Any reason Mass Cure Wound is a 5th level?

[Cikomyr2]

So Cure Wound is a 1st level spell, standard action, 1d8+Stat healing, +1d8/spell level

Healing Word is a 1st level spell, bonus action, 1d4+Stat healing, +1d4/spell level

They are considered equivalent power.

Mass Healing Word is a 3rd level, can heal up to 6 people 1d4+Stat, +1d4/spell level, and is a bonus action.

Mass Cure Wound is a 5th level spell, can heal up to 6 people for 3d8+Stat, +1d8/spell level, and is a standard action.

Sounds to me Mass Cure Wound has been artificially upped to be a 5th level spell, and is by default already upcasted. Any reason we can't just set Mass Cure Wound to be 1d8+Stat to 6 people, 3rd level spell?

[MrStabby]

I think it is a bit more complicated...

Healing word is good becuase it frees up your action and on some occasions amount of healing doesn't really matter; just getting someone back in the fight from 0 with 3hp is enough. One character going to 0 is maybe not that uncommon.

Mass healing word does scale in terms of its function for restoring HP, but its ability to bring people back into the fight as a bonus action doesn't scale so well as the frequency with which you have multiple people down is less than thefrequency with which you have one person down.

Mass cure wounds can be used in or out of combat. Not everyone with mass cure wounds has access to prayer of healing. Out of combat it is simple to compare average HP recovered for a given spell level and see the difference.

If we were to have mass cure wounds as a 3rd level spell it would outshine mass healing word as out of combat healing. Gating it behind 5th level means that you need to expend a significant resource to get this benefit. Of course healing spirit blows all comparisons here anyway.


I get why they did it this way, although I think they could have been a little more flexible. I think I would have opted for the 4th level at 2d8+stat had it been me.

[Nidgit]

Also worth noting, Cure Wounds requires touch but Mass Cure Wounds does not. That breaks the equivalency a bit, in addition to what MrStabby mentioned about Healing Word's primary utility of playing pop-up.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I'm with Cikomyr2 on this one-- the one is straight-up superior to the other, apart from the upcasting. The difference in healing is pretty negligible (~2 hp/die) when compared to the massively superior action economy offered by a bonus action casting time. Which is probably why Mass Healing Word is a Cleric-only spell, while Mass Cure Wounds appears on multiple lists-- the former is a deliberately over-tuned trademark spell like Eldritch Blast or Fireball.

[GreyBlack]

I'm with Cikomyr2 on this one-- the one is straight-up superior to the other, apart from the upcasting. The difference in healing is pretty negligible (~2 hp/die) when compared to the massively superior action economy offered by a bonus action casting time. Which is probably why Mass Healing Word is a Cleric-only spell, while Mass Cure Wounds appears on multiple lists-- the former is a deliberately over-tuned trademark spell like Eldritch Blast or Fireball.

Funnily enough, I'd like to disagree about the "massively superior action economy" conditionally. Clerics have a number of spells and abilities competing for their bonus action, especially the all powerful Spiritual Weapon, and as such Clerics don't necessarily find that Mass Healing Word's bonus action casting time is always a boon. Personally, after level 5, I prefer to keep Cure Wounds on my spell list as opposed to either Healing Word or Mass Healing Word for exactly that reason; Cure Wounds allows me to keep up my spiritual weapon damage.

[Man_Over_Game]

Another point for the Healing Word version is that the HW heals 6 creatures within range while the CW version creates a 30ft radius sphere within 60ft while healing 6 creatures in that sphere.

Maybe they overvalued healing or something to account for that +2 HP per dice value, but it seems that HW is the clear winner.

[Matticusrex]

Healing in bulk is underpowerd in 5.e, thats why wack-a-mole healing is so popular and a lot more efficent. A lot of healing spells ether need to heal more or be of a lower spell slot, the current system kind of sucks. Heck, a life cleric with good berries can heal more per spell slot than the higher level healing spells, the system is whack. The sliverlining to this is that healers dont feel required at all for parties anymore, allowing clerics to do more fun things.

Personally I think healing spells should also grant temp life equal to the amount healed (for a 1 minute duration), thats a homebrew my group uses to make healing more on par with the other spells.

[GoodmanDL]

Mass Cure is wildly underpowered, but I also suspect this is a legacy issue. Mass Cure Light was a 5th level spell in 3rd edition, and that's probably why it still is here. And they don't want to wreck the scaling of regular Cure Wounds by giving it the same ##

[Chronos]

While Healing Word being a bonus action is nice, another issue limiting its effectiveness (in addition to competition for bonus actions) is the bonus-action spell rule. Sure, when you're using your bonus action to heal, you still have your main action, but probably the best you can do with that main action is a Sacred Flame.

[MrStabby]

While Healing Word being a bonus action is nice, another issue limiting its effectiveness (in addition to competition for bonus actions) is the bonus-action spell rule. Sure, when you're using your bonus action to heal, you still have your main action, but probably the best you can do with that main action is a Sacred Flame.

A bit niche, but I have seen a life cleric dip on a valor bard be pretty effective with the spell... heavy armour, two attacks, martial weapons and bonus action heals. I imagine there would be similar utility for a dip on warlock where your cantrips are plenty good enough by themselves.

[GoodmanDL]

There's also niche value for the arcana cleric to use Mass Healing Word as a situational bonus action to dispel debuffs on allies

[MrStabby]

There's also niche value for the arcana cleric to use Mass Healing Word as a situational bonus action to dispel debuts on allies

Oh yes. And that is awesome. Mass dispel magic as a bonus action is always fun.