Homebrew Healing Spell Discussion

[Zolst]

So I run a 5th edition D&D group. My player who runs a cleric and I are currently arguing over a home brewed spell that I created for him. Tell me what you think. It goes like this:

---
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 30 feet
Component: V,S,Focus (holy symbol)
Duration: 1 Minute (Concentration)

The caster pulls health from one party member and gives it to another, but at a price.

Choose a willing target and a recipient. Both must be within 30 feet of the caster, but not necessarily of one another. The willing target loses 1d4+(caster's WIS modifier) hit points and the recipient gains the same amount of hit points minus (1/2 caster’s WIS modifier rounded down). For the duration, as an action, the caster may repeat this process once per round. Optionally, a new willing target and/or recipient may be chosen. The caster can be the target, but cannot be the recipient.

At Higher Levels: The caster may use a higher spell slot to increase the die type.
1st level slot - d4
2nd level slot - d6
3rd level slot - d8
4th level slot - d10(max)
---

The spell is supposed to be comparable to Heroism and other first level healing spells. It's designed to transfer hit points from party members who aren't in danger to party members who are getting beat on.

Your thoughts?

[DragonSorcererX]

Is this a Cantrip? Because it looks really useless, and I can't see someone using this instead of Cure Wounds/Healing Word.

[nickl_2000]

I don't see myself using it either. I would prefer to cure rather than just rearrange.

Still, it seems like it would need more range to be useful (take away from the archer in the back and give to a frontliner).

[nickl_2000]

Although there would be interesting discussions on what is considered willing. Could you charm a person into being friendly and then use this spell to leech life from them? Could you hire 15 henchmen and have them sit in the background so that they can be lifeleeched?

What about animals? Can an animal that you are friendly with be willing?

[DragonSorcererX]

Although there would be interesting discussions on what is considered willing. Could you charm a person into being friendly and then use this spell to leech life from them? Could you hire 15 henchmen and have them sit in the background so that they can be lifeleeched?

What about animals? Can an animal that you are friendly with be willing?

If this drained enough energy to heal a good amount of hp, it could be good for villains, like that guy from 3.X Exemplars of Evil who walked around with children chained to him and he would kill them to enhance his spells... I think... I don't remember exactly, maybe he just went around with them because he was an extremely evil sadist and it had no mechanical benefit in doing so.

[SharkForce]

So I run a 5th edition D&D group. My player who runs a cleric and I are currently arguing over a home brewed spell that I created for him. Tell me what you think. It goes like this:

---
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 30 feet
Component: V,S,Focus (holy symbol)
Duration: 1 Minute (Concentration)

The caster pulls health from one party member and gives it to another, but at a price.

Choose a willing target and a recipient. Both must be within 30 feet of the caster, but not necessarily of one another. The willing target loses 1d4+(caster's WIS modifier) hit points and the recipient gains the same amount of hit points minus (1/2 caster’s WIS modifier rounded down). For the duration, as an action, the caster may repeat this process once per round. Optionally, a new willing target and/or recipient may be chosen. The caster can be the target, but cannot be the recipient.

At Higher Levels: The caster may use a higher spell slot to increase the die type.
1st level slot - d4
2nd level slot - d6
3rd level slot - d8
4th level slot - d10(max)
---

The spell is supposed to be comparable to Heroism and other first level healing spells. It's designed to transfer hit points from party members who aren't in danger to party members who are getting beat on.

Your thoughts?

i think if there isn't someone in the party who has infinite regeneration, i wouldn't touch this spell with a 29.5 foot pole. which probably makes this spell more or less useless for just about every party in existence, unless maybe you're using some very specific UA.

[JackPhoenix]

i think if there isn't someone in the party who has infinite regeneration, i wouldn't touch this spell with a 29.5 foot pole. which probably makes this spell more or less useless for just about every party in existence, unless maybe you're using some very specific UA.

I can actually see an use to reduce overheal from Prayer of Healing or similar spells. If you have more party members than the targets of PoH and one of them isn't hurt, you could use this spell to transfer some hp to the most wounded party member, and negate the loss through PoH. It may be a little more effective than using same level slot to cast Cure Wounds if you transfer the HP more than once, but you must be careful to balance it.

Another use would be with level 18 Champion (but, yeah, level 18 Champion) or Revenant (from UA): both automatically regenerate up to half their max HP. If they're below half anyway, you could use it to heal other wounded party members, 10d4 + 10x casting mod HP is nothing to sneeze at.

Overall, it's a bad spell for cleric, but I could easily see it as a nice not terrible spell for a wizard: there was similar spell in 3.5e, wizard doesn't have access to other healing spells, and it feels similar to Vampiric Touch and fitting for a necromancer.

[SharkForce]

I can actually see an use to reduce overheal from Prayer of Healing or similar spells. If you have more party members than the targets of PoH and one of them isn't hurt, you could use this spell to transfer some hp to the most wounded party member, and negate the loss through PoH. It may be a little more effective than using same level slot to cast Cure Wounds if you transfer the HP more than once, but you must be careful to balance it.

Another use would be with level 18 Champion (but, yeah, level 18 Champion) or Revenant (from UA): both automatically regenerate up to half their max HP. If they're below half anyway, you could use it to heal other wounded party members, 10d4 + 10x casting mod HP is nothing to sneeze at.

Overall, it's a bad spell for cleric, but I could easily see it as a nice not terrible spell for a wizard: there was similar spell in 3.5e, wizard doesn't have access to other healing spells, and it feels similar to Vampiric Touch and fitting for a necromancer.

your second paragraph is using people with infinite regeneration.

your first one assumes that you're using prayer of healing in a situation where you're going to get a large amount of overhealing for some reason. or that you need to heal more than 6 people. considering you're losing half your wisdom modifier (rounded up) per round, there would need to be a pretty significant amount of overhealing (unless this is being cast by someone with less than 10 wisdom, in which case it technically heals extra, or perhaps by a life cleric, where you might be able to cheese it for slightly more healing gained than lost).

again, unless someone has infinite regeneration, i wouldn't touch it with a 29.5 foot pole. it's just hard to imagine a situation where i would be thinking "you know what, i could use a highly inefficient method of redistributing hit points with a net loss of total hit points".

[furby076]

---
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 30 feet
Component: V,S,Focus (holy symbol)
Duration: 1 Minute (Concentration)

The caster pulls health from one party member and gives it to another, but at a price.

Choose a willing target and a recipient. Both must be within 30 feet of the caster, but not necessarily of one another. The willing target loses
---

The spell is supposed to be comparable to Heroism and other first level healing spells. It's designed to transfer hit points from party members who aren't in danger to party members who are getting beat on.

Your thoughts?
As others have said, this is too weak in it's current form.
Make this:
Cantrip
After casting the spell, it's Concentration and takes bonus action to activate
What you drain is what you gain (no minus half wisdom)

Even then you will have limited use...most allies will not want their HP drain.

I would not allow it to be used on summoned creatures, because that's just pure cheese.