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Cleric 17 (Life Domain)/Druid 3 (Circle of Dreams) [full Wisdom-based caster] Full benefits of the life domain, along with the added bonus action healing from Balm of the Summer Court, and Healing Spirit once you hit 3rd level Druid (spell list below assumes +5 WIS by max level). Cantrips: Guidance, Light, Mending, Resistance, Spare the Dying/Druidcraft, Magic Stone 1st: Cure Wounds, Detect Evil and Good, Healing Word, Protection from Evil and Good, Sanctuary, Shield of Faith/Create or Destroy Water, Detect Magic, Detect Poison and Disease, Goodberry, Jump, Longstrider, Purify Food and Drink 2nd: Aid, Gentle Repose, Lesser Restoration, Prayer of Healing, Protection from Poison/Healing Spirit 3rd: Life Transference, Mass Healing Word, Protection from Energy, Remove Curse 4th: Death Ward 5th: Dispel Evil and Good, Greater Restoration, Hallow, Mass Cure Wounds 6th: Heal 7th: Regeneration, Ressurection 8th: 9th: Mass Heal, True Ressurection

I have to admit, with this title, I was highly disappointed to see a single character build rather than a discussion about the pros and cons of different types of healers, or even different styles of healing (for example, character builds that debuff enemies to reduce their damage or make it harder for them to hit can prevent as much as healers can heal off or more).

Life cleric with "goodberry", each heals 4 for a total of 40hp for a one 1st level spell

I've come up with a couple of home brewed things for the campaign I am running. I made a new Archetype of Ranger called the Gatherer (to go off of the Hunter idea). It is based on the Class Variant ranger that has the poultices. I basically took that idea, tweaked it, and then expanded on it to make it its own sub-class. It is effectively a Ranger sub-class built around healing. I've also come up with two feats as well. Healing Expert Prerequisite:The ability to cast at least one 3rd level spell -When you roll a 1 or 2 on a die you roll for one of your spells that allows a creature to regain hit points, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll, even if the new roll is a 1 or 2. -Whenever you cast a spell, of 3rd level or higher, that allows a creature to regain hit points, you may remove one condition from one creature affected by the spell. The condition can be blinded, deafened, paralyzed or poisoned. Healing Master Prerequisite: Healing Expert Feat -Whenever you use a spell that allows a creature to regain hit points, you add your proficiency bonus to the total hit points regained. -Whenever you cast a spell, of 3rd level or higher, that allows a creature to regain hit points, you can give temporary it points equal to your level to one creature affected by the spell. I've built a 20th level Life Cleric using these two feats and they were an AMAZING healer. Granted, the first feature from the first feat becomes moot, but the other three features between the two feats are really helpful.

You mentioned very briefly in the beginning but shelved it pretty quickly: Bards, particularly Lore Bards with their extra magical secrets actually make fantastic healers. Grab the Paladin spell Aura of Vitality at 6th level and you suddenly become one of the most effective in-combat and out-of-combat healers in 5e. A one level dip into life cleric makes it especially powerful: 2d6+5 HP as bonus action every round for a minute, all for the low, low cost of a 3rd level spell slot.

I feel an Aasimar life cleric/celestial warlock is a good option

I took the magic int feat went with druid to get goodberry with the life domain you get 3 HP at first lvl it makes a big difference thank you guys for info on love your videos

How about a human life cleric with the magic initiate feat. Take good berries and do crazy healing.

I want to see a John "Hellblazer" Constantine style warlock build that would be awesome to discuss.

If we're allowing UA, the theurgy wizard is a cleric with full bore mastery of magic. They get channel divinity (ahem, arcana), your domain's 17th level cleric ability at 14th, and they have spell versatility on the daily. The argument can ensue about whether, for that character, if you can use your cleric spells for your spell mastery and signature spells. If that was primarily what this wizard was using for its PC's lifetime, no matter how broken, I'd consider it on the grounds that an 18th level enemy will not be swayed by even a steady series of 1st & 2nd level healing spells.

Life cleric and Druid

Sorcerer: Favored Soul (Life Domain) + Bard (6th? Aura of Vitality) + Goodberry (Magic Initiate perhaps or just a magic secret) - Outside of combat you are a god for healing. In combat, you can buff/split heal with twin. GG sirs.

I'm playing a heal-focussed character right now. The multiclassing mostly came about from RP stuff. Current build is Life Cleric 2/Glamour Bard 4(UA)/Fey Warlock 2. Next level I'll take Warlock to 3. 2 levels in Life Cleric gets me the bonus healing and the Channel Divinity. The Channeling only heals 10 HP but it's very useful for getting multiple people on their feet. I can then follow it up with a Healing Word, Mass Healing Word or the Mantle of Inspiration from the bard. The Mantle gives my allies Temporary HP and lets them use their reaction to move towards me. The upcoming 3rd level in Warlock will give me Pact of the Chain, letting me place my familiar on one of the party tanks and heal them from a distance with Cure Wounds. Warlock in general gives me some more utility spells. The eventual plan is to end up around Cleric 2/Bard 11/Warlock 7. This gives me some interesting Warlock features and decent Pact Magic slots, while also making sure I have access to 7th level spells from the Bard and Cleric lists. She's also an Aasimar for the once a day Lay on Hands ability. Overall I'm really happy with her effectiveness in keeping the party alive and her RP potential. Just wish I could roll higher than a 3 for hit points xD

Warlocks with a Celestial patron, Unearthed Arcana for June 5 2017, make some pretty good healers. Buffers too, automatic temporary hit points and self-resurrection. Go Pact of the Chain and your familiar can drop the healing at a distance.

I am surprised more people aren't talking about bard as a comparable healer class. I built one that basically doesn't even use his spell slots for healing most of the time and can still keep the party healthy pretty easily. Healer feat, chef feat, inspiring leader, starting the day casting aid, and having song of rest means most of the time, my party has more HP than they started the day with, and temp hp to burn. That keeps my slots open for things like bane, faerie fire, and other buff and debuff options. Vicious mockery against the things that are attacking our front lines means most creatures are never even hitting to do damage, since they will usually have disadvantage on attack rolls against that high AC tank. Damage mitigation is always the best, but if they do get hit, that healer's kit is doing a minimum of 60 HP of healing per kit at level 1, up to 300 hp per kit at max level, no spell slots required for 5gp. Oh, and just for fun, casting healing word as a bonus action means I can still run over and use my action to use a charge from the healer's kit to heal a second PC or stack it on the one that needs it most. Minor illusion and mirror image mean that even if they try to hit me to shut down the "healer", they are going to struggle to do so. Add in the magical secrets for things like aura of vitality, heal, etc. and this is an all day adventurer that can do it well.

I am surprised to see nobody here has talked about Cleric/Paladin Multi class. My toon is Glenndar, a wood elf who is an servant of the Fae. His current build is Ancient Oath Paladin5/Life Cleric4. I have Channel Divinity AND lay on hands. Soon 2/Rest Channel D and aura that gives spell resistance and save throw bonus for my team. Great utility spells/heals, disease cure, attacks twice,tanky, (full plate+shield/defender fight style), so he can be right up in the fray and not worry a bit. Think ill go to cleric 8 then pali 12 to finish off the build. Also, find steed. my 4th cleric lvl took Mounted combatant feat. I summon a giant owl so im like heals on wheels. I never fall out of the air and rarely miss attacks when im on that thing. (it fits thematically really well, Glenndar being a fae knight and all.) Its awesome, yall should try it.

Favored Soul/Celestial Pact Warlock Heals recharge on a short. C-pact gives an ability heal at lvl 1 1d6 per level at 30ft of range Beacon of Hope means that all healing is max Plus as you mentioned metamagic with buff and healing spells. Twinning guiding bolt is pretty bamf

Very nice!

If you're thinking about this as a combat medic, I would think that War Caster would be a must have feat.

If you played a forest gnome, you could also make wounds go away with minor illusion, lol. It's not actual healing but maybe it would help morale to not see all the blood?? 😄

Also, Nate's awesome, Glitch is an awesome character concept.

just a thought about using the sorcerer spells known to have permanent, dont forget that life cleric has most of the healing spells as domain spells. not saying sorcerer is a bad idea, its just you wouldn't want to have cure as one of your spell knows

Druid (Circle of the land for more control, or the UA one for aoe healing) + 2 into life cleric works really well, you miss mass healing word, but thats about it. Beast shape is insanely useful of course, IE that one time my group's rogue got caught between two fire giants about a dash or two away from the party, low health, turned into a warhorse and rode him the hell out of there then healed him up.

i think you could optimise a Life domain cleric to be a really awesome and irreplacable healer.

I know the Life domain is good, but what are your thoughts about going Cleric/Monk, with the Peace domain and Way of Mercy? At fifth level you can run around the battlefield healing everyone you pass along the way(which is extended as a monk) and still have your action to cast a spell or attack if you want, or even use a Ki point to activate your Hand of Healing if someone is in particularly rough shape. Oh, and Peace domain also lets you give hand out a d4 to everyone for their rolls, without spending a spell slot. And I also imagine adding a few levels of Artillerist and having a little helper buddy running around dishing out temp hit points 😄 In my mind it really makes me think of a battlefield medic running around tending to everyone.

I hope it was mentioned that the Preserve Life CD only restores HP up to half the characters maximum. Still amazing without question.

Could you do a build for a favoured soul sorcerer multiclassed with a divine patron Warlock? And what the possibilities could be?

I hope that if the favoured soul comes out officially they'll limit the amount off spells they can take, like for example only one spell of the cleric list at the uneven levels.

Human cleric of life, variant with magical initiate (druid) for sheleleagh/produce flame/ good berry.

My healer is a Firbolg life cleric named Aust. He was built using standard array cause he's for Adventurer League play Str 16 Dex 12 Con 13 Int 10 Wis 16 Cha 8. He's built to fight in combat when necessary and to heal. The heavy armor combined with shield give him good AC. Gave him the outsider background, he's adventuring cause clan was destroyed by a demon. He's not use to large crowd so he drinks to compensate. He has skills in medicine, religion, athletics, and survival.

If you want a sustained source of healing Lore bard 6 can get you aura of vitality from paladin, you can then take 5 levels of warlock (celestial pact in the UA gives even more healing) so that you can cast it on the rechargeable warlock slots. You have access to sustained damage with Eldritch blast/Invocations and can still dip into life cleric for at least 1 level for the bump to healing spells (6th level life cleric would let your Aura of vitality heal yourself whenever it heals someone else). Also keep in mind the channel divinity for life cleric only works up to half of a targets hitpoints and can't heal past the half way mark. So it's good when the chips are down but not for topping people off. Edit: If you want good out of combat healing, a life cleric that dips 3 levels of warlock can use prayer of healing with the 2nd level warlock slots. The more prep time you have the more you can do between battles to mend a group of people. You also still have Eldritch blast which is nice to have in your pocket

What are the thoughts on DawnForged's Life Cleric/Undying Light Warlock?

Well they talked about 17th level cleric so 3 lvls of Celestial Warlock is 3D6 healing pool per long rest, an extra 4 1 or 2 level spells, some of which are low lvl Cleric as bonus spells, and 2 2nd lvl slots per short rest. Also 2 invocations, and if you go Tome 7 cantrips, including light, sacred flame and certainly spare the dying, and you can be a ritual caster of all realms with one invocation.

Pretty much everything covered but you could change out those sorcerer levels for Paladin and for even more healing you could go for an aasimar for some racial lay on hands goodness.

I'm currently working on a celestial warlock/divine soul sorcerer. The focus isn't too much on damage, but there's a ridiculous number of spell slots and healing options.

Currently playing a Favored Soul and planning on taking a couple of levels in Life Cleric just so I can prep level 1 spells from the Cleric list and swap out Sorc spells for higher spells. one other feat that could be mentioned is War Caster. Just a godly feat for casters in general but losing concentration on Beacon of Hope can suck balls. Also a Sorc gets Con as a saving throw where a Cleric doesn't. Depends if you want to use the more powerful Concentration buffs/spells too

When you do Controlers, can you give some options for no multiclass? thanks

There are two "Best Healer" I can think of. One is a Warlock(any)3/Favored Soul Sorcerer17 Do the "Long rest and sleep aren't the same thing", build up more spell slots than you need of 1st through 5th level, and go crazy with healing. A Bonus Action Mass Cure Wounds every round, along with a salvo of Eldritch Blast makes for a terrifying force. The other is the Theurge Wizard - Life Domain. At 18th level, they get Cure Wounds as a Cantrip. That means the party will be at full health coming into every battle.

If I knew about Favored Soul I'd be playing one!

these guys are on the right track, but I think the best clutch healer is Favored Soul 1/Arcana Domain Cleric 19. You get spell breaker and mass healing word at level 1,6. Then the mass heal spells (with spell breaker) keep getting better as you level up. At 1,17 you get Wish, which is the heal ALL HP, remove ALL debuffs for TWENTY creatures you can see. There is no wish "stress"/curse chance when you cast it this way. If you don't need to clutch heal that day ... you still have your wish for other wishy things. You give up automatic divine interventions at level 20, but it is worth it for other reasons... specifically surviving level 1-19. So you kinda got a version of divine intervention at level 1, when you need it :) I built a DEX/CON/WIS character on this build I call "tom bombadil" who can do the low level cleric frontline role (magic initiate:Druid, War Caster). The 1st level 2d4 favored soul ability taken at first level is the life insurance policy for your entire career. If you stay up, your party can stay up. Your are the most "cleric" a cleric can be, starting at level 1 all the way to level 20. In battle: Buffs, Controller, Tank-ish, DPS-ish, Battlefield Heals. Out of combat you are a ritual caster with access to some very important utility spells. Arcane and Divine. And those skill/save buffs.

If we're talking about Unearthed Arcana, you missed the Theurgist Wizard and the Celestial Warlock. The former can be a healer, if he takes the Life domain, while the latter gets to add certain healing spells to his list, and has other healing features. But the Life Cleric is still probably the best healer.

In my game there is a doctor based off the unearthed arcana Artificer alchemist. Her Healing Draught ability currently heals 3d8 but will eventually reach 10d8 at max level. Also has Healers feat and Herbalism kit to make potions. Also access to cure wounds and lesser restoration with max of 1 lvl4 spell slot. So all in all not as effective as a traditional magical healer, but thematic of a scientific approach

How about starting with a single level splash of life cleric, which gets you heavy armor familiarity and Disciple of Life. Then go for 19 levels of Warlock with a Celestial as a patron? That gives you plate armor with shield armor class, eldritch blast for ranged damage, and a really nice selection of spells, which you won't need for damage because you've got eldritch blast.

I've seen multiple times the way of tranquillity monk out heal a straight up life cleric.

1) Life Domain Cleric 2) Divine Soul Sorcerer 3) Grave Domain Cleric?

The healer being a paladin also gives a protective aura. After all what good is healing if the party gets wiped by mind spells or something else.

Thoughts on the 17 Cleric / 3 Bard? Or even more bard if the 9th level spells aren't as important?

How about the same classes but flipping the levels 17 divine sorcerer/ 3 life cleric

I think sorcerer either 6 levels of clerics or favored souls are the best. because honestly... twin casted shield of faith or twin casted cure wounds. or twin casted healing words. but best of all... distant cure wounds ! i do think that cleric of life domain is the best with sorcerers because hey channel divinities and actual healing more with distant cure wounds. played a level 8 healer sorcerer draconic 5 / Cleric 3 and that was nutso for sure, much better then cleric only or other healers. and to be hoest with that build, healing words is just useless at that point. though the occasionnal need to heal two people at the same time did happen once. but really its too much. dual concentration is also a great thing for sorcerer thanks to twin spells !

Hey um I want to make a healer only no attack spells can only use a blow gun to knock out someone because she hates violence and she uses a tower shield do you know how I could RP that (if so let me know also my dm is a big but and won’t let me have any attacks Edit also she’s human

I guess it is really dependent on the campaign level and what type of healer you want to be. Do you want to burst over 700 healing in a round, like you guys showed? Or do you want to be able to heal lower amounts but enough times to last all day? I really like the Bard's Song of Rest ability early game as you all get that extra 1d6 healing per short rest. If you take three a day during your heavier fighting dungeoneering, that's 3d6 x # of party members in healing. And since Bards also have high charisma, you can add Inspiring Leader to add that temp hp bonus at the start of the day. On the other hand, Paladins get Lay on Hands which they can use as much of (or as little of) at a time as they want. Someone got KO'd? LoH for 1, their back up. You can also spend the 5 points to cure poison or disease which is very nice for a Healer type character.

What about the wizard healer?

So tranquillity monk is the best healer. Got it

Am I crazy to think that grave domain is a better healer than life domain until level 17? The way I was taught how to heal in D&D was basically to wait until a player hits 0 HP, so you're basically just keeping people in the fight. (also extra damage gets eaten, unless it's enough to outright kill) So as a grave cleric, healing unconscious players maximizes the healing dice, making it an extremely efficient use of spell slots, so to me it seems like it's a better healer than life, or at least in campaigns that won't reach level 17. I could cast a level 3 cure wounds on an unconscious player and guarantee 24 + spell mod healing. That's a huge amount of healing, you can heal most characters beyond half their total HP in 1 spell each time like that. That being said, I only understand this in theory, I haven't played cleric before, and I'm not sure if the logistics make practice a lot less effective. (i.e. I can't heal an unconscious character until after they take their turn, because I'm lower in the initiative order, so they essentially wasted it)

So if you are looking to be the best healer you need to maximize the amount of healing, the number of heals you can do, and how effectively you can do those

I dont know how this would work out with a theurgy wizard 14 levels with sorcerer 6 or 18 theurgy for unlimited cure wounds/healing words and 2 of any other thing

Aww come on bards are great 1dip into life cleric and steal aria of vitality!

Not that it is super relevant but the ranger can learn cure wounds as well.

I don't get why you'd ever plan to upscale cure wounds over casting a Heal for a 6+ level spell, or Mass Heal for 9th. They just heal more. That seemed like a silly discussion in general.

How about putting the three levels in fighter? Get action surge and second wind!

Life Cleric / Lore Bard / Celestial Warlock and take Xanathar's 2nd lvl ranger spell Healing Spirit. and/or Druids Goodberry. crap ton of heals

Wizards familiar can run around with health potions.

human variant would get the healer feat right away as well.

Aight, sorcerer cleric multiclass here I go

The ranger also gets access to healing, and if you're going to mention UA, why not bring up the celestial walock aswell?

Imagine if you will having the party surrounded by 5 Banshees. They all wail together. Party is down save for our Bard through sheer luck. Runs through 3 Banshees (dodges the Attack of Opportunities) and taps the Cleric with a Cure Wounds. Cleric(Life) then unleashes the healing Wombo-Combo. Channel Divinity: Preserve Life (Action) + Mass Healing Word (Bonus Action). Any Banshees left after the 2nd round after the Party Res got turned. So yeah, Cleric of Life saved our asses. The Cleric's diety? Pelor. The entire table after the encounter: \[T]/

Undying light warlock. let them fall down then get back up unlimited amount of times

There's a build I've seen somewhere around, Half elf Cleric 6/Celestial Warlock as many as you can :) That looks interesting and the skills seem to mesh well together.

I see MTG card art.I click,I see Boros BOIS,I WATCH WITH PASSION

Grave Cleric?

Problem with relying on sorcerer spells for low level heal spells is you're dropping the heals if your Charisma doesn't match up to your Wisdom. Which is possible if you just focus on Wisdom and Charisma and let yourself be weaker physically. Half elf could be interesting for this, honestly. Get a Charisma bump, and lower bumps for Wisdom, then either Strength for Plate Armor, or Con for better health. And let Intelligence and Dexterity suffer.

Life cleric + goodberry is such a meme. Never should have been ruled legal.

What about celestial warlock

what about tranq monk

Tranquil monk (possibly with healer feat) and wizards of theurgy also exists. They won't hold up to this build, but they're there as further options

Celestial Warlock?

Oh

I like your beards!

I'm fairly certain even at a 13 cleric/7 sorcerer you still have access to 9th level spell slots and clerics have full access to the spell list, so as long as you have a 9th level slot, you can prepare that 9th level spell. The only downside is you'd only have (I imagine) 18 spells that you can prepare plus the life spell list with a +5 Wisdom and 13 cleric levels

Leave Inspiring Leader to the Charisma classes.

Nope, its really not the same as lay on hands. lay on hands is as much as you can pump, while life clerics can only affects those who have less then half their healths. if they have more then half their healths they cannot gain more HP. so basically its AOE but with a huge drawback.

Isn't grave pretty epic?

great healer build...kind of screwed if he does find himself in combat, but that's true of all pure healers. he also becomes the primary target, but again that's true of all pure healers.

dude

The best healer is an extra fighter to deal more damage, end the fight earlier, and heal damage by ensuring it isn’t dealt

Druid conjure healing spirit is considered op by some

Could you remove the healer from the game...idealy, if you upped everyones HP's?

No such thing as absolute best in D+D depends on situation, player, and DM.

No. Noooo. No. Party Roles is not a concept which needs to be anywhere near 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons, parties with any combination of any class and archetype can still be played, there's no need for this crap.