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5e, Heal Thyself! Is Healing Too Weak in D&D?
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<blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 8608987" data-attributes="member: 6877472"><p>When I played a Cleric, I decided that I wanted to support my party by being a healer, as opposed to casting other spells. But quickly I realized that not only did I have issues making sure I could reach my party with Cure spells, which put you in the direct line of fire, even fully upcast, I couldn't reliably do more than heal half the damage someone took each turn. It's always been this way, of course, but it feels especially egregious in an edition where damage spells are allowed to be better than they have been in awhile.</p><p></p><p>If I'm using a limited resource, I would think at a bare minimum, my action should be better than an enemy's action, but it's not even equal to it. I know people will say "you don't understand the metagame, this isn't how the game is balanced", but honestly, one of the big issues is that a lot of Cleric players already don't like to heal with their actions, and by making those actions less efficient, it just reinforces that behavior.</p><p></p><p>Yes, out of combat healing is insanely good, and there are spells and class features that support it. Bards get song of rest, Clerics can cast Prayer of Healing, etc..</p><p></p><p>But I don't see why the game has to be this way. A new player sits down with a Cleric and is told "you can heal"! And you know, some players might think this is a cool thing, and try to be combat medics. And they will be bad at their class as a result, because apparently what they should be doing is wading into melee with Spirit Guardians up to do the most damage to kill monsters faster, throwing out an occasional Healing Word to prevent death.</p><p></p><p>I don't think there should be a "best way" to do things. I think either way should be decent, but I've noticed a trend. Every time someone comes up with a better way to heal, there's suddenly a lot of pushback. </p><p></p><p>I know DM's who think Life Clerics with Goodberry is a cheap trick that shouldn't work. I saw the thread after thread about how "silly" Healing Spirit was. The Twilight Cleric comes around with it's THP granting Channel and all the rage is talking about "how broken" preventing your party from taking damage is!</p><p></p><p>The overall feeling I get is "hey healing is bad, and that's the way it is".</p><p></p><p>If you'll indulge me, I have a story about this. Some years ago, an "old school DM" joined our group, and expressed an interest in running and adventure. Nobody wanted to play a healer at all, so I volunteered and made a Life Cleric. </p><p></p><p>Most fights I didn't do much, as I had a hard time getting in range to actually cast a good healing spell*, and when I did, I was playing "catch-up" a lot.</p><p></p><p>Then we finally reached a level where I could prepare Heal. The monsters in a particularly tough battle decided to beat on our Barbarian, and I, finally, had an ace up my sleeve. I walked up and healed the Barbarian with Heal, and the DM <strong>lost his mind</strong>! The game stopped as he insisted I must have read the spell wrong!</p><p></p><p>When given proof of it's existence, he ranted that "this is the problem with new gamers, they get all this stuff handed to them so the game is easy mode, this spell is ridiculous, it needs to be nerfed". </p><p></p><p>Now the older players here will immediately go "uh, hold up a minute...", because I surely did. I popped open my 1e PHB on pdf and bade him read the Heal spell.</p><p></p><p>"If anything", said I, "it's much weaker in 5e". But despite everyone being on my side (and pointing out it wasn't like I can do this in every fight), the campaign basically ended there, with the guy ranting that he spent an entire combat trying to "take out" the Barbarian, only to have me make his efforts useless.</p><p></p><p>As if that's not the point of healing spells in the first place?</p><p></p><p>So yeah, I don't really get the arguments as to why in-combat healing can't be efficient. Why is it perfectly fine for a 5th level Wizard to deal 8d6 in an area, but a Cleric of the same level is stuck with healing one target for 3d8+Wis? </p><p></p><p>Shouldn't my contribution be equivalent to other characters? I know I'll probably be told <strong>no</strong>, and I guess that's fine. It just means I'll focus on doing something else, and the next time someone asks me to heal, I'll tell them "sorry, it turns out that's just an unoptimal use of my action, and healing you is the incorrect way to play the game."**</p><p></p><p>*I know there are some who don't understand how this could be a thing, but let me tell you, when initiative is rolled, the melee decides to scatter to the four winds and when my turn comes up, I have to decide who to try and get closer to and support. Then the next turn, anyone I didn't move closer to, is crying to me for healing, and not making an effort to reach me at all, because after all, that would be a less efficient use of their actions. : (</p><p></p><p>**I won't actually say such a thing, and instead I'll sigh when my 3d8+whatever healing can't even restore 20 hit points. Like I always do.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="James Gasik, post: 8608987, member: 6877472"] When I played a Cleric, I decided that I wanted to support my party by being a healer, as opposed to casting other spells. But quickly I realized that not only did I have issues making sure I could reach my party with Cure spells, which put you in the direct line of fire, even fully upcast, I couldn't reliably do more than heal half the damage someone took each turn. It's always been this way, of course, but it feels especially egregious in an edition where damage spells are allowed to be better than they have been in awhile. If I'm using a limited resource, I would think at a bare minimum, my action should be better than an enemy's action, but it's not even equal to it. I know people will say "you don't understand the metagame, this isn't how the game is balanced", but honestly, one of the big issues is that a lot of Cleric players already don't like to heal with their actions, and by making those actions less efficient, it just reinforces that behavior. Yes, out of combat healing is insanely good, and there are spells and class features that support it. Bards get song of rest, Clerics can cast Prayer of Healing, etc.. But I don't see why the game has to be this way. A new player sits down with a Cleric and is told "you can heal"! And you know, some players might think this is a cool thing, and try to be combat medics. And they will be bad at their class as a result, because apparently what they should be doing is wading into melee with Spirit Guardians up to do the most damage to kill monsters faster, throwing out an occasional Healing Word to prevent death. I don't think there should be a "best way" to do things. I think either way should be decent, but I've noticed a trend. Every time someone comes up with a better way to heal, there's suddenly a lot of pushback. I know DM's who think Life Clerics with Goodberry is a cheap trick that shouldn't work. I saw the thread after thread about how "silly" Healing Spirit was. The Twilight Cleric comes around with it's THP granting Channel and all the rage is talking about "how broken" preventing your party from taking damage is! The overall feeling I get is "hey healing is bad, and that's the way it is". If you'll indulge me, I have a story about this. Some years ago, an "old school DM" joined our group, and expressed an interest in running and adventure. Nobody wanted to play a healer at all, so I volunteered and made a Life Cleric. Most fights I didn't do much, as I had a hard time getting in range to actually cast a good healing spell*, and when I did, I was playing "catch-up" a lot. Then we finally reached a level where I could prepare Heal. The monsters in a particularly tough battle decided to beat on our Barbarian, and I, finally, had an ace up my sleeve. I walked up and healed the Barbarian with Heal, and the DM [B]lost his mind[/B]! The game stopped as he insisted I must have read the spell wrong! When given proof of it's existence, he ranted that "this is the problem with new gamers, they get all this stuff handed to them so the game is easy mode, this spell is ridiculous, it needs to be nerfed". Now the older players here will immediately go "uh, hold up a minute...", because I surely did. I popped open my 1e PHB on pdf and bade him read the Heal spell. "If anything", said I, "it's much weaker in 5e". But despite everyone being on my side (and pointing out it wasn't like I can do this in every fight), the campaign basically ended there, with the guy ranting that he spent an entire combat trying to "take out" the Barbarian, only to have me make his efforts useless. As if that's not the point of healing spells in the first place? So yeah, I don't really get the arguments as to why in-combat healing can't be efficient. Why is it perfectly fine for a 5th level Wizard to deal 8d6 in an area, but a Cleric of the same level is stuck with healing one target for 3d8+Wis? Shouldn't my contribution be equivalent to other characters? I know I'll probably be told [B]no[/B], and I guess that's fine. It just means I'll focus on doing something else, and the next time someone asks me to heal, I'll tell them "sorry, it turns out that's just an unoptimal use of my action, and healing you is the incorrect way to play the game."** *I know there are some who don't understand how this could be a thing, but let me tell you, when initiative is rolled, the melee decides to scatter to the four winds and when my turn comes up, I have to decide who to try and get closer to and support. Then the next turn, anyone I didn't move closer to, is crying to me for healing, and not making an effort to reach me at all, because after all, that would be a less efficient use of their actions. : ( **I won't actually say such a thing, and instead I'll sigh when my 3d8+whatever healing can't even restore 20 hit points. Like I always do. [/QUOTE]
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