Healing in 5e

[Konun]

Hi all I am looking for som advice. I am in a curse of sthrad campaign and I am playing a light cleric aiming to play in a blaster style .

The rest of the party is as follows
Blood hunter
Gunslinger
Barbarian
Rogue (assassin)
Warlock (raven)
Paladin

Apart form the paladin I am the only one with healing and I currently feel guilty when I cast my AOE spells ( burning hands as I am level 2) as this eats my spells which while this is thematic for my char . Irl I feel guilty as I'm essentially burning the only healing in the party . Is there a way round this ? Without becoming a healing bot ?

[Cespenar]

If you spend most of your slots at healing spells, that would make you a very poor cleric.

Just go with Healing Word for fallen allies and maybe Prayer of Healing (Lv 2) for how efficient it is. Otherwise don't bother with healing and go Bless instead. Everyone appreciates Bless when they roll that d4 for their attacks or saves.

[Ninja_Prawn]

If you spend most of your slots at healing spells, that would make you a very poor cleric.

*Unless you're a life cleric. Their healing is so effective that it's hard to argue against using it.

But also, I've heard CoS is a very brutal module and therefore healing (or at least rezzing...) might be more important than it would be in other campaigns. At low levels there's not much you can do; you only have a handful of spell slots either way; but as you gain levels it might be worth keeping a few slots back for Prayer of Healing or Lesser Restoration, and Revivify later on. Maybe even ask the warlock to take a couple of bard levels for Song of Rest?

Overall, I'd say you shouldn't feel guilty for attacking monsters instead of healing allies: they won't need healing if you take the enemies out of the fight, right?

[Solunaris]

Having played both a Paladin and a Cleric, I'm actually of the opinion that the Paladin makes a better healer than the Cleric for 5e. The Paladin gets a pool of healing that can only be dedicated to it and thus doesn't have an opportunity cost associated with using it. The Cleric on the other hand has to sacrifice potential damage or utility spells to heal lowing it's combat or support effectiveness.

At the same time, nothing beats a Healing Word mid fight when an ally drops or a Prayer of Healing if you don't have time for a short rest but everyone needs just a bit of a pick-me-up after a rather painful fight. If I were you, I'd probably keep those two spells on hand just in case you need them but leave the bulk of the patching up the party to the Paladin. You are much better contributing your spell slots to keep the party from being hurt rather than fixing them up after the fact.

[Konun]

Thanks for the input this makes me feel a little better about this situation . Especially since my healing word doesn't even patch up a single hit .

[Ninja_Prawn]

Especially since my healing word doesn't even patch up a single hit .

Yeah, Healing Word isn't meant to keep pace with the damage you're taking. It's meant to bring someone who's unconscious back into the fight, which it does very well.

[Sigreid]

Healing is just a form of damage mitigation. The best form of damage mitigation is neutralizing the enemy before they can do real harm.

[Mjolnirbear]

Remember your job isn't to heal them full. It's to keep them from dying. They have to take responsibility for their health too. Use tactics and defensive fighting options and cover and don't poke the sleeping werewolf. They can spend money on healing potions too.

If they do something stupid, you can refuse to heal. You're not a walking band-aid.

[Socratov]

Hi all I am looking for som advice. I am in a curse of sthrad campaign and I am playing a light cleric aiming to play in a blaster style .

The rest of the party is as follows
Blood hunter
Gunslinger
Barbarian
Rogue (assassin)
Warlock (raven)
Paladin

Apart form the paladin I am the only one with healing and I currently feel guilty when I cast my AOE spells ( burning hands as I am level 2) as this eats my spells which while this is thematic for my char . Irl I feel guilty as I'm essentially burning the only healing in the party . Is there a way round this ? Without becoming a healing bot ?

The best way to ensure safety and health is to make sure you don't get hit. To make sure that doesn't happen, your best bet is to debuff enemies into being unable to hit you. the best debuff out there is death. Therefore a spell spent on killing enemies is generally considered a good idea.

[Specter]

Having played both a Paladin and a Cleric, I'm actually of the opinion that the Paladin makes a better healer than the Cleric for 5e. The Paladin gets a pool of healing that can only be dedicated to it and thus doesn't have an opportunity cost associated with using it. The Cleric on the other hand has to sacrifice potential damage or utility spells to heal lowing it's combat or support effectiveness.

Life Cleric has that healing pool, except it's spreadable and recharges on a short rest.

[JAL_1138]

Healing Word, and Cure Wounds to a large extent, are for reviving allies who've been reduced to 0HP. Unless you're a Life Cleric, that's about all the in-combat healing you'll be doing until you get some higher-level spells like Mass Healing Word and Mass Cure Wounds. Even those should usually be held off as long as possible--you often have much more productive uses of a spell slot, action, or bonus action than giving someone a few extra HP (with the quantity of HP often failing to keep up with enemy damage well).

Life Clerics, or multiclass options that dip a level or two into Life Cleric, are the only practical way to be a "healbot" type character in 5e (and even they should often focus on other things instead). Most other Clerics are buffers, debuffers/controllers, utility casters, and/or damage dealers--and some are decent tanks or blasters--who can heal in the event of an emergency, but generally focus on the other roles. Kind of in the same boat as bards and druids there.

[Laserlight]

I generally tell the party in advance "Remember, I can heal you a little bit, and once in a while, and if I'm not charmed / unconscious / too far away /etc Even on the odd occasion when I can heal you, it'll be for 5hp, that's FIVE not 50. So don't be stupid."

Sometimes telling them that works. Sometimes.

[Squiddish]

I can speak from experience as a paladin in a CoS party with a light cleric.

Don't waste your slots on healing.

In 5e in general, only a few classes (life clerics and paladins) can really heal effectively enough to outweigh hitting things, and paladins are stretching it a bit (mostly due to their skill at hitting things). Right now, keep a slot tucked away for emergency healing words. Don't use cure wounds, it isn't efficient enough to justify expending an action and a slot.

Once you hit third level, grab prayer of healing, which will readily handle out-of-combat healing.

Good luck!

[Demonslayer666]

Hi all I am looking for som advice. I am in a curse of sthrad campaign and I am playing a light cleric aiming to play in a blaster style . ...

Apart form the paladin I am the only one with healing and I currently feel guilty when I cast my AOE spells ( burning hands as I am level 2) as this eats my spells which while this is thematic for my char . Irl I feel guilty as I'm essentially burning the only healing in the party . Is there a way round this ? Without becoming a healing bot ?

I suggest playing your cleric the way you want to play them, not they way anyone else expects you to play them.

If you don't want your primary job to be healing, make that known to the party (and the DM). Just because you can heal doesn't mean you must heal and do nothing else. The same goes even if you are the best healer in the party. I say to include the DM, because they have to weigh that into the challenge factor when designing encounters.

[Slipperychicken]

With so many party members, the healer feat will give you a lot of value. Just remember to get a lot of healer kits: those 10 uses go by quickly when you have 7 patients who want to get patched up at every meal-break. It will take a lot of pressure off your spell slots.

And don't forget to drop a bless each combat. Adding 1d4 to hit on all these heavy hitters will be a really big deal for damage output, moreso than your own damage spells.

[JAL_1138]

I can speak from experience as a paladin in a CoS party with a light cleric.

Don't waste your slots on healing.

In 5e in general, only a few classes (life clerics and paladins) can really heal effectively enough to outweigh hitting things, and paladins are stretching it a bit (mostly due to their skill at hitting things). Right now, keep a slot tucked away for emergency healing words. Don't use cure wounds, it isn't efficient enough to justify expending an action and a slot.

Once you hit third level, grab prayer of healing, which will readily handle out-of-combat healing.

Good luck!


Keeping Cure Wounds prepared can be useful if you need to rez someone from 0HP and need your bonus action for something else (e.g., Spiritual Weapon). Other than that, I agree.

[Pex]

Without outright saying so, in my opinion, 5E purposely designed healing so that no one is a healbot. They spread healing ability around to several classes. Some classes can heal themselves. The healing spells are quite inefficient in the amount healed. They are primarily to stave off a character dropping and death saves. All players can heal themselves on short rests. I've been playing a Light cleric myself, and other than the first session, Healing Word, I had not cast a healing spell since and Cure Wounds not at all. I doubt the other players even notice. No one has said anything about it. We do get plenty of healing potions, which help. Long rest heals everything.

However, I do enjoy the role of healer. Instead of healing spells I took the Healer feat. One use of the feat heals more than a 1st level healing spell and even 2nd level. A character can only benefit once until next short rest, but it hasn't been a problem. It's like I'm a self-replenishing healing potion. Healing kits are inexpensive compared to PC wealth. I'm healing the party without using spell slots. It's working out fine. We just reached 5th level. Maybe in later levels Healer feat won't be enough. Then it would be time to prepare Prayer Of Healing. Otherwise, while it may not look like it on the surface 5E does a decent job with PC healing. While effort should be made for some healing, a healbot isn't required.

[Asmotherion]

Hi all I am looking for som advice. I am in a curse of sthrad campaign and I am playing a light cleric aiming to play in a blaster style .

The rest of the party is as follows
Blood hunter
Gunslinger
Barbarian
Rogue (assassin)
Warlock (raven)
Paladin

Apart form the paladin I am the only one with healing and I currently feel guilty when I cast my AOE spells ( burning hands as I am level 2) as this eats my spells which while this is thematic for my char . Irl I feel guilty as I'm essentially burning the only healing in the party . Is there a way round this ? Without becoming a healing bot ?

Well, the best way to save up spell slots for healing AND deal damage at the same time is via your Sacred Flame Cantrip for now. Latter on, you can concentrate on Spirit Guardians by level 5, and (requires no concentration) Spiritual weapon by level 3. Right now, besides healing, you have some nice Buffing options, like your other 1st level domain spell Faerie Fire (buffing both yourself and your companions at the same time... everyone will love you for casting it), Protection from Evil and Good (very good in this setting, though you can only cast it on one ally as it requires concentration), or just good-old Divine Favor, so that your crossbow attacks deal more radiant damage. In general, with the exception of healing spells, try to use spells that last longer when using a spell slot, instead of one-shot ones, so that you can profit more of your used spell-slot. That's how spell-economy works.

Since you're a Light Cleric, it's not a crime to use Burning Hands now and then, but it's not your primarry job, at least 'till you get more spell slots. Especially since there are so many damage dealers in your group. If you really want to use an AoE at your level, you have a perfectly good, spell-slot free Chanel Divinity option, as a Light Cleric, with Radiance of the Down, especcially in that setting, as many undead have vulnerability to Radiant Damage. Use it, and save spell slots for healing and/or buffing. Out of all the above, at your current level I think your best Concentration Spell option is Faerie Fire.

PS: Just a Honorrary Mention: Most of the Healing in 5e is really done out of combat, wile in-combat healing is more oriented towards preventing someone from dying. For a very effective out of combat healer, that can still be an in-combat good damage dealing spellcaster, or whatever he wants, you just need one level as a life cleric, and then get goodberry, either with Magic Initiate, being an actual Druid or as a Bard, if you want to play a Charisma Caster. Your Life Cleric bonus to healing spells aplies to Goodbery, thus each berry heals 2+1(spell level)+1(from the spell)=4HP total, and since you make 10 berries, you can heal up to 40 HP with a 1st level spell slot, divided as needed. The downside, as I said, is that it's effective only out of battle, as each berry needs an action to be consumed and thus provide it's benefits. That said, it keeps the party at full hit points very easyly after combat, and then you can build the rest of your character focused on whatever aspect you want, but best stay a full caster for more spell slots to use your trick. :P

[Mortis_Elrod]

If you're party is concerned then ask the warlock to take the healing elixir spell until you have the slots you feel is needed for healing. He's playing raven and im guessing tomelock, doubt all he wants to do is blast, and he could make potions faster than you could heal. He can switch spell known out later.

[NNescio]

In 5e in general, only a few classes (life clerics and paladins) can really heal effectively enough to outweigh hitting things, and paladins are stretching it a bit (mostly due to their skill at hitting things). Right now, keep a slot tucked away for emergency healing words. Don't use cure wounds, it isn't efficient enough to justify expending an action and a slot.


And having to physically move up to your fallen ally (unless you multiclass into Sorc or have a familiar) too. Touch range, ugh.

[Snails]

I have a similar opinion to others: it is not your primary job to heal up the other party members.

In earlier editions, it was very dangerous to have low HPs. In fact, you were not necessarily doing a favor to bring a PC back from unconscious to the single digits in the middle of a fight, because one unlucky hit can now make them instantly dead. Since PCs could easily die, it fell on the shoulders of the party cleric to burn spell after spell to keep teammates up in the "healthy zone" of HP totals, as much as possible, starting with the first combat of the day.

5e PCs with 1 HP are actually very unlikely to die from a single hit. Thus it is quite effective to Healing Word them back into the fight, and simply not worry about what their HPs are. Does it matter whether the frontline Fighter got smacked down to -5 or -15 or -25? Unconscious is just unconscious. Because every PC has hit dice, they can go down to negative, get popped back conscious to with a level 1 slot, and then heal themselves to fighting condition with a short rest.

Yes, you probably will want to give some healing to that one PC who had very bad luck today. But, no, it is not your responsibility to keep the whole party healthy. That is what their healing hit dice are for. When a number of PCs have tapped all their hit dice, then it is time to consider whether to accept the risk of looking for one more fight or call it a day. If you so happen to have spell slots for healing, that may influence this decision. But using spells effectively during the day will mean enemies are dying quicker, and PCs need less healing.

[SharkForce]

yeah, let's stop and think about this. let's say you're a level 3 cleric. you have a "typical" adventuring party of fighter, wizard, rogue, and of course yourself the cleric.

the party's pool of HP is likely to be approximately (assuming 14 con for everyone and the average +0.5 for HP option): 28 (fighter) + 24 (rogue) + 24 (cleric) + 20 (wizard) = 96 HP. on a long rest, they heal that full 96 HP plus get half of their hit dice back for short rest healing, averaging 78 HP healed per day... total 174 points of health per day that don't require anyone to not have fun and spend all their time as a hit point battery, enabling other people to do dumb things and have someone else pay the price.

that doesn't sound like you're intended to be the sole source of healing to me.

[jaappleton]

Unless you're a Life Cleric or a specifically build Lore Bard, in 5E, it is better to prevent damage than to heal after the fact. Enemies hit hard enough to where you can't keep up, Healing with.

Your Warding Flare ability is a good damage mitigator. Hold Person, Hypnotic Pattern, spells that disable enemies are other great ones.

Sometimes, it's much better to disable an enemy than to hit it.