D&D 5E Some questions to the experts +Advice for prospect bard

[runebound]

Hi,
New to the 5th edition. Here are my questions:

1. What is the best healing spell in terms of combat heal (not out of combat healing/resting).
2. In the absence of cleric/paladin, can a bard be a effective healer?
3. Think of starting a bard (played a cleric for a long time).
A. Which system is more common the array (15,14,13,12,10,8) or the point buy system?
Any tips for a prospective bard?

All the best,
R.B.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

1. Most people will tell you not to bother with in-combat healing. That doesn't jive with my experience, but I'm definitely in the minority on this. So...it may not matter what spell is best. However, at least for the first few levels, Healing Word is a godsend because it doesn't eat up your action to cast it, meaning you can do that and some other thing (like attack).
2. Absolutely. Song of Rest is great for non-combat healing (if you can spend just 1 HD per short rest, it's a huge benefit), and Bards can steal the best healing spells from other classes' lists. You won't have the "just enough to get you back on your feet" aspect of the Paladin, nor the HP-specific benefits of the Cleric, but that's the price paid for having other support features instead (which, hopefully, mean your party takes less damage in the first place...not that I've seen that work in practice).
3. I played one for a little while. It was alright, though my group was really bad at making use of my Bardic Inspiration dice (which...really sucks as a low-level Bard). You'll feel the reduced spell access, if you previously played a Cleric, but judicious selection can ameliorate that.
A. I have no idea. We used point-buy. It feels like most people roll their stats, based on the forum posts I read, but that could be bias talking. You'll just have to ask your DM, that sort of thing should be an up-front fact.

Also, welcome to the forum, R.B. Have some XP!

 

[CapnZapp]

1. Assuming you aren't allergic to hard truths from minmaxers: there are no good in-combat healing in 5th Edition (at least not at low levels). The best you can do is reserve your healing for when your allies have dropped (at 0 hp). Then you cast the ranged and bonus-action only Healing Word to heal just a few hit points. This way they can continue the fight, and you just saved a lot of healing (since all damage beyong what takes you to zero is "wasted").

Don't try to keep your allies from being downed. You're much better off attacking the enemies with your regular spells, and limiting your in-combat heals to bonus action Healing Words.

After the combat, you can use Cure spells. But try to use them only if there's no chance of taking a short rest - having people use up their Hit Dice is far preferable, since your spell slots are best used for offense (either to attack the enemy directly, buff your allies or as utility spells)

2. Yes. But read #1 first. This means the answer is "yes, the bard can be an effective healer, just as long as you don't try to keep your allies from being downed with precious spell slots."

Instead reserve your Cures for those dire times when you have won a combat but don't foresee a Short Rest, and you're out of healing potions and such.

Remember the feats Healer and Inspired Leader. Both can be taken by anyone, and both significantly relieve the "designated healer" from having to waste actual spell slots on healing.

3. Best taken to the charbuild forum.

Good luck!

 

[CapnZapp]

1. Most people will tell you not to bother with in-combat healing. That doesn't jive with my experience, but I'm definitely in the minority on this. So...it may not matter what spell is best. However, at least for the first few levels, Healing Word is a godsend because it doesn't eat up your action to cast it, meaning you can do that and some other thing (like attack).

Nobody is telling you Healing Word is wrong.

What people are saying is that the mindset "I'll use all my spell slots on Cure Wounds to keep my allies from being downed" isn't really feasible in 5th edition.

Remember that the curing power of healing spells are roughly half of what they used to be, and you will see why a 1 hp heal on a downed ally is far preferable than a 10 hp heal on someone in combat with foes that deal double or quadruple that in damage with each hit...

The (remote) risk of Instant Death notwithstanding, the only reason for in-combat healing is to keep up the action economy.

And the only time your allies are denied their action is at 0 hp...

And the only real cost of getting downed to 0 hp is a) losing 15 feet of movement and b) your healer having to expend a first level slot as a bonus action only, and at range at that. These costs are fairly minimal (compared to Cure Wounds which take your regular Cast Spell action, and require you to move adjacent to the fallen ally). Lets' keep them minimal.

 

[CapnZapp]

Full disclaimer: I've houseruled PCs and important NPCs count negative hit points down to -10 hp (run of the mill critters simply auto-die at 0 hp) precisely because this "heal only at 0 hp" is too strong for my tastes.

(I'm aware that's a houserule. Bringing it up here merely as an illustration of how strong I consider the above advice to be.)

 

[KahlessNestor]

In AL, I play a tempest cleric whose only heal is Healing Word for just such use, getting allies back on their feet. Make sure allies know to carry their own healing potions and use Song of Rest outside combat and you should be good, though I haven't played a bard in 5e yet.

 

[Ath'kethin]

Hi,
New to the 5th edition. Here are my questions:

1. What is the best healing spell in terms of combat heal (not out of combat healing/resting).

The one that keeps you and your allies alive.

2. In the absence of cleric/paladin, can a bard be a effective healer?

If you need them to be, they pretty much need to be, right?

3. Think of starting a bard (played a cleric for a long time).
A. Which system is more common the array (15,14,13,12,10,8) or the point buy system?
Any tips for a prospective bard?

All the best,
R.B.

In the campaigns I run, we use standard array only. I've played in some that used point buy. I prefer the standard array myself.

How much have you played? Playing the game will answer your questions far better than any white-room theory discussions here will. I've played games with no healer whatsoever and we managed just fine, and I've played games where we had two clerics and a paladin and we got TPK'd at 3rd level.

 

[KahlessNestor]

I use point buy because I dislike negative modifiers. But that's personal preference.

 

[Shiroiken]

A very effective setup I've seen is for the bard to use Healing Words in combat (to bring fallen allies back to the fight), then the Life Cleric use boosted healing after the battle.

If you only have bard, you can get by without too much trouble for healing (using HD, Song of Rest, and a few spells). The downside I've seen is the lack of support spells that the Cleric gets that they can prepared only when needed, but the Bard needs to already know.

As for ability scores, you want Cha to be highest, with Dex to be at least 14. Standard array is fine, depending on other details of your character you care about (race, background, skills, etc.).

General tips: Vicious Mockery is very strong at low levels, but becomes slightly less effective once enemies gain Multi-Attack. Due to lack of armor options and Dex being secondary, your AC isn't going to be very good (unless you take the College of Valor), so you'll probably want to hide in the back as much as possible. You probably won't deal a lot of damage, but you're a solid support character (you should be used to this as a long time cleric player).

 

[runebound]

Thank you very much for your replies.
Sincerely,
R.B