D&D 5E Paladin Healing vs Cleric Healing

[FrogReaver]

I'm curious how a Paladin's Healing potential compares to a clerics. My initial thought is to compare cure wounds spells and lay on hands and heal when applicable. Is there any other abilities or spells I should take into consideration?

 

[Gladius Legis]

Aura of Vitality, which as of right now (i.e. while the Class Features UA stuff isn't "official" yet), the Paladin has and the Cleric doesn't.

Also Prayer of Healing for the Cleric.

 

[Zardnaar]

I treat it as half a healer point while a cleric gets 1 point and the life domain a 1.5.

Multi class life cleric 1/druid xyz counts as 2 or 3 points.

Healer feat counts as two points as well at lower levels.

Not scientific and how many healer points a party needs/wants varies.

 

[Stoutstien]

dependent on domain pick. all clerics,Life and grave clerics more so, have better action economy healing where the pally's LoH prevents over healing and is a cheap fix for poison/disease.
you also need to factor in medigation and pre healing like the Aid/heros' feast spells.

the real answer will depend on your party and table play style.

 

[FrogReaver]

dependent on domain pick. all clerics,Life and grave clerics more so, have better action economy healing where the pally's LoH prevents over healing and is a cheap fix for poison/disease.
you also need to factor in medigation and pre healing like the Aid/heros' feast spells.

the real answer will depend on your party and table play style.

don’t care about subclasses in this comparison

 

[RSIxidor]

Aura of Vitality is really strong outside of combat. Its worth noting that the class feature variants UA gives the spell to Clerics as well.

For most paladins, 3rd level slots are open outside of the desire to smite. So its pretty good.

In combat, I think clerics are better off than paladins at healing but mainly because of bigger slots and more ranged healing spells.

There aren't many subclasses in either class that care about healing (outside of the obvious). A couple of both have situationally triggered healing, and the Oath of the Crown has the area healing CD. So I think you're assumption to not consider subclasses is fine, except with the acknowledgement that Life Domain clerics are probably better at it than other clerics and probably better than paladins at it.

 

[Stoutstien]

don’t care about subclasses in this comparison

How about opportunity cost such as action type, resource spent, or range?

 

[Krachek]

I'm curious how a Paladin's Healing potential compares to a clerics. My initial thought is to compare cure wounds spells and lay on hands and heal when applicable. Is there any other abilities or spells I should take into consideration?

Paladin lay on hands is sometime just too god. Spreading 1 hit point at the time to bring a character on its feets is amazingly efficient vs cure or healing word.
at low level when potion are still a good expense this ability outshine the cleric.

otherwise, I rarely see spell slot spent successively to heal someone with cure light wound,

 

[RogueJK]

Paladin lay on hands is sometime just too god. Spreading 1 hit point at the time to bring a character on its feets is amazingly efficient vs cure or healing word.

Lay On Hands is more efficient for in-combat healing than Cure Wounds, but not Healing Word. Healing Word is a Bonus Action. Cure Wounds and Lay On Hands are both an Action, so you can't do much else that turn.

Similarly, Paladins don't get Mass Healing Word, but they do get Aid. Aid can be used is a similar manner, but it's a Action, while Mass Healing Word is a Bonus Action.

 

[FrogReaver]

Aura of Vitality, which as of right now (i.e. while the Class Features UA stuff isn't "official" yet), the Paladin has and the Cleric doesn't.

Also Prayer of Healing for the Cleric.

I'm not factoring in prayer of healing because of it's long duration.
Aura of vitality where it starts having an effect immediately and doesn't last much longer than a combat is fine to factor in.
I'm also not factoring in AOE heals as they have their own set of pros and cons to worry about.

So basically,

• Lay on Hands
• Cure Wounds
• Aura of Vitality
• Heal

The paladin starts off at an average of 61% healing of the cleric from levels 1-8. Some levels are a little higher and some a little lower. However, after level 8 the paladin exceeds the cleric in healing.

Assuming both max their caster stat and don't use spells for anything but healing.

I'm thinking level 9+ a paladin that uses hunters mark or divine favor and focused on charisma will be better at both healing and offense than a cleric.

Thoughts?