D&D 5E Clerics of Life: Broken, Bad Design, or Working as Intended?

[Chocolategravy]

I have always disliked the whackamole aspect to Dnd with PCs hitting zero then bouncing back up next round. Which is probably exacerbated by a life cleric.

This is why we use the injury rules! Nearly any combat can have a lasting/meaningful effect. I should not I have changed the injury rules a little - any effect cured by "magical healing" requires restoriation, greater restoration or 6th level + magic. And I give death saves for lost limb etc - if they make the save, just fractured/broken limb, not lost.

I don't have a problem with people bouncing back up when a PC channels the powers of a god to cause it to happen. When people can whip out a healing kit in the middle of combat and do the same thing in a few seconds I'm a little less happy.

 

[DaveDash]

Healing is probably the last most optimal form of force multiplier.

Let's say you rush 50 humanoids at your party. A Wizard is probably going to be a significantly greater force multiplier than a life cleric.

In order of force multipliers here is my personal rank:

#1. Crowd Control. For example, DC16+ Hold Person basically renders entire humanoid encounters trivial. Undead? Turn undead. Fiends/Elemental's/Fey? Banishment. Fighting two Dragons? Turn that into a one Dragon fight using Force Cage, you've just halved the difficulty. Fighting one Dragon? Force cage him (Adult or smaller) and pepper him with arrows from outside of breath weapon range. Irresistible Dance? Basically as good as an auto surprise round. Note: Spells like Wall of Fire also fall under 'crowd control' as well.

#2. Making sure you don't get hit in the first place by stacking up on defensive abilities, class features, and having a good AC. Never leave home without a Paladin.

#3. Dealing large amounts of damage. Kill them before they kill you. This can lead to 'rocket tag' encounters though if you get unlucky with the dice, which is why I rate it lower than 1 and 2.

#4. Finally healing. Healing is a reactive strategy and generally a resource poor one, especially in combat healing. I generally rate this last. Having a life Cleric makes in combat healing feasible, instead of hopelessly inefficient (with the exception of a couple of spells and abilities).

 

[Riley37]

On a tangent, a Lore Bard can also supplement the party's durability by applying Cutting Words to foe's damage rolls, which is how my PC kept the party's warlock from dropping in our last combat. That's a much smaller scale than Life Cleric healing, though - even at perfect efficiency, it's only a few dice total.

 

[DaveDash]

On a tangent, a Lore Bard can also supplement the party's durability by applying Cutting Words to foe's damage rolls, which is how my PC kept the party's warlock from dropping in our last combat. That's a much smaller scale than Life Cleric healing, though - even at perfect efficiency, it's only a few dice total.

And Lore Bards can throw around CC spells like a champ.

Light Cleric can also throw around flares at a certain level (6?) to prevent PC's from getting hit.

 

[Gadget]

I would question that an in combat "healer" role is a traditional D&D archetype. If I remember, back in the day (others may have had different experiences), in combat healing was a somewhat rare occurrence, though not an unheard of event. The cleric did not have healing spells at all spell levels and was expected to contribute as second line fighter, particularly in the early levels. Where the cleric was viewed as 'necessary' was patching the party up (usually the fighter) in between encounters to continue and extend the adventuring day. One bad or unlucky (random) encounter could really put a crimp on a parties ability to continue, to the point where it would be suicidal to continue. I think it was in 3e and later systems that the up-down, up-down in combat healing really changed encounter dynamics.

 

[Unwise]

My issue with Life Clerics is that some of my players feel that if they want to use non-healing spells, they need to play a Life Cleric, which is kind of the opposite of intent.

The reason is twofold A) the group will always need heals, so any other cleric has to spend a good portion of their prepared spells on healing. The Life Cleric can prepare more blasty spells and buffs than other clerics can in practice, and B) The cleric heals more per spell, therefore they have to spend less of their spell slots of healing too, once again allowing them to use blasting spells.

It just seemed odd to my players that if somebody wanted to play something more similar to a 4e Invoker but still be able to heal, Life Cleric was a very solid choice.

 

[Psikerlord#]

I would question that an in combat "healer" role is a traditional D&D archetype. If I remember, back in the day (others may have had different experiences), in combat healing was a somewhat rare occurrence, though not an unheard of event. The cleric did not have healing spells at all spell levels and was expected to contribute as second line fighter, particularly in the early levels. Where the cleric was viewed as 'necessary' was patching the party up (usually the fighter) in between encounters to continue and extend the adventuring day. One bad or unlucky (random) encounter could really put a crimp on a parties ability to continue, to the point where it would be suicidal to continue. I think it was in 3e and later systems that the up-down, up-down in combat healing really changed encounter dynamics.

Yeah I think this is true. It used to cost your attack to cast cure light wounds, so generally it wasnt worth casting in combat, except when desperate. Now with the healing words, you can pop your ally back to his feet from range and as a bonus action - both the handicaps of cure wounds are gone, in lieu you only get a small healing amount... but there is no tough choice anymore when an ally drops to zero. It is a simple level 1 slot to get him back on his feet (whether he stays on his feet much longer is another matter, depending on all the circumstances, but there is no doubt it is easier for PCs to win battles with healing word in the mix).

 

[Chocolategravy]

In order of force multipliers here is my personal rank:

You've missed a lot. Some of the best are getting bitten by a lycanthrope and having damage immunity. 2 or 3 barb levels for 50% damage mitigation. Abjuration wizard for damage absorption.

 

[Tormyr]

You've missed a lot. Some of the best are getting bitten by a lycanthrope and having damage immunity. 2 or 3 barb levels for 50% damage mitigation. Abjuration wizard for damage absorption.

Or oath of the ancients paladin that has an aura that grants both a +1 to all saving throws and resistance to magic damage. (grumble, grumble)

 

[DaveDash]

You've missed a lot. Some of the best are getting bitten by a lycanthrope and having damage immunity. 2 or 3 barb levels for 50% damage mitigation. Abjuration wizard for damage absorption.

I would classify all that as 'Defensive Abilities' and come under #2. Damage immunity = not getting hit effectively. Barb levels = not getting hit by half damage. Abjuration Wizard = not getting hit.

Obviously I'm not putting together an exhaustive list either, but rather putting forward the concept that healing is the lowest ranked force multiplier in my opinion.