Last Updated on August 22, 2023
In any game of DnD, the party’s healer is an essential but often underrated character.
Players who focus on healing skills could spend many sessions feeling underpowered until their companions are brutally attacked and they can step in to save the day and restore health to all.
The Healer Feat in DnD 5e makes you better at healing using healer’s kits. This means you don’t need magical healing abilities to heal your companions.
This means it is also a good feat for non-Healer characters who want to pick up some of the healing slack in combat.Â
(For a list of all the Feats in D&D 5e you can refer to our Feats List)
The Healer Feat allows you to use healing kits to stabilize players more effectively and restore hit points as an action. This is great for characters who are already healers and want to boost their healing capabilities. It’s also good for characters without healing spells who want to help out when their companions are injured.
How Does the Healer Feat Work in 5e?
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.
Source: Player’s Handbook, p. 167
The Healer Feat is a simple way to make your character a better healer for your party. It relies on using Healer’s Kits, which we’ll explain further below. In short, the Healer Feat gives you two features.
- Use a healer’s kit on a dying creature and give them 1 hit point. Normally when you use a healer’s kit on a dying creature, you only stabilize them. This means that the creature doesn’t have to make death saving throws but they remain on 0 hit points and stay unconscious. With this feat, however, that creature will regain 1 hit point and, therefore, regain consciousness.
- Use a healer’s kit to heal. Healer’s kits are typically only used to stabilize unconscious creatures. With the Healer Feat, however, you can also use them to restore 1d6 + 4 + hit points equal to the creature’s hit dice. This can only be used once on each creature in between short and long rests.
At low levels, the Healer Feat can be pretty powerful. Being able to use a Healer’s Kit to restore a hit point to an unconscious creature could be the difference between life and death.
The restoring power of the Healer Feat is also great when typical Healer characters, such as Clerics and Druids, haven’t gotten their higher-level healing spells yet.
What Is a Healer’s Kit and How Does It Work?
Healer’s Kit. This kit is a leather pouch containing bandages, salves, and splints. The kit has ten uses. As an action, you can expend one use of the kit to stabilize a creature that has 0 hit points, without needing to make a Wisdom (Medicine) check.
Source: Player’s Handbook, p. 151
Healer’s Kits are typically only used for stabilizing unconscious creatures. When you stabilize an unconscious creature, that creature does not need to make death saving throws unless they take damage again.
They remain on 0 hit points and remain unconscious until they regain hit points through healing or they regain 1 hit point after 1d4 hours. You can stabilize a creature by making a Wisdom (Medicine) check OR using a Healer’s Kit.
Healer’s Kits can be bought from any shop that sells adventuring gear. They cost 5 gold pieces, weigh 3lbs, and have 10 uses.
As described above, the Healer Feat makes you better at using Healer’s Kits. Creatures regain 1 hit point when you stabilize them and you can also use them to restore hit points to yourself or another creature.
Who Can Take the Healer Feat?
Anyone can take the Healer Feat in DnD 5e. The question you might be asking, however, is who should take the Healer Feat. There are generally two types of player characters who may want to take the Healer Feat.
- Healers. If your character has a Healer build – for example, you’re a Life Cleric, an Artificer Alchemist, or a Circle of Dreams Druid – then the Healer Feat will make you an even better Healer. If you want to play a Healer character in DnD, check out our list of the Top Healers in DnD 5e.
- Non-magic characters who want to help. Maybe you’re a Fighter who wants to help your companions if they get hit, but you don’t have any magical healing powers. The Healer Feat is great for characters who have no other healing capabilities but would like to be able to heal their companions when needed.
Common Questions About the Healer Feat
The Healer Feat is simple to use, but you may still have some questions about it before you decide to take this feat. Here are some common questions about the Healer Feat.
Is the Healer Feat good?
The Healer Feat is a great feat in most campaigns as extra healing powers in the party are always useful. The Healer Feat is especially good for gritty realism campaigns with lots of combat and few rests and for characters at lower levels.
Is the Healer Feat overpowered?
There’s a common complaint that the Healer Feat is overpowered. While the Healer Feat can be a game-changer for characters at low levels, it does take up a feat slot that could be used for something else.
Long rests and the healing powers of Healer characters restore more hit points than the Healer Feat, so it’s not overpowered when you can rest and heal each other by other means.
Do you need proficiency to use a Healer’s Kit?
No – you do not need any proficiencies (for example, in Medicine) to use a Healer’s Kit. Anyone can use the Healer’s Kit. Likewise, you don’t need a proficiency in Medicine to take the Healer Feat.
If you’re looking for other Feats, try these two:
Great Weapon Master Feat 5e
Heavily Armored Feat 5e
Rich is an avid D&D player and DM. He has been playing since the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st and 2nd editions. He has run campaigns of various editions with family and friends for over 20 years. Playing DnD 5th Edition in person at local game stores and online with VTT’s over the past 10 years has provided a consistent connection to how the game has grown. He strongly believes in understanding the source material, but catering the games to your individual players. Feel free to ask anything in the comments or drop him an email: [email protected].
