The Crimson Binome
Hero
It depends on the nature of the dungeon, but it's more-or-less genre appropriate. It happens in stories.
D&D 5E An alternative to eight hour healing
CapnZapp
Legend
The point is that 5e is different.
Its combat is geared toward heroes' hit points being enough to last through the current combat. Instead of having one character spending its actions on healing, you can have high-CON builds, use feats like Inspired Leader and Healer, and generally focus on offense and tactics to take down the monsters before they can hurt you.
Of course, this doesn't work if your party is used to a defensive or role-playing focus.
So switch out your social builds, your shield master builds, accept feats in your game, be liberal with magic items (at least healing potions!) and you can liberate the cleric from having to heal in combat.
Instead optimize on DPR (which mostly boils down to creating greatweapon wielders) and have the Cleric go on the offensive as well (this is very important: one of the main reasons any group would feel they need a combat medic is precisely because one out of a group of five isn't contributing to the offense!)
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Its combat is geared toward heroes' hit points being enough to last through the current combat. Instead of having one character spending its actions on healing, you can have high-CON builds, use feats like Inspired Leader and Healer, and generally focus on offense and tactics to take down the monsters before they can hurt you.
Of course, this doesn't work if your party is used to a defensive or role-playing focus.
So switch out your social builds, your shield master builds, accept feats in your game, be liberal with magic items (at least healing potions!) and you can liberate the cleric from having to heal in combat.
Instead optimize on DPR (which mostly boils down to creating greatweapon wielders) and have the Cleric go on the offensive as well (this is very important: one of the main reasons any group would feel they need a combat medic is precisely because one out of a group of five isn't contributing to the offense!)
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Tony Vargas
Legend
It's meant to be adaptable to different styles, too.
It's combats are geared towards speed, mainly. That can mean everyone makes it through without getting dropped, and it can mean that healing actions can be 'wasted' compared to moar offense - but it can also mean a PC gets dropped early, and the loss of that combat contribution puts the party behind the monsters and it spirals from there.
In-combat healing is as much a necessity in 5e as in any prior edition, but mainly as a sort of safety-valve to enable that tuning for fast combat. The presence of a bonus action healing word, and the relative weakness of healing spells compared to the damage potentials you're likely to face point to that - and also, incidentally and presumably unintentionally, lead to whack-a-mole.
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CapnZapp
Legend
Yeah, no.
In 3e the system pretty much mandated a cleric (that healed). Just like d20 adventures often assume a wizard/sorcerer - Monte Cook is legendary for creating adventures that simply can't be defeated without specific high-level spells.
I see none of that in 5e.
Re: wizards, there is absolutely no assumption of any particular classes present in a 5e party, which is a huge relief.
And re: clerics, my play experience has shown me the system simply doesn't require combat healing.
In fact, having to depend only on healing potions, hit dice, feats like Healer, temp hp, and the odd magic doodad arguably makes for a BETTER 5e experience, since it cranks up the difficulty level (and thus level of fun and excitement) from its dismally low default setting!
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Tony Vargas
Legend
Or CoDzilla that stomped everything before it could be hurt. Or a bunch of wands that converted gp to hp...
... but, yes, ultimately healing was necessary in every edition. 5e included. 4e & 5e just shared out some of the 'burden' among the party, in the form of surges & HD, but 5e is more dependent on slots for in-combat healing, since HD can't be spent in a fight, and only the fighter has token 'Second Wind.
There is a lot of overlap in spell lists, certainly, so any odd combination of casters might cover for the traditional Cleric & Wizard.
And, with everyone casting spontaneously, it's just that much more likely that someone will not only have the right spell for the job, but actually be able to cast it. So, sure, no assumption of a specific class, just of healing being available, whether via cleric, bard, paladin or druid - or just an improbably a huge volume of healing potions - doesn't really matter.
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GMMichael
Guide of Modos
It still requires an adjustment on the DM's part. And the players' part.
The DM has a responsibility to give the players a game in which they feel the danger of failure or death, but don't actually reach it.
The players have a responsibility to make decisions that don't lead inexorably to failure or death.
5e, with the long rest rule, seems to be a nod in the Thor Ragnarok direction, in which the main character(s) over the course of the adventure hits zero HP once, makes his death save, and then has full HP when he wakes up the next day. The DM can adjust (for no clerics in the party) by reducing the amount of difficult (fair) fights in the adventure, the players can adjust by not choosing combat every time someone disagrees with them, but the game doesn't change: it's still supposed to look like a Marvel superhero movie, not Game of Thrones.
If you want gritty, go with Zweihander.
Alexemplar
First Post
This is pretty much the standard in most action films, not just the super hero genre. Protagonists suffer superficial injuries and fatigue that have nothing but cosmetic impact on their performance from one scene to the next, let alone from day to day. Very rarely is a protagonist left disabled because they're too beat up/tired to continue, unless they just completed a climactic battle.
Doesn't keep them from losing. It just means that if they lose, it's generally because they lost to someone who was really tough, not because they got worn down by chaffe and the final opponent just finished them off after they were already badly battered/injured.
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MostlyHarmless42
Adventurer
If you go tweaking the rest rules, I just point out what should be obvious: the game's difficulty is balanced around players healing to full with each long rest. This is particularly noticeable with both low levels (where the game is SUPER lethal), and the higher levels, where most monsters can literally do a player's health in one round if it decides to focus fire. Giving the players back less health per long rest is fine, but you then need to factor in encounter balances. The monsters should realistically not all be at full health/power when they fight the players, as they are part of the same world. Changing rests effects NPC'S just as much. Alternatively, you will need to reduce the fights they have per day, or the difficulty of said fights, or both.
I never suggested giving the players less health for their eight hours. I LIKE the fact that they can heal to full in eight hours. I just want a different way of accomplishing it.
I created an Action called:
Refresh. As an action, you may spend one Healing Die per point of Constitution modifier. You must take the result of the roll. You may not use this action if you are out of Healing Dice.
It has worked out quite well. The individual PC is now in more control of their healing, and the need for a battle healer is lessoned.
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