At my table:Do people play it is such a way that monsters don't notice that the target has been healed and only realise that when he/she stands up, or do they give him another whack, which would instantly put the target back to zero, defeating the purpose of HW (although I acknowledge that it would at the very least delay the onset of death saves by a round).
I found it funny how fast that video was followed by threads here and in fb groups etc parroting the issue.I saw the video bashing Healing Word as well and listened to the arguments about how its a completely OP spell that is ruining the game.
I disagree.
In the games I run, if a Player goes down I do not have enemies attack the downed players unless that player is caught in an AoE. If a downed player receives a Healing Word to bring them back up, I do not have enemies target them specifically until they get up or take an action. As the saying goes, "if the DM wants to kill the players he can do it at any time". I think the FEAR of death is more important that trying to screw the players over. And yet I still have a reputation as a "Killer" DM at our table. =/
I have observed much discussion about the supposedly overpowered nature of Healing Word, because of its range and bonus action deployment. What I don't understand: in a melee fight with multiple foes, it's super likely that, in the order of play, a foe comes between the healer and the healed, who has very few HP, and is still slumped on the ground, so easy to hit, with advantage even.
Do people play it is such a way that monsters don't notice that the target has been healed and only realise that when he/she stands up, or do they give him another whack, which would instantly put the target back to zero, defeating the purpose of HW (although I acknowledge that it would at the very least delay the onset of death saves by a round).
But in any case, because of this, I don't quite see the danger of the game descending into whackamole mode... Or am I missing something?
PS: I understand that positioning play a role, etc, but usually, players fight against a larger number of foes, so someone is always bound to stand near the dropped player, esp if HW is cast right after the drop. And monsters often have multiattack, so they could easily knock back out the target, and continue fighting the other players...?