Oh cleric what are thou? When most classes can heal...

[Ancalagon]

Hello

It used to be that a cleric was almost mandatory in a party. However, in this edition of D&D, I've noticed how many classes have healing powers, that usually couldn't. A wizard (subclass transmuter) can heal with a philosopher's stone for example. In fact, more classes can heal than those that cannot.

Xanathar's guide has made this even more so by creating two subclasses that transformed two classes that couldn't heal (I think), the sorcerer and the warlock - into quite strong healers should a player choose to be so.

Of the 4 classes that still can't heal others (I think, I may have missed something), two can heal themselves (fighter, monk) and the last two have damage reduction (barbarian, rogue).

And don't get me started about fast natural healing, the healer feat, magic initiate...

So where does this leave the cleric? Does he still have a role, an identity? Role Playing wise, absolutely (worshiper of a deity is a pretty strong "identity") but "rule-wise", "party role wise" - what does the cleric do?

In 3e, the era of "COD-zilla" (COD standing for cleric of doom), a cleric could easily buff himself to become an absolute monster in melee combat and wreck everything. In 5e, this is less so, but spiritual weapon works really well in this edition (and doesn't require concentration), bless is superb and spirit guardian is just as good - if perhaps even better - than fireball. And most of the domains are pretty good and interesting, and allow cleric variety.

... but is it enough? I think it's great that no single class is "needed". The last thing I want is a game where one player has to "play class X" because no one else wants it and she's stuck with it. 3e's answer was to make the cleric extremely powerful. 5e's answer was to make the cleric not mandatory. But did 5e overshoot?

Some days, I wonder if it did...

 

[Mouseferatu]

Clerics are still far and away the best healers. In all the 5E campaigns I've played in or seen, almost all of them have had a cleric.

 

[hastur_nz]

In my experience (player and DM), it's about 50/50 in terms of having a Cleric in the party at any one time. I think that's fine - it should be a nice option, just like all the other classes; basically there are far too many classes to fit them all in, so no one should be so great it's always in, nor should any be so poor it's never used. Cleric has enough differentiation still, and basically it's still a Support type of class, so appeals best to people who want to help the rest of the group win, not people who want to win all by themselves.

Now 5e's not perfect, it it's close to well balanced in terms of the various classes, I've seen pretty much every single class played since 5e was published, and the players always have fun with their choices (except maybe the odd person who multi-classes) - I've even got a Ranger in my current group (the UA one, of course). I'd hate to go back to the old days where a Cleric was close to mandatory (e.g. try AD&D vs Undead without a cleric lol). Basically, IMO 4e did us all a favour, in terms of breaking the mould and saying yes everyone can keep themselves alive, to a certain degree, but some are just better than others.

 

[Ancalagon]

Clerics are still far and away the best healers. In all the 5E campaigns I've played in or seen, almost all of them have had a cleric.

Oh absolutely - esp the life cleric. But if you had a party with, say, a paladin and a celestial warlock (now that's a duo...) in it, that should be more than enough to heal no?

 

[jgsugden]

They're not just healers. Mock up an 11th level cleric. Run it through a delve scenario with a party. You'l see that they have a lot more to offer.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Oh absolutely - esp the life cleric. But if you had a party with, say, a paladin and a celestial warlock (now that's a duo...) in it, that should be more than enough to heal no?

Oh, sure.

But by the same token, a party with a bard and a warlock can probably do without a wizard. A party with a barbarian and a ranger can probably do without a fighter. And so forth.

I think 5E just dialed the cleric's "necessity meter" back down to a good match with the others; I don't think it went too far at all.

 

[cbwjm]

I love how players no longer feel the need to have a cleric in the party. I've run games that had a paladin and a ranger and they ended up having enough healing when combined with short rest hit dice healing.

 

[StormbringerAUS]

As others have said the Cleric is still the best healer but at times a party doesn't need the best. T me the balance feels right having a Cleric is an advantage for healing but not necessary, also you can run a Cleric that doesn't heal and still have a valuable and very useful character.

As I said the balance feels good to me.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I think that to an extent, the lack of cleric-dependence has helped with the popularity of 5e. In my experience, clerics are not a popular class, perhaps because of their religious connotations.

 

[Baldurs_Underdark]

I believe that 5e was written on a clean sheet of paper, without taking the previous versions (i.e. 3e, 4e) into much consideration. From the point of view of the authors of the rulebook, there may be no overshoot, since they did not consider 3e/4e a part of the baseline. Instead, I believe they just looked at what makes a fun game: Giving players a lot of options and freedom.

It's great that no single class is mandatory in a party! And why shouldn't some nature-wizard (i.e. druid) be able to heal? Why shouldn't the most charismatic person (i.e. bard) be able to soothe?

It's up to the DM to adjust the encounters and the difficulty, to allow short/long rests, and to make healing potions more common when a party cannot heal itself so well. Frankly, I think that you should be able to have fun with a group that is totally out of balance, for example without any healing abilities at all. I would even go as far as to say that a group that is out of balance makes for a better game, because players have to be more creative and cannot rely on gameplay-experience from previous games.