Zardnaar
Legend
The following is a few thoughts I have on healing in 5E. Healing is one of the more powerful things one can do in 5E as opposed to earlier editions of the game. If you excel at it the DM can not really challenge you in any way, not enough of it and you are in trouble. How much healing is enough? I do not have that answer and I suspect it would depend on how the DM constructs the encounters or what published adventure they are using. In general I find.
1. Out of combat healing is vastly superior to in combat healing.
2. In combat healing is very sub optimal and there are really only 2 ways to be good at it.
I also find that it is a bit unfair in 5E to expect one PC to do all of the healing. In previous editions you could get away with this due to things like wands of cure lt wounds (3.5) or just knowing more spells than what a 5E character has along with less incoming damage (AD&D). 4E had the whole healing surge thing and the various variations on healing word leader abilities. Consider a level 1 cleric in 5E with a grand total of 2 healing spells vs the healer feat which is 1d6+5 points of healing per person per short rest. Clerics at low levels are not actually that good at healing except for the life cleric. 5E PCs also tend to have marginally more hit points than an AD&D PC at low levels (usually due to con bonuses kicking in at lower ability scores), they also tend to take more incoming damage and get hit more often and have less spells to work with.
Some of the healing load has been shifted to hit dice of course but see point 1 about out of combat healing being more efficient. Cure heals more hit points than healing word, a hit dice expended heals more than cure and prayer of healing heals the same amount as a level 2 cure spell but takes 10 minutes to cast but it effects multiple targets. In terms of overall healing I would rate the following sources as such.
Multiclass Life Clerics 2
Life Cleric 1.5
Clerics 1
Druids 7.5
Lore Bard Focused on Healing 1
Paladins 0.50
No surprise the life cleric is the best healer in 5E due to disciple of life and its channel divinity ability. I would guesstimate the life cleric is around 50-100% more efficient at healing than the other types of clerics who are better at healing than the other classes due to having the right spells available. At low levels the healer feat is better than all the clerics including life at least in terms of hit points regained. The game assumes around 2 short rests are used per day and with a 5 person party the healer feat offers a potential 1d6+5 hit points regained 15 times per day (3 times per person). A life cleric with the healer feat can usually devote their spell slots to doing fun stuff just dropping the odd healing word/prayer of healing/mass healing word as needed.
Another surprisingly good healer is the Rogue: Thief with the ability to use an object as a bonus action at level 3. This includes healing kits which means with the healing feat you can heal people as a bonus action. The healing feat loses potency at higher level but by level 9 is still roughly the equivalent of a mass cure spell 1/short rest. The life cleric and rogue are one of the few ways of efficient in combat healing in 5E IMHO. The healing feat can also restore someone to 1hp an infinite amount of times per day or at least limited by the number of healing kits you have. Combined with the Rogue it is whack a mole healing for a fun and games rules interaction.
How does one beat the Life Cleric for healing? The answer is to multiclass it for access to the goodberry spell and the way disciple of life works with it. Instead of 10 berries healing 1hp each you get 10 berries healing 4hp each. Its is more out of combat healing but a rogue can use a berry as a bonus action on themselves I suppose. One way to get more goodberry spells is via the land druids ability to recall spells and use that ability on level 1 spells. Life Cleric1/Druid XYZ is one of the best healers in the game and the build kicks in at level 2 and you give up very little for the ability and gain better blasting spells via moonbeam and call lightning.
You can even do better than the Cleric/Druid but it is a little slower to get up. Some DMs may spit the dummy over the RAW interaction of goodberry and disciple of life (confirmed by Mearls/Crawford BTW hey I didn't write the rules). The Lore Bard can steal spells off other class lists such as the Paladin and Ranger often before the Ranger or Paladin can cast those spells themselves. This means you get to play with spells like Destructive Wave and Circle of Power 7 levels before the Paladin does (9 if you are a tempest cleric with destructive wave). Aura of vitality looks like a great Paladin spell but it is not really that good at level 9 for a Paladin but it gets a lot better at level 6 for a Lore Bard and how about at level 7 with a Life Cleric1/Lore Bard6? 2d6+5 hit points per round for 10 rounds as a bonus action. Unless you are proficient in con saves healing spells that require concentration may not be the best use of your spell slots though at least in combat. A lore bard with medium/heavy armor+shield is usually better than one in light armor as well as an added bonus.
My theory isif you have to cast an actual cure spell in 5E you are doing it wrong or something has gone wrong in game (the cure is better than no healing).
1. Out of combat healing is vastly superior to in combat healing.
2. In combat healing is very sub optimal and there are really only 2 ways to be good at it.
I also find that it is a bit unfair in 5E to expect one PC to do all of the healing. In previous editions you could get away with this due to things like wands of cure lt wounds (3.5) or just knowing more spells than what a 5E character has along with less incoming damage (AD&D). 4E had the whole healing surge thing and the various variations on healing word leader abilities. Consider a level 1 cleric in 5E with a grand total of 2 healing spells vs the healer feat which is 1d6+5 points of healing per person per short rest. Clerics at low levels are not actually that good at healing except for the life cleric. 5E PCs also tend to have marginally more hit points than an AD&D PC at low levels (usually due to con bonuses kicking in at lower ability scores), they also tend to take more incoming damage and get hit more often and have less spells to work with.
Some of the healing load has been shifted to hit dice of course but see point 1 about out of combat healing being more efficient. Cure heals more hit points than healing word, a hit dice expended heals more than cure and prayer of healing heals the same amount as a level 2 cure spell but takes 10 minutes to cast but it effects multiple targets. In terms of overall healing I would rate the following sources as such.
Multiclass Life Clerics 2
Life Cleric 1.5
Clerics 1
Druids 7.5
Lore Bard Focused on Healing 1
Paladins 0.50
No surprise the life cleric is the best healer in 5E due to disciple of life and its channel divinity ability. I would guesstimate the life cleric is around 50-100% more efficient at healing than the other types of clerics who are better at healing than the other classes due to having the right spells available. At low levels the healer feat is better than all the clerics including life at least in terms of hit points regained. The game assumes around 2 short rests are used per day and with a 5 person party the healer feat offers a potential 1d6+5 hit points regained 15 times per day (3 times per person). A life cleric with the healer feat can usually devote their spell slots to doing fun stuff just dropping the odd healing word/prayer of healing/mass healing word as needed.
Another surprisingly good healer is the Rogue: Thief with the ability to use an object as a bonus action at level 3. This includes healing kits which means with the healing feat you can heal people as a bonus action. The healing feat loses potency at higher level but by level 9 is still roughly the equivalent of a mass cure spell 1/short rest. The life cleric and rogue are one of the few ways of efficient in combat healing in 5E IMHO. The healing feat can also restore someone to 1hp an infinite amount of times per day or at least limited by the number of healing kits you have. Combined with the Rogue it is whack a mole healing for a fun and games rules interaction.
How does one beat the Life Cleric for healing? The answer is to multiclass it for access to the goodberry spell and the way disciple of life works with it. Instead of 10 berries healing 1hp each you get 10 berries healing 4hp each. Its is more out of combat healing but a rogue can use a berry as a bonus action on themselves I suppose. One way to get more goodberry spells is via the land druids ability to recall spells and use that ability on level 1 spells. Life Cleric1/Druid XYZ is one of the best healers in the game and the build kicks in at level 2 and you give up very little for the ability and gain better blasting spells via moonbeam and call lightning.
You can even do better than the Cleric/Druid but it is a little slower to get up. Some DMs may spit the dummy over the RAW interaction of goodberry and disciple of life (confirmed by Mearls/Crawford BTW hey I didn't write the rules). The Lore Bard can steal spells off other class lists such as the Paladin and Ranger often before the Ranger or Paladin can cast those spells themselves. This means you get to play with spells like Destructive Wave and Circle of Power 7 levels before the Paladin does (9 if you are a tempest cleric with destructive wave). Aura of vitality looks like a great Paladin spell but it is not really that good at level 9 for a Paladin but it gets a lot better at level 6 for a Lore Bard and how about at level 7 with a Life Cleric1/Lore Bard6? 2d6+5 hit points per round for 10 rounds as a bonus action. Unless you are proficient in con saves healing spells that require concentration may not be the best use of your spell slots though at least in combat. A lore bard with medium/heavy armor+shield is usually better than one in light armor as well as an added bonus.
My theory isif you have to cast an actual cure spell in 5E you are doing it wrong or something has gone wrong in game (the cure is better than no healing).
