D&D 5E Life without a healer

[Zardnaar]

Well the resident cleric can't attend for 3weeks due to work. Was the first session without him last night the 4 4th level PC's (assassin,champion,bm,wild sorc) got absolutely hammered by 4vine blights and 4needle blights as they left the needle blights unattended picking them off for on average 7x4 28 damage a round, while they let them selves get constricted and dragged around by the vine blights 2 PC's dropped another is down to single digit HP.

May also be compounded by one of the weakest Rogue, Fighter, and Sorcerer types available as well.

 

[Giant2005]

I voted for "No-one can cast healing spells" but that is technically a lie. My character is a full caster with healing magic, but my love of spell slots has me doing my best to make sure that the party isn't aware of that.

 

[Raith5]

I have a party with a cleric, druid, bard and paladin. They are all handy with healing, but I am a barbarian so when I rage I kind of heal as well because I only take half damage (But I dont share!).

 

[Saeviomagy]

Annoyingly greater restoration is restricted to clerics, druids and bards, and lack of it will result in many unnecessary deaths.

 

[Ashrym]

Right now (in 5E) we have a dwarven (drunk) life cleric and he does a great job.

However, there was a time in 4E, before we were joined by a cleric when we ran with only me as warlord and a tactical one at that. Fun times..... but then again 4E allowed all the classes to spend heeling surges....

5e allows for "healing surges" too. It's just retooled as spending hit dice during short rests. No value during combat but it includes a lot of healing.

Annoyingly greater restoration is restricted to clerics, druids and bards, and lack of it will result in many unnecessary deaths.

We don't have this spell in our group so I'm curious how it's creating many unnecessary deaths for you.

I was wondering how many groups out there survive without anyone with healing magic.

I answered "full caster class" but I think that's a bit misleading. Most of our healing comes from short rests and the healer feat. I have a bard with healing magic for emergencies (and uses healing for emergencies) but spells are more focused on prevention over healing. His current list of healing spells are healing word, lesser restoration, mass cure wounds, and raise dead. Other than the occasional mass cure those spells aren't used that often. We tend to use bardic inspiration on saving throw bonuses more often than using cutting words for the damage reduction aspect. I would like more bardic inspiration dice if I could get them. Those should not be undervalued as a defensive benefit.

We also have a vengeance paladin with aura of vitality and lay on hands for additional back up, but he tends to like haste. The 10'R aura of protection is helpful but we often find that we're not always withing 10 feet of the paladin.

Other party members are an assassin, battlemaster (DEX based archer), and shadow monk. Other than the paladin, the party is more than fairly stealthy so we use that. We also go for group stealth checks and cat's grace to help the paladin through.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

In my gaming group's current party make-up, no one has healing magic, not even the cleric! As a DM, to compensate I've given out more potions of healing, and generally haven't thrown them into too many adventures where they can't take short/long rests when they need to.

It can still get dicey from time-to-time, though, but so be it.

 

[baradtgnome]

....My experience is that players don't always realise they need to play differently if there isn't a healer, and then look very confused when they hit 0 hit points and no-one comes to aid them...

I voted full healer for one of the games (currently 3rd level) I am in, as we have a cleric. But interestingly enough, in the last encounter my character the Paladin (functions as our party tank) with half his HPs down offered to hold a doorway while everyone else recovered/prepared for the next onslaught of gnolls from the next room. I only asked, "be ready to heal me if I get into trouble."

The (light) cleric replied, "I didn't prepare any healing spells today."

Nice that the cleric in this edition feels like they can do that and not debilitate the party. Bad: we should be communicating better, bad: I should not be assuming healing was automatic with a cleric. Good: that I asked at the last minute and altered my tactics to hold the door, and that I had my own unspent paladin lay on hands. I like the new reality, but after playing D&D since 1979 and several editions I need to 'forget' some old assumptions.

 

[hejtmane]

We have two clerics in the group both multiclass for different roles one wanted to be a fighter/cleric tank role so he will heal if necessary but at level 8 5 fighter (battle master) levels/3 cleric he will do healing when it is urgent he only has 6 spells slots but he has used goading to save several guys form battle master.

The other is alos a cleric/fighter hybrid but he uses polearm and is more cleric than fighter he is life domain and is Eldritch knight yet again he is support and loves the role because he can fight melee he can summon or cast damaging spells buff etc but he does not focus on healing when he does heal he is the most effective.

Then they have a ranger has cure wounds used it once to save someone about to die normally slots are used on Hunters Mark

 

[Tony Vargas]

5e allows for "healing surges" too. It's just retooled as spending hit dice during short rests. No value during combat but it includes a lot of healing.

"Value during combat" is not to be dismissed lightly. And any character getting enough HD healing to approximately heal from 0-full, once, is a different "lot of healing" than a range of more 'fragile' characters being able to do so ~1.5x (6 surges) to tougher defenders being able to do so 2-3 or more times (8-12 surges +).

Right now (in 5E) we have a dwarven (drunk) life cleric and he does a great job.

However, there was a time in 4E, before we were joined by a cleric when we ran with only me as warlord and a tactical one at that. Fun times.....

And the Warlord filled the same formal 'role' as the Cleric, anyway, even with the Tactical build.

In a 4e game, battle healing is practically an essential part of the process. Less so with the others editions, IMXP.

Healing in-combat has always been essential in longer (in rounds) and/or more challenging combats. It's just a matter of style how many long/challenging combats you face.

3e-5e have had encounter guidelines, but you could always deviate from them.

Since 3e, there have been resources (WoCLW, Surges, HD) that are more for between-combat healing without consuming spells slots. That reduces the overall healing burden, giving the cleric (or other support caster) a freer hand with his slots, but doesn't eliminate the need for one.

 

[matskralc]

The best healing is to kill it so fast that you don't get hurt in the first place.