D&D 5E How has 5e solved the Wand of CLW problem?

[Paraxis]

Wands of healing were never a problem they were part of the game in 3e, they were how you kept going. In 5e, between hit dice expenditures during short rests, every group I have seen having a bard for the most part so using Song of Rest to augment that, and two of the four groups I am in have someone with the Healer feat, I see no need for wands.

At the end of a short rest everyone is at full HP or close to it, for the encounters in between those short rests you have spells and potions. Potions can be crafted by anyone with herbalism kit proficiency and spells like healing word bring you up from 0 h.p to positive with a bonus action and the only down side is you are prone at the start of your turn.

 

[ExploderWizard]

After all, it did allow you to press on and not have the five-minute adventuring day.

We managed to press on and not have the five minute adventuring day in AD&D, without wands of CLW. Once you take away the ridiculous assumption of not being at full HP = end of adventuring day many things are possible.

 

[Sacrosanct]

We managed to press on and not have the five minute adventuring day in AD&D, without wands of CLW. Once you take away the ridiculous assumption of not being at full HP = end of adventuring day many things are possible.

I'll add to this that the 5 minute adventuring day was only a problem if the DM let the players rest whenever they felt like it, essentially freezing all monsters and NPCs in place within a mile radius until the rest was done.

That style? No thank you.

 

[TwoSix]

I'll add to this that the 5 minute adventuring day was only a problem if the DM let the players rest whenever they felt like it, essentially freezing all monsters and NPCs in place within a mile radius until the rest was done.

That style? No thank you.

I've never run a game with multiple pathing hostiles within a mile radius. The PC party is pretty much always self-directed.

 

[delericho]

With the first group I ran 3e with, if they hadn't had access to wands of CLW their inevitable response would have been to spend several days between encounters healing up. And while I could break this somewhat with wandering monsters, that generally only worsened the problem by causing them to spend yet more time healing.

The second group I ran 3e with hardly ever bought (or crafted) magic items, so the wand of CLW was a non-issue.

As for 5e: yes, it appears that it has fixed this particular issue. But given that one of the costs of doing so is full healing of hit points overnight, I'm not sure it's worth it - that was more or less the effect of the wand of CLW anyway.

 

[Paraxis]

Wanted to add that the 5e version is the Goodberry spell. At night the druid, ranger, or bard (magic secrets) can spend all unused spell slots casting Goodberry, every casting is 10 berries that each heal 1 h.p and the berries last 24 hours. Do this every day, the following day you can have a whole pouch full of berries to heal up after fights with.

For example the day before the adventuring party sets off on their next epic quest the Druid not having to cast any spells the previous day expends all his slots before laying down for the night on Goodberry. At 5th level this is 90 berries to use the following 24 hour period, if he mostly uses wild shape and say only uses half his spell slots we are talking another 40 berries for day 2 and so on.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I've never run a game with multiple pathing hostiles within a mile radius. The PC party is pretty much always self-directed.

You've never run a game in a dungeon or castle or near a big lair or hostile town?

 

[TwoSix]

You've never run a game in a dungeon or castle or near a big lair or hostile town?

Dungeon, no.
Castle...hmm. Socially, yes. Not as a place of encounters.
Big lair, I've done a few. Not in my last few games.
Hostile town...I've had some fights in cities. Not a whole hostile town or anything. Two campaigns ago, when I was playing, we found a few hostile towns, and an underground drow city, but we kept running away once we found stuff. There were mariliths and stuff, and we were level 8, so we figured that was definitely the wrong place to explore!

 

[houser2112]

I abhore being a player in a game where everyone is pussyfooting around, and such wands generally brings down the "kick in the door and pray that fate is merciful" aspect of the game for me.

One would think that easy access to healing would encourage the KITD play style, not encourage pussyfooting.

 

[Pickles JG]

One would think that easy access to healing would encourage the KITD play style, not encourage pussyfooting.

Oddly enough I don't think it does. Players come to expect being full hp all the time and get windy if they are not.

The CLW wand solves the problem of parties being shredded then resting for the cleric to get his spells back to heal them then resting again to get them back for adventuring. Meaning a day off between each days adventuring.

3e past 3rd level meant you were fully healed for each fight. 4e and 5e embodied the actuality of the 3e healing - if noone ever used natural healing might as well not bother making it reallistic but instead make it fun.