D&D 5E Would You Give Your Party a Wand of Cure Light Wounds (limited charges)?

[SkidAce]

Yup, and I already did. And built it just like the Wand of Magic Missiles about three months ago?

No cleric in the party, they needed/wanted "in combat" healing, and the owner of the wand is a celestial bloodline sorcerer of Corellon. He was inquiring about various options at hte temple of Kuan Yin, and a lower level priestess had a vision. So they "loaned" him one.

They are the only ones who know how/have the blessing to create them in the area, its a temple secret.

Wand of Kuan-Yin

 

[Stormonu]

Wands for clerics never seemed appropriate to me, wands always struck me as a wizard/sorcerer thing. I have nothing against, say, a staff of healing.

That said, ever since late 2E, I've let the heal SKILL actually allow characters to regain hit points after a combat (d4 + Wis mod [x 1/2 level] or the amount the check exceeds the DC, with the method and frequency depending on campaign/ruleset).

 

[SkidAce]

Wands for clerics never seemed appropriate to me, wands always struck me as a wizard/sorcerer thing. I have nothing against, say, a staff of healing.

That said, ever since late 2E, I've let the heal SKILL actually allow characters to regain hit points after a combat (d4 + Wis mod [x 1/2 level] or the amount the check exceeds the DC, with the method and frequency depending on campaign/ruleset).

/slight tangent

Do you think that would work with a Medicine check and the Healer's kit? Although the kit requires no roll...now someone with prof with medicine could use it to return hp.

 

[Paraxis]

/slight tangent

Do you think that would work with a Medicine check and the Healer's kit? Although the kit requires no roll...now someone with prof with medicine could use it to return hp.

I would look at the Healer feat and then base the 5e house rule on using Medicine skill after that.

As an action, you can spend one use of a healer's kit to tend to a creature and restore 1d6+4 hit points to it, plus additional hit points equal to the creature's maximum number of Hit Dice. The creature can't regain hit points from this feat again until it finishes a short or long rest.

So have a successful Medicine check during a short rest and using a use of a healer's kit give part of that ability. I would go with the 1 h.p per creature's maximum number of hit dice. So something like this.

Medicine skill check during a short or long rest can be used to help recover h.p. Expend a use of a healer's kit and roll vs DC 10, for each point above 10 the creature recovers a hit point up to it's maximum number of hit dice. A creature can't regain anymore hit points from the use of a healer's kit until it finishes a short or long rest.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

Yeah, they're magic. But typically I see magic as accomplishing things you normally can't do - fly, turn invisible, create area effect damage, etc. 5e has generous mechanics for healing already. I don't see the need for them.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

This actually came up in my group, so I pointed out what they would need to do to make one (since it's not for sale) and also indicated that it would require a special ingredient....in this case a journey to a remote jungle temple of a goddess of healing, in which the wood of the wand was immersed in the sacred pool. That pool of course is a sacred and holy place and not something you're supposed to immerse things in. Anyway, the realization that making the wand would require a quest unto itself left my players realizing that remembering to use their hit dice was probably an easier route.

That said, if I had a party entirely of non-healers I might be inclined to stick one or two in treasure hordes occasionally just to keep them alive. (but, with the caveat that that's what healing potions are for, so why bother)

 

[Tony Vargas]

Maybe it borders on non-responsive, but I wouldn't be inclined to hand out a wand of cure light wounds because one of the things I really do like about 5e is the philosophy that magic items make a character 'just better,' and thus aren't needed for the game to work.

I might place a magic item if there's a character so obviously lagging the rest of the party that he really needs it.

A WoCLW would not be such an item.

 

[Staffan]

I think a wand of curing would be redundant with the staff of healing already in the game. There's no way I'd put one at a lower rarity than the staff anyway.

 

[77IM]

Would you give the party a bandoleer holding 7 potions of healing and then let them refill 1d6+1 of its drank potions per day?

For an attunement slot, that actually doesn't sound so powerful. Consider also that a rare magic item could cost as much as 5000 gp, and for that price you could by 100 potions of healing, which seems like it would take a long time to use up.

I think I agree with earlier posters that a wand of CLW is just a boring item. Now a cursed wand of CLW...

 

[KarinsDad]

I would look at the Healer feat and then base the 5e house rule on using Medicine skill after that.

As an action, you can spend one use of a healer's kit to tend to a creature and restore 1d6+4 hit points to it, plus additional hit points equal to the creature's maximum number of Hit Dice. The creature can't regain hit points from this feat again until it finishes a short or long rest.

So have a successful Medicine check during a short rest and using a use of a healer's kit give part of that ability. I would go with the 1 h.p per creature's maximum number of hit dice. So something like this.

Medicine skill check during a short or long rest can be used to help recover h.p. Expend a use of a healer's kit and roll vs DC 10, for each point above 10 the creature recovers a hit point up to it's maximum number of hit dice. A creature can't regain anymore hit points from the use of a healer's kit until it finishes a short or long rest.

I've already done this for my game as a house rule:


Medicine.

DC 20 Medicine check: stabilizes a dying creature and brings it up to 1 hit point.
DC 15 Medicine check: used during short rest with one charge of healing kit, restores 1 hit point per recipient PC level.
DC 20 Medicine check: used during short rest with one charge of healing kit, restores 2 hit points per recipient PC level.

These latter two can only be done once per short rest per recipient PC, and do not stack with other bonus healing like a Bard's Song of Rest. PCs not injured since the last short or long rest cannot be treated this way. The Help action cannot be used for the short rest check.


People are saying here that a Wand of Cure Wounds would be boring. I find the Healer feat to be boring. An entire feat, just to get a little extra healing per day. The nice thing about my house rule here is that if a player really likes the Healer feat, s/he can still take it and gain the benefits of the house rule (which requires a skill check) and the feat (which does not).