D&D 5E Refusing To Heal Party Members?

[Greg Benage]

Even as a (non-Life) cleric, the only in-combat healing I did at low to mid levels was to a) get dying PCs back up, and b) keep myself up. It became a running joke whenever I did cast a healing spell ("Wait, you're a cleric?"). I did out-of-combat healing, of course, and that would have helped your barbarian. I feel like you get a pass until 9th level, where you'd better be using aura of vitality.

 

[I'm A Banana]

S the title says. I am playing a LG human Paladin (because that is what I expect btw) and the other day I refused to heal a party member. Why? Well here is our current party lineup.

Lvl3
Human Paladin
Goliath Barbarian
Halfling Thief
Half Elf Sorcerer
Tiefling Wizard
Tiefling Warlock

Not a total lack of healing. My Paladins lay on hands ability (all 15 points of it) it the total healing available in the party. I also have the Inspiring Leader feat as well BTW.

I have always had the opinion (well since 3.0) that if you play a Barbarian you should really ask the party healer if its ok to play that class. A lot of players take healing for granted but barbarians require a lot of healing as a general rule and outside of life clerics at low levels healing in inefficient. There is the play how you want aspect of it but if you expect another person to devoted 100% of there resources to keeping your ass alive well that is kind of a big ask. Note everyone else is twinked out for fun stuff as the DM house ruled everyone gets a feat at level 1, variant humans get 2. No one else took a healer or even the healer feat. The Barbarian has the GWF feat, the spellcasters seem to have a lot of spell sniper going around, the thief has the lucky feat.

Now I do not refuse to heal them because I am being a asshat but it is more pragmatic. I give them 1hp for example to stop them bleeding out if reduced to 0hp. Its just that if if I go down no one else has any form of healing to bring me up to conscious again. I have a cure spell prepared as well but that is more of a to heal myself since i have a grand total of 3 spell slots and prefer to use them for other things (smite, bless, and shield of faith).

Now this is more of a situational thing- if I was playing a life cleric healing is not much of a problem for me.

Sounds like a bit of a jerk move to me, but if your fellow players are cool with it, I'm just some dink on the internet. Refusing to use an ability you have just because you think they made poor character build decisions is a bit passive/aggressive for my tastes. But hell, you don't NEED a healer in 5e, so if they're comfy with healing potions, and your comfy not using your powers to the utmost, meh, no harm.

 

[Pauper]

There's really not enough information to come to a reasonable conclusion about who is being unreasonable here.

On the one hand, 5E offers many more healing resources than the OP seems to be taking into account, specifically the one-hour short rest use of hit dice for healing, which regenerate slowly after each adventuring day. Granted, the party may not always be able to take advantage of this precisely when they want to (in the midst of a dungeon, for instance), which is why you should have other healing resources -- healing potions, for instance, are fairly inexpensive even for low-level characters, and can even be crafted by characters who are proficient with herbalism kits.

On the other hand, I could also see a situation where the barbarian and paladin are getting into an argument because the barbarian assumes that, when he goes unconscious, the paladin will dump at least one point of lay-on-hands into him to get him back up, but the paladin resists because he doesn't want to have to spend all his actions turning the barbarian into a living whack-a-mole. That's a problem the parties in question are going to have to resolve on their own.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

The only worthwhile low level healing is healing word for in combat, and prayer of healing for outside. If the rogue took healer, he could use a healer's kit as a bonus action, which is better than you spending an action on a 1HP lay on hands.

Part of the problem is you dont have a lot on the front line. Its you, who aren't worth the effort to attack if the foe is intelligent, and the barbarian (and maybe the rogue) which are. So if the opponents are savvy, damage will be headed to the squishier targets. Your high AC is effectively preventing the damage from being spread out over the party.

 

[Savage Wombat]

How about this:

Players have a responsibility to contribute their class abilities toward the success of the group, not just the individuals.

However, players do not have a responsibility to allow other players to demand they use those abilities in the way the other player wishes.

 

[Celebrim]

This is definitely an example of why I no longer as a DM work on the principle that everyone should show up with their own character and expect it to work.

There are multiple problems with this party composition that is just begging for IC conflict to break out, which at most tables invariably spills over to OOC real world conflict.

The OP feels like he's being taken advantage of and taken for granted by the part, particularly the Barbarian. He's probably right. But rather than playing this out at the table with the Paladin feeling like the Barbarian is taking advantage of him and saying so in character, or considering that in fact the character he's playing might not in fact have a problem with other people taking advantage of him, but that he'd expect it and dutifully struggle on, he's elevating this to a table problem by taking it personally as an affront of some sort. It's probably not meant as an affront and the other players (and therefore the other characters) probably have never even considered the question.

I generally don't approve of airing your grief with other players to EnWorld. Do you want advice or are you just looking for validation?

But I also agree with the general consensus of the thread that the party composition is weird. Five of your six players have at least a very strong chaotic bent, and there is at least the suggestion of a trend toward CE. And, you are playing a paladin. This sounds like a recipe for disaster.

My advice; tell the DM that your character leaves in disgust at the parties self-centered chaotic ways and goes to seek his own fortune. Switch your character out for a CE cleric, and then make the rest of the party grovel (literally and figuratively) whenever they need healing. Charge the other party members in favors and coin whenever they want a spell from you. Make them get down on their knees and beg your deity for his blessings. If they can't pay, and they are down to 1 hit point, tell them that you'll overlook it this time provided they put on a slave collar and abase themselves before you. That at least would resolve all the contradictions in the party, instead of having a self-centered party that wants the advantage of a self-sacrificing healer validating their self-centered approach to the game, they'd get what they want good and hard. If the party decides that this is inappropriate or too difficult to deal with, then perhaps they can seek out the Paladin again and apologize. Or they can just kill the CE cleric. But at least you'd have some RP and not be pushing pawns around your chess board.

 

[Miladoon]

Stop playing the class and play your character concept.

 

[Zardnaar]

No one is CE but I think two or 3 of them are CN. Various items and money have also been going missing. Hell one of them stole from my church (IDK this yet in character)Newer players so I do not care to much and I am still having fun. As I said I'll heal them to stop them dying, but the Barbarian alone often takes more damage than I have in total healing even if I gave him all of it. I took the Paladin because we had no front liner or healer so some was better than nothing.

Its not an issue yet as they know we do not have a healer so no one is complaining about me not healing them as restoring HP is not going to go far vs letting them not die.

 

[Blue]

My Paladins lay on hands ability (all 15 points of it) it the total healing available in the party. I also have the Inspiring Leader feat as well BTW.

Okay, sounds like you don't have much healing. Viable choice in 5e, though works better if supported by being high stealth or something else to help avoid needless encounters.

I have always had the opinion (well since 3.0) that if you play a Barbarian you should really ask the party healer if its ok to play that class. A lot of players take healing for granted but barbarians require a lot of healing as a general rule and outside of life clerics at low levels healing in inefficient.

Great, you have an opinion. Of course, that doesn't mean any other player needs to agree with your opinion. So it's rather irrelevant.

Now I do not refuse to heal them because I am being a asshat but it is more pragmatic. I give them 1hp for example to stop them bleeding out if reduced to 0hp. Its just that if if I go down no one else has any form of healing to bring me up to conscious again.

Okay, you're not the healer and you don't spend lots of your healing in combat unless someone drops. Wouldn't be particularly noticeable if you weren't posting about it. At my table we'd really hope you have a character personality and picked a paladin's oath that goes along with it. A tough driven pragmatic oath of vengence we'd all go "oh yeah, that's perfect, clean up your own messes" while a virtuous or holy oath of devotion we'd think you're meta-gaming.

As a side note, if we mentioned that as front-line melee folks, you and him are protecting the squishier members of your party, but the little healing the party has goes twice as far because if they get hit they take full damage, while he only takes half due to resistances? So he's doubling the effectiveness of the healing available.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Over the years, I've come to view the idea of a balanced party as being nothing more than an ideal. Players should be able to play whatever gives them the most joy, and it's up to the DM to make sure the adventures work with whatever party composition they end up with.

Okay, so I might take a wee bit of pleasure in a locked door or fiendish trap with a rogue-less group now and then...

As far as this particular situation, I think it’s perfect fair to ration what little healing the group has access to. Assuming the paladin is a good and noble sort, I can see that saving healing for people making death checks makes sense. If it’s a choice between giving the barbarian five more HP and saving a dying comrade later, the barbarian is just going to have to take their lumps.

That being said, I don't think a player should ever have to okay their character choice with another player, although it is on the group as a whole to work together and not step on each other's fun.