D&D 5E Does “Whack-A-Mole” Healing really happen in games?

[TaranTheWanderer]

I play a cleric who is also the tank. I like to make sure the party has hit points before they drop because If I go down, we have no other healing. But since I’m also the tank, I have to worry less that they’ll be downed despite my crappy healing.
In another game, the cleric can stay clear of Dangerous situations and manage healing. There’s more whack a mole because he can time healing better and he isn’t often the focus of attacks

when a monster is doing 12 points of damage, it’s pointless to heal someone from 5 to 10 hit points if the monster is going to knock hit them before they act. It’s better to wait for the monster to do damage, drop your ally and then healing word the ally so they can attack the monster.

 

[Campbell]

In pretty much any encounter worth having.

 

[Eltab]

Yes. In one adventure, my group inflicted the HP Yo-Yo on a BBEG.
The guy started out by casting Insect Swarm and catching half the group in the zone, so we decided he was a high-priority target. Eventually he went down. His bodyguard fed him a Potion of Healing; he got up and ran. The Barbarian hit him with a throwing axe and he went down. Repeat bodyguard action. Meanwhile my Halfling Arcane Trickster is trying to chase down this guy - running through the bodyguard's space to the DM's consternation - but he's a Wood Elf getting into high gear and I have no daggers to throw at him. (The bodyguard caught up to me so I had to deal with that.)

 

[Sacrosanct]

Almost never as a strategy. The only time was with a grave cleric, which at least made some sense since that was their class ability.

 

[el-remmen]

Not in my experience so far. I mean, if someone is down, getting them up or stable is priority, but waiting for them to go down to heal them seems like a terrible strategy, and that can only work if the DM eases up frequently.

EDIT to answer the actual question: Yes, I am sure it happens. But I remain confuzzled as to why it would.

 

[Sacrosanct]

In pretty much any encounter worth having.

I don't understand this. You're saying that unless you intentionally wait until a PC drops to zero before healing, it's not an encounter worth having?

 

[Sacrosanct]

Not in my experience so far. I mean, if someone is down, getting them up or stable is priority, but waiting for them to go down to heal them seems like a terrible strategy, and that can only work if the DM eases up frequently.

EDIT to answer the actual question: Yes, I am sure it happens. But I remain confuzzled as to why it would.

Agreed. Especially if the downed PC gets attacked again before the healer can heal. Instant death save fails and then dead PC

I don't wait for my car to run out of gas completely before getting more gas.

 

[Campbell]

I don't understand this. You're saying that unless you intentionally wait until a PC drops to zero before healing, it's not an encounter worth having?

I mean I see it in pretty much any difficult fight. Healing in 5e is ridiculously inefficient.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I mean I see it in pretty much any difficult fight. Healing in 5e is ridiculously inefficient.

Ah. The OP is talking about INTENTIONALLY waiting to zero before healing, not when it happens naturally.

 

[TheSword]

Has a person been healed from 0 hp and got up and started fighting, yes.

Does this happen repeatedly, no.

Healing word is the problem. Don’t have this in the party then it’s not a problem.