This Hurts You More Than It Hurts Me: A Healer's Handbook [Archive]

Garresh

2017-12-27, 02:51 PM

This Hurts You More Than It Hurts Me

A Healer's Handbook

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"Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up" - Batman Begins
(Style shamelessly pilfered from EvilAnagram's guides, because they're amazing. If you haven't, go look them up.)

So, you want to be a healer? Or maybe your party thinks it needs one? After all, how hard can it be? Even a new player can't screw it up, right?

Well, bad news. Healing is, typically, pretty bad in D&D. 95% of healing is suboptimal at best, if not a deficit to the party because of opportunity cost. Unfortunately, the people who often get saddled with this usually don't know any better, and so they come to view it as a chore.

Good news! Healing can be, if utilized correctly, an extremely fun and rewarding path which contributes heavily to a party. In fact, if you play it optimally, a healer can be fun not just for you, but for the whole party. It can even take some stress off for the DM.

Why Healing Is Good

It's Rewarding

Healing is a thankless job. Or it's a job everyone appreciates. Depends on the party. But in a friendly group it usually comes with at least some praise. Whether or not it comes with a doggie treat and a pat on the head, some people just enjoy that playstyle. I am one of them. Nothing screams awesome to me like bringing someone back from the brink of death and putting them almost to full hp(if they're a squishy) in one turn, only to see them charge forward and decapitate their foe. We like seeing heroes pick themselves up and win. As a healer, you can make that happen.

It Reduces Stress

Having a dedicated healer means the party will be somewhat less stressed out about fights, while still allowing things to feel dangerous. Having someone watching over you at all times means you can charge forward into danger with more resolve. For a DM, this also means that you can throw more difficult or interesting encounters at players knowing that if things get bad they'll be able to get a second chance. That doesn't necessarily mean they can jack up the CR. A good controller wizard will be a better option in that case. But the DM can do extended encounters with waves of enemies, or "swingy" high damage effects without worrying about it resulting in a TPK. Either way, it makes the DM feel a little more comfortable trying different things.

It's Reliable

Healing has no critical hits. It has no saving throws. It always does what it says it does. Barring a well timed counterspell or some form of disruption, you can be pretty confident you'll get your healing off. D&D combat can be swingy. Healing is not. It reduces the chance of a critical putting you in a bad spot. Cutting Words can't stop a critical(though it's pretty much better than healing in every other situation), but healing can undo it.

Why Healing Is Bad

It's Inefficient

Even for a dedicated healer, you *never* want to heal first. Healing should be plan B even for the most dedicated. A simple comparison. Guiding Bolt does 4d6 damage(avg 14) and grants advantage on the next attack roll. Factoring in hit chance, that might only be like 7 damage, but it's still granting advantage which is a net gain. Cure Wounds does 1d8+3(at level 1), which averages 7.5 hit points, but doesn't grant advantage. Now that seems like it's equal footing, but keep in mind that you're only one party member. If you're facing multiple orcs with bows, their damage output is going to be way higher than a measly 7.5 hit points.

It's Suboptimal

The opportunity cost of healing is bad. Generally speaking, healing stops one round of damage from one enemy. Killing that enemy stops all subsequent rounds of damage. Walling or control is even better, because it stops all subsequent rounds of damage(or at least mitigates them) without having to chew through it's HP first. Basically even in the most dedicated healer you don't want to heal if you can avoid it.

Color Coding

This is best in class.
This is VERY strong.
This is pretty good.
This is okay. It could also be campaign dependent or situational.
This is bad.
This is absolute garbage.

Generally speaking, anything from Purple up is playable. Not all of them will be great, but as with most optimization guides, you need to weigh how much fun something is. The goal of this guide isn't to make you always play the best possible option, but to let you find a way to do what you want(healing, you masochist) without being a liability. Going a bit further, I need to explain the rating system in greater detail. I will be rating things off of 2 categories.

The first category is how good it is at healing(since this is a healing guide). The second will be how good it is at other things. Since healing is always plan B, you need to have an actual plan A or else you're going to be pretty weak. I am placing MOST of my emphasis on healing first and foremost, but other factors will weigh into it as well. Mostly this comes down to opportunity cost. Am I gaining more in plan B than I am losing in plan A? Is plan A still viable? This rating system means that good classes may be rated badly in healing, but a bad build that heals well will never be rated highly.

Garresh

2017-12-27, 02:52 PM

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"It ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward." - Rocky

Types of Healing

Healing comes in many different categories. If you haven't gathered from the last few paragraphs, opportunity cost is the deciding factor between good and bad healing. It is the dividing line between a great healer and a great way to get your party killed.

Sustained Healing

If you came from a game like World of Warcraft, or Overwatch, or Killing Floor, this is what you think of when you see healing. This basically means you heal every round of combat with the intent of keeping your party topped off. This is beyond bad. You're basically NPC tier at that point, and probably about as useful as someone half your level in combat. Don't do this.

Out of Combat Healing

The viability of an out of combat healing option is going to depend on a number of factors. Some healing can be rated as high as Sky Blue. Others will be firmly Brown. As with most things, the thing to consider is what you're paying for it. As an out of combat option, Cure Wounds and Healing Word drop in power massively as compared to Prayer of Healing. However, out of combat, everyone has some capacity to heal themselves simply by resting. Healing potions in most compaigns are readily available. Factoring this, the viability of out of combat healing is going to vary substantially. I would say that in a typical campaign it is Purple, but in an Adventurer's League game which focuses heavily on dungeon crawling and combat, it can rise to Blue. Generally, you can't go wrong grabbing some efficient out of combat heals. Just don't go multiclassing JUST for out of combat heals.

Incidental Healing

Basically, healing in such a way that you don't use actions, or only use bonus actions to do it. The ideal goal of this type of healing is that you're healing other party members while still performing your primary function, or at least doing some decent damage. You still need to consider costs in terms of spell slots, but spells like Healing Word or Aura of Vitality are never bad spells to have access to. People are going to drop eventually, and when that happens you need to be able to get them up quickly without losing rounds of combat to pure healing. This is where incidental healing comes in. If you're a class or build that doesn't rely on bonus actions as much, or using a form of incidental healing that doesn't consume other resources, then you really can't go wrong with doing that. Sometimes even when people are below half but haven't dropped yet. It depends on a number of factors(as always), but this type of healing is generally good.

Burst Healing

Sometimes, bad things happen. You run into an enemy who rolls high on that fireball after you were already a little beat up from the last fight. Now your rogue and wizard are down, you're in single digits, and there's more AoE effects which threaten to knock you out or kill your party outright. Enter the burst heal. This is generally the best healing option, because for one round healing catapults up such that it is no longer an opportunity cost. When you're level 5 and you put out over 70 healing in one round across the whole party, you've definitely earned your keep. Generally burst healing will use your action, but after that you resume crushing skulls.

Chumbawamba/Whack-A-Mole

This isn't so much a strategy(although sometimes it can be) as it is a result of healing in a bad situation. Since healing doesn't keep up with enemies, you will often be unable to outpace enemy healing once someone goes down. But leaving them downed is an extremely dangerous proposition, so you have to keep bringing them back up every round. Depending on their position in initiative, this may result in them more or less not losing any actions except half movement to stand up. Or it could result in them losing almost every turn. This is why burst healing is generally better than incidental healing. It bypasses this. But if you have access to incidental healing, better to keep your friends alive while still doing damage than to let them die.

On that note, I've often noticed that many D&D players aren't aware of just how dangerous falling unconscious is. Any source of damage, no matter how small, results in a failed death save. Worse, if an enemy attacks an unconscious target, the attack is an automatic critical, which results in 2 failed death saving throws. I actually had a character die in AL(a dedicated healer, ironically) because I went down and my party was like "We'll get him up after the fight" while extra damage killed me next turn.

It's something of an implicit understanding by DMs not to attack downed players. Not even necessarily because they're aware of how fragile the downed player is, but because it's just not fun for anyone involved. Mostly, the DMs who do that are *****. Now there are good reasons to attack a downed player, such as an assassin hired to kill that particular player, or a particularly vicious dragon who enjoys eviscerating his food in front of its companions. If a DM crosses that line they'd be a total **** not to at least warn the party what's coming.

Regardless, even if they don't target downed players specifically, there are lots of AoE and ongoing damage effects which can kill a downed player very quickly if not healed. So don't delay. Give them the bare minimum healing and actions required to get them back up, so they get a little safety. Then focus on ending the fight. Unless you're a burst healer. Then you just bring them back above half in one turn because you're awesome.

Garresh

2017-12-27, 02:54 PM

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"It's time to be immortal, 'cause heroes never die." - Megadeth

Class Options

Before going forward, let me say that I have not tried every build listed below. I have played a LOT of healers, and tried a lot of the stuff included herein. I've also seen some other options played by other players at tables. Since this is still a work in progress, I will be marking builds that I haven't personally played using the following guidelines. I would appreciate any feedback if someone has more information there. This guide just spans too much material to be done to optimal accuracy by one person, so I will take any feedback.

*Played Something Similar

Basically this is a case where I've played something very similar to the combination, except with different subclasses. I'm making some guesses as to how it plays in practice, rather than theory. But the jump is small and can be considered reasonably accurate. These may need to slide up or down in tier by a bit, but can be considered fairly accurate.

**Have not played at all

This is pure theory. I've run some numbers and looked at stats, but I would take this with a hefty grain of salt.

Edit: So I'm making some adjustments based on the feedback received so far. I had initially intended to keep status effect removal as more of a utility caster thing. In hindsight, it really should be bundled under the healer role. I will be adjusting tier placements accordingly. Additionally, I had some oversights with regards to some spells from Xanathar's, and will be adjusting that as well. Also got a lot of feedback from Paladin players which raised good points.

Single Classes

Cleric X

Unfortunately, as a healer, the average cleric is not nearly as exciting. It still has access to all the key incidental heals such as Healing Word and Mass Healing Word, but without the efficiency increases they feel much less exciting. Warding Bond becomes a lot more dangerous when you don't have the potency of a life cleric. On the upside, Clerics of all sorts do still get access to the restorations and to remove curse. All in all, from a non-healing perspective you can consider Clerics to be very strong, but not for the purposes of this guide. Make no mistake though. Clerics are an AWESOME class, and nearly every domain is excellent. But only one domain stands out as a healing domain.

Cleric(Grave) X

Grave is a weird domain. It tries to focus on healing through death, and I'd say it does a good job thematically. Circle of Mortality makes its healing of unconscious targets much better. Of course with Healing Word it retains the ability to perform incidental healing, but the bonus from Circle of Mortality won't be enough to match the bonus from Disciple of Life. On the other hand, an upcast Cure Wounds suddenly becomes a *very* powerful burst heal. Sentinel at Death's Door is also really good, but it comes up pretty rarely. While it arrives pretty late, Keeper of Souls is effectively a "free" heal as far as action economy is concerned. Even with all these abilities you're way behind the Life domain. The general takeaway is that the Grave domain is really good at healing people who are unconscious. Given that in an ideal world that is the *only* type of healing you should be doing in combat, I'd say that makes this above average. But from an optimization perspective, unless you're looking to use the channel divinity to combo with some ungodly burst from someone else, you really shouldn't pick this. It's spells are weaker, and its heals more situational. Still, if you have reasons to pick this due to backstory, you absolutely should. They say that comparison is the thief of joy, and compared to the Life domain pretty much everything else is crap. You're still above average in the grand scheme of things. You can do a lot worse than this domain.

Cleric(Life) X

Few options are better than a pure life cleric. It gets decently powerful buff options like Bless, which last all career. It gets Spiritual Weapon and Spirit Guardians, so it can wade it and do damage. With heavy armor, you can always feel useful no matter the context. No class has as many ways to remove status effects and keep party members from being disabled by diseases(though other classes get counterspell). Also, its healing efficiency gets jacked up a bunch. Life clerics possess pretty strong incidental healing in the form of Healing Wordand Mass Healing Word, which both benefit from Disciple of Life.

Prayer of Healing gives excellent out of combat healing which gets the Disciple of Life boost to each target. Going up higher, you get access to things like Warding Bond which can be paired with Blessed Healer to make your incidental healing even MORE efficient. Then you get spells like Revivify and Heal. Preserve Life is a fantastic burst heal which can be used with Mass Healing Word. And as if that weren't enough Life Transference means that burst healing is almost always available(albeit risky at times). Luckily, the self damage is somewhat offset by Blessed Healer. And as you approach the capstone, you get Supreme Healing which basically maximizes every heal from there on out. The only downside of life clerics is they're a tad boring for my tastes. They're powerful, but unless you enjoy roleplaying a priest you may get bored with them. Either way, they have incredible options for Plan A AND Plan B, so you can never go wrong with them.

Bard X

Bards aren't going to be stealing the spotlight on healing. They get a little out of combat healing bonus, and some good debuff spells and ways to amplify damage. Heroism is good at low levels. On the whole, they're just going to be behind other classes at most levels. They have Healing Word, so they can bring some panic incidental heals, but not very much. They also get access to Lesser Restoration although it comes at the cost of a spell slot. Still, every little bit helps. HOWEVER, after level 10 they can still start pilfering some decent healing spells. Admittedly, gems like Aura of Vitality will come late, but any bard past level 10 who chooses can be considered a passable healer.

Bard(College of Glamour) X*

This is a weird one, and kind of hard to rate. Mantle of Inspiration is a pretty good effect, but the healing is secondary to it. It blocks like, maybe half of an attack, but it uses bardic inspiration dice AND is an AOE that affects pretty much your entire party. It won't bring downed members back up, but used in conjunction with Cure Wounds it will give them enough HP to maybe last one hit, AND allow them to get a free disengage(though standing up will eat half their movement). It's a weird case of trading raw healing for a powerful incidental effect that also grants a lot of mitigation. It's also sort of spammable. I wouldn't recommend this by itself, but it's a nice way to play a conventional bard while also buffing in an atypical way. Still, I think Lore pretty much crushes it in almost every category. Speaking of...

Bard(Lore) X

What? Bard is a better healer than cleric?! Sort of. So the thing about bards is that with magical secrets, they can pilfer Aura of Vitality at a pretty low level. They also get Cutting Words, which does enough to provide mitigation that it becomes worth mentioning. Also, while it doesn't come up every fight, Counterspell becomes Amazing when pilfered by a Lore Bard. Song of Rest gives them a little bit out of combat healing. It's pretty small, but it's also free, so it's worth using. They also use charisma, which means they can pick up Inspiring Leader which is really good for reasons I'll get into later. Individually, any of these would not be enough, as it shows with the rating of Glamour. But together it gives a hodgpodge of good incidental healing and mitigation which makes for a pretty nice package deal. It still doesn't have anything even remotely approaching a burst heal though. Bards are just an amazing support class, and Lore bards make that better in every way.

Druid X

So Druids lose out on a lot of spells that Clerics get access to. No Mass Healing Word, Revivify, or Prayer of Healing means they have a much smaller selection than a cleric. People often go to Goodberry but in truth it scales poorly unless paired with Disciple of Life, which we'll get into later. A Cure Wounds with +5 wisdom mod heals an average of 9.5 HP, only .5 less than Goodberry. Goodberry also doesn't make up the gap from losing Prayer of Healing. It's not all bad though. Druids have a lot of hidden gems in their spell list, and can arguably make a better support than many clerics via spells like Faerie Fire, Heat Metal, the various walls and ensnares it can create, and other fun tricks it has up its sleeve. However, with the release of Xanathar's, druids have gained access to Healing Spirit which is an insanely efficient heal, both in and out of combat. You can think of it like Aura of Vitality, except better in every way. Additionally, since it is only a second level spell, it seriously offsets the loss of Prayer of Healing over a cleric. It's still not as good, but it is very good.

After rereading the rules, it clearly specifies that Healing Spirit has a limit of once per turn, not once per round. This is the same logic that allows rogues to sneak attack twice per round whenever they get an opportunity attack. This makes Healing Spirit one of the most overpowered healing spells in the game. It may be enough to bump every single Druid and Ranger multiclass up a tier. I'm holding off for now, but the spell is seriously good.

Druid(Circle of Dreams) X*

Balm of the Summer Court is an extra pool of healing that is used as a bonus action, has a range of 120 feet, and heals 1d6+1 hp per two levels. That's...okay. Not great, but it's not bad. Having a pool of bonus action heals handy means you can do incidental heals without wasting spell slots. It definitely gets better as you level though. A level 10 druid probably isn't going to upcast their Healing Word for an extra 2.5 hp per level. A Balm of the Summer Court on the other hand will be putting out an average of 22.5 hp as a bonus action twice per day, assuming you use it at max power. You can choose to hold that in reserve and spend it in single die increments if you're chumbawamba-ing, or you can combine it with an upcast Cure Wounds to create a moderate burst heal since it's not a spell. Lastly, there's nothing I can see that blocks you from using it while wildshaped. I mean, I don't know why you'd be wildshaped as a non-moon druid in a situation where you need healing, but sometimes edge cases occur.

On the whole, it's a nice supplemental source of healing which can be used alongside your spells. With all that being said, I still sort of recommend against this. You lose so much utility in other categories. This is one of the rare cases where you're trading more Plan A for Plan B, but it's still viable. That's more a testament to all the gems on the druid spell list than a statement of Balm of the Summer Court being really good. But scaling healing that doesn't use spell slots IS good. And while it is somewhat niche, Balm of the Summer Court doesn't count as a spell, so it can heal in situations where spellcasting is impossible. If you want to do this, weigh the choice heavily. It's a weird subclass, but definitely viable.

Druid(Circle of The Shepherd) X*

What the Circle of Dreams gets in efficiency, the Circle of the Shepherd gets in burst potential. Unicorn Spirit is basically what happens if you turn Disciple of Life into a 1/rest ability, and then give it steroids. Really, the potential of this ability is absolutely insane. If it was only once per long rest it would probably be on par with the Circle of Dreams. But once per short rest makes this rather absurd, especially since it can be activated as a bonus action. While it still is rather slot intensive, you can upcast a Cure Wounds within the aura and get a powerful burst heal. Otherwise, on each subsequent turn after dropping the aura, a 1st level Healing Word now recovered 2.5+Wis+Level, with your level in healing to *everyone* in your party. This more or less gives you Mass Healing Word as a 1st level spell slot.

It may be somewhat clunky at times, but the potential here is great. Unfortunately, I'm not entirely sure how the Unicorn Spirit interacts with Healing Spirit. In one reading, it heals when cast. However, since the initial heal it delayed you can read that it doesn't benefit from Unicorn Spirit at all. Or you could say it works identical to Disciple of Life in which case it is the most overpowered spell in existence(if it isn't already). Outside of that, the only thing holding this back from going higher is that it doesn't have good healing on demand once Unicorn Spirit is on cooldown. Consider this rating as the lowest possible rating, assuming no interaction between Unicorn Spirit and Healing Spirit. Depending on how your DM rules it, this could be as strong as a single class Life Cleric on its own.

Garresh

2017-12-27, 02:55 PM

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"Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right." - Henry Ford

Fighter X

For the sake of completeness, I'm mentioning fighter since they have 2 archetypes that technically get access to healing. Purple Dragon Knight actually gets a good heal that can only be used once per short rest. But the archetype is generally middle-of-the-road compared to other options. Not terrible though. In the event you were planning on playing a fighter and already interested in that archetype, you do get a free AoE incidental heal panic button once per rest. Not too shabby. Battlemaster also gets a heal, but it's crap. It's a shame, too. The idea of spending a superiority die for a bonus action heal is a nice thing, and WOULD be good if it wasn't temporary hit points.

See, the healing output is really low. Superiority dice are generally fairly coveted due to their awesome uses. So a superiority die giving temporary hitpoints to someone is awful. IF it wasn't temporary hitpoints, it would actually be really good as a panic option when you need to chumbawamba, especially if a healer went down but the fighter is still up. If your DM allowed it, I'd recommend making Rally give real HP and work on downed targets. It's still worse than all the other maneuvers, but it would make it worth taking then.

Paladin X

Paladins have been upgraded to passable, with a caveat. It's important to know that Paladins start *slow*. Prior to level 9, they have absolutely no incidental healing. And that uses a 3rd level concentration spell, which still requires an action to cast initially. It's good for a bard because that's in addition to Healing Word, and is accessed sooner than a paladin. Now the paladin does get Lay On Hands, which is really good when used as a burst heal. But it requires being in melee, and also uses your action. So why does the paladin get a bump? Well, the paladin can burst heal pretty friggin good, and the paladin has access to a lot of ways to remove status effects. You can think of the paladin as being red prior to level 9, and then passable after that.

While it's not under the category of healing, Aura of Protection offers some excellent mitigation against spells and the like. The big issue with auras is that the radius is relatively small. It's one thing to say that they proactive defenses is better than reactive defenses, but the small radius means that positioning is a big problem. The people who are most in need of protection will likely be at risk if they stay within the radius. But hey, at least you don't have to worry about healing yourself as much.

All that being said, a paladin kicks ass and makes no apologies for it. But it errs so heavily on mitigation that it straddles the line between being a healer and a tank. Regardless, it is a combat powerhouse and is extremely durable. The one upshot is that as a charisma class it's a good fit for Inspiring Leader, but its also fairly MAD. Anyways a burst heal that is only usable once a day(realistically if you're bursting you're using well over half your pool) and heals that use your actions limit Paladins from being rated higher.

Paladin(Oath of the Ancients) X

You can think of Aura of Warding as an upgrade to Aura of Protection. Take every upside and amplify it, but keep the downsides. So if you're facing magic users, anyone standing in your aura will be insanely safe. But the risks of positioning close to you remains. Oath of the Ancients is awesome, but it won't raise your viability as a healer by much. As a tank though it's a fantastic option.

Paladin(Oath of the Crown) X

Of all the Paladin archetypes that provide healing effects, this is by far the worst. The only reason this isn't downgraded is because it's not losing any of the base Paladin features. Turn the Tide suffers from a very serious problem that prevents it from being better. It requires that a target be able to hear you. This means that it doesn't apply to an unconscious target. However, if your DM rules that it DOES apply to an unconscious target, it gets upgraded all the way up to blue. A bonus action AoE heal is always good. But the low amount and limited supply(it uses your channel divinity) means it will never go higher. Still, this has the potential(depending on DM ruling) to cover a rather large weakness in the Paladin healing kit. Regardless of what ruling your DM chooses, this isn't strong(or weak) enough to move the Paladin to a different tier.

Paladin(Oath of Redemption) X

It's the same as with Oath of the Ancients. Aura of the Guardian basically enhances your defensive aura. Unlike with Aura of Warding which is only really useful against spells, Aura of the Guardian works against every type of damage. The downside is that it's inefficient, since the full damage is still being dealt to you instead of the target. Either way, this is good.

Ranger X

Limited incidental heals. No burst heals. By every metric we care about, Rangers are terrible as healers. If a Ranger is forced to use Cure Wounds in combat, something has gone *horribly* wrong. However, at level 3 they get access to Healing Spirit, which puts them on the high end of red. Since they tend to favor the back line, they're likely to be able to use it every round. On the other hand, it is directly in competition with spells such as Hunter's Mark. Still, this little addition has given them a surprising jump in power. Consider them viable as a supplemental healer for out of combat.

Rogue(Thief) X

Well, they're not as good as other options, but they still have some surprising utility. The Healer feat allows you to use healing kits to actually heal people. The Thief can use it as a bonus action. In addition to a fairly decent amount of healing at low levels, it also has infinite uses on downed targets. It can keep bringing someone back to consciousness at 1 HP. Basically, if you have a ranged Rogue who has access to this, they're actually a better healer than a Paladin in many ways until around level 9 or so, when they get Aura of Vitality.

Even THEN you're technically more efficient in action economy since they don't need an action to start the aura up. By no means can you consider Rogue a real healer or anything. But in a panic situation it actually does a surprisingly good job at Chumbawambaing. And even if it doesn't heal for a ton later on, the heal comes back on a short rest. It also scales better than Healing Word. At level 10, Healer will recover 1d6 + 14 HP, or around 17.5 A Healing Word doesn't match that unless you cast it at 5th level(3rd level for a Life Cleric)! As far as opportunity cost is concerned, if you're playing a Thief there's very little reason not to grab the Healer feat. It's just a nice trick to have up your sleeve.

Sorcerer(Divine Soul) X

This is another one that is difficult to rate. Despite its bonus to healing through Empowered Healing, it's still a really low amount without bonuses. Most of the ways to jack up healing come from dice pools or additional flat amounts. See, the cleric spell list IS really good, and there's a few spells like Healing Word which can really carry the day. The thing is, factoring in that Sorcerers are already extremely limited in spell selection, it's really hard to get the spells you need for healing without paying too much in other categories.

By itself, it's just not enough. However, metamagic does push the sorcerer up to viability because of Twin Spell and Quicken Spell. They can quicken spells like Revivify and Heal, while still doing something else that turn. They can twin Healing Word, and giving a Sorcerer access to Spiritual Weapon is outright hilarious. There's a LOT of potential here. One of the silliest things you can do is to grab Warcaster, Twin cast Warding Bond on 2 of your squishiest allies, and then polymorph into a large beast. You'll need that high concentration save to stay polymorphed, but it's a really powerful option. Of course, it begs the question of why didn't you just twin the polymorph? Or maybe you should twin both? So many choices...

Warlock(Celestial) X**

At first glance, this appears to be very similar to the Circle of Dreams druid. Unfortunately, Healing Light just isn't as good. Your maximum amount of dice you can spend is limited by your charisma modifier, rather than your level. This means it doesn't scale as well for the purposes of burst healing. And even if you were to burst heal, it's not like warlocks are exactly rolling in spell slots. Spending a warlock slot casting Cure Wounds is like trading away a box of ammo for a band-aid. So why is this rated so high? Well, even if the ability to spend from your pool scales horribly compared to the Dreams Druid, you still have a pool of the same size. It's also a tad weaker per die roll.

On the other hand, at level 10 it gets Celestial Resistance, a weaker version of Inspiring Leader. What this subclass loses in power, it makes up in consistency. It basically has a lot of tools which are cheap in action economy and last a long time. Considering how many rounds as a warlock you're just eldritch blasting, being able to do full DPR while also healing a downed ally like 10+ times a day is no joke. And, much like with the Circle of Dreams druid, Healing Light doesn't count as a spell, so it can be used when spellcasting is impossible. One more nice thing they get is Remove Curse. Classes like Bard and Druid do not get this, so Warlocks have at least one surprising niche benefit as a healer.

Garresh

2017-12-27, 02:56 PM

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"A knight in shining armor is a man who has never had his metal truly tested."

Multi-Class Options

Prepare for a lot of Life Cleric dips...

Due to the sheer number of classes with healing features, this list is by no means exhaustive. I have tried to cover all the top tier healing builds, but as you go down in tier the number of options increase exponentially. The upshot of this is that if you have an unusual build not listed here, it might be viable. Just stick with the "Plan A" rule first and foremost and you're probably okay. Don't make healing your only goal, make sure you're viable in some other category, and you can probably run the build with some success.

Cleric(Life) 1/Bard(Lore) X

Here we go. Now we're getting to the good stuff. This has all of the strengths of the bard that I listed in the previous section, but additionally gets a huge boost from Disciple of Life. When you combine this with Aura of Vitality, it becomes Gold. Now you've got a character who can cast a spell or make an attack every round, which probably includes Vicious Mockery to grant disadvantage. Then your bonus action is spent negating some of the enemy's incoming damage. Then your reaction is spent counterspelling, or using vicious mockery to "countersword" the enemy. If Lore Bards are already insane, this makes them even more insane, for the cost of a single level. It doesn't even end there. You also get heavy armor proficiency. Now I mean going a strength bard is questionable given your expertise, but you can always grab medium armor instead, so you're still getting an upgrade. Shields work regardless of attribute choice.

How about those spells? Clerics get ritual casting, and bards have limited spells known. You can offload Detect Magic and possibly Healing Word(it'll be a bit weaker as a result) to the Cleric list, freeing up more spells known for Bard. Bless is a fantastic spell that scales all game and doesn't care about your casting attribute, which Bards do not get. Then you get a bunch of detection spells which are also rituals. Even if you ignore healing entirely, a cleric dip is pretty beneficial. I mean even Treantmonk said that wizards who dip Cleric for 1 level get a lot of benefit, and that guy knows his stuff. This is one of the gold standards of healing builds, and also remains extremely open ended with how you want to play with skills and combat. And on top of all that, it's a good fit for Inspiring Leader. The only downside here(and it is a very small downside) is the lack of Remove Curse or Greater Restoration, but given the sheer mitigation and the ability to pick those up at level 11, you're not missing much.

Cleric(Life) 1/Sorcerer(Divine Soul) X*

All the power of a Sorcerer, all the healing of a Life Cleric. And the lower level spell selection gets offloaded to Cleric so your precious spell slots aren't affected as much. Much like Bards, you find incredible benefits even outside of the healing portion. You get a big AC boost, shield proficiency, and the ability to offload some of your spell selection to free up spell choices. Unlike the Bard, you have an easier time grabbing choice Cleric spells down the road since you can keep recycling spells towards other things. A Bard has to wait for key levels in order to grab the things he wants. Of course, Bard also get to pilfer Wizards, Druids, and Rangers, so don't get too big for your britches.

Still, this option gives you so much versatility and power that it's hard to resist. But the other big thing you get going for you that no one else has? Metamagic. You can use this to skip picking up some Cleric spells to be even more efficient. Why grab Mass Healing Word when you can just twin a regular version? How about twinned Freedom of Movement? Quickened Spirit Guardians? Most of the healing spells that take an action suddenly become bonus actions, jacking their action economy WAY up. Even excluding all that, the base Sorcerer kit comes with a lot of fantastic buff spells made better by Quicken. Burst heal is a little iffy, as you have to upcast fairly heavily, but once you get Heal things look up. Even still, the sheer efficiency and versatility makes this solid gold. Inspiring Leader also applies.

Cleric(Life) 1/Druid(Circle of the Shepherd) X**

Untested or not, it's hard to argue with math. The combination of Unicorn Spirit and Disciple of Life means you now have access to incidental burst heals, every round. When your 1st level Healing Words are healing everyone in your party for as much as a normal Healing Word without bonuses, you've officially become an incidental burst healer. Unfortunately, Healing Spirit may not actually benefit from Unicorn Spirit every turn. Technically, it might not even benefit on the first turn since the effect is delayed. The wording is tricky. Even if it doesn't, it still benefits from Disciple of Life. The ability to put out that much healing using bonus actions makes Life/Shepherd a fantastic healer. That it can put out those heals while still concentrating on something else means your healing doesn't disrupt your usual tactics at all. This is a good.

Cleric(Life) 1/Sorcerer(Wild Magic) X

So this is going to raise a lot of eyebrows. Remember how I was talking about how amazing Bards were because of Cutting Words? Well Wild Magic gets access to Bend Luck at level 6. Unlike Bardic Inspiration, which has a fairly limited supply, Bend Luck has an extremely large supply. That combined with metamagic basically means a sorcerer can do that hybrid of mitigation and healing to bring about a net positive. Basically, think of this as a worse Divine Soul build with a weaker but more long lasting version of Cutting Words, and you've got a good feel for this. It also has the added bonus of being pretty damn fun.

Druid 1/Cleric(Life) X*

This is so close to being gold it hurts. The only reason this isn't is because Druids can't wear metal. This means that when you take this multiclass you lose 2-4 points of AC. In exchange, you get access to Shillelagh, which makes you completely SAD. You get a ton of dirt cheap spells that can stay useful for a long portion of your career, such as Faerie Fire, Fog Cloud, Longstrider, and Absorb Elements. And last, you get Goodberry. I know I said out of combat healing is pretty easy to get, and generally shouldn't be focused on. But this combo is a bit different. See, when you're using out of combat heals, it's very rare that you get everyone up to exactly full HP. Usually they're within a few points. Or the fighter is like 10 below max and you say screw it let's see what happens.

If you go blowing spell slots topping everyone off, you often don't have those spell slots to use in the fight, killing enemies faster or mitigating damage. And so you have to weigh out of combat healing against in combat uses of spell slots. Goodberry basically turns that on its head. Because it produces 10 discrete chunks of 4HP, it can be assigned at maximal efficiency. This translates directly into more spells freed up for combat. If multiclassing Druid didn't cause you to take a substantial hit to your AC, this would be gold. As is, it's still not terrible. You can reasonably have like 17 AC if you use a shield and have decent dexterity. But compared to the 19 or 20 you'd have otherwise, that's not great.

Druid 3/Cleric(Life) X*

This is also really close to being gold, but barring additional testing and feedback I can't feel comfortable pushing this up. As is, getting access to all of the benefits of the Cleric spell list in addition to the insanity of the Healing Spirit means this could potentially be gold. Until I get more info this will stay at the very strong rating.

Cleric(Life) 1/Sorcerer(Divine Soul) X/Paladin X*

Do you feel like your borderline OP Sorcadins just don't have quite enough healing and buffs? Guess what, now you can get even more healing, and access to amazing gish spells like Spirit Guardians, and Spiritual Weapon. The Life Cleric dip is optional at this point. Just Sorcadin by itself with cleric spells is monstrous. I'm making a note here because this is somewhere between * and ** as far as my experience. I have a lot of experience with sorcadins, and sorclerics. In theory, this should be the best of both worlds. But exacerbating the MADness of the sorcadin is not something I relish considering. I can't imagine this will be going down, but it may possibly go UP to gold.

Cleric(Life) 1/Druid(Dreams) X*

Life Cleric basically just extends your healing options nicely, while also transferring over a bunch of good buffs. It boosts your sustained incidental healing. It boosts your burst heals when you combine Balm of the Summer Court with Cure Wounds. Normally, it would stop there, but with the release of Xanathar's, Cleric/Druid comboes appear to be *much* stronger. The combination of Disciple of Life and Healing Spirit means you now have the ability to heal 7.5 HP/round on the low end, or 75 HP using a second level spell slot outside of combat. Even more terrifying, if you don't use a bonus action to relocate the spirit, you can heal with it AND use your Balm of the Summer Court on the same turn. At level 5, you could theoretically burst heal for 16.5 with just your bonus action. The potential here is absolutely insane. The only downside of this combo is that druids do not get access to Remove Curse. I want so badly to rate this as gold, and depending on feedback it might still move up. However, it doesn't have the power of mitigation that a Life Bard gets, nor does it have the ability to pilfer additional spells like Remove Curse later. As is, this sits very close to being gold.

Cleric(Life) 1/Druid(Moon) X*

Life Moon Druids are now the king of the incidental heal. With the ability to use Healing Spirit to heal using a bonus action(or less) every round while also fighting in melee, you would struggle to find a more efficient healer from an action economy standpoint. They can precast spells like Warding Bond and Goodberry, so that they can absorb half of all damage taken by an ally into their bonus HP pool, then heal the party outside of combat while still in wild shape. If they start a tough fight in human form, they can cast Healing Spirit then wild shape after the fact. I'm marking this as semi-unplayed and in need of feedback since I have not had a chance to test out Healing Spirit first hand this way. But as someone who has played a lot of Druids, and has played a Life/Moon Druid to great effect, I think this borders on gold due to sheer action efficiency.

Paladin X/Warlock(Celestial) X**

I'm leaving this blank until I can get more feedback. In theory this should be good. Paladin Warlock multiclass has a history, and the combination covers each other's weaknesses. As is, I don't feel confident enough to assess this.

Rogue(Thief) 3/Paladin X**

I have seen Paladin/Assassin combinations in the past, and have played a lot of Rogue multiclass, but this is a bit too far outside of my element, so I'd consider this potentially interesting.

Cleric(Life) 1/Wizard(Abjuration) X**

This is pretty theoretical, but a look over the Xanathar's spell list shows that wizards actually get access to Life Transference. Since Life dips generally kick any caster class up to mediocre, the addition of a powerful burst heal on top of that means this has potential. Additionally, Wizards get access to Remove Curse, and Abjuration especially gets significantly boosted Counterspells *AND* the ability to push a ward out to affect allies. This is going to sit firmly in the theory category for now, but it remains a possibility.

Cleric(Life) 1/Ranger X**

Since Rangers get access to Healing Spirit, this should make a Cleric dip a very attractive option for them. Since this is basically untested, it's difficult to say where it falls on the spectrum. It may be worthy of bumping up a tier from sheer healing output. But on the other hand there's still no access to burst healing, very little status removal, and significantly fewer spell slots over another class. Regardless, Healing Spirit's insane strength means that it can make a viable healer by itself when combined with Disciple of Life.

Garresh

2017-12-27, 02:57 PM

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/47/28/b4/4728b4acf20e41d7b2ae0554bff5b5b6--fantasy-illustration-funny-illustration.jpg
"That which does not kill me postpones the inevitable"

Races

There are only really 2 races worth mentioning. In general, these races have something to offer, but not enough to make them mandatory. Go with a race that fits your build, but if that happens to line up with these races, go ahead and pick them.

Aasimar: A once per rest heal that uses your action isn't amazing, but it's still a heal. Factoring in all their other great racials, this is a good race if your stats line up.
Human(Variant): A free feat means you can grab Healer or Inspiring Leader at level 1, without having to use an ASI. On the other hand, you don't get any exciting abilities like darkvision. As always, consider how it fits into your build. That said, it's pretty hard to find a situation where variant human is bad. I'm not sure it exists.

Feats

There are not many feats which affect healing, and doing an assessment of feats outside of that is too dependent on your build. Still, from the context of healing we can make a reasonable assessment.

Healer: This feat is of highly variable value. At base, it can be considered red. It has neither burst nor incidental healing, and scales somewhat poorly. On the other hand, as an out of combat healing tool it provides a seriously huge amount of healing, especially at low levels. When valuing this feat, you have to consider how many combat encounters you have on a given day, how many short rests you have on a given day, and how large your party is. The more you increase those variables, the higher in value this becomes. In the event you have a party of six with like 8 combats a day and 2 short rests, and you are playing a Thief Rogue, this is Gold. Regardless, even in a campaign with 1 encounter a day, for any Rogue Thief this is still Sky Blue.
Inspiring Leader: If healing is only good when it uses bonus actions, what could be better than a heal that uses no actions? This will get chewed through on your frontline nearly instantly, but for your squishies this gives you a nice buffer. I wouldn't grab this if you're MAD, but if you're charisma based and fairly SAD then this is a good thing to pick up.
Magic Initiate: This feat is insanely strong, but if you're grabbing it for healing you're basically throwing your attribute increase in the trash.
Martial Adept: If you somehow decided to grab this and use it to learn Rally, then this feat is worse than Brown. Please just don't.
Resilient: You won't find many casters that don't require concentration for something. This is always useful.
War Caster: Ditto

Class Features

Because so many different classes have the ability to heal, and multi-classing opens up so many options, there comes a point where listing builds becomes excessive. Chances are, if you're reading an optimization guide, you've either designed your own build before, or enjoy multi-classing and theorycrafting. To that end, I've organized every class feature which heals or affects healing by level. Abilities which scale with class levels will be marked with a plus sign after the level. An explanation will follow.

For example, Mantle of Inspiration is an ability gained by a College of Glamour Bard at 3rd level, and scales with Bard levels. I have rated it as above average blue, So it will be notated as:

Mantle of Inspiration(Bard-Glamour, Lvl 3+)

Disciple of Life(Cleric-Life, Lvl 1): This scales with spell slots, not levels, but it does scale. Anyways, if it's a spell and it heals, this makes it better. A lot better. And since it only requires a single level in Cleric there's almost no reason not to grab this for any healing build, attributes permitting of course. Basically if you can get 13 in Wisdom and spare a level without ruining your "Plan A", do it.

Circle of Mortality(Cleric-Grave, Lvl 1): Maximized healing on unconscious targets. This is absolutely nuts for an ability gained at 1st level. If only you could multi-class Cleric with Cleric.

Lay on Hands(Paladin, Lvl 1+): This is very close to being mediocre, but it's saved by a rather insane degree of flexibility it offers. It's a catch-all tool to remove status effects or bring unconscious allies back to 1 hp. It does this at relatively low costs as well. You really shouldn't be playing whack-a-mole with this in combat, but being able to do it 10+ times at level 2 has to count for something. The big draw here is an extremely powerful burst heal it offers.

Healing Light(Warlock-Celestial, Lvl 1+): This is an odd ability. It comes on a class that normally doesn't have access to healing. While this *technically* comes with the ability to spend spell slots to heal, the opportunity cost is *WAY* too high. So this really is a standalone ability. As a sustained incidental heal it has some insane longevity. You can keep popping people up with a d6 of healing all day long. It's burst healing, on the other hand, peaks around level 3-4 then rapidly drops off to nothing. This is basically Balm of the Summer Court except worse in every way. The base class doesn't have the spell slots to combo burst off this. But you can do a lot worse than bonus action healing that doesn't use a spell slot.

Preserve Life(Cleric-Life, Lvl 2+): An AoE burst heal that isn't a spell(so you can use Healing Word on the same round) is amazing. Unfortunately, you can only heal a target up to half their max HP. Fortunately, that's about the only downside. This scales heavily with your cleric level, both in terms of raw power, and in terms of additional uses per rest.

Balm of the Summer Court(Druid-Dreams, Lvl 2+): Depending upon feedback, this may move up a tier. The raw healing isn't amazing, but it scales extremely well. Better, it's not a spell, so it can be used to combo burst heal someone. Or you can use individual dice on a steady drip feed of low power incidental heals. This is definitely on the high side of blue.

Unicorn Spirit(Druid-Shepherd, Lvl 2+): It takes a bonus action to activate this, but once active this is effectively a Disciple of Life on steroids. Any healing spell, no matter how weak, becomes AoE and much stronger. If used in conjunction with something else, this can lead to some absurd burst healing. The only downside is that it takes a bonus action to turn it on, and is only once per rest. Still, this basically removes the opportunity cost of healing in combat.

Bear Spirit(Druid-Shepherd, Lvl 2+): A bonus action that gives a big chunk of temp HP is pretty good. If it wasn't temporary hp it would be sky blue. It won't bring an unconscious ally back up, but it also goes off without needing a second action. Basically, this is an objectively good ability, but you should consider it red since you have access to Unicorn Spirit as well. Use that instead unless you're facing a horde of grapplers or something.

Mantle of Inspiration(Bard-Glamour, Lvl 3+): An odd ability to be sure. The healing output is low, comes in the form of temporary hit points, and doesn't work on unconscious targets since it requires that they hear you. So why is it rated above average? It only takes a bonus action, AND it allows those affected to reposition to a safer location. Once they're unconscious this isn't very good, but since it's not a spell you can cast Cure Wounds and then follow it up with this. Despite all of its weaknesses, it does a lot to protect your party. Seems like a good pickup for a healer.

Cutting Words(Bard-Lore, Lvl 3+): It may not heal, but mitigation that only uses your reaction is pretty good too. It scales with your Bardic Inspiration dice and your Charisma. The only downside is that it can't negate a critical hit, and the reserves are fairly limited. But even with those this ability is absolutely amazing.

Rallying Cry(Fighter-Purple Dragon Knight, Lvl 3+): This has the rather huge drawback that the targets must be able to hear you. That means you can't use it to bring unconscious targets back. On the other hand, how many heals do you know of that GIVE you an action instead of costing one? That's a pretty big exception to the normal rules.

Turn the Tide(Paladin-Oath of the Crown, Lvl 3): I can't think of a worse use for a channel divinity. It has to be within 30 feet. The target must be able to hear you, so it can't be unconscious. The target must ALSO be below half of its maximum hit points. And in exchange for blowing your channel divinity with all these restrictions? You cause them to heal 1d6 + Cha Mod. Wow. A whole 11 HP assuming you roll max? Aura of Vitality heals for almost the same amount, every single turn for 10 turns. And it works on unconscious targets. This is the trappiest trap option that ever trapped.

Blessed Healer(Cleric-Life, Lvl 6): Now when you heal others you get change back. It's a free boost to your healing efficiency. This ability is ambiguous with regards to delayed healing effects, so you may have to ask your DM. Either way, this is a really good ability.

Sentinel at Death's Door(Cleric-Grave, Lvl 6): It's like Cutting Words, except only for criticals. And you still take normal damage. Honestly, it's still pretty good when you can use it. Just think of it as a way to normalize incoming damage. No spikes in damage, but useless the rest of the time.

Aura of Protection(Paladin, Lvl 6): This is such a great ability hamstrung by the small area affected by it. In the event that you're in a party of all melee characters, this is probably gold. Otherwise, it's more of a tanking ability. But if you know you're facing a lot of saving throws, group up and protect your party.

Empowered Healing(Sorcerer-Divine Soul, Lvl 6+): This technically doesn't get better with levels, but more levels means you have more uses of it. Anyways, this is a really hard ability to rate. For starters, dice rerolls are nowhere near as good as maximizing dice values. This also costs resources which might be better spent elsewhere. On the other hand, it can apply to healing spells other players cast if they're adjacent to you. Healing spells in general tend to use less dice than damage spells. If this wasn't eating up resources it might be rated higher.

Bend Luck(Sorcerer-Wild, Lvl 6+): This technically doesn't get better with levels, but more levels means you have more uses of it. This is objectively worse than Cutting Words in most ways. However, this can also be applied to boost allied rolls. Mostly, it's just usable way more often than Cutting Words at high levels. This is really good, but Cutting Words is better.

Projected Ward(Wizard-Abjuration, Lvl 6+): This can probably block an attack. Maybe two. Maybe less. Either way it's no Cutting Words. It's not even a Bend Luck. The thing holding this back is just how hard this is to recharge for something in such short supply. If you're battling a bunch of spellcasters, you can recharge this in a couple rounds via Counterspell. If you're fighting a horde of orcs you're probably not going to get a chance to cast abjuration spells other than maybe Shield. The pool of HP available is going to fluctuate wildly, and the typical encounter doesn't give you much to work with. The silver lining here is that it works even on critical hits or very high rolls. The fact that it DOES work in any situation, even if it only works a single time, makes this decent. Just don't build around it.

Aura of Warding(Paladin-Ancients, Lvl 7): The same weaknesses as Aura of Protection, only now you're doubly effective vs spell damage.

Aura of the Guardian(Paladin-Redemption, Lvl 7): The same weaknesses as Aura of Protection, except this affects any type of damage. It's just also much less efficient because rather than reducing damage, it redirects it. On the other hand you're probably the tankiest person in the party. Still, this is an ability that is really good when it comes up.

Celestial Resilience(Warlock-Celestial, Lvl 10+): Much like Healing Light, this is also the worse cousin of another ability. In this case, it's the feat Inspiring Leader. Anyways, free bonus HP that scales(poorly) isn't bad. But this is still outclassed hard by other options.

Supreme Healing(Cleric-Life, Lvl 17): Maximized healing. I'm actually not sure if this should be gold or sky blue, since most of the best scaling heals stop using dice. Either way, better healing.

Keeper of Souls(Cleric-Grave, Lvl 17): This is going to be highly variable in terms of value. This is tentatively rated as average, but this is very campaign dependent. The more often things die, the better this is. But on the other hand, if the things dying are too weak you don't get much value. Honestly, this is one ability I'm seriously uncertain about its value. You could get a lot of mileage out of this in the right campaign. Or it could be absolute crap.

Garresh

2017-12-27, 03:15 PM

Spell analysis will go here.

Garresh

2017-12-27, 03:17 PM

Also Reserved For Later

Nidgit

2017-12-27, 03:39 PM

Tanarii

2017-12-27, 03:53 PM

Good job remembering to include hit chance under inefficient.

You might also want to include something somewhere about when it IS more efficient. Ie on hard to hit allies. The other way to think about the efficiency is "how many enemy actions am I negating". These two together, chance of ally being hit times enemy damage, or inbound DPR, are common sense. But often overlooked when base-lining the power of healing spells.

Of course, at times, disastrous times, high AC allies, who are often high HP too, are the ones that need healing the least. But if your party is doing everything right, the high AC targets are taking the most attacks anyway.

Garresh

2017-12-27, 03:54 PM

You should really include some sort of rating for Lay On Hands. It surpasses non-Life Cleric Cure Wounds as soon as 2nd Level and scales wonderfully. More importantly, the fact that it's a pool you're allowed to divide exactly how you want means it's excellent at picking people off the ground, even though it does take a full action.

On a different note, it's also probably worth adding some commentary on healing-adjacent spells like Greater Restoration, Dispell Curse, and so on.

Yeah I rated it low because the pool is bad at incidental healing and low for out of combat healing. It's good because it's one big burst, but others can do that better.

That's a really good point about healing-adjacent spells, as you say. I will expand on this.

Waterdeep Merch

2017-12-27, 04:00 PM

Lay on Hands is a bonus action, not a regular action. It's basically the undisputed master of Whack-A-Mole healing, and is the incidental healing part of a paladin you're missing.

I still agree they aren't a replacement for a proper healer as-is, though.

Contrast

2017-12-27, 04:04 PM

A healers guide with no mention of Healing Spirit when discussing druids? :smallconfused:

GooeyChewie

2017-12-27, 04:06 PM

It's good because it's one big burst, but others can do that better.

Waterdeep Mercy is right. I almost never pass out Lay on Hands hit points more than one at a time.

odigity

2017-12-27, 04:13 PM

I've reported this thread...

...to Daishan for inclusion in the Guides Guide. :)

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?377491-Guides-Tables-and-other-useful-tools-for-5E-D-amp-D/page7

Garresh

2017-12-27, 04:14 PM

A healers guide with no mention of Healing Spirit when discussing druids? :smallconfused:

Crap. I knew I missed something. Good catch. I'm out of the house but I'll update when I get home. That may force a tier reevaluation.

Sorry bout that. Still haven't committed all of Xana to memory yet. XD

Also I double checked. Lay on Hands isn't a bonus action.

Edit: Btw I'm not trying to be obstinate. When I played my paladins I found it was somewhat inefficient compared to other healers, but the burst potential was really good. Am I blind or did Lay on Hands get errata'd?

Naanomi

2017-12-27, 04:20 PM

There should be a shout out to Protector Aasimar, who get a racial healing abilityl?

Tanarii

2017-12-27, 04:22 PM

Also I double checked. Lay on Hands isn't a bonus action.

Edit: Btw I'm not trying to be obstinate. When I played my paladins I found it was somewhat inefficient compared to other healers, but the burst potential was really good. Am I blind or did Lay on Hands get errata'd?
Nope. It's not efficient use of a Paladin's combat actions.

What it's great for is topping off the exact amount of HPs you want out of combat. Although I also often see it dropped all in one go one someone who is very very low.

Waterdeep Merch

2017-12-27, 04:23 PM

Crap. I knew I missed something. Good catch. I'm out of the house but I'll update when I get home. That may force a tier reevaluation.

Sorry bout that. Still haven't committed all of Xana to memory yet. XD

Also I double checked. Lay on Hands isn't a bonus action.

Edit: Btw I'm not trying to be obstinate. When I played my paladins I found it was somewhat inefficient compared to other healers, but the burst potential was really good. Am I blind or did Lay on Hands get errata'd?
Well I'll be, you're correct about it being an action. I've been letting my players get away with a bit too much, it seems. I think it's a holdover from 4e that I didn't double check.

Still more useful in small measures, I'd say. And still no replacement for a proper healer.

Garresh

2017-12-27, 04:24 PM

There should be a shout out to Protector Aasimar, who get a racial healing abilityl?

Good point. It just feels strange to put in a section on races and then have it only have one entry. I'm thinking I'll mix a lot of those odds and ends together into one section along with feats maybe?

Garresh

2017-12-27, 04:34 PM

Well I'll be, you're correct about it being an action. I've been letting my players get away with a bit too much, it seems. I think it's a holdover from 4e that I didn't double check.

Still more useful in small measures, I'd say. And still no replacement for a proper healer.

I suppose the question is, is it enough to push it to Purple? The lower spell slot progression means less healing available, and while Lay on Hands is good, it's more limited than you'd think. Like a life cleric gets that same pool of healing in an AoE nova which recovers on short rest. Even a non-life cleric will get far superior healing output. Let's use level 5 for example. A 5th level paladin has a 25 HP pool. This recovers on a long rest. In a burse scenario a cleric at 5th even without Life can heal 17.5 hp in a life or death scenario, blowing a 3rd level spell slot. Now out of combat prayer of healing will put out 52 hp in a party of four, and that's a second level spell slot, without Life domain.

Of course a paladin still has their spell slots. So perhaps I'm undervaluing their half casting, but they don't get any of those really good heals. Just Cure Wounds.

But once they hit 9 Aura of Vitality can be a game changer. Especially with their bonus to saves. If they take a feat for con prof or Warcaster they can sustain it for a long time.

So I guess what I'm saying is am I being too harsh? Paladin players, lend me your voice.

GooeyChewie

2017-12-27, 04:44 PM

As a dedicated healer? No. Lay on Hands can rescue the party in a Chumbawamba situation, but mostly because you can keep the primary healer up and healing.

Nidgit

2017-12-27, 04:56 PM

I'd argue that since a Paladin can usually out-burst a non-Life Cleric without even using a spell slot, they're worth bumping up to purple. It takes a Main Action and requires touch, which are both significant drawbacks, but Paladins have decent bonus action utility and are generally in the thick of things to get others to benefit from their aura.

If you're talking about damage mitigation, Aura of Protection and Ancients' Aura of Warding complement spells like Heroism or Aid nicely.

Garresh

2017-12-27, 05:22 PM

Welp, just got home. I goofed hard on Druid. I forgot about that spell completely, and it is balls to the walls insane. Like Cleric 1/Bard X insane. Gonna have to do some rewriting. XD

Contrast

2017-12-27, 05:27 PM

Welp, just got home. I goofed hard on Druid. I forgot about that spell completely, and it is balls to the walls insane. Like Cleric 1/Bard X insane. Gonna have to do some rewriting. XD

On the ranger spell list too. Obviously bards can pick it up with magical secrets as well so bards still rock :smalltongue:

Edit - I feel Shepherd druid is worth a mention as well. Unicorn spirit can be nice healing if you're casting a lot of healing words.

Galadhrim

2017-12-27, 05:29 PM

I suppose the question is, is it enough to push it to Purple? The lower spell slot progression means less healing available, and while Lay on Hands is good, it's more limited than you'd think. Like a life cleric gets that same pool of healing in an AoE nova which recovers on short rest. Even a non-life cleric will get far superior healing output. Let's use level 5 for example. A 5th level paladin has a 25 HP pool. This recovers on a long rest. In a burse scenario a cleric at 5th even without Life can heal 17.5 hp in a life or death scenario, blowing a 3rd level spell slot. Now out of combat prayer of healing will put out 52 hp in a party of four, and that's a second level spell slot, without Life domain.

Of course a paladin still has their spell slots. So perhaps I'm undervaluing their half casting, but they don't get any of those really good heals. Just Cure Wounds.

But once they hit 9 Aura of Vitality can be a game changer. Especially with their bonus to saves. If they take a feat for con prof or Warcaster they can sustain it for a long time.

So I guess what I'm saying is am I being too harsh? Paladin players, lend me your voice.

Oath of crown Paladin also has a bonus action mass heal. I have only played it through level 7 but have functioned as the party's main source of healing since our campaign started. It does help that my dm ruled that unconscious characters can still hear. I also have inspiring leader.

I can pre heal, bonus Action mass heal, and use my lay on hands if the situation is dire. As you've pointed out, the fact that it is an Action to use makes me very reluctant to LoH in combat. It can be used to cure disease and poison though, so that is an additional benefit outside of combat.

Tanarii

2017-12-27, 05:33 PM

It does help that my dm ruled that unconscious characters can still hear.Definitely a major house-rule in regards to anything that requires hearing to apply a buff or heal.

Garresh

2017-12-27, 05:34 PM

KK. Man I'm glad I posted this. So much good feedback already. I was holding off on doing all the UA stuff for right now. Oh well. More stuff to add, and a lot of corrections to make.

OldTrees1

2017-12-27, 05:36 PM

What about Druid(Shepard) and Unicorn Spirit + Healing Word? Sounds like some good incidental healing.

Theodoxus

2017-12-27, 06:03 PM

I've played more life clerics (and a life 1/lore x once) than any other class for 5e. Anytime I have a paladin in the group, I know it's gonna be a good time. It means I can be a bit less concerned with my own health, going into melee combat with Warding Bond up, because that Paladin can burst me if the unforeseen happens and I get pelted.

It's something that doesn't come up, except in the "can you help me threads" where players talk about the rest of the party makeup... but I think it's pretty important, concerning efficiency: what meshes better in a party.

I've been curious about trying a Celestial Warlock as a healer, as I think it'd be quite fun, and a very different feel. But it wouldn't work well in a typical primary caster group, given the need for short rests, and primary casters don't necessarily need them. But in a group with monks, fighters and rogues, it could potentially be quite effective.

So, while a Life Cleric will probably always be Gold, regardless of the rest of the groups' make up, just because they are more efficient and still combat capable as outlined in the thread, there might be other healers that get close, depending on the other party members...

Oerlaf

2017-12-28, 11:25 AM

ZorroGames

2017-12-28, 12:34 PM

MrWesson22

2017-12-28, 02:47 PM

The hill dwarf heavy armor thing occurred to me as well. If going that route, I think extra con would be better than dex because hp, concentration, and con saves vs just initiative and dex saves.

Depending on spell selection, drow could be very nice as well with added spells, cha, and dex bonuses (using medium armor and a shield) as long as you were not making a lot of attack rolls at disadvantage with sunlight sensitivity. Half elf and aasimar are also obvious options with their charisma bonuses but would again most likely be in medium armor.

Naanomi

2017-12-28, 02:59 PM

Aasimar Cleric 1/Bard X in medium armor, with point buy, could have 8/14/15/8/13/16 which isn’t shabby...

Strangways

2017-12-28, 05:57 PM

It's more difficult to get good armor if you multiclass into Druid, but it's not impossible. If you play AL games, for example, there's some +1 scale armor made out of wood that can be found in the Jarl Rising module. You can also wear Dragon Scale armor.

Armok

2017-12-28, 10:50 PM

As far as the argument for Lay on Hands can be made, I feel it's important to mention a secondary use for it- curing poisons/diseases. Starting play at level 1 in ToA, I am the only player who can cure diseases. Sure, it's a boon that only lasts for two levels until the cleric gets lesser restoration, but so far it's been very heavily noticable. I won't detail the disease itself to avoid ToA spoilers, but being able to cure it prevents a very sizable hit to the party's ability to function and also cuts down on our need to buy certain items, saving us valuable resources.

Removing debuffs is also an important part of a healer's job, and while the paladin may definitely only be part-healer they still do a passable job to help the party. Perhaps mostly in a secondary role sort of way, but I've personally been feeling like I've made a a sizable contribution that, at this level, nobody else could have made.

No brains

2017-12-28, 11:34 PM

Garresh

2017-12-29, 01:12 AM

Minor Nitpick: The line about falling and getting back up is first said in Batman Begins. If IMDB is to be believed, it's only echoed in The Dark Knight Rises. The Dark Knight is apparently the only film that doesn't use that line.

Still, thanks for making this handbook. What are your thoughts on Divine Intervention? It violates the reliability aspect of healing, but it can be very potent. Are you leaving it out because it is so DM-dependent?

It also seems like you don't consider revival to be healing. Is it because it's usually an out of combat task that's hard to improve? Mind you that strangely enough, Death Clerics can actually twin Raise Dead and Revivify at a certain point, sparing some of those precious diamonds.

Haha, fixed the quote.

Divine Intervention is more plot device than ability, frankly. I'm not sure HOW to even rate it, since it's entirely DM and campaign dependent. So yes, I'm mostly not going there.

Revival is weird. Generally, while it can be done, as a healer your goal is to prevent it from being necessary. That being said, every campaign I have played in has either had revival readily available in town, or permadeath with no revival at all. For the purposes of this guide, I'm sort of trying to straddle a line between healing and utility caster. Too much focus on which spells they get and we're going to general caster ratings. Too much focus on healing and we neglect the value in status removal. With all the other factors, I have to say I consider resurrection effects pretty low on the totem pole.

Garresh

2017-12-29, 01:17 AM

Alright so I've gone through with some major updates. Aasimar have been added into a subsection. Paladins have been bumped up a tier for the reasons laid out by posters in this thread. They remain suboptimal, but they're passable enough to qualify. I've made a note in their section that they start off slow, but readily available status removal, a good burst heal, and Aura of Vitality later on get them going enough to count.

I've also reassessed druids and rangers, due to my oversight of Healing Spirit and Circle of the Shepherd. Since many of these interactions are relatively untested on my part, I've made appropriate notes as to their viability in subsections. I've also added some theoretical builds that have potential. Most notably: Life Cleric 1/Ranger X, and Life Cleric 1/Abjuration Wizard X. The interactions of Disciple of Life with Healing Spirit, and with Life Transference open some doors for classes that might otherwise be left out in the cold. As is, multiclassed Rangers have a decent incidental heal now, and Abjuration Wizards may actually be a viable healer in combat. It's tricky to say, so for now I'll leave them up for feedback purposes.

While I'm updating things, can I get some help with Unicorn Spirit? How do YOU read it? Is it only when you cast a spell that heals, or when you cast a spell that heals immediately, or whenever a spell you cast heals? Depending on how that ability is read, it could be mediocre, or it could be absolutely amazing.

Oerlaf

2017-12-29, 10:12 AM

Also I would like to add a potential of out-combat healing of multiclass cleric/warlock. When you do so, you can cast your cleric spells using warlock spell slots and vice versa.

That is even if you have a short rest, you can almost freely heal the entire party to their maximum hit points:

Warlock has 3 spell slots of 5th level. So, before you are going to take a short rest, you spend 30 minutes casting prayer of healing using your warlock spell slots.

If you haven't expended warlock spell slots, six creatures regain 5d8 + your Wisdom modifier + (Life Cleric) + 7 (2+5) for one casting, which averages 29 hit points + your Wisdom modifier.

With three casting you restore average 88 hit points + three times your Wisdom modifier, so it is quite effective. But when you finish a short rest, you regain all expended warlock spell slots, so you basically made the short rest last longer (1:30 hour) in exchange for good healing.

Aaron Underhand

2017-12-29, 10:22 AM

I think you massively underrate the Healer feat. In my experience it provides a massive boost to survivability and stamina.

In a party of 6, using a "standard adventuring day" it is roughly the equivalent of 18 first level spell slots for Cure Wounds. As well as the healing it provides itself it is a "force multiplier" for anyone who would rather use spell slots for (say) Bless, or Healing Word. It means the Cleric will concentrate on Restorations, the Paladin on curing poison and disease...

In addition, provided everyone carries their own healers kit, it provides "near unlimited" return from unconsciousness. That ability to give someone one hit point makes all the difference. Sometimes useful in combat, always useful if someone is down at the end of combat. This usage is why I rate it over Inspiring Leader

It may be less useful if healing potions are cheap and readily available, or if goodberries are always in plentiful supply. YMMV

Garresh

2017-12-29, 10:33 AM

Garresh

2017-12-29, 11:43 AM

When you said:

“Cleric(Life) 1/Bard(Lore) X

Here we go... You also get heavy armor proficiency. Now I mean going a strength bard is questionable given your expertise, but you can always grab medium armor instead, so you're still getting an upgrade. Shields work regardless of attribute choice...”

I immediately thought of the Dwarf trait of speed not being reduced by heavy armor. Life Cleric proficient in Heavy Armor removes any other penalty besides movement.

So, it seems likely that a Hill Dwarf Life Cleric 1/Lore Bard X would not (pages 20 and 144 PHB) suffer excessively if built

(X) = point cost

ST 10 (2)
DE 14 (7)
CO 12 (4) + 2 = 14
IN 8 (0)
WI 13 (5) + 1 = 14
CH 15 (9)

Correct me if I am wrong.

Hey sorry for the delayed response on this post. Was going over all the changes I needed to make. I think I don't have any adjustments I need to make for now queued up, so I'll address this.

You're pretty much 100% correct. That Life Cleric 1/Wild Sorcerer X build I posted was run using something similar. I basically dumped str and dex, jacked up my Con and Cha, and had an insanely tanky support caster with excellent healing. Then I used Warding Bond to further protect the squishies. I actually grabbed the Tough feat and got more HP than our barbarian. It was hilarious. Either way, dwarves are very good for helping reduce MADness if you have heavy armor.

Garresh

2017-12-29, 12:32 PM

I have reread Healing Spirit. It clearly specifies Turn, not Round. This means that Healing Spirit now puts out DOUBLE the healing of Aura of Vitality in a party of 4, at a lower level. And if positioned well it doesn't even use an action. This spell is now upgraded to gold. When combined with Disciple of Life, a 2nd level Healing Spirit in a party of 4 can put out 30 healing each round, or 300 healing for a single second level spell slot. This spell is broken as ****, insofar as healing can be broken. Actually, given the subpar nature of healing I'm not even sure if it's broken, since at that point it's so much overhealing. Either way, in the context of every other healing spell and ability, this is effectively beyond gold.

SkylarkR6

2017-12-29, 01:04 PM

Naanomi

2017-12-29, 02:20 PM

In the ‘races’ section, might be worth mentioning Variant Human to get Healer or Inspiring Leader

Garresh

2017-12-29, 03:37 PM

Just a heads up, you have warlock listed as divine soul instead of celestial in multiclass section with paladin.

Oddly I just built that character for a 3 man party to be a kind of support character. He's an Ancients paladin and celestial (tomelock next level) Aasimar. Good for whack-a-mole healing so far, nothing outstanding for out of combat but we tend to burning HDs resting. Definitely not a "Main Healer" to use MMO terms, but I "off heal" like a champ and save my slots for buffs and smites.

Good catch. I've corrected it. Thanks.

In the ‘races’ section, might be worth mentioning Variant Human to get Healer or Inspiring Leader

That's a good point. Unfortunately since that was the last change I made my healing guide I have saved on my hard drive had my brief race section deleted, so I had to rewrite it. Luckily when you only have 2 candidates that's a pretty quick fix. I've added a section on them.

Edit: Also, I received some feedback that the gold was too bright and hard to read. I've adjusted it down in brightness. I also adjusted the Sky Blue down a bit as well. If it's still a problem for anyone, please let me know or send me a message. I can make further adjustments for people who have issues reading it.

Oramac

2017-12-29, 04:11 PM

Great guide! I like the focus on healing, but with the disclaimer that healing isn't a primary focus.

Having played a Cleric / Sorc (Tempest / Storm) up to Tier 3 myself, I can vouch for its usefulness as a secondary healer. Being able to Twin Healing Word has been clutch for my group several times. Surely it's not as good as Life / Divine Soul, but any combination can be really useful.

Garresh

2018-01-01, 12:25 AM

I've added a new section, done some formatting tweaks, cleaned it up a bit, and made slight adjustments here and there.

mistwell

2018-01-09, 05:37 PM

I really am not sure how some of this interacts with Unicorn Spirit. To help folks drill down on it, here is a summary of some of the issues and information:

How does Unicorn Spirit (Shepherd Druid) and Disciple of Life (Life Cleric) interact with a healing spell (like, for example, healing word)? In addition to the spells effects, does everyone in Spirit aura get Druid Level + 2 + spell level? Or does a 1st level Healing Word now recovered and average of 2.5+Wis+Level, with everyone else getting +level healing?

Further, how does Unicorn Spirit interact with Healing Spirit? Heal when cast, no benefit due to delay in healing, or work like Disciple of Life (each time it's used, like a goodberry)?

For reference:

Spirit Totem (Unicorn Spirit): As a bonus action [you say, "expecto patronum!"], you can magically summon an incorporeal spirit to a point you can see within 60 feet of you. The spirit creates an aura in a 30-foot radius around that point. It counts as neither a creature nor an object, though it has the spectral appearance of the creature it. represents. As a bonus action, you can move the spirit up to 60 feet to a point you can see. The spirit persists for 1 minute or until you’re incapacitated. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
(Unicorn Spirit): You and your allies gain advantage on all ability checks made to detect creatures in the spirit’s aura. In addition, If you cast a spell using a spell slot that restores hit points to any creature inside or outside the aura, each creature of your choice in the aura also regains hit points equal to your druid level.

Disciple of Life: Whenever you use a spell of 1st level or higher to restore hit points to a creature, the creature regains additional hit points equal to 2 + the spell’s level.

Healing Spirit: (2nd-level) Casting Time: 1 bonus action, Range: 60 feet, Components: V S, Duration: Concentration up to 1 minute: Until the spell ends, whenever you or a creature you can see moves into the spirits space for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, you can cause the spirit to restore 1d6 hit points to that creature (no action required). The spirit can’t heal constructs or undead. As a bonus action on your turn, you can move the Spirit up to 30 feet to a space you can see. At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the healing increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 2nd.

Citan

2018-01-09, 07:10 PM

Hey ;)

Have been wanting to react to this first time I saw, but no time at that moment, then thread got away... ^^

Thanks for this guide, many interesting things...

There are two big critics I want to formulate though.

1. Your categorisation is lacking.
You are yourself evoking abilities that provide THP or diminish damage, but fail to put them in their right place: diminishing damage is healing by anticipation, so I'd suggest just exactly that: "preemptive healing" as a category listing all those buffs.

This seems especially important to me since several great spells or class features can be prepared in due time before a fight, like the renowned Inspiring Leader.

Beyond that, you totally put aside own's resilience, mobility and "healing reach", which is kinda biaising the evaluation: but I understand how more difficult it would make it so I won't push further, although I may point out a few things below. :)

2. You make several big misses in class evaluations as a consequence.
Clerics: Life is absolutely not the only one that stands out: Nature Cleric has way to provide resistance to one instance of elemental damage as a reaction, up to 30 feet: this is effectively a great feature of preemptive healing.
Significantly below Life but still to be noted, Trickery Cleric allows you to effectively be in two different places, which is very useful to let you keep your Action to deal some damage or Help instead of having to Dash around.
Both should be blue imo (maybe pushing Grave and Life one rank up as a consequence, after all gold is "best in class" per your own words ;)).

Also, Aid seems little at first, but it's actually pretty decent when upcast or as a middleground between Healing Words and Mass Healing Words.

Bards: maybe you didn't speak about Circle of Power because it was too much on the "plain buff" side, but providing advantage on saves means they will avoid plenty of damage.
In general, Bards get enough poaching to get whatever 3-4 spells anyone would consider the best healing you can have, while still keeping a few Magic Secrets for other things.
And they end with Foresight (same as Circle of Power, maybe you put it aside in full awareness).
Not sure if worth pushing whole class another rank though to be fair. :)

Druids: you seem to undervalue a bit the use of Goodberries, but it's no problem with me really. However, you totally bypass not only how Druid can prevent much damage in the first place thanks to spells like Wind Wall (same problem as Circle of Power and the like, maybe you wanted a clear frontier between "numberable healing" and "potential healing"), you also forget how Conjure Animals and Polymorph can effectively be used to provide THP to a target (indirectly in first place, directly in second).
Another great case of preemptive healing (and you cannot say THP is out, otherwise Inspiring Leader would be ;)).
All Druids should be blue, and Shepherd Light Blue imo. ;)

Ancients Paladin: contradiction here: if you includes preemptive in the form of THP, at least Aura of Warding should be included as well, because it's a free, permanent, 30-feet effect. Should be raised as blue at the very least.

Crown Paladin: translating damage that was made on a potentially frail target, up onto one of the most resilient chassis, for only the use of a reaction, should be rated high as a preemptive healing category.
Apart from taht, the true value of Channel Divinity is not Turn the Tide (although it does make a decent emergency heal) but the "Mass Compelled Duel" one. But same remark as above, so I won't speak further of it.
However, I have to speak of Warding Bond: one of the best preemptive spells ever is auto-prepared, non-concentration (so can be stacked with Heroism for example), lasts one hour.
Should be rated higher than the base class.

Ranger: no problem with the rating overall, but any Ranger that wanted to act as an emergency healer would NOT learn Cure Wounds, but Goodberry: still uses an action to make one people eat a berry, but you can cast it beforehand, distribute some to everyone so anyone can stabilize a pal, you effectively get 10 "get up" for one slot (instead of one for Cure Wounds).

Rogue: I'd argue that Thief should be rated purple instead of red, simply because Healer scales so well and also Thief could use a stock of Goodberries, as well as using any scroll or magic device that provides heal. ;) But I admit that's fairly personal (and DM dependent on last point).*

Divine Soul Sorcerer: to be blunt mate, you really don't understand the true worth of this subclass as a healer.
Two words: Extend, Distant (ok, Extend really, then Quicken, then only Distant and possibly Twin depending on spell selection^^).
You don't really care so much about Twin for emergencies, because you could just Quicken Aid instead of Twinning Healing Words, unless you are really far from friends and they are all scattered (which should be a fairly rare occurence to me).
You can deal the largest amount of preemptive heal of any class thanks to Extend Aid, which lasts for 16 hours (so upcast, then rest, then profit).
You can easily protect a pal that needs more than exactly a minute of tranquillity to cast a 1-mn long preparation spell (non-random example: use Extend Sanctuary on your Wizard pal preparing a Leomund's Tiny Hut or a Teleportation Circle, or Cleric drawing a Magic Circle).

If **** hits the fan and someone died before anyone could stabilize/heal him but you are still in fight, Distant Revivify gives you some leeway to correct the situation without needing to move (technically, if there is no enemy directly threatening you and ally were just beyond 30 feet, it's more or less the same than moving, Quickening Revivify on touch, then Dashing back to your position. In any other situation, it's a net win).

More generally, Extend means less consumption of slots or larger array of situations in which a spell can be useful, while Distant gives you a much greater latitude in how to act as a healer because you don't have to move as much as you normally should (so easier to intervene without exposing yourself -an admitedly frail character that often has to rely on emergency spells like Shield to survive- to danger).

Twin really starts to shine with Heal imo, which is late enough to pick it as your third metamagic. Or with Warding Bond, provided you manage to offset the price of taking damage twice as often (which mean at the very least upcast Aid, and maybe source of THP, or heavy multiclass)... But to each his own taste. ;)

Anyways, Divine Sorcerers are definitely blue, if not sky blue.

Oh, by the way, the best healer?
- If you care about 9th level spells, either Lore Bard 17 / Sorcerer 3 (Extended Aid, Extended Foresight, but you don't have True Resurrection) or Life Cleric 17 / Sorcerer 3 (no Foresight, but True Resurrection).

- If you don't care about 9th level spells, I'd have to think more about it, but it would probably something along those lines...
Life Cleric 1-3+: Sanctuary, Bless, Healing Words, Warding Bond, Aid.
Shepherd Druid 2-3+: Goodberries, Healing Spirit, spirit aura.
Tome Warlock 3+ (any Patron really): mainly for 2nd level slots and False Life invocation (not much but free), although upcast Armor of Agathys may be nice in a pinch, as well as some rituals.
Divine Soul Sorcerer 3+: pick Extend and whatever else.

Idea here is simply to get, one way or another, ability to create many upcast Life Goodberries and Extended highly upcast Aid before a long rest thanks to short rests and slot conversion during a downtime/preparation day whenever possible, and during the adventure using the low-level spells as needed.

Besides that, just choose your main class, your main feat (Inspiring Leader or Healer) and profit (I'd go Sorcerer personally for the obvious additional Metamagic, but honestly even taking 10 levels of Lore Bard for lvl 5 Magic Secrets, or inserting 5 levels of Thief Rogue for Healer/Goodberry trick, or Paladin to help with self-resilience and also become good at damage in a pinch may work well too).

I have reread Healing Spirit. It clearly specifies Turn, not Round. This means that Healing Spirit now puts out DOUBLE the healing of Aura of Vitality in a party of 4, at a lower level. And if positioned well it doesn't even use an action. This spell is now upgraded to gold. When combined with Disciple of Life, a 2nd level Healing Spirit in a party of 4 can put out 30 healing each round, or 300 healing for a single second level spell slot. This spell is broken as ****, insofar as healing can be broken. Actually, given the subpar nature of healing I'm not even sure if it's broken, since at that point it's so much overhealing. Either way, in the context of every other healing spell and ability, this is effectively beyond gold.
Agreed. They reused the same kind of writing they used for offensive spells, maybe thinking that cheese wasn't possible since they already published some restrictions on both "willing movement vs forced movement" so people couldn't trigger Moonbeam or the like's effect several times in a single round, possibly in a single turn.

Strangely, it seems they didn't realize it's a whole new boat when you consider a HEALING ability, so an area of effect into which people actually WANT TO GO INTO... In a game when at least half of the classes have a way to allow allies to move "off-turn".

On the plus side, cheese can only happen with pretty good synergy in class composition AND actual teamwork. So I'm not that bothered by it. :)

Because, I think you in fact get a too large reading on the description: spells says: "whenever you or a creature you can see moves into the spirit's space for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there"
So it's not because the encounter has 10 creatures acting that your pal in the area will get 10 times healing, just because he stayed within the area.
Without cheese or special ability, the most you can get is one healing per round because in the end, whether you were already into area or moved into it, it's still all in your own turn.
Now enter some of the usually overlooked features: Battlemaster's manoeuvers (one allows you to make allies move), emergency teleports like Fey Warlock's (move across area on your own turn -and leave it-, get attacked by a creature, teleport yourself back), Vengeance "move during reaction attack" (although this would be hard to exploit most of the time)...

You could even actually cast a Sympathy dedicated to that exploit XD, since there is not even any risk of healing unwanted creatures...

I really think they should have made Healing Spirit heal every creature, at least there would have been some consequence for bad tactical decision.
As it is, if you upcast it in a party having reasonably resilient people (read: people that don't get hit that often, or not that hard), you could really make many fights overly easy. Like, entrap creatures with your big-ass hitters into a Wall or Magic Circle of some kind, and tranquilly beat the crap out of them...

Gardakan

2018-01-09, 07:26 PM

Citan

2018-01-09, 07:36 PM

I'll be fair, this is a great build.

You should consider something rather unseen, the Sorcerer going straight into divine Soul with Twinned Metamagic and Extend Spell with the feat Inspiring Leader can heal for outstanding burst.

At level 5... you can basically do this...

Twin Life Transference (basically deals on average 18 damage to yourself to heal 36 to two target, that are distant... is variable but always heal for a good amount).

Extend Aid (at higher levels if you want more hp) + Inspiring Leader. What's better then in-combat healing ? Pre-combat healing. Keep your team always above their normal hp, preventing a lot of damage (and letting you cash in your bonus hp to heal them with Life Transference without hurting yourself much).

This is doable by a 5th level sorcerer.
Didn't know about Life Transference (don't have Xanathar's so only know some spells and classes from what I find on internet).
Seems pretty great to pair with Warlock's False Life Invocation for occasional use, or with a Fiend Warlock or any other class having either regular THP or big ass resilience (Long Death Monk, Eldricht Knight)...

I really am not sure how some of this interacts with Unicorn Spirit. To help folks drill down on it, here is a summary of some of the issues and information:

How does Unicorn Spirit (Shepherd Druid) and Disciple of Life (Life Cleric) interact with a healing spell (like, for example, healing word)? In addition to the spells effects, does everyone in Spirit aura get Druid Level + 2 + spell level? Or does a 1st level Healing Word now recovered and average of 2.5+Wis+Level, with everyone else getting +level healing?

Further, how does Unicorn Spirit interact with Healing Spirit? Heal when cast, no benefit due to delay in healing, or work like Disciple of Life (each time it's used, like a goodberry)?

For reference:

Spirit Totem (Unicorn Spirit): As a bonus action [you say, "expecto patronum!"], you can magically summon an incorporeal spirit to a point you can see within 60 feet of you. The spirit creates an aura in a 30-foot radius around that point. It counts as neither a creature nor an object, though it has the spectral appearance of the creature it. represents. As a bonus action, you can move the spirit up to 60 feet to a point you can see. The spirit persists for 1 minute or until you’re incapacitated. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
(Unicorn Spirit): You and your allies gain advantage on all ability checks made to detect creatures in the spirit’s aura. In addition, If you cast a spell using a spell slot that restores hit points to any creature inside or outside the aura, each creature of your choice in the aura also regains hit points equal to your druid level.

Disciple of Life: Whenever you use a spell of 1st level or higher to restore hit points to a creature, the creature regains additional hit points equal to 2 + the spell’s level.

Healing Spirit: (2nd-level) Casting Time: 1 bonus action, Range: 60 feet, Components: V S, Duration: Concentration up to 1 minute: Until the spell ends, whenever you or a creature you can see moves into the spirits space for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, you can cause the spirit to restore 1d6 hit points to that creature (no action required). The spirit can’t heal constructs or undead. As a bonus action on your turn, you can move the Spirit up to 30 feet to a space you can see. At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the healing increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 2nd.
Seems clear enough to me.
- Druid Unicorn's Spirit benefit only works on the initial turn you cast Healing Spirit (because "if you cast")...
- Whereas Life Cleric's benefit will work each and every time you decide to "heal a creature (no action required)" (because "whenever you use")

Then I guess that the best healer, if you take it in the strictest sense (better potency to restore HP) has to be mainly a Life Cleric, if only because of that. ;)
I guess Sorcerer 3 (you still want to Extend, especially because of that even) / Shepherd Druid 3 / Life Cleric 14 wins the day then...

Gardakan

2018-01-09, 07:38 PM

Citan

2018-01-09, 07:43 PM

I don't know if Warlock can access to it thought.

It's limited to Cleric and Wizard (yes Wizard have it) in spell list. I accessed it through the Divine Soul feature of Xanathar's with Sorcerer. It's fairly impactful with Twin Spell I'll confess.
PHB, free Invocation, choosable at 2nd level Warlock: freely cast False Life, albeit only as a 1st level spell (obviously XD, although I would have loved a higher-level invocation to raise the free-cast level ^^).

mistwell

2018-01-09, 09:08 PM

Didn't know about Life Transference (don't have Xanathar's so only know some spells and classes from what I find on internet).
Seems pretty great to pair with Warlock's False Life Invocation for occasional use, or with a Fiend Warlock or any other class having either regular THP or big ass resilience (Long Death Monk, Eldricht Knight)...

Seems clear enough to me.
- Druid Unicorn's Spirit benefit only works on the initial turn you cast Healing Spirit (because "if you cast")...
- Whereas Life Cleric's benefit will work each and every time you decide to "heal a creature (no action required)" (because "whenever you use")

Then I guess that the best healer, if you take it in the strictest sense (better potency to restore HP) has to be mainly a Life Cleric, if only because of that. ;)
I guess Sorcerer 3 (you still want to Extend, especially because of that even) / Shepherd Druid 3 / Life Cleric 14 wins the day then...

You're right, in my opinion, about the emphasis on "when you use" a spell to heal. So wow...that's a metric crapload of healing from life cleric 1, druid x (any kind of druid) with healing spirit. Combined with goodberries, the druid and life cleric ability, the druid is a mega healer now.

Maxilian

2018-01-10, 12:20 AM

Add also that guide: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pUfBpqHQeqMcjFKW_JBS-57mkBL0J3wG8tUA8yjqX0M/edit.

It utilizes Cleric (Life)/Warlock (Celestial) multiclass.

Also there is one point about Warlock's Healing Light and Circle of Dreams druid ability. They aren't spells and they aren't magical.

So, Healing Light cannot be counterspelled like healing word and it can be used in the antimagic field.

It also have the advantage that you can still cast another spell with those heals (as normally you cannot cast 2 spells lvl 1+ in one turn unless some feature allow you)

Something that i would like to point out OP, but you're missing the invocation: "Gift of the Ever-Living Ones", that invocation makes all heals done on you while you have your familiar around (100 feet) roll the maximum, so making the Warlock Celestial a great self-healer, if not the best self-healer in the game. (as it gets burst heals with a bonus action, that could easily use it on other cases -like when others get knocked out -)

Citan

2018-01-10, 07:00 AM

You're right, in my opinion, about the emphasis on "when you use" a spell to heal. So wow...that's a metric crapload of healing from life cleric 1, druid x (any kind of druid) with healing spirit. Combined with goodberries, the druid and life cleric ability, the druid is a mega healer now.
Ooops, you're right, tied the Life benefit to Cleric level for some reason, but only the spell level counts. So you could indeed stop at Life Cleric 1. With that said...

It also have the advantage that you can still cast another spell with those heals (as normally you cannot cast 2 spells lvl 1+ in one turn unless some feature allow you)

Something that i would like to point out OP, but you're missing the invocation: "Gift of the Ever-Living Ones", that invocation makes all heals done on you while you have your familiar around (100 feet) roll the maximum, so making the Warlock Celestial a great self-healer, if not the best self-healer in the game. (as it gets burst heals with a bonus action, that could easily use it on other cases -like when others get knocked out -)
Wow.
Was totally unaware of this as well...

This opens all kinds of stupid tricks... And actually boosts significantly Twin metamagic potential.

You can really imagine a character using Twin Warding Bond now.
Although it's a bloody mess of classes, don't ask me how to fluff that. XD

- Chain Warlock 3+: whenever you get HP restoration, auto-roll maximum on dice (I consider you always keep your familiar close to you). Fiend could actually be a good choice here, because of THP, but only if you go high enough to make it worth it (otherwise better just use False Life invocation or Inspiring Leader).
- Life Cleric 1: whenever you use a spell to heal another creature (yourself included), restoration gets bonus equal to 2+spell level.
- Life Cleric 6: when you CAST a level to restore HIT points to another creature, you gain 2+spell level: arguably not worth digging that deep into Cleric if you went as high as 6 "just for that". But sinceLife has great healing CD, and another use of CD per short rest, in addition to the spellcasting, this may be worth. ;)
- Druid 2+: Unicorn Spirit: when you cast a spell to restore to creatures in area, they gain additional HP = Druid level: arguably worthless unless you go at least Druid 10 (worthless as in "compared to other options from other classes at comparable level").
- Sorcerer 3+: honestly you could go without Divine Soul ancestry if you get the important healing spells with another class, because "Empowered Healing" is less needed with all that healing. I'd still argue you want at least 5 levels of Sorcerer whatever way you go, to convert at least up to 3rd level slots and get Dispel Magic and Counterspell. ;)

So you don't actually need Druid in fact, I totally mixed the Unicorn Spirit effect with Healing Spirit spell.
So instead grab it with Lore Bard and you are set.

No time to pursue right now, I'll come back later to suggest an ultimate healer building on everything that was pointed out so far in thread. ;)

EDIT: I can afford 5mn, so I'll have to speed it ^^.
So, we probably want Lore Bard 6 actually, because that way you get Healing Words, Silence, Enhance Ability, Lesser Restoration, Dispel Magic, Leomund's Tiny Hut, Glyph of Warding, Magic Circle, Polymorph, Raise Dead, Greater Restoration but also Goodberry, Healing Spirit, and if higher Circle of Power and the like...
Also short-rest Cutting Words...
But probably not 6th and higher spells then like Heal, Regenerate, Resurrection... So it's a tough choice.

In fact, I think there are several "best healer", depending on how you view it...
- One that can answer any situation, including past deaths > Divine Soul Sorcerer 17 / Shepherd Druid 3 or Life Cleric 20: idea is that those have access to 9th level spell: Sorcerer can Simulacrum himself for stupidly good things, Life Cleric has True Resurrection.

Divine Soul Sorcerer 17 / Shepherd Druid 3.
max CHA, take Inspiring Leader.
Pick Extended, Distant and Quicken metamagics.
Spells: all good healing spells.
+++ You are a damn good healer, especially since you can learn Wish to use Simulacrum and still get True Resurrection by swapping a lower level spell... So you can actually dish out Twin Heal, Extended Healing Spirit etc...
--- You are a damn mediocre everything else... Simply because contrarily to Clerics, you cannot change spells everyday, so if you took most of the good heal spells in all categories, you will have at most space for one or two normal Sorcerer spells, then rely on upcastable 1st and 2nd level Druid spells...

Confer OP guide. ;) Not necessarily the most *interesting* to play, and not the most potent in "plain healing over a day" in spite of having 300 HP of free heal per short rest thanks to CD, because no way to cheese slots like Warlock+Sorcerer, no way to cheese Healing Spirit potency since you don't learn it.
But you're very sturdy, you have all that's really necessary to cover even the most harsh situations, and you can mix & match prepped spells each day so you have usually no useless spell.
You're basically the only single-class character that can use Warding Bond without any trouble (AC 20 so you can easily stay within range and not take too much direct damage, auto-heal when healing others + potential Aid or Heroism or the like helps reduce the need to compensate the automatic harm from Warding Bond).

- One that is extremely good at preemptive healing: then Life Cleric 1 + coffeelock cheese to pump out loads of Goodberries or Extended Healing Spirit will be the best.
As well as one using Twin Warding Bond and using coffeelock cheese to keep his hp high enough.

Focus on Goodberries: you want to go Celestial Warlock 11 because 3*5th level slots per short rest. Obviously Life Cleric 1. As well as Sorcerer 7 (might as well round up to 8).
This means you can directly cast 30 upcast Goodberries every short rest, each healing for 1+2+5=8HP. So 30*8=240.
Or you could instead convert all points back into 1st level slots to cast Goodberries with it (but you'll spend for real half of your day just doing that ^^): 3*5 slot = 15 SP = 7 1st level slots (use 1 SP from normal pool to round that to 8).
8*10*4 = 320 per short rest.
Lets be reasonable and assume you can take 8 short rests when you can use a full day to prepare.
This means, either direct cast of (3*10*8)*8 = 1760 HP (hope I made mental maths well ^^).
Or entropic cast of (8*10*4)*8 = 2560 HP. Which is pretty nasty. ^^

To be fair, lets recall though that for the same amount of short rests, a pure Life Cleric could dish out (100*3)*8= 2400. Which is either plain better or still pretty close depending the chosen strategy.
Big difference? Cleric must act "right at the moment" and has some distance / view requirements. Drug Dealer can make distribute all berries then each and everyone goes live their life, having some free heal in pocket.

By the way, if you really want Healing Spirit, best way is you'll have to eat into Sorcerer and Warlock to end as Warlock 9 / Life Cleric 1 / Sorcerer 7 / Druid 3.

Basic idea here is to use Extended Healing Spirit paired with every non-concentration spell you can depending on chosen strategy: either Twin Warding Bond and avoid all direct attacks, or plain Warding Bond but aggro enemies yourself, or any other combination between those two.
Third way: be yourself the tank thanks to Crown Paladin's CD or Command spell.
So you want Healing Spirit obviously.
You will also want...
1. Twin Defensive Warding Bond: either a way to hide (although no reasonable DM would accept it because of how Warding Bond works, by RAW you could still Hide if you get out of view), or ways to reduce chances to get hit to the maximum: we are talking Sanctuary, Mirror Image, Shield, Blade Ward, but also Magic Circle or Glyph or Warding for example. Leomund's Tiny Hut may work depending on how your DM rules about preexisting spell effects that would obviously need to "cross" the dome.
Obviously Spiritual Weapon is the offense spell to get, although it breaks Sanctuary.
2. Offensive Warding Bond: Armor of Agathys, Fire Shield, Command, Sympathy, Suggestion, Absorb Elements, possibly Shield Master feat or Sentinel feat depending on build.
3. True tank: Shield Master, Sentinel, Crown Paladin, plus a mix of aforementioned spells.
Oh, by the way... Whatever happens, you WANT COUNTERSPELL.
Seriously. No questions asked. Because you are bound to encounter people who know about your favorite tactic and will try to cut the grass under your feet when you expect it the least by casting Dispel Magic.

My take...
Twin Defensive:
Celestial Chain Warlock 6 with the stupidly good invocation, so you can use 5th level Healing Spirit with long-rest slots or 3rd with short-rest.
Divine Soul Sorcerer 3.
Life Cleric 7.
Shepherd Druid 5.
There may certainly be better ways to go it this, not sure about the best ratio of short rest / long rest slots to go.

Basically idea is to Twin Warding Bond, and have all three of you (at least you) staying in the Healing Spirit Aura (unless there is a credible AOE threat obviously): you spend turns using action on Healer feat, or own Celestial Warlock feature, or Blade Ward, or False Life, or (Twin/Distant) Cure Wounds, or Aid, or Help, or Dodge, or quaffing potion, and bonus action on Extended Sanctuary, casting/using Spiritual Weapon, or Twin Healing Words, or casting Unicorn Spirit or Healing Spirit (actually the last is the first thing to do).
Should have plenty to do for at least 4 rounds. ^^
Each time for example you use (Twin) Healing Words, with everyone in the 3rd level Healing Spirit aura...
- Each target will be restored 1d4+3 (effect) + 4 (Life benefit) + 5 (Druid benefit).
- Yourself will get (whether you were a target of initial spell or not but supposedly in aura, with familiar close by) automatic 5 HP.
Plus, on their turn, allies will get 2d6+5 HP, while you will get 12+5 on yours.
So if you make a habit of being one target of Twin, over a round, you can offset up to (7+4+5+5 from Healing Words and riders)+17 = 39 damage on you every round. Not too shabby. ;)

Obviously if the situation is under control (you are not using Sanctuary, auto-damage is in acceptable frequency) you can also get on the offensive: a good old Booming Blade with Mobile feat, or a plain Repelling Blast will always be useful.
Of course, this is the only way you can make yourself really useful in offense, because you lack any really powerful spell.

Also, to note, this tactic will be worthless against the most dangerous creatures. They just hit too hard for all that to be worth it. ^^ On the plus side, every other fight will be a non-discussion for your party. Especially considering you can add to that a global pre-buff with Extended Aid. And technically the trick (or rather the majority of it) can be enabled as soon as Life 1 / Druid 3 / Warlock 3: Sorcerer is here to add metamagic power and other things for later.

If your DM agrees to make Warding Bond and more generally class features and spells stay active even "throughout" a LTH as long as they were pre-cast, you may actually prefer Trickery Cleric: although it means you cannot use any concentration spell, you are totally secure from any direct damage so you can safely use everything else and still heal people thanks to your Duplicate. In that case swap Druid 5 and Sorcerer 5 for Lore Bard 6 and another level of Cleric.

Now for an Offensive Warding Bond.
Sorcerer 3 (you still want Extended), Fiend/Hexblade Blade/Chain Warlock 9, Life Cleric 1, then...
- either Fighter 2 + Bear Barbarian 5 (full prep turn tactic/short rest for difficult fights thanks to Action Surge: Armor of Agathys, Fire Shield, Rage).
- or Bard 6 (Lore for Healing Spirit, Swords for gish power, Glamour for nasty Command as bonus action, Valor for Extra Attack).
- or Ancients Paladin 7 (extra resilience to survive the fact that you take direct threats in addition to auto damage).
Idea here is to actively aggro and make things stick to you, either hurting them for trying (barbarian way) or making them waste their attack (Swords very efficient for this).
Choose option after choosing Patron and Pact: you probably want Extra Attack, if only to spend time Shoving creatures so they cannot reach your pals.

And for the most tanky...
Crown Paladin 6 / Divine Soul Sorcerer 4 / Life Cleric 1 / Celestial Warlock Chain 4 (False Life, Gift of ever healing Gods) / Shepherd Druid 5.
Basic idea is basically to stand your ground into Healing Spirit then activating Channel Divinity, spending other rounds on either Dodge, Command, Attack or Shove creatures while getting great self-healing thanks to Healing Words. Use ASI on bumping CHA then picking whatever between Shield Master, Healer, Warcaster, Inspiring leader, Resilient: Constitution.
An alternative way to go could be to eat one level of Sorcerer and two of Druid to get Thief Rogue 3 with Healer feat: between healer kit and potions, with auto-maximum healing, you can really keep yourself kicking with bonus action while still being a might and powerful Paladin with your action. :)

- One that is extremely good at burst healing: I'm not very familiar with burst healing options, so I'll refer to OP's guide for that (probably Heal because can be twinned, contrarily to class features).

- One that is very balanced in all kinds of healing, as well as keeping himself safe, so he won't be able to save people who get heavy injuries such as body loss or non-Revivifyable death, but he has enough tricks up his sleeve to reduce chances of that happening close to 0. ;)

I hope I have time tonight to make detailed suggestions for each of those. ^^

EDIT2: Back in the game ;) Not time to finish spent a helluva time already. Good night all I'll finish tomorrow night. ;)

Garresh

2018-01-12, 01:24 AM

Aaron Underhand

2018-01-12, 11:55 AM

Just one other point

Mage Initiate can be useful to a healer to get Find familiar - allowing you to deliver touch spells at range.

Citan

2018-01-12, 03:16 PM

Wow I missed some good feedback. Was sick as a dog the last few days. I haven't gone over these posts with a fine tooth comb yet but consider me pleasantly surprised about those uses of extend spell. I'm going to need to make some serious additions on that, as well as the warlock invocation I missed.

Just going to ask some advice though since we've got so many nice people doing analslysis here...

Where is the line drawn between controller/waller, and actual healing?

I know it seems like a rather pedantic question since in practice things tend to blur together a lot. But in the context of this guide I'm worried about the scope shifting too far to the point of uselessness. It all comes down to the issue that controlling or killing is the ultimate "healing". heh. Anyways some good points were raised and I keep finding myself ambivalent on how go apply them with regards to ratings.
Hi again! :)

Hehehe I feel you are thinking about some of my points there. ^^
To be honest, although I think that taking into account things like self-resilience and all spells that hinders attacks is important, I totally agree that it adds a pretty significant layer of complexity.

So I'd suggest the following.
About self-resilience, just add a one-two lines paragraph to quickly present each class's resilience "in general", but specifying you feel it's too complex to properly integrate it as an evaluation factor. I think it should be a good compromise.
And that way, you can evacuate all "self only" spells and features (Warding Wind, Mirror Image, Shield, False Life Invocation, Fiend Warlock's THP etc), except when they are relevant in relation with another spell (mainly thinking Life Transference or Warding Bond).

On the same premise, you could possibly minor or put aside (at least for now)...
- All Restoration spells, because harmful effects that you may cure with it are usually not very common, and rarely directly affecting HP (apart from some Ghoulish tricks).
- All "Protection from Evil and Good" like spells,

About features and spells...
Let's decompose an action (in broad sense) that deals damage.
1. Fulfill the conditions (like being in range for a weapon attack, or seeing the enemy.
2. Resolve your chance to deal damage.
3. Calculate damage done.
4. Then hit creature can apply reductions coming from our Healer to calculate the amount of damage taken, that will add to a "total effective hurt over a day".
This "total" will be reduced by all preemptive healing (Aid, False Life, Inspiring Leader, etc), all damage reduction that don't come from creature itself (so not taking Bear feature into account, but taking Warding Bond or Protection against Energy, or Nature Cleric's reaction) then all hit points restored after the fact.

You can legitimately bar all spells that would break process at the first step (so restraining spells for melee enemies, obscuring spells for casters / archers etc). Too many variables.

On the same premise, you can probably also put aside spells that "just" reduce chance to hit: it could be made as part of preemptive healing, but too dependent on context to be put under evaluation, at least for a single-person theorycrafting without a campaign or encounter as reference ;)(although I'd really be tempted to keep Circle of Power because it's that good, but well...).
However, I'd definitely keep spells like Wind Wall that completely shut out some damage (namely ranged weapon attacks here). But that means really a handful of spells at most (honestly I cannot find any other like Wind Wall from memory right now).

So what's left? "Cushion (T)HP", "spared HP", "restored HP" if it can help you (otherwise ditch the whole distinction).

Cushion: Aid, False Life, Inspiring Leader, Bear Spirit (Druid) etc...
Spared: Protection from Energy, Nature's half-damage on reaction, etc...
Restored: Healing Words, Healing Spirit, Paladin's Lay on Hands etc...

If you think this classification may be helpful I'll be glad to help you list everything. Just not right now because I have to go. ^^

Later all ;)

Eunostus

2018-01-12, 05:34 PM

Just one other point

Mage Initiate can be useful to a healer to get Find familiar - allowing you to deliver touch spells at range.
Familiars are awesome for this purpose. Just don't tell the paladin he was healed by my imp. ;) He'd never forgive me.

Errata

2018-01-12, 06:33 PM

Strangely, it seems they didn't realize it's a whole new boat when you consider a HEALING ability, so an area of effect into which people actually WANT TO GO INTO... In a game when at least half of the classes have a way to allow allies to move "off-turn".

On the plus side, cheese can only happen with pretty good synergy in class composition AND actual teamwork. So I'm not that bothered by it. :)

We stumbled into this recently. We noticed the healing spirit spell after our class composition was already nailed down. We have a Life Cleric 1/Shepherd Druid X in the same party as a Glamour Bard, who can grant the entire party full movement without OAs as his inspiration, many times per rest. It doesn't move himself, but he can pass through the spirit on his turn with regular movement. That's potentially a lot of combat healing.

The bard allowing everyone to suddenly pass through the spirit and back in the middle of combat is what is known as a "dance break".

MaxWilson

2018-10-06, 06:32 PM

I didn't read the whole thread but skimmed the first few posts. Didn't see any mention of Extend Spell, which doubles the effective healing of Aura of Vitality or Healing Spirit. Yes, by 7th level you too can be healing 150 HP with a single Extended Healing Spirit spell, or 330 HP with Extended Healing Spirit IV if you prefer. (And I'm even assuming the DM has fixed the multiple-heals-per-round cheese, or I'd multiply all of those amounts by twice the number of PCs in the party.)

You can even start the spell in the middle of combat if your DM allows whack-a-mole healing, and then just leave it running until everyone is all topped off.

The spell is so good it's not even worth optimizing for healing any more. It's just overkill.

Trustypeaches

2019-07-08, 09:39 AM

I feel like the value of Mantle of Inspiration, and the Glamour Bard in general, is being undersold here.

Temp HP is really good. Proactive damage mitigation is far more efficient than reactive mitigation. And no one is able to generate as much temporary hit points as the glamour Bard: Being able to burst 32-40 temp hp 4-5 times per short rest at level 5 is crazy.

That’s nothing to say of the incredible repositioning utility it has, allowing allies to get out of deadly situations without incurring opportunity attacks. As someone whose played a glamour Bard that feature has probably saved as many lives as healing word. Spreading characters out when an AoE spellcaster is taking aim, or getting the squishy wizard away from the rampaging ogre, or breaking an enemies flanking formation. I’d say the damage it prevents is, at the very least, on par with Cutting Words.

And all of this only costs a measly bonus action!

Massive proactive healing that doesn’t eat spell slots or concentration while leaving your Action open is amazing. It means that you can use those resources more effectively to change the course of combat, proactively.

I know it’s easy to look at the 20d6 healing from the Lore Bard's Aura of Vitality and undervalue Glamour and Mantle of Inspiration, it’s worth remembering concentration is a steeeep cost during combat and carries its own risks. It prevents Bards from using their best encounter-shaping spells like Polymorph, Heat Metal, Hypnotic Pattern, etc.. And you also can’t guarantee you’ll keep concentration for the whole duration during combat.

I’d bump Glamour Bards up to Blue.

KorvinStarmast

2019-07-08, 12:56 PM

However, at level 3 they get access to Healing Spirit,
SUggest you correct this in Class Options, Ranger.

Rangers get access to level 2 spells at class level 5, not 3.
And yes, my ranger just leveled up to 5 and he took Healing Spirit. Xanathar's is my plus 1.

Races

vHuman, Life Cleric, Feat = Magic Initiate (Druid) (This was confirmed as very legit in a Sage Advice ruling Disciple of LIfe adds +2 + spell level to a healing spell, etc... )

Level 1 spell, cast each night before the long rest. Goodberries (With disciple of life, boosts goodberry heal per berry to 4 HP)

That's 40 free HP of out of combat healing at 4 HP each, and you party will never be hungry again.
Cantrips: Guidance, Shillelagh
Guidance: because it's a great cantrip that clerics use to help the party
Shillelagh: You can have a club (simple weapon). You attack with your + wis bonus + proficiency, always attaacks as a magical weapon. 1d8 plus wisdom bonus damage.

My current life cleric has this load out. It is most excellent. Our rogue has never missed a chance to pick a lock.

We have also found that use of a goodberry that I have in my pouch for healing NPC's or feeding a starved animal made for some cool RP things happening.

Summary: on a Life Cleric with that feat, Goodberry is a superb source of out of combat heaing through level 6 at the least, though it's costs is so little that it's value stays until about tier 3.

Healer Feat

Even into Tier 3, our Tempest Cleric with the Healer Feat, and we all purchased healer kits so that he'd always have one to use, was a very nice to out of combat healing on short rests. I'd rate it blue at the worst.

Fable Wright

2019-07-08, 01:16 PM

I'd like to dispute one thing about giving Goodberry a purple rating:

It can be free.

My Curse of Strahd Shepherd Druid is level 4. After spending a day off in town, he cast 7 Goodberry spells right before bed.

The party has 70 HP of out of combat healing that costs me no slots to use.

Sure, Goodberry doesn't scale until 4th level spells, when Conjure Woodland Beings for Dryads (the only CR 1 fey in the MM) comes and lets you convert an unused 4th to 60 HP pf free heals for the next day.

But in the end, it's still trading a spell known, one slot of many, for resource free healing. And that's way better than 'playable'.

Sparky McDibben

2019-07-08, 01:54 PM

This is really nicely done. Thank you! I'd like to see more guides about things that aren't class-based but about function. For example, if I wanted to run a "spy game," what are good tactics, fun tricks, etc?

Gecks

2019-07-08, 04:34 PM

Love this guide, thank you for taking the time to write it! :smallsmile:

A few minor notes on the celestial warlock as backup healer- I don't think either of these would move the needle in terms of rankings, but it might be worth mentioning (along with gift of the ever-living ones, which was already called out): a warlock's short-rest recharge on spell slots might let them burn up a max level cure wounds spell or two right before taking a shorty, which would help the party conserve hit dice in the longer term (although I guess if you play a warlock and hit a short rest with spell slots remaining, you're probably doing it wrong). This ability could also boost the healing utility of a catnap spell in certain situations.

I also think searing vengeance should get mentioned in the list of healing abilities, even if it is only a situational self-heal. At higher levels, IMHO it can work as a great "safety Valve" against a TPK, since the celestial warlock wakes up with half of their hit points at the start of their turn, and in theory can immediately start getting other unconscious party members up and moving (and hopefully running away from their recently blinded enemies).

Monster Manuel

2019-07-08, 04:47 PM

This is a great guide. Well done.

I have a couple of suggestions: first off, I think you should better define what you mean by the term "burst heal". As I read it, it sounds like you could distill the intent behind the term to "healing that restores more HP that round than you expect the enemy to be able to do in damage". It's more than that, obviously, since it's going to be situational when a heal does or does not have enough impact to be considered using that action on. But, on my first read-through I assumed by "burst" you meant "a burst of healing that cures multiple people", and I couldn't for the life of me figure out how that was being achieved with, say, an upcast Cure Wounds. The advice is good, and the tactics are sound, but the initial definition for what a "burst heal" actually is could be clearer.

I also think you're underselling the Grave cleric, while overselling the Life cleric to an extent (but only to an extent...again, your analysis is spot on, but I'm losing something in the details)

On the other hand, an upcast Cure Wounds suddenly becomes a *very* powerful burst heal.
You may want to expand on this, a bit, because in my experience with playing Grave clerics, this is actually pretty huge. It only applies when you're healing the unconscious, but in-combat you don't want to be wasting actions healing your allies until they need it. I've seen a lot of fights happen where the healer only gets around to healing once the ally has dropped to 0 HP, since until that happens the ally is up and running and fully contributing to combat. With other clerics, you can drop an upcast cure on an ally at 0, roll badly, and they get 7 HP back, only to lose it again their next round and drop again. I've seen this happen a LOT. The Chumbawumba heal (THIS term I love, BTW, and am totally stealing it :smallsmile: ). The Grave cleric's Circle of Mortality ensures that this is not a wasted action, and the ally is going to get at least a couple of rounds out of those HP. So, since it's only good on unconscious allies, it's far more limited than what a life cleric gets, but that limitation is not such a huge limitation when you're primarily casting it on unconscious allies, who then get several actions they wouldn't have had while lying there bleeding, at the cost of one of your own.

Plus, it comes online at level one. The Life cleric's similar ability doesn't come online until 17. Life clerics get a bonus through disciple of life, which is better on the 1d4 of Healing Word at lvl 1, but doesn't come close to the boost to a 3d8 upcast Cure Wounds gets with max damage from Circle of the Grave. Again, it's situational, but in that situation, it's reeealy good.

You're 100% spot-on about a Life cleric being better than any other option for a healer. But, you cite their access to certain spells as a core feature, which is true, except that ALL clerics get access to these spells. They're great for a healer (for anyone, really), but any cleric could prepare them, so it's not unique to the Life cleric in any way.

It gets decently powerful buff options like Bless, which last all career. It gets Spiritual Weapon and Spirit Guardians, so it can wade in and do damage.
Maybe the point you're making here is that these are all on the life cleric's list of domain spells? Maybe this analysis fits better in the section on Cleric (X), rather than life? Same for the points regarding Heavy Armor and status removal, and some of the other spells mentioned; strong tools for a life cleric, yes, but just as strong for any other cleric. The core thing for the Life cleric's spells might be to discuss the boost that healing spells get from Disciple of Life?

There is definitely a fine line between "proactive healing" and "control spells". Temp HP is definitely an exmaple of Proactive Healing. I'd lump Goodberry in there, too. Resistance is a kind of proactive healing also. Basically, anything that gives a numeric boost to HPs, or a numeric reduction in HPs taken as damage, I would count as proactive healing. Damage that's prevented because you can't be targeted anymore (like, the Wall that prevents you from getting hit by the giant or taking damage from a fieball) is straight-up control. Still essential for s support character, but outside the scope of a healing guide.

Just a couple of suggestions...overall I think you've done a great job putting this guide together. Thanks for this!