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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 6461998" data-attributes="member: 22779">Since when is "healer" a role?  The history of the game never defaulted to that.  Cleric's were much more than just "healers", or, at least, in AD&D they were.  They were second to fighters in term of melee damage and, at higher levels, got some of the most destructive spells in the game.  Wizards got nothing like Earthquake which could bring down small towns in a single spell.Never minding the fact that there was a HUGE gap between 1st level and 4th level spells where you got no new healing spells at all.  Sure, your 1st level slots were probably all cure light wounds (or at least mostly) but, 2nd and 3rd level spells were buff and whatnot spells.  It wasn't until you hit 7th level before you got another healing spell at all.Plus, in AD&D, you rarely, if ever, healed in combat.  It just wasn't worth dumping a straight d8 HP on someone.  The monsters did so little damage relative to PC HP and hit so rarely, that you generally, outside of about 1-3rd level, were rarely going to hit single digit HP in a given fight.  There was no reason to heal in combat.  It wasn't necessary.  So, healing was almost universally out of combat, allowing the cleric to act as a front line fighter during combat.  IOW, the cleric was rarely, if ever, giving up actions to heal.Healing in combat is a 3e thing because the monsters hit so much more often and so much harder than their AD&D counterparts due to the idea of CR=4 PC's of a given level.  A troll in AD&D maxes out at about 25 points of damage, if it hits every time.  A 3e troll has twice the HP, a better AC and maxes out at over 50 points of damage if it hits 3 times.  IOW, a 2e troll has to fight  for 2 or 3 rounds before it can whittle a PC down to single HP. A 3e troll can flat out kill a 5th level PC in a single round.</blockquote>

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