Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 emacleric Apr 24, 2015 1:48:43	Hello everybody! I hope you will not hate me since I posted this new thread, but I had still searched ths topic in many forums, without find exhaustive answres. Next month my party will start a new (and first) 5e d&d campaign. We came from a long tradition of 3.5 and Pathfinder. We are 4 members: a ranger, a fighter (or barbarian), a warlock (or sorcerer) and a cleric (me). I have a question: to be an efficient healer for my party, must I choose Life domain? Or can I feel free to choose any other domain?  In particular, I am suprised at the fact that number of spells per day in 5e is very (VERY) low.  Please help me to find a solution, since I don't like much the idea to be forced to choose Life domain (I love clerics, and I don't want to play a bard, who is a good healer in 5e).   Thank you
#2 AaronOfBarbaria Apr 24, 2015 4:52:42	Unless your DM is setting up much more difficult and/or frequent challenges than what 5th edition suggests, the bar for "efficient healer" is actually very low.   Having some healing spells prepared (cure wounds or healing word, you don't even need both, and then prepping prayer of healing once you have the opportunity) is plenty of healing, especially when combined with the Hit Dice mechanic allowing every character to heal a not insignificant amount (especially as you gain more levels).   My group has had zero feeling of there not being enough healing to go around, and our cleric (because most of our campaigns don't actually have one) uses less than half his spell slots on healing spells - the rest on things like aid at the beginning of an adventuring day and inflict wounds against any opponents that seem particularly dangerous.
#3 Rya.Reisender Apr 24, 2015 5:10:16	From my experience with 5E so far, I'd say you will be fine. Instead of trying to explain everything I give you a few bullet points to consider:   1. Every player has hit dice he can use to recover during a short rest. No healing needed.   2. Every players fully recovers on a long rest and regains half his hit die to use for short rests.   3. Fighters basically never need healing, they have Second Wind which restores at every short rest. They could position themselves so that they take most damage, reducing the need of you to cast a heal spell. (I'm only familiar with the basic classes, there are probably more restorative abilities)   4. Healing spells seemed mostly relevant so far when someone drops to 0 HP and you don't have time to wait 1d4 hours for him to wake up and the amount healed here wasn't all that important. You really don't cast spells often that use a spell slot in 5E. Instead you try to preserve them until they are absolutely needed. You have cantrips you can use unlimited times instead (but those don't recover HP).   5. Damage in 5E is incredibly "deadly". You often can be dropped it one hit whether you are at almost full HP or at 1 HP.   Of course this also depends on the adventure / DM / players: - are you allowed to rest frequently? how many battles between short rests? how many between long rests? - how often will you find healing potions or other items that provide recovery? - is the group even all that much into fighting or does it frequently to solve conflicts through other means?   So far in the adventure I'm DMing, there was never the situtation where the extra healing from the divine domain was absolutely required for the group to survive. And I play by RAW and no gift-wrapping during combat.   And heck, if I'd notice the lack of healing in the group is a problem, I'd just slightly adjust the adventure so the group has a chance by maybe providing some healing potions or a wand of healing or by simply allow resting more frequently (by creating situations in which the groups gets some time to rest). But of course that's more of a DM advice than a player advice.
#4 mellored Apr 24, 2015 5:33:03	If you want to primaraly use healing spells, then yes you want to be a life cleric.   But in general, healing in 5e is not very efficent and usually a last resort.  Paticualry in combat healing.   You usually get more bang for you buck casting other spells, like bless, silence, sanctuary, or find traps to avoid taking damage in the first place.
#5 Kentus Apr 24, 2015 5:33:54	Healing isn't a problem in 5e in general, but if you want to make in combat healing a regular choice, the life domain sure helps. Since the balance in 5e is more around damage, it can be difficult to counter it effectively. Post-combat healing is often more effective (like Prayer of Healing or Goodberries [if your ranger learns that spell, suffering too much from combat should not become an issue]), so unless you don't want to be able to easily take care of damage in combat, it shouldn't be much of an issue. In most cases, a good buff is more worth hp-wise than a healing spell.   Even though the spell slots are less, most spells are more reliable/powerful if you compare it to 3e/4e. There are some exceptions, like most healing spells, but if you consider other means of healing (like hit dice), it's still enough and you just get the feeling, that every spell slot somehow counts. And as long as you don't prepare only situational spells, there are no 'dead' spell slots.
#6 AaronOfBarbaria Apr 24, 2015 5:44:11	Something I forgot to mention earlier that some other posters almost touched on: Very often, you will give the party more HP throughout the day by casting a spell like shield of faith than by casting cure wounds because of how accuracy and damage relate to each other.
#7 OnionDruid Apr 24, 2015 14:02:24	So I'm away from book but what gives you proficiency in healer's kit? Off the top of my head I don't know of a background or class that gains the kit... But then again this is from memory.
#8 Tempest_Stormwind Apr 24, 2015 14:16:53	OnionDruid wrote:
#9 Gruff_Ironfist Apr 25, 2015 9:48:22	I agree with the points people are making. We've found many things that are superior to using cure wounds to heal up after the fact.   (1) reduce/negate incoming damage Barbarian rage damage soaking Blade Ward (combined with Haste, Battle Magic, or War Magic, lets you still attack) Rogue Uncanny Dodge Monk Deflect Missiles Rogue/Ranger Evasion Shield Master feat, mini-evasion Bard's Cutting Words Defensive Duelist feat Protection Fighting Style Shield spell as reaction Paladin Aura of Protection Haste (AC boost) Ranger multiattack defense (vs. foes with many attacks) Counterspell spell vs. foe spells (Bard Jack of all Trades improves this roll) Greater Invisibility spell is solid for certain kinds of fights   (2) alpha strike hits free bags of HPs (send them in first) Moon Druid wildshape forms (then use spell slot to self-heal form if needed) Creatures from conjure spells   (3) control foes, reducing foe damage or chance to hit Monk stunning strike Blindess/Deafness spell (+Heighten) Banishment spell (+Heighten) Conjure animals spell with grapple (giant octopus, constrictor snakes, etc.) to grab foes Bestow Curse spell for disadvantage on attacks of deny action   Stuff like that.
#10 Byakugan01 Apr 27, 2015 0:17:28	In AL, healing spells are so good they function like time travel.    Without a healer at levels 1-3 all it takes is 1 or 2 hits and suddenly everyone has to spend an hour resting.  It is a good strategy that the tank will usually tru to tank, but it simply isn't going to work all the time.  After level 3, most everything has multi-attack, so getting knocked out then crit for 2 failed death saves and suddenly you are 1 50/50 roll from death.    When the DM is limiting you to 2 rests a day as suggested, the healing spell slots can make the difference between finishing an adventure in 1 session and taking 2 sessions.  Ie healing spells make you level up faster and get magic items faster.  Pretty neat.