Combat Medic; Fighter Healer

[sandmote]

This page on the Homebrewery

Updated to remove spellcasting:

Quick Healing
When you pick the archeotype at third level, you have trained to mix healing into even the smallest of openings. Whenever you can make a Medicine (Wisdom) check or attempt to use a healing kit, you can make the check as a bonus action as long as you would typically be able to make the check as an action instead.

Restorative Presence.
You can restore the vitals of creatures in your immediate vicinity, even without an apparent medical activity. As a bonus action, you can restore 1d4 hit points to a creature within 15 feet.

You can use this ability twice at 3rd level, and gain additional uses at 7th and 15th levels. You regain all of your uses of this ability when you finish a short or long rest.

Field Healer
At 7th level, you gain proficiency in the Medicine skill. If you are already proficient in it, you gain proficiency in one of the following skills of your choice: Acrobatics, Animal Handling, Athletics, Insight, Perception, or Survival.

Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses Medicine. You receive this benefit regardless of the skill proficiency you gain from this feature.

Healing Kicker
Starting at 10th level, you can imbue your restorative presence with additional power, preventing your healing from being undone.

When you use your healing kicker, you can use a bonus action to cast an additional spell on one target of the spell or healing kicker without expending a spell slot, requiring material components, using your concentration, or needing to know the spell. Unlike a usual casting of such a spell, the spell ends at the start of your next turn.

You can cast false life, resistance, and sanctuary in this manner.

Greater Healing Kicker
Starting at 18th level, your healing effects become stronger. When you use your Restorative Presence feature, you can apply a second spell from your restorative presence spells to your target (no action required by you). This does not change the duration of the effects.

Spoiler: Initial Version

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1/3 Spellcasting:

Wisdom as the spellcasting ability, able to use shields as a spellcasting focus.

Spoiler: Spell List

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1st Level
Alarm
Bless
Comprehend Languages
Cure Wounds
Detect Poison and Disease
False Life
Feather Fall
Floating Disk
Fog Cloud
Goodberry
Grease
Healing Word
Heroism
Inflict Wounds
Jump
Longstrider
Purify Food and Drink
Sanctuary
Sleep
Unseen Servant

2nd Level
Aid
Arcane Lock
Barkskin
Calm Emotions
Enhance Ability
Gentle Repose
Heat Metal
Knock
Lesser Restoration
Misty Step
Prayer of Healing
Protection From Poison
Rope Trick
Skywrite
Warding Bond

3rd Level
Aura of Vitality
Beacon of Hope
Create Food and Water
Erupting Earth
Life Transference
Magic Circle
Mass Healing Word
Nondetection
Protection From Energy
Remove Curse
Revivify
Sending
Tiny Servant

4th Level
Aura of Life
Aura of Purity
Banishment
Death Ward
Dimmension Door
Fadricate
Freedom of Movement
Stoneskin

Spontaneous Healing
You have trained to mix healing into even the smallest of openings. As a bonus action, you can restore 1d6 hit points to a creature within 15 feet. When you score a critical hit or reduce a creature to zero hit points, you can use this feature as part of the same action as the attack.

You can use this ability a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of once) and regain all uses at the end of a long rest.

I'm not sure about the scaling of this. On one hand I don't want to spend subclass features on buffing it, on the other hand 5 uses at 3rd level is one more than the Celestial patrol gets. Should I reduce these to 1d4s?

Field Healer
At 7th level, you gain proficiency in the Medicine skill. If you are already proficient in it, you gain proficiency in one of the following skills of your choice: Acrobatics, Animal Handling, Athletics, Insight, Perception, or Survival.

Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses Medicine. You receive this benefit regardless of the skill proficiency you gain from this feature.

3rd level features are stronger, so no combat bonus when your spellcasting hits 3rd level.

Healing Kicker
Starting at 10th level, you can imbue your spells and Healing Kicker with additional power, preventing your healing from being undone.

When you cast a spell of first level or higher or use your healing kicker, you can use a bonus action cast an additional spell on one target of the spell or healing kicker without expending a spell slot, requiring material components, using your concentration, or needing to know the spell. Unlike a usual casting of such a spell, the spell ends at the start of your next turn.

You can cast false life, resistance, and sanctuary in this manner.

Taken from the 3.5e prestige class, and it unites the two 3rd level features.

Quick Healing
From 15th level, whenever you can make a Medicine (Wisdom) check as a bonus action, as long as you would typically be able to make the check as an action instead.

Greater Healing Kicker
Starting at 18th level, your insulating casting becomes stronger. When you use your Insulating Casting feature, you can apply a second spell from your insulating casting spells to your target (no action required by you). This does not change the duration of the effects.

2nd spell is less useful than the 1st one, so it's less of a power boost here.

[Garfunion]

I don’t think a fighter best fits a combat medic. Clerics and Paladins are generally better suited as a combat medic. The spell list also seems to have a mix of druid, ranger and cleric spells and even less in the way of actual “healing”.

Perhaps you should make the combat medic a bit more mundane using special techniques with the healers kit plus one or two cantrips and a few(5 or less) spell they can use on short/long rest.

Perhaps you should look at the undying warlock and reverse its features to better suit a medic.

[sandmote]

I don’t think a fighter best fits a combat medic. Clerics and Paladins are generally better suited as a combat medic. The spell list also seems to have a mix of druid, ranger and cleric spells and even less in the way of actual “healing”.

I between both your examples I really only find healing word useful for in combat healing. So it's mostly just a War Domain cleric that otherwise fits my target role.

To give a variety of options I added a bunch of utility spells, although I should probably just drop 1/3 casting entirely.

Perhaps you should make the combat medic a bit more mundane using special techniques with the healers kit plus one or two cantrips and a few(5 or less) spell they can use on short/long rest.

Perhaps you should look at the undying warlock and reverse its features to better suit a medic.

Knocking off the Grave domain's circle of mortality might fit better.

I can move field healer to being a third level feature, and add a version of defy death at 7th level?

[Garfunion]

I between both your examples I really only find healing word useful for in combat healing. So it's mostly just a War Domain cleric that otherwise fits my target role.

Which is another problem, using the fighter as the base class you are creating a character that can attack multiple times(more than 2) and then throw out a heal.

Upon further thought the Rogue maybe a better option. Incorporating a feature that allows them to use a healer’s kit with their cunning action. And sneak attack is simply their understanding of anatomy and allows them to do more damage.

To give a variety of options I added a bunch of utility spells, although I should probably just drop 1/3 casting entirely.

Dropping the spell casting feature is a good idea because honestly we already have enough spellcaster healers

Knocking off the Grave domain's circle of mortality might fit better.

I can move field healer to being a third level feature, and add a version of defy death at 7th level?

All I can say is that you might want to rethink the fighter as your base class for this archetype. The ability to multiattack and heal on the same turn is a bit op.

A new UA came out with a mercy monk that may help to create your archetype.

https://media.wizards.com/2020/dnd/downloads/UA2020-Subclasses01.pdf

[sandmote]

Which is another problem, using the fighter as the base class you are creating a character that can attack multiple times(more than 2) and then throw out a heal.

Upon further thought the Rogue maybe a better option. Incorporating a feature that allows them to use a healer’s kit with their cunning action. And sneak attack is simply their understanding of anatomy and allows them to do more damage.

I don't see much about how many times the character can attack as how much damage the character does in a round. Moreover, this isn't meant to be the party's primary healer. If you want that, maybe something shooting ammunition from a ranged weapon could work.

However, I'm going for a healer + meat shield design. Which is why it gets far less healing than a dedicated healer, and I specified a shield as a spellcasting focus.

Edit: an artificer might fit better than a rogue for the above concept.

All I can say is that you might want to rethink the fighter as your base class for this archetype. The ability to multiattack and heal on the same turn is a bit op.

Taking this into account, what if the healing could be done as a reaction on someone else's turn? Then I can apply a knockoff of the Stone Sorcerer's Stone Aegis, and have the combat medic move up to half their speed as a reaction, take the damage for the target, and consume a use of their healing ability to heal the attack's intended target (all as part of one reaction)?

Something as follows:

Shielding Save
When a creature within half your movement is about to take damage from a melee weapon attack, you may use your reaction to move up to half your movement toward the creature (you do not provoke attacks of opportunity while making this movement). If you end your movement within five feet of the creature, you can choose to be the target of the attack instead of that creature, taking the damage instead (calculate resistances with you as the target). You can also apply a use of your spontaneous healing to the creature that would have taken the damage as part of the same reaction.

This would replace spellcasting and the ability to use spontaneous healing as part of an attack action.

The downside to this is that it would end up much closer to my existing Guardian Protector barbarian subclass.

A new UA came out with a mercy monk that may help to create your archetype.

https://media.wizards.com/2020/dnd/d...bclasses01.pdf

This would make an excellent plague doctor, and I like the trade off it sets up for in combat healing. However, I think that subclass gets way more healing than I am comfortable with. Maybe if a healing monk had a healing pool like the way of tranquility does, but healed by monk die + wis modifier when using the feature in combat. That might limit total healing to be less ridiculous without having the monk heal by 1 hp every round to keep an ally unconscious instead of dead.

[Garfunion]

Here’s something else to look/think about. A rogue thief can use fast hands with the healers kit. If you take the healer feat you can restore someone to life with one hit point with a bonus action.
With the healer feat you can also restore hit points with an action.
So go 3 levels of rogue thief and the rest fighter levels.

[sandmote]

Okay, I've added a new version updated to consider the rogue and to remove spellcasting.