D&D 5E Increased in-combat healing

[Starfox]

we don't have balanced encounters, we have awesome fun BUT a healer is mandatory.

One of the things balanced encounters do it let the players relax and not power play. I suppose that is why they are the norm. In a well-optimized party, balanced encounters will be blown away. But that comes down to play styles. Some like a more wargame-like experience, where the odds are fair and everyone has to do their best for maximum performance. Others like a more relaxed style where the fun is less competitive and more about exploring your characters, relationships, and the world together.

Neither is wrong, but the balanced encounter caters to either a new group that can't optimize, or a more relaxed group that won't optimize.

Discussing what is needed in an optimized group and what is needed to play balanced encounters are two entirely different things. An optimized group needs the synergies a healer offers, and I think that is a good thing. That means the healer actually does some good, unlike in some games where the healer basically just slow things down.

 

[Tony Vargas]

With the exception of one life cleric with mass cures, almost all in-combat healing I've seen has been just to stand someone fallen and very little proactive healing.

True. The Heal-from-Zero rule strongly encourages standing the fallen over healing proactively.

(So y'could just drop that one.)

But that doesn't address what I believe is the root cause that it doesn't heal enough for the action spent.

OK, yeah, also a factor...

PROPOSED HOUSE RULE:
When you are the recipient of a magical healing spell of 1st level or higher or from another magical source like a healng potion, you may also spend HD up to the number of dice from the healing.

Sounds fair. HD are a very limited resource, though, so it might not see that much use, and it adds complexity to the decision to heal, since whether the target has HD remaining and wants to use them becomes a factor.

I was worried about martial types using up all HD and pushing for a 15 minute adventuring day, but then it occurs that they'd be spending about the same HD during short rests anyhow.

That's a question of resource management that your change shouldn't much impact. Ultimately, HD are a limited resource, and the slowest-recovering resource, so they can't do a lot of heavy lifting.

Increased magical healing will likely have a response of an increase in challenge,

I wouldn't think so. Proactive healing can be less efficient, so it shouldn't make the party wildly more potent than reactive healing of downed allies.

As has been noted, burning HD in combat will reduce the impetus for short rests, which could impact characters with significant short-rest recharge resources, like the Fighter and Warlock.

more dependence on a magical healer unless there is also a way to do non-magical healing.

Dependence on a magical healer is a D&D tradition, anyway. Diluting that with a non-magical alternative is, IMHO, a separate issue from the use of healing spells in combat...

PROPOSED HOUSE RULE:
A new action, Rally, is allowed for all characters. When you Rally you may spend HD up to your proficiency bonus. Once you do so, you may not do so again until you complete a short or long rest.

Sounds fine, reduces the need for magical /proactive/ healing (so, again, you'll have less of it), and since you can't rally yourself from 0, makes conserving magical healing for dropped allies a good idea.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

If you have a DM that likes to Challenge a party of well built combat oriented characters and really make them sweat it out, You will have a dedicated healer or die.

If you have a DM that likes to Challenge a party, then it doesn't matter whether or not you have a healer, or if everyone is a healer, or if everyone is a ranger. If the DM is building an encounter with the party in mind, then pretty much by definition, they will adjust the opposition until the encounter is Challenging. If the party is weak, then you throw two young dragons at them; if the party is strong, then you throw three adult dragons at them; if you want to kill them, then you throw more than they can handle.

If you know that the DM is specifically tailoring encounters to make you sweat, then you should also know that not having a healer will make things easier for you. The less capable you are, the less capable your enemies will be. A healer, or a well-balanced party in general, is only of concern if the DM is designing their encounters without accounting for what the party can do - such as is the case in a published adventure.