D&D (2024) 5.24e New Cleric

[Chaosmancer]

Playtest reports are people are getting it off on all targets 3 times per round, instead of some targets 1 time. Small sample, but I do think it will have a meaningful impact.

That doesn't sound much different from what the best Spirit Guardians builds were doing before, so I don't think it will.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Were there changes to the Life Cleric's channel divinity Preserve Life?

2014 Preserve Life:
Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to heal the badly injured.
As an action, you present your holy symbol and evoke healing energy that can restore a number of hit points equal to five times your cleric level. Choose any creatures within 30 feet of you, and divide those hit points among them. This feature can restore a creature to no more than half of its hit point maximum. You can’t use this feature on an undead or a construct.

Terminology wise, they changed it to not being able to restore above Bloodied.

Actual big change, you can heal Undead and Constructs with it now, I'm fairly certain, since they removed that from the cure spells. Which may end up making this a surprise deadly attack.

 

[Chaosmancer]

You are absolutely right.

A D8 HP character receiving 2D8 healing is in no way too much. How often might one roll an average roll for 8 HP on 2D8?

Thankfully other spells and abilities can pick up the slack like Short Rests and Prayer of Healing plus whatever bonuses a Bard might kick in. Bonus action potions. And if someone does somehow drop we thankfully have stuff like stabilization checks and Revivify.

While danger isn't 100% eliminated, thankfully things our so in the player favor we can rest assured we can all see the adventure through to the end!

While I have always been assured in the white rooms of these forums that 5e is nearly impossible to die in, truly, it must lack any challenge.. I would also note that because of these changes to healing spells my character FELT like a healer, because I used those abilities instead of ignoring them.

And yet still, somehow in defiance of everything people say.... the game with that character has seen multiple party members drop, and only a clutch Silvery Barbs prevented a character death. I always wonder how it is that my groups always seem to face challenges much harsher and more dangerous than anything faced by anyone else on these forums.

 

[DarkCrisis]

While I have always been assured in the white rooms of these forums that 5e is nearly impossible to die in, truly, it must lack any challenge.. I would also note that because of these changes to healing spells my character FELT like a healer, because I used those abilities instead of ignoring them.

And yet still, somehow in defiance of everything people say.... the game with that character has seen multiple party members drop, and only a clutch Silvery Barbs prevented a character death. I always wonder how it is that my groups always seem to face challenges much harsher and more dangerous than anything faced by anyone else on these forums.

I run official WotC adventures. Death was rarely an issue.

The one time I ran a third party adventure, that actually gave the players a challenge. And it was their favorite 5E adventure over all the ones we went through.

Maybe it's just the WotC ones that take it to easy...

 

[Chaosmancer]

I run official WotC adventures. Death was rarely an issue.

The one time I ran a third party adventure, that actually gave the players a challenge. And it was their favorite 5E adventure over all the ones we went through.

Maybe it's just the WotC ones that take it to easy...

That's possible. I've rarely played in WoTC official adventures. I'd say 90% of my games are homebrew or highly customized

 

[Mistwell]

I run official WotC adventures. Death was rarely an issue.

The one time I ran a third party adventure, that actually gave the players a challenge. And it was their favorite 5E adventure over all the ones we went through.

Maybe it's just the WotC ones that take it to easy...

You might consider Tomb of Annihilation. That sucker can be tough.

 

[Distracted DM]

You might consider Tomb of Annihilation. That sucker can be tough.

It has some weird encounters that should be killer but for some inexplicable reason a side bbeg gives up her secret base to random intruders that wouldn't pose a threat just because they showed up to check the place out.

 

[Ashrym]

A D8 HP character receiving 2D8 healing is in no way too much. How often might one roll an average roll for 8 HP on 2D8?

I don't think that was the point.

Healing spells in combat was one of the most inefficient ways to spend actions and spell slots. Why would my character heal d8+3 if the action to use that 1st level spell slot can prevent damage from 5 attacks with a different spell?

Healing didn't need a buff based on character hit points. It was needed because healing in combat was a poor use of resources.

Thankfully other spells and abilities can pick up the slack like Short Rests and Prayer of Healing

That gets back to in combat healing being less effective because out of combat healing is more efficient and in combat actions / spells have better uses.

plus whatever bonuses a Bard might kick in.

Bards were overall nerfed. Removing song of rest removed healing. Changes to jack-of-all-trades removed bonuses. Bards gains some QoF improvements but that's about it. Many bards can't heal at all because they have to choose to be able to do that over other options.

Bonus action potions.

An option that conflicts with using that bonus action for something else. Unless the character doesn't have another option, in which case giving them one seems like a good thing to me.

I also envision this more dramatically in the action in my head. :-D

And if someone does somehow drop we thankfully have stuff like stabilization checks and Revivify.

Not everyone enjoys their favorite character dying. I do get this, though. Overcoming that sense of impending doom is less meaningful when that sense of impending doom doesn't really exist.

 

[Daztur]

I'm trying to be more positive. It's a work in progress.

Honestly 1st level even in 5E is fairly brutal. Those 8 HP or so don't go very far. I can get why WotC is trying to eliminate "level 1" in a sense. Since most people just started at level 3 anyways.

Be that as it may more healing is just part of the issue I have. I've almost always had it with 5E and they made it worse/better. Really, I'm anxious to see all 3 core books in play before I really fully judge it. Though most have said that 5.5 does make the players more powerful which I don't think was needed. Hope springs eternal though.

I can see both sides of the tactical issue WRT healing in 5.5e. On the one hand the 5e version of Cure Wounds can be a real newbie trap and I absolutely HATE newbie traps. But making 5.5e combat overall more forgiving is annoying when it is, if anything, too forgiving already rubs me the wrong way. I think overall on the tactical side I'm coming down on the 5.5e version, I just hate newbie traps that much and have seen newbies call headfirst into this particular newbie traps a few times.

But for the strategic side of the issue causing such a big increase in how much you can heal per day really rubs me the wrong way. If PCs get injured they have just so many sources of healing in 5e and buffing one just makes it take a really REALLY long time to attrition down PCs through a string of shorter combats. And I don't like that. How long it took to attrition down 5e PCs was already my biggest single issue with 5e and now 5.5e is making that problem significantly worse.

If I were to run 5.5e one of my first houserules would be to keep this buffed healing but make these buffed healing spells cost Hit Dice. That allows them to be useful in combat but puts a hard break on the amount of healing you can pump out over the course of an adventuring day.

 

[plecostomus]

Just that it now specifies you can heal yourself with it

Terminology wise, they changed it to not being able to restore above Bloodied.

Actual big change, you can heal Undead and Constructs with it now, I'm fairly certain, since they removed that from the cure spells. Which may end up making this a surprise deadly attack.

I had hoped they would change how it works so it doesn't rely on a bunch of OOC discussion, but I guess it's fine. And if there's Undead that get hurt by it, good!