D&D 5E Mass Cure Wounds

[VAPygott]

Basic question - When casting Mass Cure Wounds
1) does the cleric make a single roll and everyone targeted regains the same hit points OR
2) do each targeted individual roll their own 3d8+Cleric's Wis mod?

I'm assuming the first option is the correct one but I'm just asking for clarification.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

The first. By RAW the healer always rolls the dice. You roll once for all the targets with spells, unless it involves making multiple attack rolls or something. Technically on Magic Missiles you roll one d4 and each missile does that same amount of damage.

That said, almost nobody plays magic missile that way and it makes no statistical difference whether or not you do, and so too it really makes no difference if you roll separately for each target of your healing. It matters even less who actually rolls the dice.

 

[Shiroiken]

It matters even less who actually rolls the dice.

Except for superstition. I have a player with a cleric that never rolls the dice for healing, unless it's for herself. If the roll is bad, she doesn't want the player blaming her.

 

[aco175]

I have the same thing with the target rolls for the healing so the player cannot get mad. For the mass cure, the caster rolls since it affects several people, similar to a fireball. Some spells may call for several dice and one player may only have 4 and calls for another player to roll 4 as well, but it has never been a problem if the other player rolls or hands them to the caster to roll all 8 dice.

Some players have rules/superstitions about letting other people touch their dice.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

The first. By RAW the healer always rolls the dice. You roll once for all the targets with spells, unless it involves making multiple attack rolls or something. Technically on Magic Missiles you roll one d4 and each missile does that same amount of damage.

Really? I just read the PHB chapter 9 (Magic) and there weren't any rules on magic or casting. Magic Missile doesn't specify, exactly, how the dice should be rolled.

Just wondering where it says in the rules you roll the damage (or healing) once per spell cast? Maybe somewhere in the DMG?

 

[Seramus]

Dear gods, imagine rolling separately for every target of a fireball.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Really? I just read the PHB chapter 9 (Magic) and there weren't any rules on magic or casting. Magic Missile doesn't specify, exactly, how the dice should be rolled.

Just wondering where it says in the rules you roll the damage (or healing) once per spell cast? Maybe somewhere in the DMG?

The section on Damage and Healing on page 196 discusses the always roll once for multi-target damage rule, designers have confirmed that as applied to Magic Missile that should, technically, mean rolling a single, lonely d4 and multiplying it by number of missiles hitting each target. But the Magic Missile thing is something brought up specifically because it is a trivial official way rule on something that works fine whether you follow it or not (and most people don't).

Jeremy Crawford's tweet on the matter was:
"Magic missile. RAW: You roll 1 damage die (see "Damage Rolls," PH, 196). RAI: It doesn't matter; you choose."

Which I thinks sums up how concerned we should be about who rolls or how for any spell.