D&D 5E Xanathar's Healing Spirit is 10d6 healing to the whole party out of combat?

[Xeviat]

So, the Healing Spirit spell in XGtE is pretty cool, and seems like it could be a balanced spell in combat, creating interesting encouragement to move around. But out of combat, every ally and yourself can just walk a conga line through it, even while traveling at a slow pace, and get 10d6 healing over a minute to everyone in the group.

This doesn't seem intentional. What are your thoughts?

 

[The Crimson Binome]

It would be much more reasonable if it only affected the first person to run through it in a given round. "After it provides healing, it cannot heal another creature until after the start of your next turn." Something like that.

It should be balanced with Prayer of Healing, and it's not, so it should be adjusted until it is. Splitting 10d6 however you wish, in one minute, is comparable to healing five creatures for 2d8+4 each in ten minutes.

 

[pukunui]

There's been a bit of a discussion about this spell in the XGE errata thread. I even just posted a tweet from Jeremy Crawford with a suggested house rule for it (see here).

 

[Oofta]

This does seem like quite a good spell.

Unless I'm missing something it's more than 10d6, if you enter you get 1d6, if you start your turn there it's another 1d6. So do your conga line, shift who gets to start their turn in the healing bear hug and get 20d6 healing for everyone in a party of 5.

That's better than a mass cure wounds.

 

[Krachek]

In a serious fight it won’t help much.
CR 3 monster already deals more than 1d6 per round.

When the fight is over,
One character will need more than 10d6,
One will just fit in,
And the others won’t need healing....
It’s better than actual spell, but it won’t break anything.
It may help those who don’t like full non magical healing overnight.

 

[The-Magic-Sword]

It's almost tempting to just tie the spell to iniative order.

 

[Croesus]

Another option (a bit more complicated than Crawford's suggestion) is to allow the spell to only heal a creature that took damage from an enemy since its last turn.

I specify "from an enemy" to prevent shenanigans like "I slap myself for 1 hp of damage." The main issue is remembering who took damage since its previous turn - in large battles, it might get a bit confusing.

 

[Bacon Bits]

My first ruling would be to say that it only works in combat.

If the players argue that doesn't make sense, then it's limited to 6d6, +2d6 for each level over 2.

That's why the players don't get nice things.

 

[FrogReaver]

Considering it's on the Ranger Spell list maybe they just trying to give rangers 1 nice thing!

 

[Zmajdusa]

Just remember, you are only a DM so long as you have players