I think I find playing a Cleric or a primary healer, sort of draining, at least in some circumstances, like being the primary healer in a party where there are going to be multiple combat sessions with a lot of damage sustained by the party (perhaps a lot of PC's dropping to zero hit points during an adventuring day). I feel obligated to save back my spell slots for healing, for and buffs for other characters, and so, it can feel stressful and less satisfying than characters geared toward other things.
I'd like to learn how to play a healing and support character, well and not to feel that way, while doing it. Is there a way to make it more fun?
It’s kind of tough, really. To me, what you describe is a feature, not a bug, as it forces me to think strategically and when and how I spend my spell slots. I find the choice of hurt the bag guys vs help the good ones makes the class more interesting. Outside of that, you might look at something like the chef feat, which helps your party with short rest healing, and gives you a couple temp hp to hand out as a buffer. That might take some of the burden off. Another choice could be the healer feat+ healer kits. Less efficient use of an action, in terms of hp given back, but no spell slots.
Or, it could be you just don’t like support characters. That’s ok, too. Not every class or role appeals to everyone.
Yeah, part of the deal when playing a support character is carefully picking and choosing when to use what on whom. I usually play Bards and Artificers who are both also primarily support characters, just usually in different ways. Although, part of the job with both of those classes is also to heal up wounded compatriots during combat, or protecting them, or providing ways for other characters to be more effective versions of themselves in some way or another. Of course, they also have other ways to shine for themselves too, such as during social encounters or when the party needs to accomplish stuff nobody else is any good at since they can both often find or provide opportunities in those situations. But in a way, that’s still supporting the rest of the party too if one thinks about it.
When it comes to Clerics, in my admittedly limited experience in playing that class, I have typically found myself going in one of two general directions.One direction I often tend towards is I place myself near the frontline to best make use of spells such as spirit guardians or spiritual weapon and reserve my actions first and foremost for healing spells and rely on either weapon attacks or cantrips when not healing. The other is that I stay further back and use spells like bless and other buffs and save my bonus action for healing word.
Other folks with more experience playing clerics may have more insights or be able to suggest better tactics, I wouldn’t be surprised. However it may just be as Xalthu suggestsand that you just don’t particularly enjoy playing support characters, or maybe it’s just Clerics. And as they said, that’s okay. (I don’t like playing Druids.)
If you are playing a Cleric with the main goal of being support, and not enjoying the playstyle, you need to talk to your group about who handles what role and possibly make a new character.
Like in any team, everyone should have a defined role so they feel like they have something special to contribute to the group, be that in combat, exploration, and/or social encounters. In combat, depending on the subclass, Clerics can do fine in most roles, but especially excel in the support role. However, that playstyle does not suit everyone. If you are feeling discourage or underwhelmed, it may be because you either a), don't have the right expectations for your role in the party and are expecting to play a different playstyle, or b), you just don't find the support playstyle fun.
I had a hard time seeing the fun in playing a support character, but as I've played with other people who performed the support duties well, I came around to respecting what a good support character can bring to the party. In combat, you'll likely not be the one landing the big hit and downing the boss, but based on your spells (with Clerics, keeping people on their feet through healing, casting buff spells like Bless, etc. that allows the damage dealers to get the killing blow) you can be the backbone of the party. And, while the other players may not notice in the moment what you've done to help them, they will appreciate spells that keep them playing their character (healing, dispelling mind control, etc.). So it can be a very rewarding playstyle, if you come at it with the right mindset.
I don't know if this helps you, but hopefully it does!
I played a life cleric for 6 levels and I was super bored. But, I now play a stars druid as a healer and I love it....because he can do so much more than just heal.
I am playing a cleric in current campaign and don't love it either. It can be fun though at times. I am a drakewarden ranger at heart.
I find I am not a fan of spell casters. It takes too much time to figure out which spell to cast when. Melee is much easier IMHO. I won't play a full spell caster again.
However, I have been clear to my group that I am there to help, but if you are stupid then you earn what you get. Our barbarian can be dumb at times doing things that he shouldn't and has taken major damage. I help, but am not going to kill myself or limit my play just to help him. Maybe that makes me a bad cleric. Perhaps the rest of your party needs to be more careful about their combat as to not be going to zero hit points?
I am level 9 - 5 of life cleric and 4 circle of stars druid. This gives me goodberry healing 4 hp / berry. I also have channel divinity to help with healing. I told the party they need to help support themselves by buying healing potions and using them. I tend to move to the front and use spirit guardians while casting sacred flame, thorn whip or spiritual weapon. I have healing available if someone goes down during combat, but prefer to wait until afterwards to do any healing. The party uses their potions first, so I can keep spells available. We also have a paladin to assist in healing if things get bad.
5th edition has a rule similar to baseball: '3 strikes and you're out'. When player character drops to zero hit points they should fall unconscious and only die if they get three failed death saving throws while not stabilized. That means, in theory, a +9 bonus to Wisdom (Medicine) or spare the dying, when well timed, can keep other creature alive if the effect works on them. But that doesn't help much if multiple enemies keep focusing on trying to kill them. For that it'd be better to heal them as much as possible in one go with mass heal, heal, preserve life. In this edition it's easier to outdamage healing than outheal damage unless you got a powerful enough effect. Trying to keep people conscious with effects that don't make up for a decent amount of what will become accumulated damage on the following round(s) can lead to unwanted outcomes.
There was a time I was playing a Life Domain Cleric above 6th level and the group I was in was fighting some demons. The Way of the Open Hand Monk was adamant we would all die. For them it was a hopeless fight. But I thought we had a pretty good shot and wasn't too worried. My character was concentrating on spirit guardians and dodging for most of the fight. When I thought the next multiattack or something was gonna drop my character to zero hp I readied preserve life channel divinity as soon as possible (since channel divinity isn't a spell, it doesn't require concentration to ready, at least that's how it was played) to heal my bulky cleric, which specced into concentration and hit points to keep concentration spells up for as long as possible, trying to make them last their full duration even while in combat. That way the cleric could fulfill sustained area melee magic damage dealer and tank combat roles at the same time. It was pretty epic, the demons tried, but kept missing heavy armor, shield, dodge and when they did get some good hits in, the cleric's hit points went back up with preserve life channel divinity, all while causing damage again and again and again with spirit guardians. If someone needed a little help, a little bonus action, healing word was there to keep them from getting their 3 failed death saving throws when they were in range, both in feet and above zero failed death saving throws or threatened by more than one damage source on the following round. We won that fight and, later, I learned that Monk's player was running Life Domain Cleric on a different table :)
IMO, in general, one dimensional characters are boring. There's so much flexibility within the cleric class and subclasses to be both a healer and something else.
I'm playing a War Domain Cleric who I expect to be a mid-line PC. (At level 1), I have chainmail, a shield and a flail. But I can also cast Toll the Dead at will, and War Domain got me Divine Favor and Shield of Faith (both bonus actions) that I added to my 4 known 1st level spells.
As a party maybe the other characters need to pull their weight more. Why don't the other characters take a level of cleric so everyone has some healing to keep people in the fight. A party should playa s ateam. If the other players have an expectation that the cleric exists to heal them, then you need to have a conversation about that.
Order is a fun support build for people with itchy trigger fingers trying to get into the mood of playing support. Their Voice of Authority ability lets you give allies an opportunity to use their reaction to attack enemies whenever you cast a spell on them. This helps you feel like you're still helping to fight even when you gotta send a heal/buff to an ally. Idk, there is specific advice for all subclasses, so maybe I try more general advice... lol.
It also helps if you stop thinking of yourself as a healer. D&D doesn't really have those. Not really. Not lime a mmo or video game does. A party can and should be fine without even anyone who can heal at all if they're careful. Why? Because people can heal a silly amount by simply taking a short rest. So if they're burning your spells instead if their own HD, that's a problem behavior your party needs to fix.
There are other factors, too. How well armored is your party? Are they intentionally doing reckless things expecting you to save them? What can your crew do to mitigate damage? Because that really is the name of the game, damage mitigation is so much more effective than healing. Brainstorm some ways the party might avoid damage.
And, I think my last suggestion, if you're stuck full-time healing because whatever reasons, party has weak defenses, DM homebrews monster damage output, reckless behavior... whatever. Then... consider taking the Healer feat.
At 1d6+4+HD it scales well with party level. Each time you use it it saves you a spell slot. The level of the slot it effectively saves goes up too. So it is always relevant. This will free up your spells for things that actually make a difference.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
There isn't a role called "healer" in D&D - just many healing spells.
Review all the cleric abilities and spells and think about them as LEGOs. What can you build from your LEGOs? There is a lot.
Here is an example: cast COMMAND on a threat your team faces, preventing the threat from attacking for one round while your team attacks and possibly defeats the threat. The amount of damage you prevent is often more than you can heal.
Few months late, but in general 5e healing isn't as efficient as dealing damage. Think of it like this, a level one spell that deals damage and always hits, magic missile, deals (1d4+1)*3 for an average of 11.5 damage. A level one healing spell that also uses an action, cure wounds, heals for 1d8+wisdom (let's say 3) for an average of 7.5. This trend continues beyond level 1. Monster attacks deal more damage as levels increase, but the healing spells, a finite resource, don't outheal them. Generally, the better play is to heal only when it's going to keep someone from falling below zero or after they already have. On other turns, buffing allies, debuffing enemies, dealing damage, or controlling the battlefield are the better options. Clerics have a ton of really good spells. Banking a spell for a clutch healing word is a smart move, but it's not necessary. Also, as a cleric starts getting more spell slots, keeping a spell in the tank becomes less taxing.
Clerics serve their Deities, not their fellow adventurers. "The Divine [insert deity here] has commanded me to undertake a test of faith, I am not permitted to use healing for one passing of the moon." How would that go down? :o)
Well one thing that’s helps me as a Cleric is being a Cleric with the crave domain. It is powerful and may take some of the burden off. When a character is at 0 and you use a healing spell, it imediently heals the maximum without rolling at level one. Another good thing is that you learn the spare the dying to keep your party from dying with a range of 30 ft and as a bonus action
Like I do get it, clerics can be stressful sometimes but I hope this helps a little
I've enjoyed my runs as a cleric. While everyone else is focused on combat and more aggressive tactics...I'm able to look towards other strategies or tactics they might have missed. Sometimes the whole party overlooks something simple. Campaign I'm in right now...was watching 2 party members struggling to climb on top of a house of a target we were looking for...they were stealthing and using all their primary stats to try to get in - I walked up to the door, knocked and then used my charisma to persuade them to let us in to talk. As the cleric, we might not be bashing down doors...but, we should be seen as our wisdom shows - wise.
It helps that clerics can kick butt in combat, too. Like, you can cast Spirit Guardians, Spiritual Weapon, and wade into battle tossing out weapon attacks, or cantrips, while in medium/heavy armor and a shield, just straight up shredding the hordes of enemies you wade through.
Spell selection is key. Pick stuff that let's you brawl it out insteal of just patch wounds,and you're going to do just fine.
Heck, Spiritual Weapon and Spirit Guardians active leaves you with your action free still so even if you do need to heal you can cure wounds while still destroying your foes in the midst of combat.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
I think I find playing a Cleric or a primary healer, sort of draining, at least in some circumstances, like being the primary healer in a party where there are going to be multiple combat sessions with a lot of damage sustained by the party (perhaps a lot of PC's dropping to zero hit points during an adventuring day). I feel obligated to save back my spell slots for healing, for and buffs for other characters, and so, it can feel stressful and less satisfying than characters geared toward other things.
I'd like to learn how to play a healing and support character, well and not to feel that way, while doing it. Is there a way to make it more fun?
It’s kind of tough, really. To me, what you describe is a feature, not a bug, as it forces me to think strategically and when and how I spend my spell slots. I find the choice of hurt the bag guys vs help the good ones makes the class more interesting.
Outside of that, you might look at something like the chef feat, which helps your party with short rest healing, and gives you a couple temp hp to hand out as a buffer. That might take some of the burden off.
Another choice could be the healer feat+ healer kits. Less efficient use of an action, in terms of hp given back, but no spell slots.
Or, it could be you just don’t like support characters. That’s ok, too. Not every class or role appeals to everyone.
Yeah, part of the deal when playing a support character is carefully picking and choosing when to use what on whom. I usually play Bards and Artificers who are both also primarily support characters, just usually in different ways. Although, part of the job with both of those classes is also to heal up wounded compatriots during combat, or protecting them, or providing ways for other characters to be more effective versions of themselves in some way or another. Of course, they also have other ways to shine for themselves too, such as during social encounters or when the party needs to accomplish stuff nobody else is any good at since they can both often find or provide opportunities in those situations. But in a way, that’s still supporting the rest of the party too if one thinks about it.
When it comes to Clerics, in my admittedly limited experience in playing that class, I have typically found myself going in one of two general directions.One direction I often tend towards is I place myself near the frontline to best make use of spells such as spirit guardians or spiritual weapon and reserve my actions first and foremost for healing spells and rely on either weapon attacks or cantrips when not healing. The other is that I stay further back and use spells like bless and other buffs and save my bonus action for healing word.
Other folks with more experience playing clerics may have more insights or be able to suggest better tactics, I wouldn’t be surprised. However it may just be as Xalthu suggestsand that you just don’t particularly enjoy playing support characters, or maybe it’s just Clerics. And as they said, that’s okay. (I don’t like playing Druids.)
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If you are playing a Cleric with the main goal of being support, and not enjoying the playstyle, you need to talk to your group about who handles what role and possibly make a new character.
Like in any team, everyone should have a defined role so they feel like they have something special to contribute to the group, be that in combat, exploration, and/or social encounters. In combat, depending on the subclass, Clerics can do fine in most roles, but especially excel in the support role. However, that playstyle does not suit everyone. If you are feeling discourage or underwhelmed, it may be because you either a), don't have the right expectations for your role in the party and are expecting to play a different playstyle, or b), you just don't find the support playstyle fun.
I had a hard time seeing the fun in playing a support character, but as I've played with other people who performed the support duties well, I came around to respecting what a good support character can bring to the party. In combat, you'll likely not be the one landing the big hit and downing the boss, but based on your spells (with Clerics, keeping people on their feet through healing, casting buff spells like Bless, etc. that allows the damage dealers to get the killing blow) you can be the backbone of the party. And, while the other players may not notice in the moment what you've done to help them, they will appreciate spells that keep them playing their character (healing, dispelling mind control, etc.). So it can be a very rewarding playstyle, if you come at it with the right mindset.
I don't know if this helps you, but hopefully it does!
I played a life cleric for 6 levels and I was super bored. But, I now play a stars druid as a healer and I love it....because he can do so much more than just heal.
Food, Scifi/fantasy, anime, DND 5E and OSR geek.
I am playing a cleric in current campaign and don't love it either. It can be fun though at times. I am a drakewarden ranger at heart.
I find I am not a fan of spell casters. It takes too much time to figure out which spell to cast when. Melee is much easier IMHO. I won't play a full spell caster again.
However, I have been clear to my group that I am there to help, but if you are stupid then you earn what you get. Our barbarian can be dumb at times doing things that he shouldn't and has taken major damage. I help, but am not going to kill myself or limit my play just to help him. Maybe that makes me a bad cleric. Perhaps the rest of your party needs to be more careful about their combat as to not be going to zero hit points?
I am level 9 - 5 of life cleric and 4 circle of stars druid. This gives me goodberry healing 4 hp / berry. I also have channel divinity to help with healing. I told the party they need to help support themselves by buying healing potions and using them. I tend to move to the front and use spirit guardians while casting sacred flame, thorn whip or spiritual weapon. I have healing available if someone goes down during combat, but prefer to wait until afterwards to do any healing. The party uses their potions first, so I can keep spells available. We also have a paladin to assist in healing if things get bad.
not sure this helps.
5th edition has a rule similar to baseball: '3 strikes and you're out'. When player character drops to zero hit points they should fall unconscious and only die if they get three failed death saving throws while not stabilized. That means, in theory, a +9 bonus to Wisdom (Medicine) or spare the dying, when well timed, can keep other creature alive if the effect works on them. But that doesn't help much if multiple enemies keep focusing on trying to kill them. For that it'd be better to heal them as much as possible in one go with mass heal, heal, preserve life. In this edition it's easier to outdamage healing than outheal damage unless you got a powerful enough effect. Trying to keep people conscious with effects that don't make up for a decent amount of what will become accumulated damage on the following round(s) can lead to unwanted outcomes.
There was a time I was playing a Life Domain Cleric above 6th level and the group I was in was fighting some demons. The Way of the Open Hand Monk was adamant we would all die. For them it was a hopeless fight. But I thought we had a pretty good shot and wasn't too worried. My character was concentrating on spirit guardians and dodging for most of the fight. When I thought the next multiattack or something was gonna drop my character to zero hp I readied preserve life channel divinity as soon as possible (since channel divinity isn't a spell, it doesn't require concentration to ready, at least that's how it was played) to heal my bulky cleric, which specced into concentration and hit points to keep concentration spells up for as long as possible, trying to make them last their full duration even while in combat. That way the cleric could fulfill sustained area melee magic damage dealer and tank combat roles at the same time. It was pretty epic, the demons tried, but kept missing heavy armor, shield, dodge and when they did get some good hits in, the cleric's hit points went back up with preserve life channel divinity, all while causing damage again and again and again with spirit guardians. If someone needed a little help, a little bonus action, healing word was there to keep them from getting their 3 failed death saving throws when they were in range, both in feet and above zero failed death saving throws or threatened by more than one damage source on the following round. We won that fight and, later, I learned that Monk's player was running Life Domain Cleric on a different table :)
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IMO, in general, one dimensional characters are boring. There's so much flexibility within the cleric class and subclasses to be both a healer and something else.
I'm playing a War Domain Cleric who I expect to be a mid-line PC. (At level 1), I have chainmail, a shield and a flail. But I can also cast Toll the Dead at will, and War Domain got me Divine Favor and Shield of Faith (both bonus actions) that I added to my 4 known 1st level spells.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/122155734/MSunny
This will be very fun to play
Started playing AD&D in the late 70s and stopped in the mid-80s. Started immersing myself into 5e in 2023
As a party maybe the other characters need to pull their weight more. Why don't the other characters take a level of cleric so everyone has some healing to keep people in the fight. A party should playa s ateam. If the other players have an expectation that the cleric exists to heal them, then you need to have a conversation about that.
Life's hard - get a helmet!
It'd be helpful to know your subclass.
Order is a fun support build for people with itchy trigger fingers trying to get into the mood of playing support. Their Voice of Authority ability lets you give allies an opportunity to use their reaction to attack enemies whenever you cast a spell on them. This helps you feel like you're still helping to fight even when you gotta send a heal/buff to an ally. Idk, there is specific advice for all subclasses, so maybe I try more general advice... lol.
It also helps if you stop thinking of yourself as a healer. D&D doesn't really have those. Not really. Not lime a mmo or video game does. A party can and should be fine without even anyone who can heal at all if they're careful. Why? Because people can heal a silly amount by simply taking a short rest. So if they're burning your spells instead if their own HD, that's a problem behavior your party needs to fix.
There are other factors, too. How well armored is your party? Are they intentionally doing reckless things expecting you to save them? What can your crew do to mitigate damage? Because that really is the name of the game, damage mitigation is so much more effective than healing. Brainstorm some ways the party might avoid damage.
And, I think my last suggestion, if you're stuck full-time healing because whatever reasons, party has weak defenses, DM homebrews monster damage output, reckless behavior... whatever. Then... consider taking the Healer feat.
At 1d6+4+HD it scales well with party level. Each time you use it it saves you a spell slot. The level of the slot it effectively saves goes up too. So it is always relevant. This will free up your spells for things that actually make a difference.
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
There isn't a role called "healer" in D&D - just many healing spells.
Review all the cleric abilities and spells and think about them as LEGOs. What can you build from your LEGOs? There is a lot.
Here is an example: cast COMMAND on a threat your team faces, preventing the threat from attacking for one round while your team attacks and possibly defeats the threat. The amount of damage you prevent is often more than you can heal.
Few months late, but in general 5e healing isn't as efficient as dealing damage. Think of it like this, a level one spell that deals damage and always hits, magic missile, deals (1d4+1)*3 for an average of 11.5 damage. A level one healing spell that also uses an action, cure wounds, heals for 1d8+wisdom (let's say 3) for an average of 7.5. This trend continues beyond level 1. Monster attacks deal more damage as levels increase, but the healing spells, a finite resource, don't outheal them. Generally, the better play is to heal only when it's going to keep someone from falling below zero or after they already have. On other turns, buffing allies, debuffing enemies, dealing damage, or controlling the battlefield are the better options. Clerics have a ton of really good spells. Banking a spell for a clutch healing word is a smart move, but it's not necessary. Also, as a cleric starts getting more spell slots, keeping a spell in the tank becomes less taxing.
Clerics serve their Deities, not their fellow adventurers. "The Divine [insert deity here] has commanded me to undertake a test of faith, I am not permitted to use healing for one passing of the moon." How would that go down? :o)
Life's hard - get a helmet!
Well one thing that’s helps me as a Cleric is being a Cleric with the crave domain. It is powerful and may take some of the burden off. When a character is at 0 and you use a healing spell, it imediently heals the maximum without rolling at level one. Another good thing is that you learn the spare the dying to keep your party from dying with a range of 30 ft and as a bonus action
Like I do get it, clerics can be stressful sometimes but I hope this helps a little
I've enjoyed my runs as a cleric. While everyone else is focused on combat and more aggressive tactics...I'm able to look towards other strategies or tactics they might have missed. Sometimes the whole party overlooks something simple. Campaign I'm in right now...was watching 2 party members struggling to climb on top of a house of a target we were looking for...they were stealthing and using all their primary stats to try to get in - I walked up to the door, knocked and then used my charisma to persuade them to let us in to talk. As the cleric, we might not be bashing down doors...but, we should be seen as our wisdom shows - wise.
That is realy true, I try and do the same thing and when I’m DMing a session try and encourage it with the players
It helps that clerics can kick butt in combat, too. Like, you can cast Spirit Guardians, Spiritual Weapon, and wade into battle tossing out weapon attacks, or cantrips, while in medium/heavy armor and a shield, just straight up shredding the hordes of enemies you wade through.
Spell selection is key. Pick stuff that let's you brawl it out insteal of just patch wounds,and you're going to do just fine.
Heck, Spiritual Weapon and Spirit Guardians active leaves you with your action free still so even if you do need to heal you can cure wounds while still destroying your foes in the midst of combat.
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
Indeed - preventing damage to your party by destroying enemies with combat spells is a form of healing.
Life's hard - get a helmet!