D&D 5E Excluding Healing Spirit, is 5e Healing too weak?

[Tony Vargas]

Healer's kits are very cheep and guaranteed to keep the party from bleeding out, which is the main reason why Spare the Dying is considered to be a waste of a cantrip slot.

Sure, you could extend 'healer' to any character who uses their actions to heal or even stabilize allies.

if you are aiming for whack-a-mole.

Yes, 5e's combat & healing dynamics do tend that way, 'for efficiency.' Numbers & actions economy tell heavily, so the side that keeps everyone fighting has an advantage. It's also why we so often see the idea of making in-combat healing more effective, so it's worth it to use one significant heal to get an ally back up and fighting for the rest of the combat, rather than perking him up just enough to take his next action.

 

[Blue]

I'm curious: what was the high (or low) point for the "required dedicated healer"? In other words, when was it most vital for the party to have someone who was all heals, all the time? I'm guessing 3.X, but would like to hear from others who have more experience with earlier editions.

I don't remember enough about Basic, but it was definitely around in AD&D 1st ed. You needed a dedicated healer to get though combats, and also get you back ito fighting trim between them. I remember being cleric-less in an AD&D 2nd ed game and spending literal weeks hiding (healing 1 HP/lvl per day) in a cave to heal up to about half to dare to dash for the nearest settlement (several days away) across an area with common wandering monsters. If I recall, it was made worse because wandering monsters found our cave and we had a low-HP PCs like a wizard tanking so that the tanks wouldn't get hurt more.

3.x it was a bit better. If your DM allowed the Cure Light Wounds Wand cheese then you were always healed up between battles but you still wanted one during a battle. Without that cheese, you required one. Though HP inflation made healers drop off in-combat as the levels went up until you got Heal (and then Mass Heal).

 

[Chaosmancer]

So, I think it is too weak in terms that a "Dedicated healer" is going to feel like using an action to cast Cure Wounds or use a Healing Potion was a wasted turn. Healing potions in particular are just really really bad for actual healing until you get to the 500 gold a pop ones. Heck, we had a combat where I had some NPC allies dropping multiple Heals and 5th level cure wounds on the same target to keep them up, and I was barely succeeding.

But, there are a lot of ways to give temp hp, bonus action healing, and out of combat healing that make PCs very survivable. So, if a character survives the fight, it is generally a quick turn about to get them back up to almost full with some temp.

 

[Retreater]

All I can say is that 5e isn't nearly dangerous enough after 3rd level or so. So it's either healing is too powerful (which is where I'm leaning) - or maybe the monsters don't hit hard enough.

 

[CleverNickName]

Certainly not.

 

[the Jester]

No. They rarely get you enough hps to stand against a major threat for more than a round unless you're using high level healing like heal, but I am fine with that. I think healing in 5e is just about right, compared to typical damage.

 

[Zardnaar]

I find that generally healing with spells isn't considered weak, it's just that players usually like to use their spell slots for more interesting things. That's why I think dedicated healing pools like the paladin's lay on hands, celestial warlock's healing light and the healer feat are more highly regarded since they take the healing burden away from your spell slots.

This and you don't get many slots.

Healer feat is essentially a lot of cure spells available. 1 per person per short rest. And they scale.

 

[Zardnaar]

3.x had WoCLW, so there was plentiful, cheap, between-combat healing.

Low-level 1e, everyone depended on the Cleric's first levels spells (plural due to bonus spells for modest wisdom) to all be used for CLW, every day, including days off when everyone was recuperating. Height of the "Band Aid Cleric," IMHO. (Not that 2e really backed off from it, that I'm aware of, but I skipped the last few years of 2e, so there may've been something...)

Before that you couldn't depend on the Cleric, initially, as he didn't get spells until 2nd level, and didn't get enough to keep everyone going. After AD&D:

3e: Clerics could cast healing spells spontaneously using any spell level slot, so in-combat healing was always on the table & in demand, and took their full action, but could be largely eschewed in favor of cheap/plentiful WoCLW (& WoLV) between-combat healing. So there was still a 'healing burden,' but it left a lot of room to go all CoDzilla on the campaign, because clerics got a lot of spells, presumably in the expectation they'd use lot more of them for healing than actually worked out.
4e: Everyone got healing surges they could use to fully heal up between combats, and could Second Wind 1/encounter. Defenders (Fighters &c) also often got at least some self-healing. The 'leader' (Healer) role mostly triggered those surges, with a bonus, using minor-action powers compatible with any other full action, and/or riders on otherwise meaningful powers. Item healing (until late post-E) also consumed surges, so there was no WoCLW effect trivializing healing as a resource.
5e: Everyone gets HD, and can heal between combats, but not in combat. The fighter gets one self-heal feature that scales poorly. In-combat healing uses slots rather than triggering HD, and either takes your action, or takes a bonus action and restricts what you can do with your action, so the 'healing burden' is back, though writ small compared to the TSR era.

2E kinda got away from it. You could have a dedicated healer priest who often got lay on hands, extra cure spells, or remove disease type abilities as granted power.

In effect though it freed up spell slots to use on not healing.

 

[Tony Vargas]

All I can say is that 5e isn't nearly dangerous enough after 3rd level or so. So it's either healing is too powerful (which is where I'm leaning) - or maybe the monsters don't hit hard enough.

What about the way combats and classes are, well, 'tuned?'

Classes have a lot of resources that could be used in a single combat, if it were to go long. BA means numbers tell heavily. Encounter guidelines (& class balance, incidentally) are designed around long, 6-8 encounter days. The result: any challenge is likely only felt on the final encounters of a given day, previous encounters seem 'easy' (even if you're hoarding resources for use later, because you know they're there), and, if the day is too short, all the encounters seem easy. Lead with a hard enough encounter to feel really challenging and resources will be unloaded on it, leaving the party tapped out to the point they'll want to recharge.

Balancing around the 'day' seems to be a significant part of the issue.

 

[werecorpse]

There is essentially 2 types of healing. In combat and between combat.

In combat healing could do with a small boost but is not bad.

Out of combat it depends on how your gm allows you to use short rests & hit dice. If they are allowed to be accessed relatively freely it’s ok. If not it is a bit weak.

Healing spirit is op compared to other between combat healing spells. My players laughed at it when they read it. I’ve banned it,