D&D 5E Spell Recovery for me but not for thee

[Uller]

Last week in the game I dm the pcs took a short rest. The wizard player asked about his arcane recovery ability. The cleric player asked if he got something like that. I explained he doesnt but he recovers his channel divinity. He was fine with that but it made me wonder if it would be a good thing to let other spell casters have a similar benefit. I've noticed my players are all much less stingy with abilities they recover on a short rest even though short rests dont happen all that often in our game (of course maybe the party would try to use them more if they had even greater benefit....). I generally want to encourage players to use the cool features of their characters and not try to svae them too much...but still have some limits on resources. Limited spell recovery seems to help in that regard...OTOH wizards have no fewer other features to enjoy so it makes sense they would get this benefit.

 

[Gargoyle]

I very much like that spell casting works differently for each class and would be very hesitant to homogenize them in even a small way. As you pointed out, the cleric can recover their channel divinity. Everyone seems to have their perks and downsides.

 

[Dausuul]

OTOH wizards have no fewer other features to enjoy so it makes sense they would get this benefit.

This is the key thing. All the other caster classes get substantial non-spell abilities, like Channel Divinity for clerics or bardic music for bards. Wizards don't. Their hit dice are smaller, their weapon proficiencies are weak, they have no armor proficiencies at all. Spellcasting is literally all they're good at. As compensation, they get abilities that improve their spellcasting (Sculpt Spells, Potent Cantrip, Empowered Evocation, Overchannel), and let them cast more spells (Arcane Recovery, Spell Mastery, Signature Spells).

If you start granting these wizard abilities to other classes, you're undercutting the wizard specialty.

 

[Uller]

Yeah. You're both probably right. I think the issue is the cleric player is better suited to classes that are flashier and less subtle...he wants to play it as a melee character but wants to save spells for healing rather than buffing. (Altough he has made great use of Magic Weapon and Divine favor). I just asked him if he might like to try a paladin instead...I think he'd like that more

 

[skotothalamos]

yeah, no problem. All he has to do is reduce his hit dice to d6s, lose all his armor proficiencies, lose half his weapon proficiencies, and give up the ability to heal, and then he can have that extra spell a day.

 

[Uller]

Just to clarify...I dont sweat balance between classes too much. I try to observe how my players are playing and if one or two seem to be struggling I look for ways to help them realize the character they want to play and feel like they are having an impact on the game. We have a wizard that devastates masses of enemies, an assassin that frequently one shots surprised foes. A barbarian that consistently puts out and absorbs large amounts of damage. And a monk that can put out good damage and even spread it out. Then we have a melee cleric that gets one attack (he's war domain so he can sometimes take an extra attack) for usually single digit damage. The player is not the type to see the indirect benefits of his actions...such as keeping the barbarian on his feet for another round....and he holds back a lot. So giving him a chance to recharge a couple low level spells might help him. But like I said. ..the real solution is probably to have him try a different class.

 

[Dausuul]

Then we have a melee cleric that gets one attack (he's war domain so he can sometimes take an extra attack) for usually single digit damage. The player is not the type to see the indirect benefits of his actions...such as keeping the barbarian on his feet for another round....and he holds back a lot. So giving him a chance to recharge a couple low level spells might help him. But like I said. ..the real solution is probably to have him try a different class.

I agree that encouraging a switch to paladin, if the player's okay with it, is the best solution here. The problem with changing how the class operates for this one player's benefit is, what if he later switches to playing a wizard and someone else makes a cleric?

Another option, once we get the multiclass rules, would be for him to MC fighter or something. It doesn't sound as if he's that much into spellcasting anyway.

 

[Uller]

Well, I created a sample paladin for him and suggested he try it. He opted not to. I think he kind of sees paladins as "lawful stupid" and prefers not to play them (yes...I explained in 5e not all paladins have to be LG).

They just reached 8th level at the end of our last game. We played last night and I think with the cleric he has finally started figuring it out. In a fight with 3 xorns, half the party had gone down...mass healing word got them back on their feet. Then he went down and they scrambled to get him back on his feet. It was pretty close to a TPK...(not that the xorns would have slaughtered them all...likely most of them would have stabilized after a few hours). Once they got him a healing potion he cast prayer...on the monk's turn, prayer made the difference both in her attack and in doing enough damage to finish off one of them before it took out another PC. He seemed to like that.

Later they fought a horde of orcs, an Ettin and an Ogre. With the help of Divine Power and Divine Strike plus his extra attacks from War Domain he held back the Ettin all by himself for a couple of rounds and did enough damage to it to make it retreat to let the Ogre and orcs come into the fight.

It seemed like he had a good time. I still think he'd have a better time with the Paladin but now that he's enjoying this character, I think all 5 players are having a good impact. Last night after about 3 hours of playing we got to the beginning of a big encounter that was going to take a long time. I suggested we wait for next game...they all insisted we press on and play it out. Always a good thing when your players are asking for more....