D&D 5E Refusing To Heal Party Members?

[Lanefan]

By and large in most editions? Yeah, you're pretty weak in melee. 1st/2nd you got one attack with a crummy THACO for d8 damage. It was unlikely you had a damage bonus (a mighty +1 at 16 str).

In 1e the Cleric is not far behind the Fighter in terms of what it can do in melee...anything goes for armour and shield, the only real limitation is allowable weapons. I'm playing a Cleric in a 1e-ish game right now in fact; he recently came by some useful items to help with the damage-dealing so his tactics have changed a bit, but before that his main focus was to get in there and keep some opponents glued up trying to hit him (he has close to the best AC in the party) until the damage dealers could relieve him, and if he managed to give out any real damage in the process so much the better. Worked great! (and turned out oddly similar to the way Defenders are in theory supposed to work in 4e) Party is 8th-10th level, if it matters.

He rarely if ever worries about healing anyone until the fighting is over.

It's possible Clerics are worse at fighting in 2e than in 1e, I wouldn't know.

As for refusing to use a resource, to me that comes down to the individual character. One would think a Paladin, being in theory a Goodly sort, *would* normally use his healing on other party members without issue. But a Cleric who maybe isn't so Goodly can pick and choose, using his healing resources when - and on whom - it suits him. Also, if there's any significant previous history (for good or bad) between the healer and the healee that might also play into it regardless of alignment: "You're hurt, but this time you'll live; and let the pain be a reminder to you to pay your own gambling debts next time we're in town."

Lanefan

 

[Tia Nadiezja]

In 2e, the cleric's combat ability stayed pretty constant. The fighter, on the other hand, picked up specialization and fighting styles, which were a huge improvement.

 

[Mouseferatu]

And again, it's a question of character, not just class. If I've made it clear that my cleric isn't a healer, doesn't prep heal spells, etc., then no, I don't have any obligation to change that because the party doesn't have another healer. Heck, maybe flavor-wise, my cleric doesn't even get heal spells; just because the class does so, mechanically, doesn't mean that I haven't decided that this cleric only has access to other sorts of spells.

Which is why, again, I always encourage the group to discuss this sort of thing at the start of the campaign--to avoid people making assumptions about another PC that may not be accurate.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

And again, it's a question of character, not just class. If I've made it clear that my cleric isn't a healer, doesn't prep heal spells, etc., then no, I don't have any obligation to change that because the party doesn't have another healer. Heck, maybe flavor-wise, my cleric doesn't even get heal spells; just because the class does so, mechanically, doesn't mean that I haven't decided that this cleric only has access to other sorts of spells.

Which is why, again, I always encourage the group to discuss this sort of thing at the start of the campaign--to avoid people making assumptions about another PC that may not be accurate.

There is a world of difference between I don't have healing. And I won't use the healing I have...

 

[Lanefan]

There is a world of difference between I don't have healing. And I won't use the healing I have...

Assuming, of course, the rest of the party even know you have any healing ability at all.

With a Paladin it's kind of obvious. But it's quite possible in most editions to hide a Cleric class, particularly at low levels - play it as a rather non-optimized Fighter, perhaps. In our 1e game I once had a character who came in and was played as a "Ranger" where in fact he was a multi-class Thief-Druid; if ever he was asked to track something he just made stuff up unless the tracks were obvious enough that even he could find them. No-one ever caught on during the adventure he was around for, I revealed it later after he'd retired.

It's even easier to hide a class when you've got another class to cover - a Cleric-Thief, for example, can always run as a simple Thief. And that way you've always got complete control over your resources.

Lan-"an old adventuring companion of mine was in fact a Thief-Druid, played as a no-armour dex-based Fighter for the longest time"-efan

 

[MarkB]

It's funny - I've been reading some of the older FR novels lately, which were written to approximate D&D as it was in 1e/2e. I've yet to see a depiction of a druid that doesn't come off as morally good, even though at the time druids were required to be true neutral in alignment.

The neutral alignments are often a conundrum for players, and perhaps for authors too it see,s.

That reminds me of Jaheira from the Baldur's Gate CRPGs. She's straight-up one of the most moralising, do-gooder characters in the entire game - but if your party reputation swings too far towards "awesomely righteous", she will constantly bitch at you that this is not how "true heroes" behave, because you've strayed out of her alignment restrictions.

 

[Imaculata]

That reminds me of Jaheira from the Baldur's Gate CRPGs. She's straight-up one of the most moralising, do-gooder characters in the entire game - but if your party reputation swings too far towards "awesomely righteous", she will constantly bitch at you that this is not how "true heroes" behave, because you've strayed out of her alignment restrictions.

As I remember it, Jaheira would not always outright oppose evil acts, but would sometimes object to good acts that seemed like a waste of time to her. Maybe it depends on the sort of character you are playing. I played a Lawful Evil character, but Jaheira did not mind joining me on my evil rampage.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Assuming, of course, the rest of the party even know you have any healing ability at all.
*Snip*
Lan-"an old adventuring companion of mine was in fact a Thief-Druid, played as a no-armour dex-based Fighter for the longest time"-efan

yea, no one would get upset at you for not healing if they didn't have any clue you could...

and back in 2e we had something very similar happen... in a VERY high level (Some human straight classed charcaters in mid to high teens) game a character died, and the player brought in a dwarven Barbarian (complete book of barbarian)/Cleric... then played for 4 seasons with no one realizing that he was anything other then a fighter

 

[Zardnaar]

I tried healing them more today but yeah ran out very fast. The DM let me swap out my inspiring leader feat as I was not having much fun with it as I didn't really want to use it on people stealing from me and I was not having that much fun with it anyway.
Everyone has basically decided on going for moar damage and the lack of healing came up multiple times tonight. I'll give them 1 hp to stop them dying but since the total party healing available is now around 12 hit points per day its not looking good. The Barbarian also wandered off by himself and got reduced to 0 hit points and left for dead.

I'm more or less healing myself only and since no one else is interested in taking bard/cleric/druid levels or the healer feat meh. Apparently another person wants to join but is interested in a fighter or something like that. There has been talk about some PCs retiring so I'll see what happens. I don't mind switching PCs but we need to build a half decent team.

 

[Ranes]

That reminds me of Jaheira from the Baldur's Gate CRPGs. She's straight-up one of the most moralising, do-gooder characters in the entire game - but if your party reputation swings too far towards "awesomely righteous", she will constantly bitch at you that this is not how "true heroes" behave, because you've strayed out of her alignment restrictions.

Jaheira is true neutral but she does moan a lot, about almost anything. Having said that, I've just been replaying the BG enhanced editions with a CG lead. His reputation is off-the-scale heroic and she's never complained once about how heroes are supposed to be. Picking up a certain CE character along the way, however, really chafed on her (so I made her heal him all the time).