That said, you're actually backing up the theory that offense trumps, still. The bless is probably more important than the cure, and the cure is only one of his many actions in a major battle. That could have likely been accomplished with a healing potion, and it's entirely possible for the DM to make the cleric having to get into touch range for that cure far more costly than the couple of points of difference (2 or 4 depending on the spell level).
You are exactly right. We consider keeping the
bless up a better offensive option than using the cleric as a damage dealer. We also consider
cure wounds a better option for the cleric to get a higher value damage dealer on his feet with a possibly higher level slot a way to sustain our offense. Clerics are weak damage dealers until they obtain
spirit guardians, then they can stack a moderately effective damage dealing combination with
spirit guardians,
spiritual weapon, and their regular attacks, though it does take away from our group capability. It's hard to quantify the value of
bless versus
spirit guardians unless it is obvious the area won't affect enough targets to make it more valuable.
I'll say, against monsters that do real damage, like those hill giants on war mammoths, a good berry is just as effective as a cure wounds, and 10+ times as efficient.
No access to
goodberry. Yes. Against higher damage targets, any spell that gives even one hit point is effective given the weeble-wobble effect in this game. Then again our DMs usually go for the kill when a player falls striking for an auto-crit and two missed death saves and then dead if they can hit again. Better not to fall against creatures with multiple attacks in our games.
This is absolutely true. Mind you, cure wounds falls behind to Prayer of Healing, since it sounds like your bigger concern is total healed per slot. Mass cure and heal are, indeed, very different beasts than cure wounds.
10 minute casting time on
prayer of healing. I do keep it memorized. It is good bang for your buck when you need a heal between a short rest and immediate healing.
Prayer of Healing is useless for combat healing.
Why does your cleric not have a spare spell known? Honestly, in the games I've run, having cure wounds over healing word would get someone killed more often than the hit point difference, because of the range. That's so critical.
I have
bless,
shield of faith,
bane,
cure wounds,
aid,
prayer of healing, and
spiritual weapon. I could probably drop
bane, since I haven't used it. I tend to use
aid as my ranged AoE heal. It effectively does the same amount of
healing word, heals a group, and adds hit points even when the group doesn't need a heal.
Aid is one of the best bang for the buck AoE ranged low level heal spells and it has an alternate utility use as well. It definitely beats out
healing word once you get 2nd level spells.
If you replaced your cleric with a sharpshooter and bought a few potions, you'd probably see pretty similar results. Especially at the number of enemies you're talking about, since keeping someone up when healed from down is tremendously difficult, and you're already worried about your casters being exposed to combat.
No. We would not.
Bless is extremely powerful offensive and defensively. It is like a 7th or 8th level spell at 1st level. The cleric gets so many excellent spells as they rise in the level, the value of the sharpshooter's damage will fall compared to the cleric's utility. Clerics are far more useful at higher level than a combat-focused class will ever be, especially when facing creatures with special abilities that attack weak save and immediately remove the player from combat.
Either way, an invisible imp still does wonders for giving out a heal, and might be less danger for your cleric
The options the trickery cleric has are amazing. The trickery cleric is going to be vicious at higher level.
Makes sense. We had a similar problem, though found that just adding tons of enemies didn't really save things. The group that cared more started playing 13th Age more instead, and the other just toned itself down a little.
I figure each group finds the level of challenge and play-style they enjoy and makes it happen. At the end of the day, having fun with your buddies is the main goal.
