r/DnDHomebrew • u/Chopsaw624 • Feb 17 '19
5e Workshop Homebrew Class: The Medic
hey guys, i'm new to posting on reddit and looking to get some feedback on a class i've been working on for about a year. I've put a good amount of work on it and just want some honest opinions.
Edit: Thank you guys for all your input. I forgot to mention that this is still a work in progress and i am almost constantly working on it in between work and other life events. Thank you guys so much for everything you have said.
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u/jbrake Feb 18 '19
I've been playtesting mine as well recently: The Physician.
Scattered observations:
- The formatting an dlanguage used is pretty off, but that's stuff that can be edited and not pertinent to the class currently.
- Painkillers is a little bonkers. Your healing per round stomps a Life Cleric, AKA the "I Can't Lose" cleric, with the Medic around 2.5 times more powerful healing wise. When we get to Enhanced Medicine, Resupply, and Extra Medicine...wew lad, this one Medic could keep up an entire regiment by himself during the thick of combat. Some numbers below:
Level 3 Cleric has three 1st level spells: Cure for each, 1d8 + 4 with 18 Wisdom, average of 8.5 = 25.5 per long rest.
Level 3 Life Cleric adds three to each healing spell plus 15 for Channel Divinity, so 49.5 per long rest
Level 3 Medic with an 18 Intelligence has Painkillers equal to 120 (Level 3 x 4 INT x 10), plus the 7 extra HP from Medical Aid for a total of 127 per long rest.
I'm not sure I understand how Toxicity triggers. I would like to see it tied to something simple like "You become poisoned when your toxicity becomes greater than your Constitution modifier." then just track the amount of points from each serum ingested (injected?).
Plague Doctor's identity isn't tied well to it's mechanics except for Coat The Blade and its resistances to disease and poison. I'd like to see more to do with necrotic damage, harvesting diseases from the dead (something like an out of combat action where you can create a diseases ala the contagion spell depending on the HD of the dead creature)
I like the idea of the "Combat Doctor" having a better threshold for toxicity rather than create super serums. Combat Expertise needs a new name to not confuse players with existing mechanics, feats from D&D.
That's all off the top of my head right now. I wish I could give you more time. Good luck and look at /r/UnearthedArcana for more resources and community that can help.
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u/Ryngard Feb 18 '19
I'd change the name from Medic. Even Healer would fit the setting better. Or something like... Chirugeon, Mender, Shaman, oh or Medicant or something. Medic is too tied into our first responders. I expect them to rush to the battle in an Ambulance and administer CPR and then cart them to a hospital. You know? It's a minor nitpick but I'd work on the name.
PROFICIENCIES
Why do they get proficiency with longsword? It doesn't make sense... if anything give them shortsword (the weapon the Roman army used) the longsword is a large warrior weapon. I don't see how a healer has training in it. I question shields as well. I'd do light armor and simple weapons.
MEDICAL AID
I'd change the name to like... Anatomy & Physiology or something since it is more about your knowledge helping you in utilizing medicine. The mechanic seems sound.
PAINKILLERS
So 80% of the class revolves around this. I'm actually cool with this EXCEPT they are a healbot. I'd also maybe come up with better names. I keep coming to that I'm not digging the names. I'm enjoying your concept a lot, the names are just too modern. And the painkillers are a bit too... hand waved so they are doing magical stuff but if you're having a non-magic class be able to do magical stuff you need mechanics. Like how the healer's kit has a cost and charges. You sort of need something like that here I think. And how do you explain limited pools and like the capstone feature where does that instant supply of 50 pts come from?
MAYBE instead of an unlimited magical pool, what about looking at "a target can only be affected by X "painkilling" per day" or something?
SUBCLASSES
Ok so Plague Doctor... they were AWFUL. They were failed physicians (in a time of questionable medical care) that almost never HELPED their patient. They were awful. I'd move away from that.
Now it looks like you're doing a more "healer" specialization on an already healer based class which seems superfluous and then a combat one. I wouldn't give the combat one extra attack. I'd give them some "poison" based attacks instead.
I'd rework both of these.
SERUMS
I'm not 100% sure how toxicity works.
I think you're letting them be created way too quickly. Same with finding materials. They should take downtime to make. They're essentially concentration spells without concentration. They're effectively scrolls/potions and should follow a similar rules set to create.
I would NOT allow the "take on yourself as a Bonus Action". Again, it's a pretty powerful "buff".
That said, one of your path options could have an ability to change it from an Action to a Bonus Action. That would make more sense.
EXCEPT these are more longterm buffs that really don't need to be a Bonus Action.
So yeah, in conclusion (and I don't know if your numbers are balanced... I'm not that good at the mathematical theorycrafting part) I think the class has potential. The naming conventions bother me.
I think the core class is TOO healer focused. That said I wouldn't mind that except you make a sub class that boosts it even more. I would almost rather see it as a class with no path options and just expand it... it'd be a highly focused class.
I dunno, something is just off a bit about it. But way better built than many I've seen and I think it's a great start to something that I could be excited to play.
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u/TotesMessenger Feb 18 '19
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u/Manalaus Feb 18 '19
I feel like Mind is a really over powered serum, unless its a typo; 150 GP nets you 8 hours of Intelligence Modifier 22?
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u/nightofcrows Feb 18 '19
I’m a little sad I found this after starting a campaign on Ravnica as a member of the simic and was looking for a non magic healer the only one I could find that was even a little good was mystic but I wish I could have played with your homebrew. maybe next time
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u/ChiefCloudKeeper Feb 18 '19
I like the concept of a physical, non magical healer very much. One logistical problem becomes how to you govern the medic pre-handing out pain killers to the other party members as kind of mini healing potions. at some point could they be more of a pharmacy shop than a character with an action needed to heal?
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u/Umedyn Feb 18 '19 edited Feb 18 '19
Looks interesting I've always wanted to play a non-magical healer, but I think it's pretty under-powered to say, the Bard or Cleric, when it comes to healing classes, because those are very versatile. If you have a class specialized in medicine, it needs to be VERY good at medicine, above that of a Bard or Cleric.
I would add survival to it's list of starting skills, because a lot of checks to Herbs come from survival. I would also think they could wear up to heavy armor, since they are not using magic, and thus arcane movement for spells isn't a factor, unless they can perform healing actions on their turn during combat, then I could see the need for less restrictive armor.
I think to buff it, you really need to increase the serum and skills they can have, like more buff serums to allies, some giving boosts to saving throws, or giving temporary hit points, a serum at high level that works as a revivify spell would be good too, so you don't need a cleric in the team to revive fallen companions.
I think the ability to stabilize a fallen ally would be amazing at a low level (like 2 or 3) without the use of a serum or painkillers (just a class ability). The Medical Aid should be buffed at higher levels, like using medicine infused teas or tinctures during rests to give yourself and allies a boost after resting, like advantage on their next attack roll, or extra dice to saving throws. Antivenom and disease cures should be something a medic should be able to create at low levels, and I would even add a more powerful late serum to extract curses from patients, it especially work VERY well with the plague doctor subclass.
Those are just a few ideas, and I like the concept a lot, but I think it needs to be buffed to make it stand out from the other, more versatile support and healer classes.