D&D 5E 5e, Heal Thyself! Is Healing Too Weak in D&D?
- Thread starter Snarf Zagyg
- Start date
This seems like good advice, but off-topic.
el-remmen
Moderator Emeritus
This is another thread that reminds me of how I'm an outlier because most of the arguments for different positions don't match my experience or playstyle.
Both of my current 5E D&D groups do plenty of in-combat healing and post-combat patching up (without risking a short rest). The fact that there is no cleric in either group may be skewing this (in past editions my groups always had at least one and usually multiple clerics or multi-classed clerics).
I know that there seem to be a lot of people that think using an action for healing is somehow a "waste," but while I get that ideally you'd want to be dealing damage not healing it, most combats and situations are not remotely ideal. And if a character has to spend one action healing another character or themselves to keep from going down and missing multiple actions, that seems like a more than reasonable trade-off. Everyone has to occasionally spend actions doing other things and that includes the monsters!
I don't even have the common house rule of potions are a bonus action to use.
It might also be that many combats in my game are very long, so any one action or round of activity is not necessarily as crucial. Heck, the session I just ran on Saturday may not be typical, but it was not wholly atypical. It was a five hour combat that was a continuation of a combat that began the session before. Afterwards, all the players raved at how much fun it was, how everyone had something to do, had their moments of both assured victory and deep concern they'd lose, and one player said it was his favorite combat in the 2+ year campaign we've been playing.
Maybe it is the fact that I run a so-called "deadly" game (though no one has died yet) and that between occasional time pressures and being in dangerous environments, short rests are not always guaranteed. . .
Maybe it is because frequently the motivation for healing is "I have to save my friend!" rather than "I have to make the most optimal action!"
That said, I do feel like long rest healing is too generous and the next game I run I am going to suggest a different house rule for how long rests work, so you don't automatically get all your HPs back. But overall, I think the other modes of healing are fine.
Both of my current 5E D&D groups do plenty of in-combat healing and post-combat patching up (without risking a short rest). The fact that there is no cleric in either group may be skewing this (in past editions my groups always had at least one and usually multiple clerics or multi-classed clerics).
I know that there seem to be a lot of people that think using an action for healing is somehow a "waste," but while I get that ideally you'd want to be dealing damage not healing it, most combats and situations are not remotely ideal. And if a character has to spend one action healing another character or themselves to keep from going down and missing multiple actions, that seems like a more than reasonable trade-off. Everyone has to occasionally spend actions doing other things and that includes the monsters!
I don't even have the common house rule of potions are a bonus action to use.
It might also be that many combats in my game are very long, so any one action or round of activity is not necessarily as crucial. Heck, the session I just ran on Saturday may not be typical, but it was not wholly atypical. It was a five hour combat that was a continuation of a combat that began the session before. Afterwards, all the players raved at how much fun it was, how everyone had something to do, had their moments of both assured victory and deep concern they'd lose, and one player said it was his favorite combat in the 2+ year campaign we've been playing.
Maybe it is the fact that I run a so-called "deadly" game (though no one has died yet) and that between occasional time pressures and being in dangerous environments, short rests are not always guaranteed. . .
Maybe it is because frequently the motivation for healing is "I have to save my friend!" rather than "I have to make the most optimal action!"
That said, I do feel like long rest healing is too generous and the next game I run I am going to suggest a different house rule for how long rests work, so you don't automatically get all your HPs back. But overall, I think the other modes of healing are fine.
Lyxen
Great Old One
You're right, it just applies to both categories.
I mean ... that's pretty kinky. With the whole heals*** thing going.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Hey big guy ... looks like you could use a cure light wounds ....
Ironically, healers are some of the surliest bitter curmudgeons I know. Anime lied to me all these years, those folk are vicious!
MoonSong
Rules-lawyering drama queen but not a munchkin
It's what I like, except extremely watered down and with less and less rewards.
My point is not that long term groups aren't a thing, but that they are outliers, not the norm. In my country Roleplaying clubs are nearly non-existent, and not many factors help to the formation of long term groups. In here we don't have these 6 to 18 friendships. The people you went to elementary school with will be different from the people you went to middle school with and they in turn will be different people from the people you went to high school with. And these people will live away from you, by the time you are in middle school, you have to travel to a different area to visit your school friends, and by highschool, you might have to travel to the equivalent of another city.
Also, we aren't part of the Anglosphere, and apart from the ever-dwindling official WPN stores, there isn't any official supply of D&D books. (I'm lucky to be close to a WPN store, they don't carry any D&D. The store that used to carry it has gone out of business) You have to go out of the way to find the books in English, as the Spanish translation isn't officially distributed either -and well, it is European Spanish which can be even incomprehensible-. Finding people who are into roleplaying is difficult, finding someone who is into D&D as opposed to WoD even harder.
I'm confident I can quickly recruit a group to play, but finding someone interested in DMing is just hard. I have to get my fix online -in English- or none at all. Yeah, if I could have a stable gaming group with a rotating set of DMs I would have no problems. Quoting the meme. "También quiero vivir ese hermoso sueño don Pool"
Lyxen
Great Old One
Having fun should be its own reward.
Why I can sort of emphasize with your situation, just consider that I'm not in the Anglosphere either, I'm French, and what you are seeing here was waaaayyyy worse when I started, there was nothing (I was extremely lucky that I went to the US to improve my English and was so lyrical about something that I had only barely read about that my family offered me the box and I could get it back to France) and in particular not even the internet and amazon to get the books, or multiple choices of online VTTs to connect with people all over the planet, etc.
But then, people who really wanted to play were tolerant and willing to make concessions about what to play. I know that no D&D is better than bad D&D, but it all depends on what "bad" is for someone. Be more tolerant, don't hang up on to your very personal preferences, find people likewise-minded and you will have a great time. I know I did, continued to this day through 44 years of playing, and intend to continue to the very end.
MoonSong
Rules-lawyering drama queen but not a munchkin
I'm sorry if I come as intolerant. But I'm anything but. I have zero room to be nitpicky and I have to take what I can. At the same time, I'm a bit tired of always having to settle for the second or third closest thing to what I want. Back in the 3.5 era, I would have loved to find a DM that allowed Races of Dragon and Knowstones, but never did. Right now, I would love to find a DM that allowed me to play an En5ider Noble -you know, just the class that I happened to design-, but instead would settle for a group that just let me play a cleric or divine soul without wanting to dictate what I do or how I do it, yet the best I can expect is to find a game that will last more than a couple sessions. Just finding a DM that will take instead of random blast everything powegamer is an achievement on itself.
FrozenNorth
Hero
Or you could simply use a 2nd level slot to heal instead of a 1st level slot. That would ensure that on average, your healing outpaces the monster’s damage.
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