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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aberzanzorax" data-source="post: 5956808" data-attributes="member: 64209">Forked from: <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/news/325522-playtest-update.html" target="_blank">http://www.enworld.org/forum/news/325522-playtest-update.html</a>   What if the game were structured around parties not needing a healer? What if standard play involved more caution regarding getting into fights, and more caution about not getting hurt? Healing is generally "natural healing" with the heal skill really being useful to enhance natural healing to a smallish, but meaningful degree. What if 5e tossed the standard "well, we need a healer...who's gonna play the healer?" idea? I'd be sort of excited about players venturing into a dungeon and....actually being worn down over time. Note that I'm not suggesting a mechanic of "everybody heals a lot, all the time, including in combat." I'm suggesting healing is basically not something that happens apart from natural rest. Ramifications for the cleric become pretty cool in such a game as that. First, clerics don't have to be even ABLE to heal. In D&D clerics/priests are servants of many gods, many of which don't care about undead or about healing per se. If the game got rid of healing beyond natural healing (as standard adventuring), then clerics could truly become domain/sphere/deity focused. So then, what about clerics who DO heal?Make it cool, but make it comparable to cleric powers for those that do not. In other words...in this scenario, where healing is not a core daily assumption, but an EXTRA, a small amount of healing can make a big difference. Remove healing from the core cleric spell list and make it a limited domain power (e.g. can cure up to the cleric's level in a day, points distributed as the cleric likes). Then, the healing cleric can give a powerful boost in combat...or he can keep a party going for slightly longer (say 10%ish) than a party without a cleric in those long dungeon delves. So one cleric might pick the powers of undead destruction, healing, and sun/fire. Another cleric might pick war/battle, tactics, and fury. The first cleric would get turn undead, the ability to heal, and some burning power. The second cleric would get martial training, some sort of party buff, and perhaps rage. Healing would be simply one small power commensurate with those of other domains/spheres. Most importantly, if this healing is a nice boost, but not too nice, it remains meaningful, but also doesn't force a cleric player to choose the healing domain, doesn't allow a cleric to lose cool stuff even if he does have the healing domain (because he can't swap out combat spells for more healing), and doesn't force anyone in the party to play a healer class. By making healing optional, it makes it exciting again, rather than a "necessary chore".       Another option, more middleground, is to make healing a "class choice" rather than tying it to domains and gods. What if, similar to 3e's "rogue talents/powers" that they get at level 10...clerics can choose some limited amount of healing from a list of other powers (turn undead, the ability to wear armor, invoking their god's wrath, etc).  Separately, I DO NOT think it necessary (or good) for clerics to be able to attack AND cast a healing spell in the same turn. Healing should be a choice, not an "add on of, oh yeah, you also heal". I also think "free extra healing" would lead to longer combats where hit points go down, then up, then down, then up...until the cleric was out of healing. That doesn't sound good to me. I'd like for healing to be a mystical gift from the gods, not "oh, by the way, you heal some points of damage as an afterthought." The rarer it becomes...the more fun it will be to actually do.</blockquote>

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