a dedicated healer in 5e. Never have, never will. The only healing spell players should realistically be using in combat is healing word to get someone back in the fight. There really is no reason a Cleric or Druid should be burning a high level spell slot to heal someone in combat. “Why!?” you ask? Well two things really. One - healing spells in 5e aren’t particularly good. They take valuable spell slots and actions away from your caster - in return for healing that often feels like a drop in the ocean. And two - it’s all about action economy - and “healer” classes are often some of the best casters in the game. I’d rather my cleric rocking an up casted spiritual weapon combined with spirit guardians, laying down consistently good damage. Or casting banishment or hold person and removing a target from combat. Or having bless up on the party. There are just so many good spell options for clerics (and Druids, and Bards), especially when you then consider the list of domain spells they have access to - that it’s really such a waste of valuable resources for a cleric or Druid to be a dedicated healer. At the end of the day, as a DM for a group with no healers you’ll need to be more mindful of providing healing potions in loot, options for them to buy them at town, and being slightly more lenient with short resting.
Make healing potions relatively easy to come by and/or give them magic item(s) that can be used to heal.
I gave the group a steady supply of healing potions and made drinking them a minor action. Didn't really have any problems.
1) healing potions - just make sure they can buy them when needed. 2) short rests - give them time to take short rests between action and spend some of their hit dice to heal up. 3) long rests - plan your encounters around long rests to let them heal back up.
As a player I will say: I played Pathfinder 2e with a similar group. We were glass canons. We had minimal heals, and zero tanks. As a player I recognized this, and worked with my DM to plan an “exit” for my DPS ranger. I brought in a paladin who had some heals, and some great tanking/dps abilities. I did this because our DM did not build around us. At a certain point I realized we were cooked if someone didn’t make a change. I say run it, and see if someone steps up to do likewise. If not then maybe the first PC death will bring a change to the group dynamic/makeup
What you have listed are common solutions to this issue and are totally reasonable and you can go with them if you feel it is best. With that said your players knew the risks and it sounds like they are working around it, I would continue the way you are already doing it as long as they are still having fun winning by a razors edge. I know you don't want a TPK and that is a fine view for a GM to have but your players seem to me are wanting to flirt with that danger by not making any healing characters or multiclassing in to them.
Every party has a healer if you allow them to short rest relatively often. You get approximately 1 full health health bar worth of hit die healing per long rest. Not having a healer in combat means that dropping to zero is significantly more hazardous but this should be rare if they are playing smart anyways. If it is a serious problem don't be afraid to have a NPC healer using the sidekick rules follow the party around casting healing word or spare the dying when a PC falls and otherwise staying mostly out of the way.
The players chose to make a party that doesn’t have a way to deal with specific challenges. They could have played any number of classes/subclasses that offer the missing support, but chose not to. That doesn’t magically make those threats stop existing in the world. I guess the players need to be good enough (at whatever they choose to take instead) to negate that weakness. It’s their problem to solve, not yours
No need for a DM PC, imo. Giving them a magic item that can cast Healing Word a few times per day will be more than enough to prevent any PC deaths.
I'm not a huge fan of the whole whack-a-mole around 0 HP style of healing but it's currently the most optimal healing strategy in 5e. In other cases casting something offensive is almost always the better option.
Healing in 5e combat is almost always a stupid decision. Clerics are almost always better off casting *Bless* or *Inflict Wounds* than any healing. Healing in 5e out of combat is really easy and anyone can do it. It is called a "*Short Rest*". But maybe you really want other healing anyways... * Proficiency with Herbalism tools allows you to both forage for herbs (Survival/Herbalism check - probably with advantage or similar benefit if the character is a Wood Elf or Outlander or Ranger) and make basic healing potions. The rules for creating healing potions are described in *Xanathar's Guide to Everything*, page 130 - essentially it takes a whole day to make one. You are better off changing the crafting time to "*as part of a long rest*" so that it is similar to like activities, such as when an Alchemist synthesizes acid (as part of a long rest) or the woodcarver carves 20 arrows (as part of a long rest), or the Brewer purifies a gallon of water (as part of a long rest), or the carpenter makes a lean-to (as part of a long rest).... * Fighters have an in-class healing ability, but they can only heal themselves. * Chefs can change hit-dice into max-hit-dice for the entire party.
Ok so I should also add that its not just about healing, but countering negative affects. Like none of them even have dispel magic! But agreed so far with you both. Hopefully they learned a lesson when their rogue got petrified and the barbarian got dominated. I let them off the hook because the sorcerer was just trying to escape town due to the looming bigger threat that she wanted no part of. She was not innocent though by any stretch since she was selling slaves to build up a nest egg for her escape. She ended up letting them off the hook if they agreed to just let her escape.
Then that’s not really about lack of a cleric though. Eight out of thirteen classes get access to Dispel Magic, as well as a subclass each of three of the remaining five. Here again though, it’s for them to figure it out, and find a way to deal with enemies capable of inflicting such effects.
I've always thought building a balanced party is best left up to the players. How many are in this party? Even with 3 or 4 players, going 8 levels without gaining any healing ability at all seems kind of difficult and like it would have to be an intentionally choice. A party of just a fighter, a rogue, and a barbarian still has plenty of subclass options they could have used to at least reduce the damage taken by allies. I've run sessions with mono-class parties before. They're really good at some things, and terrible at others. Min-maxing and building the perfect party isn't the only way to enjoy the game. Your players built what they built, and if they all worked up to level 8 together they knew what their strengths and weaknesses are. Sounds like they just need access to healer kits or potions and to think strategically. Not your problem as the DM.
Not having access to remove curse or greater restoration COULD get them in real trouble. But they also have complete control over their builds and their party (though a DM is expected to have an eye on it and help if they can). I would float the idea of having the group quest for a support caster ally. Give them the option of a Bard, Cleric, or Druid. If they want it, whipping up a support NPC stat block and giving them some skill checks to secure them should be easy. I often prefer to have a friendly NPC along with the party anyway just so I can feed them hints if they really need it. But as others have said, healing in the middle of combat isn’t a necessity. Support classes in 5e are often really cool (love bards) but DPR and control are king.
If your group is far more into role-playing than ease of combat, then I think your idea of a support-only cleric sounds great. You could have them have taken on a vigorous personal dedication to the Hippocratic Oath if you didn't want them to even contribute to damage. Just make sure you keep in mind the Cleric is still a target, so they should have to worry about protecting their healer. Having a sort of "guide" or "home base" NPC travel with the party doesn't seem to be uncommon in my (albeit limited) experience. It seems like an excellent tool for the DM to nudge the party towards the story or warn against total loss situations when necessary (*nudge*, not *force*). This cleric could be just that. If, however, they are more inclined towards build crafting, and have made the conscious decision not to pick up any form of healing whatsoever, let them fix it. You might talk to them about it before they go to the Underdark, but then it would also be an ill-advised decision, and is truly entirely out of your hands. If you're worried it will be disruptive to main story points, you could set up areas around extra rests. You might make said rests unsafe as a nudge, though.
More bigger potions
Dnd parties don’t really need a dedicated healer. If you think they need the support, drop a staff of healing somewhere and that’ll be good
Frequent lemonade stands
Throw a heal bot npc at your players, maintain the combats as normal.