Slipperychicken
2016-06-15, 01:17 PM
I've found that a lot of people look at life clerics in 5e and don't see much more beyond their bonus to healing spells and a shameful obligation to use spell slots and actions only on healing. Having played one for a few sessions, I think that view is flawed and I want to offer a different perspective:
First, a life cleric does not have to spend all his spells and time on healing. One with war caster can easily hold up a spirit guardians spell, a spiritual weapon spell, and cantrips (or some other combination of the three) to "nova" for a considerable amount of damage over most of a combat, albeit at a cost of spell slots. Buffing with bless is also great, as for a level one spell it effectively increases your allies' per-attack damage output by 12.5% of their average non-critical damage roll, which can be huge when they're having trouble hitting. A cleric can use the healer feat and his preserve life channel divinity to save himself from using all his spell slots on healing. Using those two alongside short rests, I rarely had to use healing spells outside combat, and found myself with a lot of spells left over for other things.
Second, many of the life domain spells are things a cleric wants to prepare every day even if he isn't a 'dedicated' healer. Just about every cleric wants spiritual weapon, revivify, and bless on their list all the time. They can be useful no matter what you're going to fight that day. That frees up a lot of preparation slots.
Third, the preserve life channel divinity has saved my party a lot in combat. When they get really low or go down, it's great to hit them with preserve life to get them all back to about half health, then follow that up with a healing word or mass healing word. In just one turn you can get most of your party from the brink of death to more than half their max hp, and it doesn't cost much in terms of daily powers either. The amount of healing from a single preserve life is the same that a paladin has in his entire pool of lay on hands, and it refreshes on a short rest instead of a long rest, so that should give you an idea of how strong it is in the right situation. That kind of powerful burst-healing has turned the tide of quite a few combats.
And finally, keeping your party healthy and clearing their status effects is a highly valuable contribution, even if some gamers tend to ignore or undervalue it. I can't tell you how many times I've seen PC deaths happen because everyone blew all their hit dice resting, had another close encounter, then fell into an unexpected fight while almost empty. There's also the matter that when non-dedicated healers like bards and druids have to fill people up, it's very costly in terms of spell slots, and that can impact their ability to contribute to combat and last through the day. As for conditions, I find that my party's barbarian is grateful for not having to spend fights blinded, paralyzed, or attacking the party because of a mind-control effect. Cursed items are practically an art form among DMs, so I find that having the ability to say "now he's not cursed" with remove curse is quite helpful. Providing all these services to the party, including condition-removal and healing, is a great way to extend their life expectancy, and life clerics are great at doing it with spell slots to spare.
First, a life cleric does not have to spend all his spells and time on healing. One with war caster can easily hold up a spirit guardians spell, a spiritual weapon spell, and cantrips (or some other combination of the three) to "nova" for a considerable amount of damage over most of a combat, albeit at a cost of spell slots. Buffing with bless is also great, as for a level one spell it effectively increases your allies' per-attack damage output by 12.5% of their average non-critical damage roll, which can be huge when they're having trouble hitting. A cleric can use the healer feat and his preserve life channel divinity to save himself from using all his spell slots on healing. Using those two alongside short rests, I rarely had to use healing spells outside combat, and found myself with a lot of spells left over for other things.
Second, many of the life domain spells are things a cleric wants to prepare every day even if he isn't a 'dedicated' healer. Just about every cleric wants spiritual weapon, revivify, and bless on their list all the time. They can be useful no matter what you're going to fight that day. That frees up a lot of preparation slots.
Third, the preserve life channel divinity has saved my party a lot in combat. When they get really low or go down, it's great to hit them with preserve life to get them all back to about half health, then follow that up with a healing word or mass healing word. In just one turn you can get most of your party from the brink of death to more than half their max hp, and it doesn't cost much in terms of daily powers either. The amount of healing from a single preserve life is the same that a paladin has in his entire pool of lay on hands, and it refreshes on a short rest instead of a long rest, so that should give you an idea of how strong it is in the right situation. That kind of powerful burst-healing has turned the tide of quite a few combats.
And finally, keeping your party healthy and clearing their status effects is a highly valuable contribution, even if some gamers tend to ignore or undervalue it. I can't tell you how many times I've seen PC deaths happen because everyone blew all their hit dice resting, had another close encounter, then fell into an unexpected fight while almost empty. There's also the matter that when non-dedicated healers like bards and druids have to fill people up, it's very costly in terms of spell slots, and that can impact their ability to contribute to combat and last through the day. As for conditions, I find that my party's barbarian is grateful for not having to spend fights blinded, paralyzed, or attacking the party because of a mind-control effect. Cursed items are practically an art form among DMs, so I find that having the ability to say "now he's not cursed" with remove curse is quite helpful. Providing all these services to the party, including condition-removal and healing, is a great way to extend their life expectancy, and life clerics are great at doing it with spell slots to spare.