Cure Light Wounds: Nearly Useless?

[DLichen]

My fighter uses a board, you know
Bought a statline of 20, 13, 13, 10, 10, 8 .. but nonetheless optimised characters and/or parties do not neglect defense.

There we go, sometimes you need to cover both areas and in certain squishy parties the extra healing comes in handy.

 

[Danceofmasks]

Well, this whole spiel started 'cos I took umbrage at the notion that a fighter that can't hit is doing his job.

Well, if a party has plenty trouble hitting, they will lose more often than a party that is a little squishier for not having cure light wounds.

 

[KarinsDad]

It really depends on what you're fighting and what the play style of your group is. It's oversimplification to state that one way is always better than the other.

Actually, I agree with Danceofmasks.

Healing uses up a daily resource: healing surges. At will and Per Encounter powers do not.

Our 1st level group (now 2nd) just went through 7 encounters in a single game day and will be stopping because we are low on healing surges, not because we used 4 of our 5 daily powers.

Both offense and healing are necessary, but taking opponents out faster is the key to success in 4E. We have one of each role plus an extra Striker and the two Strikers, the Leader, and the Controller all concentrate on the most damaged (i.e. bloodied if possible) foe(s) in combat unless something else takes precedence (such as healing a seriously wounded ally or bursting an entire group of foes). The defender concentrates on keeping foes away from the rest of the group.

Just like in all editions of DND (or any other RPG), enemy numbers matter because greater enemy numbers result in more actions per round for the opposition than fewer enemy numbers.

 

[DLichen]

Actually, I agree with Danceofmasks.

Healing uses up a daily resource: healing surges. At will and Per Encounter powers do not.

Our 1st level group (now 2nd) just went through 7 encounters in a single game day and will be stopping because we are low on healing surges, not because we used 4 of our 5 daily powers.

Both offense and healing are necessary, but taking opponents out faster is the key to success in 4E. We have one of each role plus an extra Striker and the two Strikers, the Leader, and the Controller all concentrate on the most damaged (i.e. bloodied if possible) foe(s) in combat unless something else takes precedence (such as healing a seriously wounded ally or bursting an entire group of foes). The defender concentrates on keeping foes away from the rest of the group.

Just like in all editions of DND (or any other RPG), enemy numbers matter because greater enemy numbers result in more actions per round for the opposition than fewer enemy numbers.

Interesting, for me it's usually the dailies that holds the group back. But that may also because we only have 4 players. When each daily can clear an encounter solo, having to stick only to encounters hurt.

I'll concede the point that in your party damage output is better. But in our Cleric, Wizard, Warlock, Ranger party, we desperately need more healing when the ranger and cleric routinely bite it every day.

 

[Zaruthustran]

Cure Light Wounds is great because you can use it to heal NPCs. Healing Word won't work on most NPCs since most NPCs don't have any surges to spend.

 

[Exasperation]

Cure Light Wounds is great because you can use it to heal NPCs. Healing Word won't work on most NPCs since most NPCs don't have any surges to spend.

Don't you mean 'NPCs only have a small (but nonzero) number of surges to spend (PHB p. 293)'?

 

[Keenath]

Bastion of Healing is superior to Healing Word if your charisma is 18 or better.

Healing word gives you surge+3.5 (on average), and if you're a cleric you get to add wisdom to that via Healer's Lore. Bastion gives you surge+charisma and wisdom via Healer's Lore. If your charisma is +4 or better, then Bastion is superior (and only continues to improve over time).

It's also useful if you want one more Heal per combat, or if you've multiclassed into cleric and you need additional healing power because you can only use Word once per encounter.

 

[Zurai]

Bastion of Healing is superior to Healing Word if your charisma is 18 or better.

Healing word gives you surge+3.5 (on average), and if you're a cleric you get to add wisdom to that via Healer's Lore. Bastion gives you surge+charisma and wisdom via Healer's Lore. If your charisma is +4 or better, then Bastion is superior (and only continues to improve over time).

It's also useful if you want one more Heal per combat, or if you've multiclassed into cleric and you need additional healing power because you can only use Word once per encounter.

You're forgetting that, at level 6 when you become eligible for Bastion of Healing, your Healing Surge is healing surge + 2d6 (avg 7).

 

[Doomhawk]

By the time you get Bastion of Healing, Healing Word adds 2d6. And further extra dice will accrue far faster than your Charisma bonus will increase. That said, Bastion of Healing could still be very nice - in the sessions I've played, my cleric quite often runs out of healing powers, in spite of having two Healing Words, Healing Strike, and Raven Queen's Blessing.

 

[KarinsDad]

Interesting, for me it's usually the dailies that holds the group back. But that may also because we only have 4 players. When each daily can clear an encounter solo, having to stick only to encounters hurt.

Our dailies are helpful, but they do not clear an encounter solo.

I'll concede the point that in your party damage output is better. But in our Cleric, Wizard, Warlock, Ranger party, we desperately need more healing when the ranger and cleric routinely bite it every day.

We also have a Cleric, Wizard, Warlock, and Ranger. We just happen to have a Paladin as well. It makes a pretty big difference to have a Defender up front whose job is not so much to take out foes (although that helps when it occurs), but to primarily slow them up.

Our Paladin has a 20 AC. Our Cleric and Ranger have 16 and 17 respectively (or at least that was their 1st level ACs, everyone went up by 1 for 2nd level). That too is a big difference when more standard attacks go up against the higher AC. I can see where your group would need a lot of healing because it is missing a fairly important defensive role. The player of our Cleric was whining quite a bit about being hit a lot on the first week (the DM allowed everyone a one time re-modification of their PCs for week 2 and the Cleric player replaced his first level feat with Light Shield Proficiency, just to bump AC up by one).

Your group probably has this issue in spades without a Defender. Time to start using cover for everyone.