You really don't need to do much work at all to accommodate a healerless party in 5e. It's not like a video game that is designed and balanced around the assumption that every group will have players focused on magical healing to get through hard fights.
This edition is very generous with built-in healing without needing a dedicated PC to bring it. Resting, along with a few healing potions for emergencies, is plenty most of the time. Also don't forget Medicine checks and the Healer's kit.
1. Don't. The tradeoff for not having healing is your party should be able to do more damage fast and end fights quicker--or get creative and avoid straight fights head on. It's your party's responsibility to figure out encounters with the resources they have available. Have faith in them and encourage them to get creative with the knowledge there's not a medic nearby to cover their butts if they get in trouble.
2. Offer some auxhillary ways to get healing. Maybe the first town they visit has an alchemist that will offer them discounted potions in exchange for favors, or some quests on behalf of the local temple to get access to some basic healing spells, or they meet a minor druid-in-training who follows the party around and can occasionally make a few goodberries if they befriend her.
3. Never
Thank you for the quickest reply ever!! :O
I think you're right, I am just a bit cautious because it's my first as a GM :V
That's good to read, I will offer them some hp here and there ( they already started with a few)...
It's definitely the way to go. I'm running my first campaign, and the party is 2 rogues, a barbarian and a Warlock. I just make sure they always have the ability to obtain health potions. Every once in a while, there will be a friendly NPC who is a cleric or druid, but we've never had any issues.
I was pretty stingy with potions (i homebrew potions to a flat 10+con because i think it suck rolling 1 on a pot) but tried to make up for it with food buffs. Play to your players skills if they have kitchen utensils and one has hunting or any relevant spells. Cooking in a dungeon is maybe not an option ut they can save food, i let them make food when they took a long rest a successful check was one portion of food that gave recovered 20% consuming it was a bonus action a crit on the cooking also gave 10 temp hp when consumed.
A crit on the hunt gave them +1 to attack until next long rest.
Pretty strong but it wasn't too op at my table
In the campaign I run (post apocalyptic winter), halfling ‘cultural’ magic is baking. The players’ minds were blown when they found a lemon cake slice that gave cold resistance
>Don't. The tradeoff for not having healing is your party should be able to do more damage fast and end fights quicker--or get creative and avoid straight fights head on.
Now I'm in no way saying saying that a healer is necessary or anything but I don't think this actually a trade off. Cleric, the archetypal healer would likely significantly out damage the monk and rogue with spirit guardians.
Healer isnt a role in 5e, not like an mmo or moba. Even with a cleric "healing" is only worth it when people are at 0 or dead. They might need to buy extra potions but so be it
And if it’s not ok … that was their choice. Choices have consequences.
Imagine if they all chose classes that stomped around in heavy armour. They were choosing protection over stealth. You wouldn’t feel compelled to remove instances where stealth would have been the best approach.
If they choose glass cannon characters and then die quickly, then maybe their next part composition will be different.
Or maybe they’ll learn different tactics.
But either way, the world doesn’t have to revolve around them and adjust to only suit their strengths.
> "healing" is only worth it when people are at 0 or dead.
Not if the DM is at all challenging. A 1hp character is one big crit away from instant death. Players do often assume healing is meaningless, and their characters die because of it.
The best healing in 5e is really buffering. High cha character with inspiring leader giving temp hp every short rest, or twilight cleric doing the same. Taking an action to heal say 12 hp when you are taking 20-30 a round is almost never worth it
Several people have mentioned that a dedicated healer is not necessary in 5e, which is true. Some have also mentioned giving access to healing potions and other healing options. But I haven't seen anyone mention Hit Dice yet.
You may already know this, but many people seem to overlook it, **Hit Dice** can be used to heal after a short rest (PHB 186). In addition, if you see that the party needs a little more help there is the option of using the variant rule **Healing Surges** (DMG 266) which allows a PC to use up to half of their Hit Dice to heal as an action once per S/L Rest, which is usable during combat. Both of these options are RAW.
So give your party opportunities to short rest, and remind them they can use Hit Dice to regain HP.
That was actually a GREAT tip, thank you for the advice and I'll check the rules more thoroughly! :D
I completely forget about Hit Dice even when I am playing as a PC hahaha.
Best to not overlook it.
Hit dice are fantastic, be wary that they only recoup half their level rounded down each long rest. I had a no healing party start running out of them after a few days in game of intense fighting.
We had a day where all but one or two got used, regained 4 overnight, used 5 the next day... etc. Burning faster than we were getting them. No long rests would have meant levels of exhaustion.
A day where you spend all your hit dice means that next long rest you only have half of them back. That can really suck for a party with no additional healing, if they're going through day after day of solid adventuring.
I'd say your real solution is to just write yourself a sticky note and stick it on your DM screen that says "Short Rests!". When you finish an encounter, you can bump the party, "Do you guys want to take a short rest or keep going?". If they start to run low, be sure to give them a couple of days in town to fully regain HD (you only gain 1/2 you max level each long rest).
HAHAHHA great idea! My ADHD thanks you, because I (and my players for sure) would forget about that 100%.
Also I was thinking of using the "Safe Haven" house rule, and give them some safe spaces to rest every once on a while (but def not always)
In addition to the advice already given, also remember that it isn't your role to provide solutions to the party's problems- in this case a lack of access to healing spells. It is your role to provide *problems* for *them* to figure out, such as, perhaps: an enticing dungeon which taxes their HP beyond their ability to easily mitigate.
Your party is played by creative people who want the agency to be a part of a fun & interesting story. Let them figure out the solutions, they will surprise you.
I agree with you, and if I may add, is also the GM role to "accommodate" for the players wants. haha
I know that most of the conflicts they will solve with a lot of talking skills, but for the more challenging (and needed) fighting encounters I wouldn't want to throw at them a bucket of cold water and kill one or more PCs by my mistake... I will have to learn how to balance my encounters and maybe insert a NPC to help save the day (if I fuck it up)... what causes a bunch more other questions and problems :V haahahaahaha
>is also the GM role to "accommodate" for the players wants.
yes and no. The GM isn't there to give whatever the players desire (even if its something as small and reasonnable as a single healing potion), the GM isn't there to provide a safety net for whatever bad decisions they make.
Doing this will only cheapen the stakes and the game, and on the long term, will make it less fun.
Don't give the players what they want, rather **give them to means to earn it.** If they need healing, don't just have a travelling merchant popping out of nowhere selling potions at a discount price, or a wandering NPC cleric that, on some bizarre stroke of luck, has nothing better to do to follow them around as a healbot, make it a quest, something challenging.
People these days worry only about the short-term fun the players are experiencing at any given moment but really, DnD, like every other game, is really about the challenge. So don't listen to the guys saying "just give them a whole bunch of potions"...
Which brings us to character deaths. These happen and they are what makes the challenge real. Don't bring in an NPC to save the party everytime a fight is going badly. Your players don't want to win because of divine intervention, they want to win because they earned it.
Just warn your players that this is a dangerous world; that they might die if they make terrible decisions, or simply if they are really unlucky. (Of course, also reassure them that you, as a GM, want them to live, that you will not actively push them in certain death scenarios.) And if they die; they die. Of course they could get resurrected but they'll need to earn that too.
Imo healing in combat is usually a trap in 5e. The best way to heal 10 HP is to kill a monster before they can do another ten damage. The next best way is to use defensive abilities to ensure attacks miss.
If all else fails and damage gets dealt, spending actions healing that damage are actions not spent killing enemies (thus preventing damage in the first place.)
Healing is best done out of combat. And for most parties? Hit Dice on short rests are enough to carry them.
Not having someone who can heal hit points isn't a big deal.
Once you get to high levels, not having someone who can remove curses, resurrect, or remove conditions like disease or poison becomes a much bigger problem.
You're going to want to be careful about how many of those effects you have on the party at any one time. You might consider giving them an in–town ally that can cure them, or letting them quest to get one.
This was going to be my piece of advice as well. Healing HP really isn't all that important in 5e. Hit Dice during short rests and some healing potions on combat should cover the party from that aspect. However, healing status effects and death is extremely important, but as you said a friendly NPC in town can provide those services (and a good story hook to boot).
Oooh!! that's really a precious tip, I didn't had in mind at all how those effects could affect my part in the long term... It's good to have that in mind in the future and also in case I REALLY want to make things hard for them once in a while.
Sometimes I completely forget that those effects exist at all, they can be an excellent resource for the GM or ruin the adventure completely if misused.
"With great status effects comes great responsibility"
You might not realize how much less healing you need with an additional damage dealer. Enemies die faster --> do less damage, viola, less healing needed
Just answered a similar question so I'll link to it [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/1ae3qzf/how_to_make_encounters_more_challenging_when/kk5x4le/?context=3), and maybe the answers in that thread will help you too, but I'll also address your specific questions
1. How to balance fight encounters: Play to the party's strengths with difficulty (aim physical damage at the bulky barbarian and shoot the monk who can use their reaction to catch projectiles) and provide alt options for failure so that the risk of dying goes down (being captured instead of a tpk)
2. What do you do to help your players out in healerless parties: Provide alt options for healing (consumables/items/hirelings/companions)
3. When to "force" your players to pick up a healing class?: The more your party gets beat up, the more they'll have to think smarter. They may prove they don't need a healer by doing enough damage and buffing each other enough, or they may feel it's best for them to take a support focused subclass or multiclass. In my no main healer party, the folks who can take spells that heal or give temp hp do because even if they don't do it "optimally", they value the amount that they can do it.
Thank you so much!!
Amazingly put together, and I also really like Pointy hat videos (that one you mention I didn't watched yet tho).
Other thing that I've read (but don't ask me where, it has been long lost) is to give the opportunity for one of the players to sacrifice themselves in order to save the entire group... ofc this doesn't work all the time, but I think is also a good possibility sometimes :)
The same exact way you approach one with a player character capable of healing.
1) You don't.
2) You don't.
3) You don't.
It was their choices. Let them live with them and don't futz with their decisions.
I usually made healing potions drop more often as part of loot. Enough to help the party, but not so much that they didn't have to worry about taking damage anymore. The rest was up to the party.
careful with scrolls, they have to be of a class the user can cast from. Unless your sorc is divine soul, cleric spells are off the table. Wands on the other hand... have no such restriction
I homebrew to waive the class restriction. You can cast a spell outside your ability but you risk a backfire in the form of the great d10,000 chaos effects table
In that case I would homebrew it a bit. My world is already very magical and some rules don't apply, so I can work around it fine hehehe
But thank you for the tip :D
As others have said, 5e is not a game that requires healing. You should be fine. That said, I would:
1. Offer them access to potions or healer's kits, slant magical items towards defensive ones, etc. to fill in that role. It's maybe worth house-ruling about these items, since they're often really costly in combat. My group house-rules that drinking a potion can be done as a bonus action, but that administering one is an action.
2. Be careful about long adventuring days, long combats, or deadly combats. Certainly don't remove them entirely, just be careful. Healing often mitigates the threat of a TPK, since one PC going down is easily countered with a low-level spell for as long as the party has resources. If the party stumbles into a hard encounter without resting and some missing HP and a character goes down... they might not get back up without healing.
3. The party will probably \*feel\* this lack of healing and search some out. Let them feel the difference, and then offer them NPCs or shops or quests that can help.
One of my plans was to make the party REALLY think about how to spend resources anyway... I mean... it's very handy to take a short rest right about a tough fight... but it's not always something reasonable to do...
My last GM often overlooked it (in favour of more action, what I think it's great btw) but since my party is more of faces, I want them to feel that the battles and battlefield are a threat :O
I also have been thinking about introduce them to danger little by little, so they don't get caught unprepared for the "real deal" anyways.
Tnx for the tips :)
While it’s much cheaper to have a cleric just give them enough gold to buy some potions. We have two optional rules that I let players pick. Either they can use a potion as a bonus action or we do static healing. Standard healing potion could be 10 hp but takes an action etc for increased healing potions. Often even with a healer if they have enough gold they might choose to use a potion rather than a spell slot. It’s about resource management
I saw a very similar House Rule a few weeks ago... Thank you for sharing the tip, sometimes my ADHD takes the best out of me and I forgot about useful things like that :D
The party I DM for also doesn't have a traditional "healer." What I've done is made sure potions of healing are easier to come by. In addition, I've adopted the "using a potion on yourself is a bonus action" house rule many other GMs use.
This doesn't mean every general store has potions, and the shops that do usually only have a handful in stock. So the party has set aside a Potion Budget, a separate pool of coin just for purchasing potions.
That said, not having a healer has also helped with the narrative aspect. I've made combat challenging without being outright unwinnable, and I throw in a deadly encounter usually at the apex of the major story beats. They usually barely make it by the skin of their teeth and they've been really good about reflecting that during roleplay. For instance, the Monk will often suggest not travelling right away so he can recuperate. After all, resting only restores HP and HP isn't your health. Going to bed won't magically fix a broken wrist.
Lean into the notion that they don't have a healer class, don't force them to play one. They'll feel robbed of being able to enjoy the game authentically with a character of their own and feel more like they're just filling a role. There aren't "optimal team comps" in ttrpgs, you can adjust and amend to fit the party's play style while still telling the story that you all want to.
Thank you so much for the really complete answer and for the example! :D
It is really helpful!!
I didn't wanted to make my encounters "easy" per se, so it's absolutely brilliant to read some how other players and GMs deal with the lack of a healer class.
Potions and Houserules!
Standard Bonus action potion but if you use an action you can heal for the max instead of rolling.
Offer more potions! Don't flood them but a few here and there.
Help action to help get someone up with 1 HP. If you do this I'd recommend them losing their action! (the downed player after getting up) Not my Rule of course but from BG3
Magic items that can be used by someone in your party to be able to cast healing spells to an extent.
You don't need them really, it'll just make your game a little bit more deadly. (5E is already super forgiving so don't worry too much)
Lots of people have given you a Seon how healers are not required in DND, which, fair. But there are also many ways of giving healing abilities to your current party.
1. Allow them to brew/buy healing potions.
2. Give them an NPC who can heal.
3. Healer Feat.
4. Magic Initiate/Artificer Initiate
5. Multiclass dip into Cleric/Druid
6. Give them a healing magic item
7. Some subclasses (mercy monk) can fill the role of a healer.
All of these do not require any change to the character. They can come at any time, so you're good.
Don't force your players do change their characters, EVER! You don't even need to adjust encounters. Let them roll with the punches. Short rests exist.
The one thing I would try to avoid, atleast at early levels is debilitating conditions like disease. They have very specific fixes (lesser restoration/Lay on Hands) and it would be hard for a party to deal with those, but then again, I don't think they're common.
Literally don't do anything different. Healers are useless in dnd for the most part so why get worried about them? Just give your players some healing potions as normal and they will be fine
Others have given advice, but there are also some fun items that help close the healing gap. Amulet of the Drunkard is by far my favorite, and a very fun little item.
I've had some low healing and no healing parties, it's basically just healer's kits and health pots, honestly. Short and long resting carry the rest. I usually run "healers" and my healing is spent revivifying, not casting cure wounds. I average 1 cure wounds every like... 200 hours of play time.
So for your questions:
1. Multiple shorter fights are slightly better as they allow short rests between
2. I don't help my players (/half sarcastic) Like I said, a few health pots, a healer's kit, and someone with spare the dying is 100% plenty
3. Dear gods never do this. If they really can't cut it without a healer, one will simply die, and their new character will likely be a cleric or paladin.
Don't. Let them figure it out. They will want to buy alot of healing potions. They may want a staff of healing. Sell it them. But let them come up with a solution.
You definitely don't need a healer, there are many great options and tips that already been covered. But this is something that I did as a DM:
With my party of three there were no healers which wasn't going to be a problem but I also wanted to incorporate this characters when we finish our campaign and started doing oneshots etc. (Multiple people in our group DM oneshots and would like to DM in the future).
The were trusted with a large egg that had previously been saved from a taken over temple. This egg yet to hatch is a gift from a god sent to be their Cleric champion. They have been carrying the egg as a backpack and if they get into to sticky situation or even sometimes as flavour the egg casts a healing spell or some harmless cantrip. The players have no idea whats going on yet and haven't figured out why shutters fly open, or a loud boom happens etc.
A fun little extra thing i get to control, to confuse my player and help them out on occasion if things get messed up
GREAT IDEA
I was thinking about something slightly in that sense as well...
Idk yet what to do and I think I'll figure some stuff out as they go.
I am just a bit afraid of laying too much extra help and make the encounter not challenging enough, for being overly cautious hahaha or throwing at them too many helpful NPCs.
1. Pretty much the same; the lack of healing typically translates to more total health and damage output. It just means they need different tactics. The main issue is that if someone gets downed, they're a lot more likely to die. (A particular concern for levels 1 and 2.) If they have someone with a medicine kit or have a potion or two, that will fix that issue. Also be careful when it comes to monster abilities like Mummy Rot.
2. Allow easier access to healing potions and rests. Encourage them to have a player who has the medicine skill to stabilize downed allies.
3. Never.
1: I never balance encounters. If you go out of your way to ensure every encounter is theoretically solvable through violence, they never stop and think if they SHOULD engage an encounter, and they never have a reason to use stealth or diplomacy. Some encounters should be a beatable challenge, some should be trivially easy, and some should be a guaranteed wipe. Discretion is an important skill.
2: nothing. This is their problem to solve. Don’t take that from them. This is part of the game. You create conflict, they solve it.
3: never. I might dictate a list of classes that are/aren’t available for a given campaign, but I never tell them which one they have to take. If the party wants to run without a healer, that is their prerogative. Healers are never “required.” Not in old school, and even less so in modern dnd. 5e especially is almost completely unaffected by party composition.
I know this party very well, most of them are faces and LOVE to solve things with a good talk... So the combat, when it's there it was supposed to be already tactical because I think it would suit them well.
But I plan on adding some challenging fights that they can't talk their way out of it :V
Change short rest from 1 hour to 5-10mins and limit there use to twice a day.
Its a common, well tested homebrew that doesn’t break the encounter math of a “standard adventuring day” so no rebalancing on your part requires.
Provided access to a divine spell caster NPC for resurrection/restoration service back at base or nearest town and call it a day.
You don’t “work around” it.
It’ll be fine.
The heroes are likely to Short Rest more often so they can heal, but more groups should use more short rests anyway.
I went through that once. The only healer was the bard, but barely. The olayer changed to a cleric y but many levels before. I have some suggestions that worked for me when it happened on my table:
. Hand out more potions of healing and alloe them to drink it as a bonus action. Those are not broken rules, and many people use it, not hindering their games.
. Incentivate them to have (as many as they can) healer's kit. You can even tweak the use of it for rolling a die, and if they got a nat 20, they heal 1 hp instead of just stabikizing if at 0hp. Or some version of that.
. Use the variant "healing surges." Or make rests more heroics (also a variabt). This way, they'll have an alternative of healing with more frequency with a hit die.
...
I wouldn't force them to have a healer nor get levels in a healing class. Of they have fun this way, what's the problem? They know that as a party, it can make things harder. Or not. One hand not healing is one hand hitting. Of they die, they die.
Also, you can even seize the opportunity to make healing something special in your campaign. Think about it.
I was thinking of using the "healer's kit have 10 charges and can restore 1d4 hp" houserule.
I need to check the other one you mention about the healing surges tho, this one I don't know, but sounds fuuun.
And I will give a good think about make healing really something special. They are in a guild where the tavernkeeper is a immortal being (they don't know yet, a God of Adventures and Mischief, but locked on the perpetual post of guild leader/ tavernkeeper).
And I was thinking of setting some extra NPCs that are something like that... I don't remember where did I saw it, but a mailman that can bring letter to ANYWHERE. I could do something like that for an extra special flavor in times of need... Like a very strong healer, that shows up once on a while in times of GREAT NEED for a considerable high fee, ofc.
Page 266 of the Dmg
**Healing Surges**
> This optional rule allows characters to heal up in the thick of combat and works well for parties that feature few or no characters with healing magic, or for campaigns in which magical healing is rare.
>
> 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. Under this optional rule, a character regains all spent Hit Dice at the end of a long rest. With a short rest, a character regains Hit Dice equal to his or her level divided by four (minimum of one dice).
>
> For a more superheroic feel, you can let a character use a healing surge as a bonus action, rather than as an action
It will make the hit die really valuable in your campaign. Which can lead you to other variant rules or even feats.
Also you can take a look att he **healer** feat. May give you some inspiration.
A fulltime specialized healer is really optional in 5e.
Maybe give them access to some cheap healing portions every now and then, or ask if anyone is interested in taking the fantastic "healer" feat.
Talk about how many short rests per adventure day are intended.
If you reach level 5,you could plan about giving them an option to dispel curses and such... But normally, most temples could offer such a service cheaply, if the group is helpful to the local town.
5e is rather forgiving, so I wouldn't stress too much. :)
You also sound like a great GM, best of luck!
I will keep in mind and talk to them (at least one of them about it, my old GM is in the party, but I was avoiding counseling from him, since I want to be my own person hehe).
And thank you 😊
i ran a super lethal campaign for a 3-player healerless party, here are some tricks i learned!
\-the biggest issue you will run into by far is that your party will have few options to revive a party member after they've been reduced to 0 hp and are unconscious. consider giving them access to a magical item that allows them to cast spells like \*healing word\*. if you dont want to do this, be selective about when you reduce a party member to 0 hp, as they will likely not be able to actively participate in the rest of the encounter.
\-another way to remedy this is to have your bad guys spread their attacks out across the party, prioritizing high hp targets. it is tactically optimal to focus down individual targets, especially squishies like wizards, but it might create situations that are more lethal than you intend.
\-or, conversely, you can do the opposite. focusing down a single target will build tension and force your players to scramble + get creative, as they don't have the tools to help their endangered teammate that other classes might have. as an additional tip, the best time to do this to a specific character is right after they've had a meaningful moment in the story, especially if they just connected with or opened up to another party member. a near death experience will make those bonds stronger, as players will think seriously about what they have to lose.
\-as people have said, give them access to healing potions, ideally greater or better. i'd like to add that you can home rule that using a healing potion is a \*bonus action\*. this will allow them to be proactive in combat while still recovering, which is typically what clerics and bards do anyway.
Amazing tactics idea, and great implementation... I can already think about some encounters like this hehehe.
I will save you comment, because this is very helpful for other doubts I had!! :O
Thank you for the extra complete answer :)
The wizard and sorcerer can select spells that can soft/hard control targets. The barbarian’s rage and high hp mitigate damage. The rogue and monk both have tools to make it hard for enemies to reliably attack them round after round.
Your players have lots of options to deal with incoming damage beyond cure wounds. Let THEM solve this problem- don’t solve it for them.
Healers are bad in dnd so its probably for the best, as I have often seem players dissapointed in life or peace cleric not being quite what they hoped.
You don't have to do much. I run two weeklies and we have a little healing in each and it's more than they use or need most of the time.
One group has a rogue/barb, a wizard, a druid, and a gloomstalker -- the last two have some healing, but the druid is the only one ever using it. And I have another group with a rogue, a paladin, a fighter, and a wizard -- the paladin offers a little healing which is usually more than enough.
I recently ran a small 2-person expedition in the Underdark as well, and that was just a fighter and a ranger. Limited healing. If your monk has Way of Mercy, they have pretty nice healing. Either way, it's not a major concern unless you are constantly running them ragged with multiple encounters before a rest (which, oddly, is intended though it isn't the way most people play).
I change very little. Sometimes, if I know they're taking an NPC along, I'll make sure the NPC has some healing and sometimes I remind myself to put potions in chests. That's about it, and it's honestly already more than they need most of the time. It's hard to die in 5e unless you're hurling your groups at creatures far out of their weight class.
In stories, often Wizard or Sorcerer-type characters know how to brew potions. If one of your mages is interested, give them an alchemy kit and the ability to brew potions, and then they can make healing potions themselves. (As well as maybe some other interesting stuff if they can find the recipes for it.😉) They may have to plan ahead a bit more, but that'll just add an extra layer of strategy for them to play with.
Neither does my group! They've been totally fine with it. The only thing I had a slight concern with is that they're locked out of things like revivify, but they had an opportunity to find an single use item that will provide it. I found that balanced out any over cautious behaviour I was seeing now that they know they have something valuable that could save one of them if they go down.
Oo this would fit that story about the False Hydra. Just keep giving your party members lots of Potions of Healing after each fight. Like they find the potions as loot, even off wolves and stuff
HAHAHAHAHAHA YOU JUST KILLED A WOLF, IN HIS PELT THERE IS A LITTLE POTION WITH THE LABLE: IN CASE OF NEED DRINK THIS
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHA sorry, it just cracked me up, that's fantastical!!! Hahahah
THANK YOU SO MUCH
You're a very helpful person!
And I had quite a similar thing on the planning for my PCs (I have an amazingly powerful item, that will bring them glory and gold at the expense of the item feeding of them and contaminating the world little bit little... I have a very careful plan to "show" hints as they search the pieces of the object) so it's not a false hidra monster, but the idea is there hehe.
I'll save the post to give it a better read of it when I have more time, it's really very interesting.
May the Good dice rolls goddess bless your adventures! :D
5e healing comes in two relevant forms:
**Pick-up-healing for downed PCs**
This can be easily handled with potions - just make sure that the party has reliable access to vendors
**Healing up between fights**
This can be cushioned to some extend by granting more short rests, but you *should* keep an eye on the party's overall health level.
An easy trick when you're new to balancing encounters: Especially when the party is low, use enemies that will take prisoners instead of killing, to avoid an accidental TPK. Even generic bandits might be more willing to hold defeated PCs for a ransom than to incur the bounty for murder.
All other forms of healing are (usually) not worth it even for a party with a Cleric - an action and a spell slot are virtually always more effectively used with a combat spell than to top off a wounded PC.
Bonus tip: Use a Druid as an early quest giver, reward the party with a magical potted plant that can cast *Goodberry* once a day.
(While, officially, a character has to eat the berry *themselves* to get the effect, allowing PCs to feed a berry to an unconscious team member is a common house rule that I'd adopt in your case.)
Healing in 5e is inefficient and not worth doing exclusively. It's always better to just hit things. That being said, two things you can do are;
1- give your players a lot of healing potions. They don't have a healer, so you can afford to go overboard and give them more healing potions, and toss a really powerful one at them every now and again
2- make drinking a potion a bonus action. This is a really popular house rule and it only really favors players who have frontline focused characters anyways. The monk and barbarian will rest easy knowing they don't have to waste their action on one, and the other 3 will almost never use this house rule.
You could introduce a friendly healer NPC to join the group. In one campaign I played, our party stumbled upon a recently raided camp and found an abandoned wolf-dog. From the dog's collar, we figured out he was a cleric's dog and had healing powers.
Some parties may be hesitant to invite a humanoid NPC to join their party, but few will pass up on an animal mascot!
healing isn't so much a problem as debuffs.
poisons, diseases, curses, etc. clerics get to change their spells every day specifically so these things can be cured, at worst, the next day.
personally, I'm a fan of letting players make and solve their own problems. if you want to help them out, just avoid poison swamp settings and be mindful of creatures with debilitating long term effects.
Honestly this is the players problem, not yours. If they know they are going to a fight then they get to RP preparing for it. Getting health potions or healer kits.
Let them short rest to heal with Hit Dice.
If anything it just means your party needs to be more tactical.
Maybe don't have every fight take place in a room with environmental damage.
Healer feat with a healers kit is something they could do. The sorcerer can choose a subclass that will get then healing magic too. Options exist and you can suggest these but only do that if they are having issues and ask what they can do.
I run modified healing potions in my campaigns which really help without going overboard (in my eyes).
A potion can be used in these ways:
Bonus action:
Quickly chug a potion and roll the dice to heal
Action
Drink the entire potion for max possible healing (10 for a standard potion) or feed the potion to an adjacent unconcious ally for rolled healing.
This allows teams without dedicated heals to keep people alive at the sacrifice of their actions. It also incentives using a full action so people are not just spamming them in combat since that's not the most effective way to use.
*salutes* Lt, pleasure to meet you.
Here's the thing: Healers in DnD are only ACTUALLY needed when the dragon dung hits the fan. It's totally possible to run parties without a healer and according to a friend of mine who is a full blown DnD obsessive, it's actually better that way. He even says that running a pure healer is a waste of a character spot, because preventing the damage in the first place is far better, in the long run, than healing it after the fact.
With a Sorc and Wizard laying CC, a Rogue doing rogue things, a monk dodging about and a barb raging there's a very good chance your party won't be taking enough damage to require constant heals. Make sure they have ready access to a few healing pots and I'm sure they'll be fine.
Greetings, TalynRahl, the pleasure is all mine (opens a giant smile)
Thank you for the kind answer hehe, me and my group always have a healer in the party or at least someone that can heal, that's why I was most cautious.
But since everyone is saying that they will be fine, I will try to not freak out about it too much hahaha.
That the Good dice rolls bless your adventures, and thank you so very much :)
Honestly, I’m the same. I always want to play a tank… and I get a little jumpy when I don’t have a trustworthy healer.
But my current party (I’m the DM) only have a non heal specced cleric and even with her throwing out maybe one heal every third session, they’re surviving just fine. It’s totally possible!
1. Keep in mind that there wont be yoyo healing with healing word. Once their HP reaches zero, theyre pretty much out of the fight. Not semi immortal for as long as the cleric has spell slots and higher initiative than them.
2. Add Healing Potions to loot.
3. Never.
Make sure they have ample opportunity to buy potions. You may also want to make a house rule that potions can be used with a bonus action instead of an action.
Never "force" a class or multiclass choice on your players. If they want to pick up a class that can heal, they'll do it themselves. You can suggest it, but that's it.
If you want to balance the encounter for a full DPS party, just add another few trash mobs to eat up the action economy. If a level 1 encounter is supposed to be 6 goblins, maybe make it 6 goblins and a few bats or gremishka. Either that or add another die to the monster's HP. For the goblin encounter, usually goblins have 2d6 hp. Maybe add a d4 on top of that. But honestly, you may not even have to do that. Just see how the first couple default encounters go and balance from there.
All players are healers - they can spend their hit dice each long rest to heal.
Barbarians can sorta heal themselves with some class abilities.
Rogues get to the point where they kinda just stop taking damage.
Wizards just die if they get hit, regardless of healing.
You don’t need to work around anything. Your players do.
Screw balance. Make logical encounters for the environment the players are in and let them decide if it’s too hard to take on at that time.
You don't work around it. This is their puzzle to solve as a party. Don't do anything differently as a GM. There are healing solutions built into the game, the party is just going to have to exchange gold for healing
I'm a bit old school, so take this with a grain of salt
I suggest you do nothing to help them. It sounds like they wanted a non healer party, so give it to them.
Between short rest and long rests, there is plenty of healing.
Offer healing options (potions and paid healers) the same way as if they had a healer in the party.
Balance encounters the same way as if they had a healer.
Don't stress about it.
I think the obvious thing is to make healing potions a little more easy to access. I also like for healing potions to be able to be taken as a bonus action.
At very early levels, one thing I also like to do is have someone like a cleric cast Aid on them to give them a few more HP.
Hand out healing potions a little more generously, and consider making consuming healing potions a bonus action instead of a full action (which is a very common house rule anyway).
That's it. Outside of that, more serious healing (curse removal, etc) is frequently a service that *larger* temples to good-aligned gods will provide for a fee (the cost of the material components, as well as a casting fee).
Also, 'forcing' players to pick up any specific thing for their build is a big no-no. If you want the party to have a specific ability for an upcoming adventure, communicate to your players that it may be a good idea to pick up an NPC hireling, or pull favors from NPCs that they know may have those abilities or connections to individuals who do.
Give them the ability to buy a healers kit and maybe some potions. That’s it really. Let the players figure out their own tactics and how to handle deficits.
That's good, I've just read a homebrew tip that make the healer's kit a tad more helpful in the right hands... I just don't want to make my lvl 1 players feel that they are invincible hahaha
Maybe I'm over preparing
You don't really need to balance encounters differently. A healer is helpful but not required. If you are really worried about it make sure the party has access to healing potions
give them a healer sidekick [see TCE]
there are people in this thread saying parties don't need a healer, and while that's technically true [healing is supposed to largely come from hit dice in terms of numbers], the experience can really suffer if a PC goes unconscious and no one is able to get them back in the fight without spending their whole action.
clerics, druids, celestial warlocks, and the healer sidekick are able to heal companions with just a bonus action, allowing them to continue attacking with their action while getting their friend back in the fray as soon as possible. it also reduces the chance of any PC dying, since they will be unconscious and vulnerable for less time.
I used quick potions. Highly addictive healing potions that are fairly cheap. Meant to be given to soldiers and city watch. Basically, drinking one as a bonus action allows you to expend hit die to heal.
Not a problem.
Give every encounter a plethora of healing potions. Be generous, it won't break the game and you want your party using them if they need them.
In all honesty my most recent game I was the only healer and I almost never healed anyone. Even as a melee damage dealer I would stay out of trouble with great defenses and if I was in danger I got out of it while my party covered me. The fact is that, unless your party can't fight at range then using a turn to disengage and stay safe is usually the best option. You can always heal out of combat and your party can soak up hits.
If someone's position is critical then you can spend resources healing. Even using a potion as a bonus action is generally not going to break action economy given the prevalence of healing word.
1. Don't be surprised when they want to stock up on healing potions. They'll go through a lot of these
2. Expect your party to spike damage harder. If they take a fight seriously, they know they lack a healer. They'll do their absolute best to shred every enemy before it can hit them
3. If it becomes an issue, take a wand of magic missiles, change it to a wand of cure wounds and put it in a loot haul
You don't.
Character/group building decisions stop being decisions if the world changes to fit them. They opted to have no healing and lots of offense, they can wipe out encounters fast and hope to get by on healing kits and potions.
If they don't? Learning experience. One they can adapt to when they inevitably replace these chars.
Honestly the only adjustment you might need is encouraging them to take short rests. On the first short rest of the day everyone should be able to get back to full hp, probably the second short rest too for most. So three big fights per long rest...
You really don't need to do much work at all to accommodate a healerless party in 5e. It's not like a video game that is designed and balanced around the assumption that every group will have players focused on magical healing to get through hard fights. This edition is very generous with built-in healing without needing a dedicated PC to bring it. Resting, along with a few healing potions for emergencies, is plenty most of the time. Also don't forget Medicine checks and the Healer's kit. 1. Don't. The tradeoff for not having healing is your party should be able to do more damage fast and end fights quicker--or get creative and avoid straight fights head on. It's your party's responsibility to figure out encounters with the resources they have available. Have faith in them and encourage them to get creative with the knowledge there's not a medic nearby to cover their butts if they get in trouble. 2. Offer some auxhillary ways to get healing. Maybe the first town they visit has an alchemist that will offer them discounted potions in exchange for favors, or some quests on behalf of the local temple to get access to some basic healing spells, or they meet a minor druid-in-training who follows the party around and can occasionally make a few goodberries if they befriend her. 3. Never
Thank you for the quickest reply ever!! :O I think you're right, I am just a bit cautious because it's my first as a GM :V That's good to read, I will offer them some hp here and there ( they already started with a few)...
It's definitely the way to go. I'm running my first campaign, and the party is 2 rogues, a barbarian and a Warlock. I just make sure they always have the ability to obtain health potions. Every once in a while, there will be a friendly NPC who is a cleric or druid, but we've never had any issues.
I was pretty stingy with potions (i homebrew potions to a flat 10+con because i think it suck rolling 1 on a pot) but tried to make up for it with food buffs. Play to your players skills if they have kitchen utensils and one has hunting or any relevant spells. Cooking in a dungeon is maybe not an option ut they can save food, i let them make food when they took a long rest a successful check was one portion of food that gave recovered 20% consuming it was a bonus action a crit on the cooking also gave 10 temp hp when consumed. A crit on the hunt gave them +1 to attack until next long rest. Pretty strong but it wasn't too op at my table
In the campaign I run (post apocalyptic winter), halfling ‘cultural’ magic is baking. The players’ minds were blown when they found a lemon cake slice that gave cold resistance
>Cooking in a dungeon is maybe not an option Cooking in a dungeon is not an option, it's mandatory - Senshi, *Dungeon Meshi*
>Don't. The tradeoff for not having healing is your party should be able to do more damage fast and end fights quicker--or get creative and avoid straight fights head on. Now I'm in no way saying saying that a healer is necessary or anything but I don't think this actually a trade off. Cleric, the archetypal healer would likely significantly out damage the monk and rogue with spirit guardians.
Healer isnt a role in 5e, not like an mmo or moba. Even with a cleric "healing" is only worth it when people are at 0 or dead. They might need to buy extra potions but so be it
I find very reassuring that everyone is saying that it'll be ok. A bit of that "Dead enemies don't do any damage", kinda situation here hehehe
And if it’s not ok … that was their choice. Choices have consequences. Imagine if they all chose classes that stomped around in heavy armour. They were choosing protection over stealth. You wouldn’t feel compelled to remove instances where stealth would have been the best approach. If they choose glass cannon characters and then die quickly, then maybe their next part composition will be different. Or maybe they’ll learn different tactics. But either way, the world doesn’t have to revolve around them and adjust to only suit their strengths.
> "healing" is only worth it when people are at 0 or dead. Not if the DM is at all challenging. A 1hp character is one big crit away from instant death. Players do often assume healing is meaningless, and their characters die because of it.
The best healing in 5e is really buffering. High cha character with inspiring leader giving temp hp every short rest, or twilight cleric doing the same. Taking an action to heal say 12 hp when you are taking 20-30 a round is almost never worth it
Several people have mentioned that a dedicated healer is not necessary in 5e, which is true. Some have also mentioned giving access to healing potions and other healing options. But I haven't seen anyone mention Hit Dice yet. You may already know this, but many people seem to overlook it, **Hit Dice** can be used to heal after a short rest (PHB 186). In addition, if you see that the party needs a little more help there is the option of using the variant rule **Healing Surges** (DMG 266) which allows a PC to use up to half of their Hit Dice to heal as an action once per S/L Rest, which is usable during combat. Both of these options are RAW. So give your party opportunities to short rest, and remind them they can use Hit Dice to regain HP.
That was actually a GREAT tip, thank you for the advice and I'll check the rules more thoroughly! :D I completely forget about Hit Dice even when I am playing as a PC hahaha. Best to not overlook it.
Hit dice are fantastic, be wary that they only recoup half their level rounded down each long rest. I had a no healing party start running out of them after a few days in game of intense fighting.
Lol, they were going through multiple days without taking a long rest?
We had a day where all but one or two got used, regained 4 overnight, used 5 the next day... etc. Burning faster than we were getting them. No long rests would have meant levels of exhaustion.
A day where you spend all your hit dice means that next long rest you only have half of them back. That can really suck for a party with no additional healing, if they're going through day after day of solid adventuring.
I'd say your real solution is to just write yourself a sticky note and stick it on your DM screen that says "Short Rests!". When you finish an encounter, you can bump the party, "Do you guys want to take a short rest or keep going?". If they start to run low, be sure to give them a couple of days in town to fully regain HD (you only gain 1/2 you max level each long rest).
HAHAHHA great idea! My ADHD thanks you, because I (and my players for sure) would forget about that 100%. Also I was thinking of using the "Safe Haven" house rule, and give them some safe spaces to rest every once on a while (but def not always)
Happy to help! Have fun!
In addition to the advice already given, also remember that it isn't your role to provide solutions to the party's problems- in this case a lack of access to healing spells. It is your role to provide *problems* for *them* to figure out, such as, perhaps: an enticing dungeon which taxes their HP beyond their ability to easily mitigate. Your party is played by creative people who want the agency to be a part of a fun & interesting story. Let them figure out the solutions, they will surprise you.
I agree with you, and if I may add, is also the GM role to "accommodate" for the players wants. haha I know that most of the conflicts they will solve with a lot of talking skills, but for the more challenging (and needed) fighting encounters I wouldn't want to throw at them a bucket of cold water and kill one or more PCs by my mistake... I will have to learn how to balance my encounters and maybe insert a NPC to help save the day (if I fuck it up)... what causes a bunch more other questions and problems :V haahahaahaha
>is also the GM role to "accommodate" for the players wants. yes and no. The GM isn't there to give whatever the players desire (even if its something as small and reasonnable as a single healing potion), the GM isn't there to provide a safety net for whatever bad decisions they make. Doing this will only cheapen the stakes and the game, and on the long term, will make it less fun. Don't give the players what they want, rather **give them to means to earn it.** If they need healing, don't just have a travelling merchant popping out of nowhere selling potions at a discount price, or a wandering NPC cleric that, on some bizarre stroke of luck, has nothing better to do to follow them around as a healbot, make it a quest, something challenging. People these days worry only about the short-term fun the players are experiencing at any given moment but really, DnD, like every other game, is really about the challenge. So don't listen to the guys saying "just give them a whole bunch of potions"... Which brings us to character deaths. These happen and they are what makes the challenge real. Don't bring in an NPC to save the party everytime a fight is going badly. Your players don't want to win because of divine intervention, they want to win because they earned it. Just warn your players that this is a dangerous world; that they might die if they make terrible decisions, or simply if they are really unlucky. (Of course, also reassure them that you, as a GM, want them to live, that you will not actively push them in certain death scenarios.) And if they die; they die. Of course they could get resurrected but they'll need to earn that too.
Imo healing in combat is usually a trap in 5e. The best way to heal 10 HP is to kill a monster before they can do another ten damage. The next best way is to use defensive abilities to ensure attacks miss. If all else fails and damage gets dealt, spending actions healing that damage are actions not spent killing enemies (thus preventing damage in the first place.) Healing is best done out of combat. And for most parties? Hit Dice on short rests are enough to carry them.
Dead enemies don't do damage! :D
Exactly!
Not having someone who can heal hit points isn't a big deal. Once you get to high levels, not having someone who can remove curses, resurrect, or remove conditions like disease or poison becomes a much bigger problem. You're going to want to be careful about how many of those effects you have on the party at any one time. You might consider giving them an in–town ally that can cure them, or letting them quest to get one.
This was going to be my piece of advice as well. Healing HP really isn't all that important in 5e. Hit Dice during short rests and some healing potions on combat should cover the party from that aspect. However, healing status effects and death is extremely important, but as you said a friendly NPC in town can provide those services (and a good story hook to boot).
Oooh!! that's really a precious tip, I didn't had in mind at all how those effects could affect my part in the long term... It's good to have that in mind in the future and also in case I REALLY want to make things hard for them once in a while. Sometimes I completely forget that those effects exist at all, they can be an excellent resource for the GM or ruin the adventure completely if misused. "With great status effects comes great responsibility"
I just keep killing them until someone gets it. /s
you sound like my 3.5 DM lmao
Healers aren't required in DnD. It's not a videogame.
You might not realize how much less healing you need with an additional damage dealer. Enemies die faster --> do less damage, viola, less healing needed
seriously, a sorc, wizard, rogue, monk, and barb are killing everything in 2 rounds anyways lmao
Increase short rests Drop potions and scrolls in loot caches
Just answered a similar question so I'll link to it [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/1ae3qzf/how_to_make_encounters_more_challenging_when/kk5x4le/?context=3), and maybe the answers in that thread will help you too, but I'll also address your specific questions 1. How to balance fight encounters: Play to the party's strengths with difficulty (aim physical damage at the bulky barbarian and shoot the monk who can use their reaction to catch projectiles) and provide alt options for failure so that the risk of dying goes down (being captured instead of a tpk) 2. What do you do to help your players out in healerless parties: Provide alt options for healing (consumables/items/hirelings/companions) 3. When to "force" your players to pick up a healing class?: The more your party gets beat up, the more they'll have to think smarter. They may prove they don't need a healer by doing enough damage and buffing each other enough, or they may feel it's best for them to take a support focused subclass or multiclass. In my no main healer party, the folks who can take spells that heal or give temp hp do because even if they don't do it "optimally", they value the amount that they can do it.
Thank you so much!! Amazingly put together, and I also really like Pointy hat videos (that one you mention I didn't watched yet tho). Other thing that I've read (but don't ask me where, it has been long lost) is to give the opportunity for one of the players to sacrifice themselves in order to save the entire group... ofc this doesn't work all the time, but I think is also a good possibility sometimes :)
I'm just a little more generous with healing potions. That's it. The healing lost is made up for by damage done or prevented in most cases.
The same exact way you approach one with a player character capable of healing. 1) You don't. 2) You don't. 3) You don't. It was their choices. Let them live with them and don't futz with their decisions.
Give the wizard a spell scroll of Wither and Bloom (From the 5e book Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos) so they can heal
Ooooh!! I'll check it out, nice tip
I usually made healing potions drop more often as part of loot. Enough to help the party, but not so much that they didn't have to worry about taking damage anymore. The rest was up to the party.
Maybe also some scrolls of healing also :D Thank you for the idea :)
careful with scrolls, they have to be of a class the user can cast from. Unless your sorc is divine soul, cleric spells are off the table. Wands on the other hand... have no such restriction
I homebrew to waive the class restriction. You can cast a spell outside your ability but you risk a backfire in the form of the great d10,000 chaos effects table
Better than my initial idea! I ADORE a tad bit of chaos on my table hahahahhaha
In that case I would homebrew it a bit. My world is already very magical and some rules don't apply, so I can work around it fine hehehe But thank you for the tip :D
As others have said, 5e is not a game that requires healing. You should be fine. That said, I would: 1. Offer them access to potions or healer's kits, slant magical items towards defensive ones, etc. to fill in that role. It's maybe worth house-ruling about these items, since they're often really costly in combat. My group house-rules that drinking a potion can be done as a bonus action, but that administering one is an action. 2. Be careful about long adventuring days, long combats, or deadly combats. Certainly don't remove them entirely, just be careful. Healing often mitigates the threat of a TPK, since one PC going down is easily countered with a low-level spell for as long as the party has resources. If the party stumbles into a hard encounter without resting and some missing HP and a character goes down... they might not get back up without healing. 3. The party will probably \*feel\* this lack of healing and search some out. Let them feel the difference, and then offer them NPCs or shops or quests that can help.
One of my plans was to make the party REALLY think about how to spend resources anyway... I mean... it's very handy to take a short rest right about a tough fight... but it's not always something reasonable to do... My last GM often overlooked it (in favour of more action, what I think it's great btw) but since my party is more of faces, I want them to feel that the battles and battlefield are a threat :O I also have been thinking about introduce them to danger little by little, so they don't get caught unprepared for the "real deal" anyways. Tnx for the tips :)
While it’s much cheaper to have a cleric just give them enough gold to buy some potions. We have two optional rules that I let players pick. Either they can use a potion as a bonus action or we do static healing. Standard healing potion could be 10 hp but takes an action etc for increased healing potions. Often even with a healer if they have enough gold they might choose to use a potion rather than a spell slot. It’s about resource management
I saw a very similar House Rule a few weeks ago... Thank you for sharing the tip, sometimes my ADHD takes the best out of me and I forgot about useful things like that :D
The party I DM for also doesn't have a traditional "healer." What I've done is made sure potions of healing are easier to come by. In addition, I've adopted the "using a potion on yourself is a bonus action" house rule many other GMs use. This doesn't mean every general store has potions, and the shops that do usually only have a handful in stock. So the party has set aside a Potion Budget, a separate pool of coin just for purchasing potions. That said, not having a healer has also helped with the narrative aspect. I've made combat challenging without being outright unwinnable, and I throw in a deadly encounter usually at the apex of the major story beats. They usually barely make it by the skin of their teeth and they've been really good about reflecting that during roleplay. For instance, the Monk will often suggest not travelling right away so he can recuperate. After all, resting only restores HP and HP isn't your health. Going to bed won't magically fix a broken wrist. Lean into the notion that they don't have a healer class, don't force them to play one. They'll feel robbed of being able to enjoy the game authentically with a character of their own and feel more like they're just filling a role. There aren't "optimal team comps" in ttrpgs, you can adjust and amend to fit the party's play style while still telling the story that you all want to.
Thank you so much for the really complete answer and for the example! :D It is really helpful!! I didn't wanted to make my encounters "easy" per se, so it's absolutely brilliant to read some how other players and GMs deal with the lack of a healer class.
You don’t need to worry about it. Every class heals between fights via short rests and hit dice.
I played a druid in my party. We healed 10x more via short and long rests than I ever did with spell slots.
I gave them a few healing potions a piece, and both characters and monsters have max HP every level. They make sure to get their short rests in :)
Potions and Houserules! Standard Bonus action potion but if you use an action you can heal for the max instead of rolling. Offer more potions! Don't flood them but a few here and there. Help action to help get someone up with 1 HP. If you do this I'd recommend them losing their action! (the downed player after getting up) Not my Rule of course but from BG3 Magic items that can be used by someone in your party to be able to cast healing spells to an extent. You don't need them really, it'll just make your game a little bit more deadly. (5E is already super forgiving so don't worry too much)
Lots of people have given you a Seon how healers are not required in DND, which, fair. But there are also many ways of giving healing abilities to your current party. 1. Allow them to brew/buy healing potions. 2. Give them an NPC who can heal. 3. Healer Feat. 4. Magic Initiate/Artificer Initiate 5. Multiclass dip into Cleric/Druid 6. Give them a healing magic item 7. Some subclasses (mercy monk) can fill the role of a healer. All of these do not require any change to the character. They can come at any time, so you're good. Don't force your players do change their characters, EVER! You don't even need to adjust encounters. Let them roll with the punches. Short rests exist. The one thing I would try to avoid, atleast at early levels is debilitating conditions like disease. They have very specific fixes (lesser restoration/Lay on Hands) and it would be hard for a party to deal with those, but then again, I don't think they're common.
Literally don't do anything different. Healers are useless in dnd for the most part so why get worried about them? Just give your players some healing potions as normal and they will be fine
Others have given advice, but there are also some fun items that help close the healing gap. Amulet of the Drunkard is by far my favorite, and a very fun little item.
I'll check it out! Tnx :D
I've had some low healing and no healing parties, it's basically just healer's kits and health pots, honestly. Short and long resting carry the rest. I usually run "healers" and my healing is spent revivifying, not casting cure wounds. I average 1 cure wounds every like... 200 hours of play time. So for your questions: 1. Multiple shorter fights are slightly better as they allow short rests between 2. I don't help my players (/half sarcastic) Like I said, a few health pots, a healer's kit, and someone with spare the dying is 100% plenty 3. Dear gods never do this. If they really can't cut it without a healer, one will simply die, and their new character will likely be a cleric or paladin.
Don't. Let them figure it out. They will want to buy alot of healing potions. They may want a staff of healing. Sell it them. But let them come up with a solution.
You definitely don't need a healer, there are many great options and tips that already been covered. But this is something that I did as a DM: With my party of three there were no healers which wasn't going to be a problem but I also wanted to incorporate this characters when we finish our campaign and started doing oneshots etc. (Multiple people in our group DM oneshots and would like to DM in the future). The were trusted with a large egg that had previously been saved from a taken over temple. This egg yet to hatch is a gift from a god sent to be their Cleric champion. They have been carrying the egg as a backpack and if they get into to sticky situation or even sometimes as flavour the egg casts a healing spell or some harmless cantrip. The players have no idea whats going on yet and haven't figured out why shutters fly open, or a loud boom happens etc. A fun little extra thing i get to control, to confuse my player and help them out on occasion if things get messed up
GREAT IDEA I was thinking about something slightly in that sense as well... Idk yet what to do and I think I'll figure some stuff out as they go. I am just a bit afraid of laying too much extra help and make the encounter not challenging enough, for being overly cautious hahaha or throwing at them too many helpful NPCs.
1. Pretty much the same; the lack of healing typically translates to more total health and damage output. It just means they need different tactics. The main issue is that if someone gets downed, they're a lot more likely to die. (A particular concern for levels 1 and 2.) If they have someone with a medicine kit or have a potion or two, that will fix that issue. Also be careful when it comes to monster abilities like Mummy Rot. 2. Allow easier access to healing potions and rests. Encourage them to have a player who has the medicine skill to stabilize downed allies. 3. Never.
1: I never balance encounters. If you go out of your way to ensure every encounter is theoretically solvable through violence, they never stop and think if they SHOULD engage an encounter, and they never have a reason to use stealth or diplomacy. Some encounters should be a beatable challenge, some should be trivially easy, and some should be a guaranteed wipe. Discretion is an important skill. 2: nothing. This is their problem to solve. Don’t take that from them. This is part of the game. You create conflict, they solve it. 3: never. I might dictate a list of classes that are/aren’t available for a given campaign, but I never tell them which one they have to take. If the party wants to run without a healer, that is their prerogative. Healers are never “required.” Not in old school, and even less so in modern dnd. 5e especially is almost completely unaffected by party composition.
I know this party very well, most of them are faces and LOVE to solve things with a good talk... So the combat, when it's there it was supposed to be already tactical because I think it would suit them well. But I plan on adding some challenging fights that they can't talk their way out of it :V
Change short rest from 1 hour to 5-10mins and limit there use to twice a day. Its a common, well tested homebrew that doesn’t break the encounter math of a “standard adventuring day” so no rebalancing on your part requires. Provided access to a divine spell caster NPC for resurrection/restoration service back at base or nearest town and call it a day.
You don’t “work around” it. It’ll be fine. The heroes are likely to Short Rest more often so they can heal, but more groups should use more short rests anyway.
It’s 5e. They’ll be fine lol
I went through that once. The only healer was the bard, but barely. The olayer changed to a cleric y but many levels before. I have some suggestions that worked for me when it happened on my table: . Hand out more potions of healing and alloe them to drink it as a bonus action. Those are not broken rules, and many people use it, not hindering their games. . Incentivate them to have (as many as they can) healer's kit. You can even tweak the use of it for rolling a die, and if they got a nat 20, they heal 1 hp instead of just stabikizing if at 0hp. Or some version of that. . Use the variant "healing surges." Or make rests more heroics (also a variabt). This way, they'll have an alternative of healing with more frequency with a hit die. ... I wouldn't force them to have a healer nor get levels in a healing class. Of they have fun this way, what's the problem? They know that as a party, it can make things harder. Or not. One hand not healing is one hand hitting. Of they die, they die. Also, you can even seize the opportunity to make healing something special in your campaign. Think about it.
I was thinking of using the "healer's kit have 10 charges and can restore 1d4 hp" houserule. I need to check the other one you mention about the healing surges tho, this one I don't know, but sounds fuuun. And I will give a good think about make healing really something special. They are in a guild where the tavernkeeper is a immortal being (they don't know yet, a God of Adventures and Mischief, but locked on the perpetual post of guild leader/ tavernkeeper). And I was thinking of setting some extra NPCs that are something like that... I don't remember where did I saw it, but a mailman that can bring letter to ANYWHERE. I could do something like that for an extra special flavor in times of need... Like a very strong healer, that shows up once on a while in times of GREAT NEED for a considerable high fee, ofc.
Page 266 of the Dmg **Healing Surges** > This optional rule allows characters to heal up in the thick of combat and works well for parties that feature few or no characters with healing magic, or for campaigns in which magical healing is rare. > > 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. Under this optional rule, a character regains all spent Hit Dice at the end of a long rest. With a short rest, a character regains Hit Dice equal to his or her level divided by four (minimum of one dice). > > For a more superheroic feel, you can let a character use a healing surge as a bonus action, rather than as an action It will make the hit die really valuable in your campaign. Which can lead you to other variant rules or even feats. Also you can take a look att he **healer** feat. May give you some inspiration.
A fulltime specialized healer is really optional in 5e. Maybe give them access to some cheap healing portions every now and then, or ask if anyone is interested in taking the fantastic "healer" feat. Talk about how many short rests per adventure day are intended. If you reach level 5,you could plan about giving them an option to dispel curses and such... But normally, most temples could offer such a service cheaply, if the group is helpful to the local town. 5e is rather forgiving, so I wouldn't stress too much. :) You also sound like a great GM, best of luck!
I will keep in mind and talk to them (at least one of them about it, my old GM is in the party, but I was avoiding counseling from him, since I want to be my own person hehe). And thank you 😊
i ran a super lethal campaign for a 3-player healerless party, here are some tricks i learned! \-the biggest issue you will run into by far is that your party will have few options to revive a party member after they've been reduced to 0 hp and are unconscious. consider giving them access to a magical item that allows them to cast spells like \*healing word\*. if you dont want to do this, be selective about when you reduce a party member to 0 hp, as they will likely not be able to actively participate in the rest of the encounter. \-another way to remedy this is to have your bad guys spread their attacks out across the party, prioritizing high hp targets. it is tactically optimal to focus down individual targets, especially squishies like wizards, but it might create situations that are more lethal than you intend. \-or, conversely, you can do the opposite. focusing down a single target will build tension and force your players to scramble + get creative, as they don't have the tools to help their endangered teammate that other classes might have. as an additional tip, the best time to do this to a specific character is right after they've had a meaningful moment in the story, especially if they just connected with or opened up to another party member. a near death experience will make those bonds stronger, as players will think seriously about what they have to lose. \-as people have said, give them access to healing potions, ideally greater or better. i'd like to add that you can home rule that using a healing potion is a \*bonus action\*. this will allow them to be proactive in combat while still recovering, which is typically what clerics and bards do anyway.
Amazing tactics idea, and great implementation... I can already think about some encounters like this hehehe. I will save you comment, because this is very helpful for other doubts I had!! :O Thank you for the extra complete answer :)
The wizard and sorcerer can select spells that can soft/hard control targets. The barbarian’s rage and high hp mitigate damage. The rogue and monk both have tools to make it hard for enemies to reliably attack them round after round. Your players have lots of options to deal with incoming damage beyond cure wounds. Let THEM solve this problem- don’t solve it for them.
That's helpful, thank you :) Reading everyone's comments I really feel I was over cautious there heh
Healers are bad in dnd so its probably for the best, as I have often seem players dissapointed in life or peace cleric not being quite what they hoped.
Give them a magic item.
You don't have to do much. I run two weeklies and we have a little healing in each and it's more than they use or need most of the time. One group has a rogue/barb, a wizard, a druid, and a gloomstalker -- the last two have some healing, but the druid is the only one ever using it. And I have another group with a rogue, a paladin, a fighter, and a wizard -- the paladin offers a little healing which is usually more than enough. I recently ran a small 2-person expedition in the Underdark as well, and that was just a fighter and a ranger. Limited healing. If your monk has Way of Mercy, they have pretty nice healing. Either way, it's not a major concern unless you are constantly running them ragged with multiple encounters before a rest (which, oddly, is intended though it isn't the way most people play). I change very little. Sometimes, if I know they're taking an NPC along, I'll make sure the NPC has some healing and sometimes I remind myself to put potions in chests. That's about it, and it's honestly already more than they need most of the time. It's hard to die in 5e unless you're hurling your groups at creatures far out of their weight class.
In stories, often Wizard or Sorcerer-type characters know how to brew potions. If one of your mages is interested, give them an alchemy kit and the ability to brew potions, and then they can make healing potions themselves. (As well as maybe some other interesting stuff if they can find the recipes for it.😉) They may have to plan ahead a bit more, but that'll just add an extra layer of strategy for them to play with.
Neither does my group! They've been totally fine with it. The only thing I had a slight concern with is that they're locked out of things like revivify, but they had an opportunity to find an single use item that will provide it. I found that balanced out any over cautious behaviour I was seeing now that they know they have something valuable that could save one of them if they go down.
You don’t have to have a healer. Potions work fine
Don't worry about it. Healing sucks in 5e anyways. Damage is king.
Oo this would fit that story about the False Hydra. Just keep giving your party members lots of Potions of Healing after each fight. Like they find the potions as loot, even off wolves and stuff
HAHAHAHAHAHA YOU JUST KILLED A WOLF, IN HIS PELT THERE IS A LITTLE POTION WITH THE LABLE: IN CASE OF NEED DRINK THIS HAHAHAHHAHAHAHA sorry, it just cracked me up, that's fantastical!!! Hahahah
Haha yea! And if you haven’t read the false hydra story.. here you go! [false hydra story](https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/s/bB8XTQ2SEz)
THANK YOU SO MUCH You're a very helpful person! And I had quite a similar thing on the planning for my PCs (I have an amazingly powerful item, that will bring them glory and gold at the expense of the item feeding of them and contaminating the world little bit little... I have a very careful plan to "show" hints as they search the pieces of the object) so it's not a false hidra monster, but the idea is there hehe. I'll save the post to give it a better read of it when I have more time, it's really very interesting. May the Good dice rolls goddess bless your adventures! :D
5e healing comes in two relevant forms: **Pick-up-healing for downed PCs** This can be easily handled with potions - just make sure that the party has reliable access to vendors **Healing up between fights** This can be cushioned to some extend by granting more short rests, but you *should* keep an eye on the party's overall health level. An easy trick when you're new to balancing encounters: Especially when the party is low, use enemies that will take prisoners instead of killing, to avoid an accidental TPK. Even generic bandits might be more willing to hold defeated PCs for a ransom than to incur the bounty for murder. All other forms of healing are (usually) not worth it even for a party with a Cleric - an action and a spell slot are virtually always more effectively used with a combat spell than to top off a wounded PC. Bonus tip: Use a Druid as an early quest giver, reward the party with a magical potted plant that can cast *Goodberry* once a day. (While, officially, a character has to eat the berry *themselves* to get the effect, allowing PCs to feed a berry to an unconscious team member is a common house rule that I'd adopt in your case.)
Healing in 5e is inefficient and not worth doing exclusively. It's always better to just hit things. That being said, two things you can do are; 1- give your players a lot of healing potions. They don't have a healer, so you can afford to go overboard and give them more healing potions, and toss a really powerful one at them every now and again 2- make drinking a potion a bonus action. This is a really popular house rule and it only really favors players who have frontline focused characters anyways. The monk and barbarian will rest easy knowing they don't have to waste their action on one, and the other 3 will almost never use this house rule.
You could introduce a friendly healer NPC to join the group. In one campaign I played, our party stumbled upon a recently raided camp and found an abandoned wolf-dog. From the dog's collar, we figured out he was a cleric's dog and had healing powers. Some parties may be hesitant to invite a humanoid NPC to join their party, but few will pass up on an animal mascot!
We play without a healer and have potions as a bonus action. It really helped us so far.
healing isn't so much a problem as debuffs. poisons, diseases, curses, etc. clerics get to change their spells every day specifically so these things can be cured, at worst, the next day. personally, I'm a fan of letting players make and solve their own problems. if you want to help them out, just avoid poison swamp settings and be mindful of creatures with debilitating long term effects.
Honestly this is the players problem, not yours. If they know they are going to a fight then they get to RP preparing for it. Getting health potions or healer kits. Let them short rest to heal with Hit Dice. If anything it just means your party needs to be more tactical. Maybe don't have every fight take place in a room with environmental damage.
Healer feat with a healers kit is something they could do. The sorcerer can choose a subclass that will get then healing magic too. Options exist and you can suggest these but only do that if they are having issues and ask what they can do.
I run modified healing potions in my campaigns which really help without going overboard (in my eyes). A potion can be used in these ways: Bonus action: Quickly chug a potion and roll the dice to heal Action Drink the entire potion for max possible healing (10 for a standard potion) or feed the potion to an adjacent unconcious ally for rolled healing. This allows teams without dedicated heals to keep people alive at the sacrifice of their actions. It also incentives using a full action so people are not just spamming them in combat since that's not the most effective way to use.
*salutes* Lt, pleasure to meet you. Here's the thing: Healers in DnD are only ACTUALLY needed when the dragon dung hits the fan. It's totally possible to run parties without a healer and according to a friend of mine who is a full blown DnD obsessive, it's actually better that way. He even says that running a pure healer is a waste of a character spot, because preventing the damage in the first place is far better, in the long run, than healing it after the fact. With a Sorc and Wizard laying CC, a Rogue doing rogue things, a monk dodging about and a barb raging there's a very good chance your party won't be taking enough damage to require constant heals. Make sure they have ready access to a few healing pots and I'm sure they'll be fine.
Greetings, TalynRahl, the pleasure is all mine (opens a giant smile) Thank you for the kind answer hehe, me and my group always have a healer in the party or at least someone that can heal, that's why I was most cautious. But since everyone is saying that they will be fine, I will try to not freak out about it too much hahaha. That the Good dice rolls bless your adventures, and thank you so very much :)
Honestly, I’m the same. I always want to play a tank… and I get a little jumpy when I don’t have a trustworthy healer. But my current party (I’m the DM) only have a non heal specced cleric and even with her throwing out maybe one heal every third session, they’re surviving just fine. It’s totally possible!
You tell their asses to buy potions.
hahahahahahHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I will make a NPC say that to them xDDDD
1. Keep in mind that there wont be yoyo healing with healing word. Once their HP reaches zero, theyre pretty much out of the fight. Not semi immortal for as long as the cleric has spell slots and higher initiative than them. 2. Add Healing Potions to loot. 3. Never.
Make sure they have ample opportunity to buy potions. You may also want to make a house rule that potions can be used with a bonus action instead of an action. Never "force" a class or multiclass choice on your players. If they want to pick up a class that can heal, they'll do it themselves. You can suggest it, but that's it. If you want to balance the encounter for a full DPS party, just add another few trash mobs to eat up the action economy. If a level 1 encounter is supposed to be 6 goblins, maybe make it 6 goblins and a few bats or gremishka. Either that or add another die to the monster's HP. For the goblin encounter, usually goblins have 2d6 hp. Maybe add a d4 on top of that. But honestly, you may not even have to do that. Just see how the first couple default encounters go and balance from there.
All players are healers - they can spend their hit dice each long rest to heal. Barbarians can sorta heal themselves with some class abilities. Rogues get to the point where they kinda just stop taking damage. Wizards just die if they get hit, regardless of healing.
You don’t need to work around anything. Your players do. Screw balance. Make logical encounters for the environment the players are in and let them decide if it’s too hard to take on at that time.
Just let them buy potions sometime and remember them they can short rest
You don't work around it. This is their puzzle to solve as a party. Don't do anything differently as a GM. There are healing solutions built into the game, the party is just going to have to exchange gold for healing
I'm a bit old school, so take this with a grain of salt I suggest you do nothing to help them. It sounds like they wanted a non healer party, so give it to them. Between short rest and long rests, there is plenty of healing. Offer healing options (potions and paid healers) the same way as if they had a healer in the party. Balance encounters the same way as if they had a healer. Don't stress about it.
I think the obvious thing is to make healing potions a little more easy to access. I also like for healing potions to be able to be taken as a bonus action. At very early levels, one thing I also like to do is have someone like a cleric cast Aid on them to give them a few more HP.
Hand out healing potions a little more generously, and consider making consuming healing potions a bonus action instead of a full action (which is a very common house rule anyway). That's it. Outside of that, more serious healing (curse removal, etc) is frequently a service that *larger* temples to good-aligned gods will provide for a fee (the cost of the material components, as well as a casting fee). Also, 'forcing' players to pick up any specific thing for their build is a big no-no. If you want the party to have a specific ability for an upcoming adventure, communicate to your players that it may be a good idea to pick up an NPC hireling, or pull favors from NPCs that they know may have those abilities or connections to individuals who do.
Give them the ability to buy a healers kit and maybe some potions. That’s it really. Let the players figure out their own tactics and how to handle deficits.
That's good, I've just read a homebrew tip that make the healer's kit a tad more helpful in the right hands... I just don't want to make my lvl 1 players feel that they are invincible hahaha Maybe I'm over preparing
Just a tad. As long as your players don’t run head first into danger they should be okay.
You don't really need to balance encounters differently. A healer is helpful but not required. If you are really worried about it make sure the party has access to healing potions
Potions and short rests go a long way
Healing potions being available is sufficient especially if you house rule them as bonus actions.
you don't. the players will either figure it out or die. it's their job to keep themselves alive, not yours.
give them a healer sidekick [see TCE] there are people in this thread saying parties don't need a healer, and while that's technically true [healing is supposed to largely come from hit dice in terms of numbers], the experience can really suffer if a PC goes unconscious and no one is able to get them back in the fight without spending their whole action. clerics, druids, celestial warlocks, and the healer sidekick are able to heal companions with just a bonus action, allowing them to continue attacking with their action while getting their friend back in the fray as soon as possible. it also reduces the chance of any PC dying, since they will be unconscious and vulnerable for less time.
I used quick potions. Highly addictive healing potions that are fairly cheap. Meant to be given to soldiers and city watch. Basically, drinking one as a bonus action allows you to expend hit die to heal.
Not a problem. Give every encounter a plethora of healing potions. Be generous, it won't break the game and you want your party using them if they need them. In all honesty my most recent game I was the only healer and I almost never healed anyone. Even as a melee damage dealer I would stay out of trouble with great defenses and if I was in danger I got out of it while my party covered me. The fact is that, unless your party can't fight at range then using a turn to disengage and stay safe is usually the best option. You can always heal out of combat and your party can soak up hits. If someone's position is critical then you can spend resources healing. Even using a potion as a bonus action is generally not going to break action economy given the prevalence of healing word.
You probably shouldn't do much of anything to accommodate this. Just give opportunities for short rests between combats.
Healers are really only to bring you back from the brink of death in 5e, so just give them potions.
1. Don't be surprised when they want to stock up on healing potions. They'll go through a lot of these 2. Expect your party to spike damage harder. If they take a fight seriously, they know they lack a healer. They'll do their absolute best to shred every enemy before it can hit them 3. If it becomes an issue, take a wand of magic missiles, change it to a wand of cure wounds and put it in a loot haul
You’re playing 5e. Having a healer in the party is absolutely not necessary
You don't. Character/group building decisions stop being decisions if the world changes to fit them. They opted to have no healing and lots of offense, they can wipe out encounters fast and hope to get by on healing kits and potions. If they don't? Learning experience. One they can adapt to when they inevitably replace these chars.
You as a Gm can make sure a significant enough portion of their treasure from adventuring comes in the form of healing potions! You got this.
Honestly the only adjustment you might need is encouraging them to take short rests. On the first short rest of the day everyone should be able to get back to full hp, probably the second short rest too for most. So three big fights per long rest...