Party composition has me questioning level 4 feat, please help

[TempyTheCleric]

My party is just starting CoS, our 4th player dropped at the last minute, literally during session zero and the party composition has me questioning the feat I will take at fourth level.

Party composition:

• Word Elf Moon Druid who will primarily Tank using Wildshape
• Dragonborn Paladin primary Striker, secondary Support
• Half-Elf Draconic Origins Sorcerer named Rose (Myself) primary Striker and secondary Control

My stats for CoS are as follows: 12, 16, 18, 13, 14, 19

This campaign will be the first time the other two players will be playing any tabletop RPG in 20 years and they haven’t quite figured out that their classes can encompass more than one role in the party.

Because of this, as well as the party size, the DM is bringing in an NPC to round out the party. He’s not yet decided who the NPC party member will be because he wants to see how the Paladin and Druid play in combat, though he has mentioned Graves Cleric or another support/control class is likely. Which means there is a chance everyone in the party but me will have some kind of healing.

I started paying Rose 2 years ago in an infrequent game that never went passed 3rd level. She is my favorite and I know her very well. For the game 2 years ago, the DM had a rule that if you took your rolled stats in order, you could receive a feat at first level. Her original stats, which helped me craft how she is role played and essentially who she is now, were 14, 16, 18, 6, 9, 18, and I chose the Healer feat.

How she was originally built, compared to her new stats is why I’m looking at feats instead of bumping my stats in the CoS game. An integral part of her character has always been the healers feat. Flavored as these tiny little alchemical concoctions that she uses to help her friends.

So now I’m unsure if I should keep that aspect of her character. I was looking at Inspiring Leader, which could still be flavored to suit Rose’s concoction making, but with a small party, it might give fewer hit points than healer per short rest. Elven Accuracy(which I am planning on taking at level 8) will take my 19 charisma to a 20, which is really nice in early game.


tl;dr:
Alchemist Sorcerer from past game may need a change in feat for new CoS campaign.

Main question:Healers Kit or Inspiring leader?
Secondary question:Should I take one of the above feats at 4th level OR Elven Accuracy to get my 19 charisma to a 20 early game?

[Chalkarts]

I'd say Keep the healers kit.
It's something you know and are comfortable with.
It's also never bad to have a little side healing. You use your healers kit to patch up a wound and stabilize, give the player a few HP, then the cleric comes a long and finishes the job, or saves a spell slot depending on how good you are.

Edit:
If you took the Skilled feat you could have healers kit AND thieves tools, which is super useful for any group.

[Keravath]

I'd say Keep the healers kit.
It's something you know and are comfortable with.
It's also never bad to have a little side healing. You use your healers kit to patch up a wound and stabilize, give the player a few HP, then the cleric comes a long and finishes the job, or saves a spell slot depending on how good you are.

Edit:
If you took the Skilled feat you could have healers kit AND thieves tools, which is super useful for any group.

He was referring to the Healer feat not the healer kit ...

"HEALER
You are an able physician, allowing you to mend wounds quickly and get your allies back in the fight. You gain the following benefits:
• When you use a healer's kit to stabilize a dying creature, that creature also regains 1 hit point.
• As an action, you can spend one use of a healer's kit to tend to a creature and restore 1d6 + 4 hit points to it, plus additional hit points equal to the creature's maximum number of Hit Dice. The creature can't regain hit points from this feat again until it finishes a short
or long rest."

compared with:

"INSPIRING LEADER
Prerequisite: Charisma 13 or higher
You can spend 10 minutes inspiring your companions, shoring up their resolve to fight. When you do so, choose up to six friendly creatures (which can include yourself) within 30 feet of you who can see or hear you and who can understand you. Each creature can gain temporary hit points equal to your level + your Charisma modifier. A creature can't gain temporary hit points from this feat again until it has finished a short or long rest."

Both abilities are 1/short rest. Both can affect the entire party and scale better the more characters there are. The OP has a high charisma to start and will be +4 or +5 ... at level 5 this would be +9 temp hit points to everyone every short rest compared with the possibility of healing d6+9 healing at level 5. Healing comes after damage, while temp hit points are reduced before the character takes damage.

Also, this is mostly in combat application we are considering since out of combat the druid will have healing spirit and cure wounds among other options. The paladin also has lay on hands.

How easy is it to find healer kits in CoS and how much do they cost? If healer kits are easy to get then pick whichever makes more sense to you given the character (probably the healer feat in that case). If healer kits aren't available, expensive or hard to find, then inspiring leader might work out better.

[Chalkarts]

Ah,
I misunderstood.
But I agree that Healer is the way to go.

[Dork_Forge]

I'd keep the Healer feat from level 4, Inspiring Leader is nice but Healer beats it out for me (whilst the main heal is limited once per rest per person, the bringing people back up to1hp is unlimited (as long as you have Healer Kit uses left) and synergises in combat with quickened spell). You don't really need to max your Charisma until 8th.

[Flashkannon]

As someone else who is playing a character named Rose in CoS (coincidentally - my Rose is a ranger) - the healer feat should be very worth it, in part because you can heal the party, but also because you can heal any major NPCs - Inspiring Leader, as pointed out, also only produces Temporary HP, and, as far as I know, THP can't get someone back on their feet at 0HP.

[diplomancer]

They are mechanically very similar spells, but as your party does not have a consistent source of THP, I believe Inspiring Leader is better for someone who will maximize Cha, both for not depending on having access to Healer's kit, but also by being proactive. It's better to have more hit points at the start of the combat, be they temporary or not, than to have to use your action to heal your friends during combat.

If you DO get inspiring leader, as long as you have the time and the speak with animals spell somehow, you can also buff the animals that the druid summons. Admittedly niche, but a fun niche.

[Contrast]

It's worth saying if you want to keep the healing kit theme without the feat anyone with herbalism kit prof can spend a downtime day making a healing potion.

It's also worth saying your party has less HP issues than average (moon druid soaking damage and Healing Spirit...assume they use Healing Spirit anyway) but does potentially have some in combat issues. If your druid is living as a bear in combat they won't be able to cast Healing Word on demand. The paladin needs to touch people and spend an action to heal them which can be problematic. On that front the more people who can help get people up the better but you may be able to cover that just by keeping healing potions on you.

I personally have found Inspiring Leader to be great (with the advantage if you were to find yourself in a hostile environment and unable to stock up on Healing Kits you're still good) but don't have a strong opinion either way so if you prefer the flavour of one, knock yourself out.

My main question - is there a reason you're taking Elven Accuracy beyond it giving a +1? I'd take Actor over that. A more neutral option would also be taking +1/+1 and either rounding out Int or making Wis or Dex odd in preparation of taking Resilient.

[Slipperychicken]

Healer feat's always nice to have. You'll save your druid some spell slots and have full redundancy with healing (i.e. any PC can get all the others back up).

IMO what really matters is the fact that it's short rest healing. Druid and paladin stuff is long rest, so you're taking pressure off those resources. It's very good especially for long adventuring days with multiple short rests.

Even if the math shook out in favor of inspiring leader (I don't think it does), it's not going to be a big enough difference to gut your beloved character over it.

[opaopajr]

Healer. Allows whack-a-mole "Lay on Hands for One" for 5 sp a pop. Only real limit is number of healing kits you can afford & carry.

Inspiring Leader is great as well, but works better with larger groups. If you can ensure more Party NPCs (hench, hireling, sidekick) then perhaps.

Both are solid, but your heart sounds like it is in Healer feat.

[Smoothjedi]

You've got a paladin and a druid in the group. Dump the healer's kit feat and get your Cha to 20 so you can fill your role to the best of your ability.

[TempyTheCleric]

I'd keep the Healer feat from level 4, Inspiring Leader is nice but Healer beats it out for me (whilst the main heal is limited once per rest per person, the bringing people back up to1hp is unlimited (as long as you have Healer Kit uses left) and synergises in combat with quickened spell). You don't really need to max your Charisma until 8th.

OMG I knew I needed outside perspective. It was staring right at me but I never put together the ability to quicken with the healer kit. Thank you so much I think you just made my decision so much easier!! I almost feel silly for not putting those two recourses togeather!

[TempyTheCleric]

As someone else who is playing a character named Rose in CoS (coincidentally - my Rose is a ranger) - the healer feat should be very worth it, in part because you can heal the party, but also because you can heal any major NPCs - Inspiring Leader, as pointed out, also only produces Temporary HP, and, as far as I know, THP can't get someone back on their feet at 0HP.

That's awesome, I love the name Rose. I have been wanting Rose in CoS for a long time and I am so excited! We started death house and I completely forgot that the kids are Rose and Thorne.... And my character also has a baby brother named Thorne .. all her siblings are names after plants are flowers... But it was a super awkward and funny moment at the table!

I never thought about the NPC aspect, that's a really good point! Thank you.

[TempyTheCleric]

My main question - is there a reason you're taking Elven Accuracy beyond it giving a +1? I'd take Actor over that. A more neutral option would also be taking +1/+1 and either rounding out Int or making Wis or Dex odd in preparation of taking Resilient.

Making Dex odd for resilience sounds amazing. And I cannot bring myself to put anymore into Int or Wis.... Her original makeup included those as dump stats and that's how I roleplay her. She's a charasmatic southern bell with no idea what the **** is going on around her and no care to ever know. She just goes on adventures makes, friends and has a great time... Danger? What danger?

Also I'll have no way to give myself advantage so elven accuracy will add a nice little side perk. But the resilient Dex idea is one to ponder over, thank you so much!

[Dork_Forge]

You've got a paladin and a druid in the group. Dump the healer's kit feat and get your Cha to 20 so you can fill your role to the best of your ability.

It's a Moon Druid that will spend combat in wildshape and a Paladin that would pretty much give up their entire turn to heal in combat Vs Healer feat and quickening a spell.

Besides that the Druid and the Paladin are long rest healers and the Druids slots could be spent on other things. Slotless any rest healing is a huge boon (I take Healer on my Artificers and it pretty much fills the healing requirement without touching any other resources).

[Contrast]

Also I'll have no way to give myself advantage so elven accuracy will add a nice little side perk.

Not sure if I'm misreading the intent of what you're saying what you're saying but for clarity elven accuracy doesn't give you advantage, only improves the situation when you already have advantage - if you have no way to reliably gain advantage its pretty limited in its utility.

[TempyTheCleric]

Not sure if I'm misreading the intent of what you're saying what you're saying but for clarity elven accuracy doesn't give you advantage, only improves the situation when you already have advantage - if you have no way to reliably gain advantage its pretty limited in its utility.

Sorry I'm trying to type this up on the phone with really slow internet connection while I'm bored at work. I meant I meant to say that the bonus that it gives to capitalizing on advantage is really nice. But not as nice as the prospect of setting up for resilliant Dex.... Plus I don't have a use for actor with this character.

[Nagog]

I'd go for Inspiring Leader myself. With how much healing is in the party, taking an action to use a Healer's Kit is much less cost effective than throwing out a Healing Word from any of your party members, and granting free Temp HP will not overflow the healer niche and in fact help support their healing rather than replacing it. On top of that, Healers Kits cost money and carrying capacity (if your DM is keeping track of that), while Inspiring Leader can be used regardless of current resources. Considering it takes 10 minutes, you could reflavor it as concocting them a fresh batch of potions. I have a character that uses Create Bonfire and this feat to cook their party a hot meal during each short rest to shore them up for the coming battles.

[Dork_Forge]

I'd go for Inspiring Leader myself. With how much healing is in the party, taking an action to use a Healer's Kit is much less cost effective than throwing out a Healing Word from any of your party members, and granting free Temp HP will not overflow the healer niche and in fact help support their healing rather than replacing it. On top of that, Healers Kits cost money and carrying capacity (if your DM is keeping track of that), while Inspiring Leader can be used regardless of current resources. Considering it takes 10 minutes, you could reflavor it as concocting them a fresh batch of potions. I have a character that uses Create Bonfire and this feat to cook their party a hot meal during each short rest to shore them up for the coming battles.

The Druid will be Wildshaped in combat and the Paladin has no access to Healing Word, so Healer on a Sorcerer is actually the best in combat option. Besides when the Paladin goes down and the Druid is undoubtedly a bear things will spiral fast without healing. The cost (5gp) of a healing kit is negligible seeing how much gold a typical party starts with/pulls in and weight, if tracked, is negligible on an armorless character seeing as you get 10 uses per kit. Availability doesn't seem to be an issue either, OP has said they can start with 2 kits and they will be available but not abundant (I'd imagine the party will be a decent amount of sessions in before they burn through 20 uses though).

In a party with a Bard or Cleric (or non moon druid) i think Inspiring Leader would have more weight.

[Nagog]

The Druid will be Wildshaped in combat and the Paladin has no access to Healing Word, so Healer on a Sorcerer is actually the best in combat option. Besides when the Paladin goes down and the Druid is undoubtedly a bear things will spiral fast without healing. The cost (5gp) of a healing kit is negligible seeing how much gold a typical party starts with/pulls in and weight, if tracked, is negligible on an armorless character seeing as you get 10 uses per kit. Availability doesn't seem to be an issue either, OP has said they can start with 2 kits and they will be available but not abundant (I'd imagine the party will be a decent amount of sessions in before they burn through 20 uses though).

In a party with a Bard or Cleric (or non moon druid) i think Inspiring Leader would have more weight.

For some reason I was under the idea that Healer's kits had 3 uses, not 10, but you are correct.
Regardless, if the DM does in fact implement a Grave Cleric, I'd much rather have Inspiring Leader than Healer, considering. If the Paladin and Druid grow to understand their classes as they should, healing will be a non-issue (Lay on Hands can be more exact and no resource cost, no matter how small, and even Moon Druids cast spells if they're smart. If the Druid has Healing Spirit, it would be remiss to not cast that before wildshaping, as there is no concentration restriction while wildshaped like there is while Raging.

Inspiring Leader allows the OP to keep the flavor of their character's concoctions without having too many cooks in the kitchen, so to speak, providing healing. Considering neither a Paladin or a Druid has ready access to Temp HP (like a Warlock does), and the Temp HP would help the Moon Druid tank (as the HP tank only goes so far, this extends that usability), taking Inspiring Leader rather than Healer helps them remain helpful and it's something that will never become arbitrary in this party.

[Dork_Forge]

For some reason I was under the idea that Healer's kits had 3 uses, not 10, but you are correct.
Regardless, if the DM does in fact implement a Grave Cleric, I'd much rather have Inspiring Leader than Healer, considering. If the Paladin and Druid grow to understand their classes as they should, healing will be a non-issue (Lay on Hands can be more exact and no resource cost, no matter how small, and even Moon Druids cast spells if they're smart. If the Druid has Healing Spirit, it would be remiss to not cast that before wildshaping, as there is no concentration restriction while wildshaped like there is while Raging.

Inspiring Leader allows the OP to keep the flavor of their character's concoctions without having too many cooks in the kitchen, so to speak, providing healing. Considering neither a Paladin or a Druid has ready access to Temp HP (like a Warlock does), and the Temp HP would help the Moon Druid tank (as the HP tank only goes so far, this extends that usability), taking Inspiring Leader rather than Healer helps them remain helpful and it's something that will never become arbitrary in this party.

If there's a Cleric then yes, as I said it would gain more weight. A Moon Druid can cast spells at the beginning of combat, but that concentration could be a Barkskin or Call Lightning etc. And it doesn't solve the issue of healing a downed player. The Paladin can ration their LoH points to pop up 1hp healing (I admittedly have a distaste for that), but they'd still need to lose their action to do so. Besides that, Inspiring Leader only helps you for the first encounter between rests. You hit a second encounter before your next safe rest and most if not all of that temp hp is gone.

If there's a Grave Cleric then Inspiring Leader is more attractive, if there isn't then there's no in combat healing for downed allies that doesn't hurt the action economy of the party and can quickly lead to a death spiral.