Cure Light Wounds: Nearly Useless?

[Zaruthustran]

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

Aha, I didn't see that. I saw a similar note about monsters in the MM, but didn't see that bit about NPCs in the PHB.

Thanks!

Hmm, in that case I think Divine Aid or Sanctuary are superior. Divine Aid can help throw off a damaging ongoing effect before it has a chance to kick; effectively staving off the use of a healing surge. And it's an Encounter power.

I've used Sanctuary in games at the very beginning of an encounter. For example, if you know that there are enemies behind a door, hit the fighter with Sanctuary right before he kicks it open.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

I will chime in with my thoughts on the CLW suckatude (I already started a thread with this same question).

Shield of faith (+2 AC to the whole party) cast at the beginning of a combat is going to save a heck of a lot more hit points proactively than CLW will postactively.

DS

 

[Scholar & Brutalman]

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.

I've been looking a Bastion of Healing as a good multiclass power for my orb wizard if he survives long enough. Per-encounter healing as a minor for the cost of a feat and the level 6 wizard utilities sounds like a good exchange.

Of course, I haven't played at any levels above first so I don't know if it will seem as good once I get there.

 

[James McMurray]

I will chime in with my thoughts on the CLW suckatude (I already started a thread with this same question).

Shield of faith (+2 AC to the whole party) cast at the beginning of a combat is going to save a heck of a lot more hit points proactively than CLW will postactively.

DS

Holt Shnikies! I never realized Shield of Faith was now all targets in the burst. That's amazing, and a hell of a lot better than the Paladin Utility 2 Sacred Circle!

 

[Zurai]

I will chime in with my thoughts on the CLW suckatude (I already started a thread with this same question).

Shield of faith (+2 AC to the whole party) cast at the beginning of a combat is going to save a heck of a lot more hit points proactively than CLW will postactively.

DS

Not necessarily. Shield of Faith does nothing against three of the four attack types in the game. If it was an encounter power I'd probably agree with you, but as a daily power I think it's reasonably balanced with CLW.

 

[cferejohn]

I will chime in with my thoughts on the CLW suckatude (I already started a thread with this same question).

Shield of faith (+2 AC to the whole party) cast at the beginning of a combat is going to save a heck of a lot more hit points proactively than CLW will postactively.

OK, but total HPs are not the whole story. CLW allows to to heal the (presumably) *important* HPs (i.e. the ones from the striker/wizard who is being ganged up on).

 

[KarinsDad]

Not necessarily. Shield of Faith does nothing against three of the four attack types in the game. If it was an encounter power I'd probably agree with you, but as a daily power I think it's reasonably balanced with CLW.

Not necessarily. Three of the four attack types in the game result in way less than 50% of all attacks in the game.

+2 to AC for all PCs one encounter per day is huge compared to 25% of hit points regained for one PC in one encounter per day.

Enemies can often do 25% to PCs with a single attack. +2 to AC will often turn multiple successful hits into unsuccessful hits in most combats where it is cast, not just effectively one.

Additionally, +2 to AC will prevent other conditions (e.g. dazed if hit) from affecting PCs if they get missed whereas those conditions will still exist on PCs with CLW.

Finally, AC boosts are rare in 4E. By definition, such powers are more valuable than less rare powers like healing (which has a lot of ways in which it can occur).

Shield of Faith is huge. Cure Light Wounds is ok, but nothing to write home about.

 

[DLichen]

Your theorycraft falls apart when your party is facing a group of aboleths.

Which is to say, yeah, shield of faith is better in the abstract, but CLW isn't worth nothing either.

 

[Zurai]

Not necessarily. Three of the four attack types in the game result in way less than 50% of all attacks in the game.

Incorrect - or, at least, misleading. All monsters have at least one (and most have two) basic attacks that target AC. A very large percentage of monsters don't use their basic attacks very frequently, however. In fact, only 40% of monsters only have attacks that target AC - and even at the Heroic tier only 51% of monsters have attacks that only target AC.

 

[KarinsDad]

Incorrect - or, at least, misleading. All monsters have at least one (and most have two) basic attacks that target AC. A very large percentage of monsters don't use their basic attacks very frequently, however. In fact, only 40% of monsters only have attacks that target AC - and even at the Heroic tier only 51% of monsters have attacks that only target AC.

Well, which is it? Incorrect? Misleading? Or neither?

If 40% of monsters have attacks that target AC only and 100% of monsters have attacks that target AC and a very high percentage (80%+?) have 2 attacks that target AC, how exactly is it a false statement that <50% of attacks target defenses?

Even in encounters where some foes are not targeting AC, most of the foes probably are targeting AC and Shield of Faith is still very useful there.

Sure, there are rare encounters where Shield of Faith will not help if available and CLW if available might. But, the rare case does not make the two powers comparable in how much damage they prevent/heal, it's the common cases that make Shield of Faith prevent in the lifetime of a party a LOT more damage than Cure Light Wounds ever heals.