D&D 5E Xanathar's Healing Spirit is 10d6 healing to the whole party out of combat?

[FrogReaver]

I would argue this is the primary reason to ban anything in the game. The vast majority of OP things do something more efficiently than other options.

Remember that 5e challenge is not based on an encounter...it’s based on a string of 5-6 encounters. This is especially true at higher levels where a party can handle “deadly” encounters with ease until they have been drained of some resources.

So anything that replenishes resources easily can be quite powerful...it’s not as obvious as something cast in combat.

Though speaking of combat. If a player is knocked out on the spirits space. At the start of their turn they get the healing...does that mean they get their turn?

If so, thst is an incredible combat advantage. It’s like regeneration but 4 levels lower

I've yet to see healer feat, prayer of healing, leominds tiny hit or almost any other spell that allows you to get resources back break the game.

 

[Stalker0]

I've yet to see healer feat, prayer of healing, leominds tiny hit or almost any other spell that allows you to get resources back break the game.

Funny you should mention those...

1) Healer Feat: In recent feats discussions, several have asked if its OP because of the various reasons we have discussed.

2) Prayer of Healing: This right now is the baseline for a spell that gives back a large amount of health. But its non-combat, and takes a decent amount of time to cast. As already stated, the Xanathar's spell is clearly better in both combat and non-combat applications.

3) Leominds Tiny Hut: Also been thrown in the "is it OP" bucket, because it allows parties to rest without being disturbed.


Now whether they are OP or not is of course debatable. But my point is that out of combat resource regeneration can be powerful. And like anything, there is a level of that which is balanced, and a level which is not.

 

[gyor]

If you also have a Divine Soul in the party they can use empowered healing on the spell too.

 

[Psikerlord#]

Broken as batsh*t. Amazed it got thru playtesting (assuming there was any).

 

[Bardbarian]

I am really curious, has anyone actually had this spell used in their game and had it break something? I see a lot of people saying how broken this is in theory but I have never seen an example of it in play. This spell and a few others keep getting attention, but its all been in theory so far.

 

[Stalker0]

I am really curious, has anyone actually had this spell used in their game and had it break something? I see a lot of people saying how broken this is in theory but I have never seen an example of it in play. This spell and a few others keep getting attention, but its all been in theory so far.

Well this is one where its utility (at least out of combat) is quite clear. People have already noted some very easy methods to milk out the greatest possible out of combat healing. Comparing that to prayer of healing, its clearly the strongest out of combat healing spell that has been allowed to date. Again, whether that is OP or working as intended is up to you, but its very clear how strong the healing the is.

 

[guachi]

It breaks the game when the Life Cleric is overshadowed for healing by a Ranger. It's sad to see your life cleric not cast healing spells. Or your Bard not do his Song of Rest. Or anyone spend HD for HP.

I took it in an AL game for one session and I completely overshadowed the Bard, Druid, and Cleric (the Druid couldn't take the spell as she already was using Volo's as her +1). It broke the game as not only was I best in combat I was best in healing.

 

[jasper]

The relevant text is:



So it triggers on beginning and entry.

hahahaha. Bad guys with Int 10+ walk thru the square too!

 

[jasper]

I am really curious, has anyone actually had this spell used in their game and had it break something? I see a lot of people saying how broken this is in theory but I have never seen an example of it in play. This spell and a few others keep getting attention, but its all been in theory so far.

Twice so far. Once in and out of combat. I don't think it made a major difference in the Against the Giants.

 

[5ekyu]

As a Gm i am wary of theory vs experience arguments when looking at things thru the problem or not lens and i tend to view it in this light:
1 - Does it apply to an important and frequent "case" seen in play where a solution matters?
2 - Does it provide a significantly better option to solve it than the other?
3 - Does it have limiting aspects (circumstantial costs) that make it manageable in common cases? (this could very well be a spell that becomes obsolete quickly.)

Often times, those "way OP" yells out of the box that do not pan out to be actually as severe are because either #1 is no (its an example that really doesn't matter that much to most games) or #3 is no (because there are serious shackles put on the use in practical play.)

As i described in my analysis, its the fact that this new spell hits "better than" on three different levels that slams so much the OP into "reality" vs fret.

1 - its amount of OOC healing is seriously out of whack for a 2nd level slot. it puts them all to shame.
2 - It scales in an awfully poorly conceived way, basically multiplying the effect with each scale up instead of adding to it. They really should have made it scale (if at all by adding time not dice.)
3 - Compared to burning spell slots for OOC healing like Prayer (10m cast for a fraction of the healing) or burning HD (requires short rest) etc this spell massively reduces the "circumstantial cost" to a very negligible (by comparison) 1m runtime.

As such, unless you are running a campaign where multiple engagements between rests is not a balance aspect used much at all as far as healing is concerned, this spell will simply eliminate that "difficulty" in a way far superior to the other options.

A very simple balancing concept that has been used (not just in games) is IMPACT/DIFFICULTY where sometimes things can be more impactful but have higher difficulties that counter-balance their gains when they can be employed. This spell combines much higher IMPACT and much lower DIFFICULTY in one package when you look at the other alternatives - as far as OOC recovery.

Glad to see they have started to acknowledge it. Sooner or later they will likely make the new leash official.