Isn't the real question, what do people think a turn is out-of- combat?
Also if you have a players with a movement of 25ft then they move at a speed slower than 5ft/second. If one person is too slow it screws up the algorithm. I say DMs get out stop watches and make the players coordinate that stuff verbally. Cause the first player has to wait 6 full seconds to get the next tick.
Uhm, 8 players can do the Hokey Pokey around a center without a care about movement speed. If the DM has to get out a stopwatch to help rule over a spell mechanic, then that's just plain stupid/dumb.
That's just it, the players don't have to wait 6 full seconds to get the next tick, they get the effect by just passing through the effect! IDK if you read the spell. If they had to stop and sit in the area, there would be no problem at all. As it stands, anyone passing through the spell's area of effect gets the healing...
Pass thru it on their turn or while standing in it at the beginning of their turn. Their turn is every 6 seconds. So as I read it the spell only ticks for a player once every 6 seconds.
Off that's not how it works to you explain how someone would get healed by the spell standing still.
It ticks for all players that pass through it. This isn't too complicated; say you all form a line. Player 1 goes forward (through the healing square) 25 feet. Player 2 does the same, then #3 and so on, then the line snakes backwards and passes through the spot next round. Like a big circle. Whee! Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding! 8 people can make a 3x3 circle easily enough and everyone just spins around and around and passes through the healing spirit.
Or just do the hokey pokey...however you want to imagine it.
I understand the concept. But it states once per turn you get the ding. It also states standing in it grants you the healing as well if you start your turn in the spot. So with that information the healing has to have a down time in between ticks for a player.
If out of combat you have one person stand in it they don't get a tick every second. So then hoppig in and out won't tick until they hit that 6 second mark.
In combat you can't have one player move in and out until that 6 seconds pass, so with that information you can infer that out of combat the player has to wait the 6 seconds as well.
Encounters are balanced on the assumption that players are at full health, according to the Crawford tweet about the spell. Certainly players being at full health through burning some level two spell slots versus players being at full health through burning many spell slots isn’t something that’s caused me an issue as a DM (if anything I’ve had more characters die than I’d ideally like).
Certainly if the game constantly uses pace and attrition to provide challenges and difficult choices I can see why Healing Spirit changes the balance significantly, but I would expect that to be a minority of games.
Crawford was also wrong because guess what.. he isn't able to make that assumption. Is he sitting at every table this game is ever played at? That's.. not how it works. Also the downright dmg rules and every written hardcover disagree outside daily travel crap where you have unlimited short rests. A DUNGEON starts at full hp, you don't have full hp going around every freaking corner and finding ever freakin trap.
Crawford was also wrong because guess what.. he isn't able to make that assumption. Is he sitting at every table this game is ever played at? That's.. not how it works.
Well, he has access to several years' worth of data from Adventurer's League play, the D&D Next open playtest, wizard's NDA playtesters, UA surveys and now D&D Beyond and he did write the rules so I'd argue if anyone's able to make that assumption, it's him.
Anyways, you're not talking about the same thing he's talking about:
Crawford probably has more access to player info and data than anyone, if he can't make an informed decision.....who do you think can?
IMO, that's part of the problem. If a Ranger or Druid can expend a single low level spell slot and top everyone off after every combat, then you DO have people "at full hp going around every freaking corner and finding ever freakin trap."
This is EXACTLY the problem people have with the spell, thanks for agreeing!
Note: none of the Druid's in the games I run have asked for this spell (but they likely don't know about). I'd picked it for my own PC just it case, but never really needed it thanks to Goodberries. I was happy that my DM then decided to use Crawford's suggested house rule, since I wanted to drop the spell anyway (mostly because I had no use for it, but also because it was over-powered, controversial, and could supplants others' roles).
Crawford also has a real bad case of not being willing to admit when mistakes are made.
I had a chance to speak to him about Crossbow Expert at last year's DFW Epic Con and the choice to allow a hand crossbow being held in one hand to trigger the bonus action hand crossbow shot. He didn't see an issue with it at all and said (and I paraphrase a bit) crunchy players are primarily an AL thing and not something that happens in D&D in general. I could tell he's not a numbers guy, but someone looking for things that feel like D&D. He wants thematic elements that feel at home in the D&D experience.
Explaining to him that 3x (1d6 + 15) vs 2x (1d8 + 15) means that hand crossbows are now the ultimate ranged weapon is a bit silly and doesn't even remotely resemble historical fantasy tropes or D&D classics fell on deaf ears. I feel like the Healing Spirit feedback is similarly bouncing harmlessly off his unwillingness to admit when mistakes are made due to a lack of mathematical review.
That being said - He should have at least one number crunchy exploitative bastard working for him who would identify glaring issues pre-release.
Healing Spirit is stupidly abusable. It makes all other healers feel like useless turds and annihilates any semblance of game balance. He might as well let a rogue have an ability that assassinates all opponents in a one-mile radius - usable at will. It's about THAT well balanced. Having level 5 Rangers out-heal Life Clerics by 300% is indefensible.
That being said - He should have at least one number crunchy exploitative bastard working for him who would identify glaring issues pre-release.
Healing Spirit is stupidly abusable. It makes all other healers feel like useless turds and annihilates any semblance of game balance. He might as well let a rogue have an ability that assassinates all opponents in a one-mile radius - usable at will. It's about THAT well balanced. Having level 5 Rangers out-heal Life Clerics by 300% is indefensible.
As that kind of number cruncher, who builds models to calculate optimum DPS builds, I certainly wouldn’t give that feedback on Healing Spirit. It does none of the things you subsequently list, for reasons covered at great length previously in the thread.
Crawford also has a real bad case of not being willing to admit when mistakes are made.
To be fair to Crawford, he might be unwilling to make the call because this team has a tendency to want to avoid errata. So, being unwilling to admit math mistakes might just be a kind of unofficial policy?
That being said - He should have at least one number crunchy exploitative bastard working for him who would identify glaring issues pre-release.
Healing Spirit is stupidly abusable. It makes all other healers feel like useless turds and annihilates any semblance of game balance. He might as well let a rogue have an ability that assassinates all opponents in a one-mile radius - usable at will. It's about THAT well balanced. Having level 5 Rangers out-heal Life Clerics by 300% is indefensible.
As that kind of number cruncher, who builds models to calculate optimum DPS builds, I certainly wouldn’t give that feedback on Healing Spirit. It does none of the things you subsequently list, for reasons covered at great length previously in the thread.
Being a number cruncher who calculates optimum builds requires a head for numbers and a certain level of literacy.
Considering the person you're responding to was being conservative with the 300% value, the math of which was already broken down in the very first post in this thread (I would know, I'm the one who did the math), I would say you either need to show your own math or quit spreading misinformation.
Since we both know you can't show the math that supports your argument, and therefore won't, I'll do it for you.
Comparison 1: Healing Spirit cast at Spell Level 3 by a Druid with an 18 Wisdom Comparison 2: Prayer of Healing cast at Spell Level 3 by a Life Domain Cleric with an 18 Wisdom Comparison 3: Aura of Vitality cast at Spell Level 3 by a Paladin with 18 Charisma
For each comparison we'll look at total healing that can be provided to a group (in this case a group of 6), as well as the maximum that a single person can be healed.
Prayer of Healing, Maximum Individual Healing: (3d8)+4+5 = (13.5)+9 = 22.5 Prayer of Healing, Total Healing for Party: 135
Aura of Vitality, Maximum Individual Healing: (2d6)*10 = 7*10 = 70 Aura of Vitality, Total Healing for Party: 70
Healing Spirit, Maximum Individual Healing: (2d6)*10 = 7*10 = 70 Healing Spirit, Total Healing for Party: 420
Conclusion:
- Healing Spirit has over 300% the healing ability as Prayer of Healing (from a life domain cleric) to both an individual and a party, and requires 9 less minutes. - Healing Spirit has exactly 600% the healing ability as Aura of Vitality to a party.
the person you're responding to was being conservative with the 300% value
Wintermight have just been referring to Toxxus possibly overstating his case with "Healing Spirit is stupidly abusable. It makes all other healers feel like useless turds and annihilates any semblance of game balance. He might as well let a rogue have an ability that assassinates all opponents in a one-mile radius - usable at will. It's about THAT well balanced. "
I'd be interested in exploring possible abuses of such healing between encounters. From my own experience, I didn't find it useful in practice (since we were already healing to full via other means).
I had a chance to speak to him about Crossbow Expert at last year's DFW Epic Con and the choice to allow a hand crossbow being held in one hand to trigger the bonus action hand crossbow shot. He didn't see an issue with it at all and said (and I paraphrase a bit) crunchy players are primarily an AL thing and not something that happens in D&D in general. I could tell he's not a numbers guy, but someone looking for things that feel like D&D. He wants thematic elements that feel at home in the D&D experience.
Explaining to him that 3x (1d6 + 15) vs 2x (1d8 + 15) means that hand crossbows are now the ultimate ranged weapon is a bit silly and doesn't even remotely resemble historical fantasy tropes or D&D classics fell on deaf ears.
Consider that:
There's at least 8 kinds of fun; it stands to reason the majority of players aren't min-maxers.
Aesthetics are a legitimate reason to pick one weapon over another.
Weapons don't exist solely for player characters; they're for NPCs and monsters too.
D&D is a co-op storytelling game, not a competitive vs game; there's no extrinsic reward for having the most min/maxed character.
Most characters don't use feats.
When feats are used, Crossbow Expert isn't even in the top 10 chosen feats according to D&D Beyond data.
If you're not already at +5 DEX, you're giving up some attack bonus and damage by picking the feat. If you got the feat at 1st level as a variant human, you're giving up darkvision, which means in dark dungeons you to hold a light source, stick to someone that's holding one, or someone wastes a spell slot casting Darkvision.
Rangers often lose a bonus action casting or moving Hunter's Mark at the start of combat and mid-combat after their current target dies.
For Fighters with 3+ attacks, the difference between attacking 3 times with a heavy crossbow vs 4 times with a hand crossbow is small.
The range on hand crossbows is really short unless you have Sharpshooter too. That puts you at greater risk of being within a monster's movement range, being targeted by spells or monster abilities 30-60 foot range, or flying enemies being out of your reach.
I'm inclined to agree with Jeremy; it's not that big of a deal.
I feel like the Healing Spirit feedback is similarly bouncing harmlessly off his unwillingness to admit when mistakes are made due to a lack of mathematical review.
He's also acknowledged other design issues, like the way the Lucky feat interacts with disadvantage or the way the Wild Shape rules interact with 0 HP triggers. Thing is, he and Mearls don't want players to feel like the rules are constantly changing. Something not working as intended isn't a good enough reason to change the rules unless it's causing significant issues.
That being said - He should have at least one number crunchy exploitative bastard working for him who would identify glaring issues pre-release.
Since we both know you can't show the math that supports your argument, and therefore won't, I'll do it for you.
...
Conclusion:
- Healing Spirit has over 300% the healing ability as Prayer of Healing (from a life domain cleric) to both an individual and a party, and requires 9 less minutes. - Healing Spirit has exactly 600% the healing ability as Aura of Vitality to a party.
The point about modelling outcomes is that you don't pick the optimal scenario for something and then claim a definitive result for all situations - especially not behind a shield of embarrassing internet aggressiveness.
Your figures hold for out-of-combat healing ... but out-of-combat healing is barely relevant and becomes less relevant as levels increase (and Goodberry access with the previous day's spell slots becomes ever more potent, particularly if cast by a Life Cleric via feat or multi-class, let alone the myriad other ways to get health back when action economy doesn't matter). This has been covered extensively previously in the thread, but it comes down to this: how many encounters do you run per long rest (I usually run 6 to 8), and do you consider hit points as a player resource you are actively trying to reduce between combats (I do not). Spell slots, per-long-rest abilities, and even per-short-rest abilities will run down over these encounters. Those are resources players have to manage effectively. Actual hit points? Not so much. I don't need low hit point characters to build tension, and the players know that each encounter will require good management of expendable powers. There's still plenty of resource management in there, it's just not of hit points. As soon as those resources run out (spells, long-rest abilities, short-rest abilities) the party will have lost their ability to shape the battle which means they'll be at the mercy of the battlefield and the opponents. When expendable powers are gone, hit points will inevitably follow - unless fights tend to end up as just people rolling their attacks until one side dies. Even without keeping hit points on characters low between combats, I have a lot of character deaths in my games - but it's usually as a result of player mistakes rather than someone starting a fight on low health and getting unlucky.
What matters is in combat healing - you're not likely to die out of combat, after all - and there, Healing Spirit is decidedly situational.
Healing Spirit, cast by a Druid as a level 3 spell: requires a Bonus Action and Concentration. It will heal 7 average health per person it hits. The caster can probably ensure it hits one person by landing the spell on that person (unless the caster is hit and loses Concentration before that person's turn). The party can then try and run through that area ... but that may provoke Attacks of Opportunity. There's no reasonable way to model this because it's so situational, but you can make some assumptions. In an average party (4 members), you could assume a primary tank and a secondary tank, with two characters conspiring to say at range (and probably having less use for healing). The caster can get it onto one of the two tanks, and that tank might be able to dance to one side or another without provoking an AoO and allow the primary tank to move through it without provoking an AoO. So let's say that - without provoking AoOs - the healer can do 7 points to two characters a round, total 14 hit points healing a round. Provoking an AoO of course risks the character taking more damage which means it's probably inefficient unless the character provoking is very unlikely to be hit (probable for the tank, unlikely for the secondary tank). The DM can also respond with positioning that means the AoO is going to be provoked when rotating through the Healing Spirit. This is possible even if the DM really likes just using one monster so the fights don't have any kind of tactical positioning element. It's theoretically possible to get 140 hit points out of the Healing Spirit for those two characters.
Bonus Action to cast is great stuff, but Concentration is an opportunity cost, especially given damage output is effectively the same as healing (instead of removing damage you've taken, you stop the enemies doing damage faster). The Bonus Action to move it also means the Druid can't cast Healing Word. Other third level or lower spells that the Druid could use that Concentration on ...
Conjure Animals - effectively this provides a minimum of 8 ablative hits against melee opponents, plus a chance of doing some damage with them as well. 8 wolves with 11 hit points is 88 hit points worth of damage you can try to bait the enemy into attacking, and if they don't attack it the wolves have a chance of doing damage. This also doesn't take your Bonus Action each turn to be useful. The weakness is area effect damage spells being used on the summons ... but again that's taking enemy actions that aren't being used on higher, single-target damage spells on the party. The wolves can fight and die before ten rounds are over, giving you the chance to rinse and repeat, or do something else with your Concentration (but there's no realistic way to even give averages on this this without a lot of data on the way fights play out and durations of fights).
Spike Growth - shapes the battlefield and invaluable against melee opponents. Niche, but it can certainly be fight-winning in a way that Healing Spirit can't be.
Warding Wind - impose Disadvantage on ranged weapon attacks (Disadvantage is worth on average ~3 (rounded down) though it depends on what the opponent needs to hit of course, a 15% reduction in ranged weapon attack accuracy). To beat out Healing Spirit, you need to be taking a potential 94 points of damage through ranged attacks in a round (15% of 94 is 14.1). This becomes more useful at higher levels as enemy damage output increases, but even at level 5 you could theoretically have a Deadly encounter of "many kobolds" (Kobold Fight Club estimates 44 kobolds against a party of four level 5 characters for a total of 176 potential damage output, but you only need 24 kobolds using ranged weapon attacks to make Warding Wind better each round).
Heat Metal at third level - 13.5 damage on average per round as a bonus action to one opponent wearing metal, plus Disadvantage on their attack rolls and ability checks. Similar to Warding Wind, in the right circumstances this is far superior to Healing Spirit. Especially since it is both offence (13.5 damage compared to Healing Spirit's 14 healing) plus 15% damage mitigation.
Faerie Fire - great if enemies are clustered, will significantly increase the party damage output (again roughly equivalent to a 15% increase if making attack rolls, so the party aggregate damage on Faerie Fired targets from weapon attacks only needs to be 94 or higher, with the caveat that if any player character relies on critfishing then getting Advantage is actually more useful).
That's just level 3 or lower spells. At higher levels the Concentration options are even more enticing: Polymorph, Conjure Woodland Beings, Wrath of Nature just at levels 4 and 5.
Let's look at emergency healing. There's very little point in actually healing someone during a combat unless they go down, at which point you want to reset their death saves and get them back into their action economy. That's just how it is in 5E, and Healing Spirit hasn't changed this. This means that Healing Word (Bonus Action, so efficient with the action economy) is the spell I've seen by far the most, as an emergency pickup (as long as you're not worried about the person being killed via massive damage). The Druid with Healing Spirit up can't cast Healing Word since it's a Bonus Action, so they have to move their Healing Spirit with Bonus Action, when it will tick for 7 points of damage. Because it's on a Prone target, the dance to increase the Healing Spirit healing over multiple targets becomes more difficult as well (in that the restricted movement distance available makes it easier for the enemies to force provoked attacks of opportunity - plus mobility is important in fights, and more important at higher levels especially ones with dynamic environments). The Life Cleric can cast a level 1 Healing Word for 5.5 (1d4 + 3) points of healing on the target, and at level 6 they get 3 extra hit points themselves. In this circumstance the Druid does have a combat advantage over Life Cleric healing, in that it's getting more efficient pickups on targets within range in terms of spell slot burns, and healing for a bit more on the target. But it took a third level spell slot instead of first level spell slots.
This doesn't account for whether the Druid wants to be in combat (I mostly see Moon Druids, which tend to have low ACs and use hit points to soak damage, and therefore have more opportunities to fail Concentration checks). Life Clerics have Heavy Armour proficiency and Shield use which means they're likely to be making far fewer Concentration checks.
Does this improved efficiency make Life Clerics useless? No. Life Clerics are still better spot healers, even if it costs them spell slots. If death through massive damage is a genuine risk, Life Clerics are best suited to provide a big heal. And the Life Cleric healing doesn't require Concentration, so they're able to keep up a Concentration spell as well as do their spot healing. The Life Cleric can keep up Bless (~2.5 bonus on attacks and saves, which works out as as 12.5% attack roll bonus, and a 12.5% damage reduction from anything that provokes a save) as well as use their Bonus Action for healing. Just calculating the theoretical maximum healing of Healing Spirit is not informative and doesn't look at action economy or opportunity cost. Prayer of Healing is terrible, but it was terrible before Healing Spirit appeared. The cast time is far too long.
So, back to my disagreement with Toxxus' point: what needs to be true for Healing Spirit to "annihilate any semblance of game balance" in combat?
Combats don't make any use of positioning, so Attacks of Opportunity are not relevant and the party can dance through the square without fear. This means a totally non-dynamic combat environment ...
... OR Combats do use positioning, but the party can arrange matters so that Attacks of Opportunity become irrelevant (in which case they are likely playing very well and expending resources to boost the effectiveness of Healing Spirit).
The fight is set up in such a way that none of the other Druid Concentration spells are far superior, so there is no opportunity cost for Healing Spirit, in which case it will be the best Druid spell.
For whatever reason, no Cleric Concentration spells are useful (given the almost universal value of Bless, this seems implausible). But at that stage we're saying "in a fight in which no Cleric Concentration spell is useful, but Healing Spirit is useful, then Healing Spirit is better than any Cleric Concentration spell". That's not really a useful statement or one that's likely to reflect a combat encounter that actually happens.
What needs to be true for Healing Spirit to "annihilate any semblance of game balance" out of combat?
When the DM wants to use hit points as a resource to manage between combats.
When the party doesn't have sufficient Goodberries from the day before, or any other type of out-of-combat healing, to top up after fights.
What does Healing Spirit offer?
Flexibility (reduces the burden on the cleric to do out-of-combat healing if, for whatever reason, the party can't manage it without spell slots).
Synergy (combine with Aura of Vitality for example) so multiple characters can contribute to healing.
An opportunity for some fun tactical play if the party wants to try to out-think the DM and get good combat use out of the spell.
What easy fixes are available if you're a DM that thinks Healing Spirit causes class balance issues:
Add it to the Cleric spell list.
Nerf it.
Change Prayer of Healing cast time to one action.
What easy fixes are available if you're a DM that runs adventures that are rendered non-challenging by Healing Spirit:
Adapt the way you run adventures to assume full hit points between fights (as per Crawford) and find other ways to build tension.
Isn't the real question, what do people think a turn is out-of- combat?
Also if you have a players with a movement of 25ft then they move at a speed slower than 5ft/second. If one person is too slow it screws up the algorithm. I say DMs get out stop watches and make the players coordinate that stuff verbally. Cause the first player has to wait 6 full seconds to get the next tick.
Uhm, 8 players can do the Hokey Pokey around a center without a care about movement speed. If the DM has to get out a stopwatch to help rule over a spell mechanic, then that's just plain stupid/dumb.
That's just it, the players don't have to wait 6 full seconds to get the next tick, they get the effect by just passing through the effect! IDK if you read the spell. If they had to stop and sit in the area, there would be no problem at all. As it stands, anyone passing through the spell's area of effect gets the healing...
Pass thru it on their turn or while standing in it at the beginning of their turn. Their turn is every 6 seconds. So as I read it the spell only ticks for a player once every 6 seconds.
Off that's not how it works to you explain how someone would get healed by the spell standing still.
It ticks for all players that pass through it. This isn't too complicated; say you all form a line. Player 1 goes forward (through the healing square) 25 feet. Player 2 does the same, then #3 and so on, then the line snakes backwards and passes through the spot next round. Like a big circle. Whee! Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding! 8 people can make a 3x3 circle easily enough and everyone just spins around and around and passes through the healing spirit.
Or just do the hokey pokey...however you want to imagine it.
I understand the concept. But it states once per turn you get the ding. It also states standing in it grants you the healing as well if you start your turn in the spot. So with that information the healing has to have a down time in between ticks for a player.
If out of combat you have one person stand in it they don't get a tick every second. So then hoppig in and out won't tick until they hit that 6 second mark.
In combat you can't have one player move in and out until that 6 seconds pass, so with that information you can infer that out of combat the player has to wait the 6 seconds as well.
Also this is the nicest internet debate I have ever witnessed. So cudos to everyone on this thread
Well, he has access to several years' worth of data from Adventurer's League play, the D&D Next open playtest, wizard's NDA playtesters, UA surveys and now D&D Beyond and he did write the rules so I'd argue if anyone's able to make that assumption, it's him.
Anyways, you're not talking about the same thing he's talking about:
"The structure you’re referring to is adventure design, not combat design."
"Yes, you just described what I said: the point at which parties get tired out. That’s class and adventure design, not to be confused with combat design. Those are three areas of intersecting design."
"The rest rules in D&D help create a certain narrative tempo and are part of our adventure/campaign design, not to be confused with combat design and the design of other subsystems. Tiring out is an important part of the adventuring narrative."
The Forum Infestation (TM)
Crawford probably has more access to player info and data than anyone, if he can't make an informed decision.....who do you think can?
IMO, that's part of the problem. If a Ranger or Druid can expend a single low level spell slot and top everyone off after every combat, then you DO have people "at full hp going around every freaking corner and finding ever freakin trap."
This is EXACTLY the problem people have with the spell, thanks for agreeing!
Woohoo! This thread was mentioned in the latest Spell Spotlight article.
Note: none of the Druid's in the games I run have asked for this spell (but they likely don't know about). I'd picked it for my own PC just it case, but never really needed it thanks to Goodberries. I was happy that my DM then decided to use Crawford's suggested house rule, since I wanted to drop the spell anyway (mostly because I had no use for it, but also because it was over-powered, controversial, and could supplants others' roles).
Crawford also has a real bad case of not being willing to admit when mistakes are made.
I had a chance to speak to him about Crossbow Expert at last year's DFW Epic Con and the choice to allow a hand crossbow being held in one hand to trigger the bonus action hand crossbow shot. He didn't see an issue with it at all and said (and I paraphrase a bit) crunchy players are primarily an AL thing and not something that happens in D&D in general. I could tell he's not a numbers guy, but someone looking for things that feel like D&D. He wants thematic elements that feel at home in the D&D experience.
Explaining to him that 3x (1d6 + 15) vs 2x (1d8 + 15) means that hand crossbows are now the ultimate ranged weapon is a bit silly and doesn't even remotely resemble historical fantasy tropes or D&D classics fell on deaf ears. I feel like the Healing Spirit feedback is similarly bouncing harmlessly off his unwillingness to admit when mistakes are made due to a lack of mathematical review.
That being said - He should have at least one number crunchy exploitative bastard working for him who would identify glaring issues pre-release.
Healing Spirit is stupidly abusable. It makes all other healers feel like useless turds and annihilates any semblance of game balance. He might as well let a rogue have an ability that assassinates all opponents in a one-mile radius - usable at will. It's about THAT well balanced. Having level 5 Rangers out-heal Life Clerics by 300% is indefensible.
Lol, my archer recently switch to a hand crossbow.
Since we both know you can't show the math that supports your argument, and therefore won't, I'll do it for you.
Comparison 1: Healing Spirit cast at Spell Level 3 by a Druid with an 18 Wisdom
Comparison 2: Prayer of Healing cast at Spell Level 3 by a Life Domain Cleric with an 18 Wisdom
Comparison 3: Aura of Vitality cast at Spell Level 3 by a Paladin with 18 Charisma
For each comparison we'll look at total healing that can be provided to a group (in this case a group of 6), as well as the maximum that a single person can be healed.
Prayer of Healing, Maximum Individual Healing: (3d8)+4+5 = (13.5)+9 = 22.5
Prayer of Healing, Total Healing for Party: 135
Aura of Vitality, Maximum Individual Healing: (2d6)*10 = 7*10 = 70
Aura of Vitality, Total Healing for Party: 70
Healing Spirit, Maximum Individual Healing: (2d6)*10 = 7*10 = 70
Healing Spirit, Total Healing for Party: 420
Conclusion:
- Healing Spirit has over 300% the healing ability as Prayer of Healing (from a life domain cleric) to both an individual and a party, and requires 9 less minutes.
- Healing Spirit has exactly 600% the healing ability as Aura of Vitality to a party.
Consider that:
I'm inclined to agree with Jeremy; it's not that big of a deal.
"We catch hundreds of things like this in every book. This is an odd one that slipped through the cracks."
"Indeed, which is why many people from different academic backgrounds review each of our manuscripts. Unfortunately, things sometimes slip through, and then we correct them."
He's also acknowledged other design issues, like the way the Lucky feat interacts with disadvantage or the way the Wild Shape rules interact with 0 HP triggers. Thing is, he and Mearls don't want players to feel like the rules are constantly changing. Something not working as intended isn't a good enough reason to change the rules unless it's causing significant issues.
"We have several hundred playtesters who sign NDAs and provide feedback before we publish something."
The Forum Infestation (TM)
I still don't understand why people care so much about an out of combat heal...
That's just level 3 or lower spells. At higher levels the Concentration options are even more enticing: Polymorph, Conjure Woodland Beings, Wrath of Nature just at levels 4 and 5.
Let's look at emergency healing. There's very little point in actually healing someone during a combat unless they go down, at which point you want to reset their death saves and get them back into their action economy. That's just how it is in 5E, and Healing Spirit hasn't changed this. This means that Healing Word (Bonus Action, so efficient with the action economy) is the spell I've seen by far the most, as an emergency pickup (as long as you're not worried about the person being killed via massive damage). The Druid with Healing Spirit up can't cast Healing Word since it's a Bonus Action, so they have to move their Healing Spirit with Bonus Action, when it will tick for 7 points of damage. Because it's on a Prone target, the dance to increase the Healing Spirit healing over multiple targets becomes more difficult as well (in that the restricted movement distance available makes it easier for the enemies to force provoked attacks of opportunity - plus mobility is important in fights, and more important at higher levels especially ones with dynamic environments). The Life Cleric can cast a level 1 Healing Word for 5.5 (1d4 + 3) points of healing on the target, and at level 6 they get 3 extra hit points themselves. In this circumstance the Druid does have a combat advantage over Life Cleric healing, in that it's getting more efficient pickups on targets within range in terms of spell slot burns, and healing for a bit more on the target. But it took a third level spell slot instead of first level spell slots.
This doesn't account for whether the Druid wants to be in combat (I mostly see Moon Druids, which tend to have low ACs and use hit points to soak damage, and therefore have more opportunities to fail Concentration checks). Life Clerics have Heavy Armour proficiency and Shield use which means they're likely to be making far fewer Concentration checks.
Does this improved efficiency make Life Clerics useless? No. Life Clerics are still better spot healers, even if it costs them spell slots. If death through massive damage is a genuine risk, Life Clerics are best suited to provide a big heal. And the Life Cleric healing doesn't require Concentration, so they're able to keep up a Concentration spell as well as do their spot healing. The Life Cleric can keep up Bless (~2.5 bonus on attacks and saves, which works out as as 12.5% attack roll bonus, and a 12.5% damage reduction from anything that provokes a save) as well as use their Bonus Action for healing. Just calculating the theoretical maximum healing of Healing Spirit is not informative and doesn't look at action economy or opportunity cost. Prayer of Healing is terrible, but it was terrible before Healing Spirit appeared. The cast time is far too long.
So, back to my disagreement with Toxxus' point: what needs to be true for Healing Spirit to "annihilate any semblance of game balance" in combat?
What needs to be true for Healing Spirit to "annihilate any semblance of game balance" out of combat?
What does Healing Spirit offer?
What easy fixes are available if you're a DM that thinks Healing Spirit causes class balance issues:
What easy fixes are available if you're a DM that runs adventures that are rendered non-challenging by Healing Spirit: