D&D 5E Clerics of Life: Broken, Bad Design, or Working as Intended?

[Saeviomagy]

To me the some of the cleric domains seem a little too good - almost like the base cleric has had something added to it after the domains were finalized.

 

[Zardnaar]

@Zardnaar that kind of explains it. Healing word does get a pretty hefty boost when cast by a Life Cleric. Might it just have been your wording that was a bit misleading in your first post? In other words, you were talking about amount (disregarding casting time) the whole time?

I wondered if there was something I missed when you mentioned triple healing rate.

Yep I am talkking about healing overall as clerics fdo not tend to blow all of their spells on healing, the Life cleric actually gets to cast other spells more despite being focused on healing. We normally have healing spread over 2-3 PCs anyway. As I said the basic life cleric heals about X2 or X3 over a normal cleric optimised (multiclassed) ones can heal around 120 hp per day at level 2 and 320hp per day by level 5 or 6 using just level 1 healing slots.

An optimised healing bard can also heal around twice the amount of hit points the level 6 healing spell heals at level 7 using a 3rd level spell slot.

 

[Chocolategravy]

Or oath of the ancients paladin that has an aura that grants both a +1 to all saving throws and resistance to magic damage. (grumble, grumble)

You obviously only have 1 paladin in the party or you'd be complaining about everyone have +10, +15, +20 or whatever to all saves.

 

[transtemporal]

So my question is this: given that the Cleric of Life does seem to make the other members of the party effective beyond their actual level, providing a sort of CR multiplier, is this a problem? Is the class broken? Or is the inclusion of such a class bad design to begin with?

No, not really. The party was probably at full strength and it sounds like they had to expend everything to win.

But if they started out at half strength, blew no resources, and no one died? Then I'd be worried...

 

[PnPgamer]

Pfft, use goodberry spell and you heal 40 points with one level 1spell.

 

[Zardnaar]

Pfft, use goodberry spell and you heal 40 points with one level 1spell.

Yup wondering if Lore Bard stealing Goodberry+aura of vitality and splashing a level of life cleric might be the best healer in the game. Moon DruidX/Life Cleric 1 also looks good.

 

[PnPgamer]

Yup wondering if Lore Bard stealing Goodberry+aura of vitality and splashing a level of life cleric might be the best healer in the game. Moon DruidX/Life Cleric 1 also looks good.

I seriously doubt that dms allow such exploit, though. Mine didnt.

 

[Eejit]

You obviously only have 1 paladin in the party or you'd be complaining about everyone have +10, +15, +20 or whatever to all saves.

What kind of DM would be so foolish as to let them stack?

 

[Pickles JG]

For my part I'm not sure it is. I know D&D4 moved away from this design, but I think clerical healing is enough of an ancient and storied D&D trope that I'm willing to say that the Cleric of Life is working as intended in D&D5, but I'm interested in other perspectives.

Another question I'd be interested to discuss is this: if the Cleric of Life is working as intended, and we agree that it provides the whole group with a CR multiplier, what is that multiplier?

4E didn't really move away, it emphasised it as all healing was combat healing.
Clerics were the best at it & some cleric builds were very good indeed. If a party had 2 solid healers or god forbid 3 the game became very siegy & dull. Far more fun was 5 strikers with a a few spot heals.

As to being a multiplier it is certainly something but so are DaveDash's points.

Healing is probably the last most optimal form of force multiplier.

Let's say you rush 50 humanoids at your party. A Wizard is probably going to be a significantly greater force multiplier than a life cleric.

In order of force multipliers here is my personal rank:

#1. Crowd Control. For example, DC16+ Hold Person basically renders entire humanoid encounters trivial. Undead? Turn undead. Fiends/Elemental's/Fey? Banishment. Fighting two Dragons? Turn that into a one Dragon fight using Force Cage, you've just halved the difficulty. Fighting one Dragon? Force cage him (Adult or smaller) and pepper him with arrows from outside of breath weapon range. Irresistible Dance? Basically as good as an auto surprise round. Note: Spells like Wall of Fire also fall under 'crowd control' as well.

#2. Making sure you don't get hit in the first place by stacking up on defensive abilities, class features, and having a good AC. Never leave home without a Paladin.

#3. Dealing large amounts of damage. Kill them before they kill you. This can lead to 'rocket tag' encounters though if you get unlucky with the dice, which is why I rate it lower than 1 and 2.

#4. Finally healing. Healing is a reactive strategy and generally a resource poor one, especially in combat healing. I generally rate this last. Having a life Cleric makes in combat healing feasible, instead of hopelessly inefficient (with the exception of a couple of spells and abilities).

CC either as mezzes or AOEs are more prevalent at higher levels (your is 8+?). At low levels heals are available & effective.

The way they works is by ensuring that the party always has its full offensive output by all being on their feet. For this Healing Word is as good as a Cure Wounds unless it is strongly buffed as it's likely only to be one hit from defeat. Healing Word especially makes this very easy as you do not forgo any offence (or very much - cleric can still bash or cast a cantrip & he probably was not doing much with an offensive spell). He could even Healing Word one guy & healers kit or give a CLW potion to another.

I agree your other points in general though I prefer offence over defence & healing always feels crutchy. I also prefer not to force people into roles (everyone stealthy or everyone in plate with paladins). Paladins for one seem to be better off smiting than healing a lot of the time.

Whether these have more effect over a few encounters is also questionable as they will reduce damage but healing will recover it between fights more effectively. Probably all you need for this last one is Prayer of Healing though.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Pfft, use goodberry spell and you heal 40 points with one level 1spell.

Where are you getting 40? The spell creates up to 10 berries that heal 1 point each.