Level
5th
Casting Time
1 Action
Range/Area
60 ft
(30 ft )
Components
V, S
Duration
Instantaneous
School
Abjuration
Attack/Save
None
Damage/Effect
Healing
A wave of healing energy washes out from a point you can see within range. Choose up to six creatures in a 30-foot-radius Sphere centered on that point. Each target regains Hit Points equal to 5d8 plus your spellcasting ability modifier.
Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot. The healing increases by 1d8 for each spell slot level above 5.
Quite the buff to Mass Cure Wounds.
Sorry bards, but this is probably actually a lot more useful than dealing damage now. If your party gets rocked by an AOE, you can totally invalidate that with Mass Cure Wounds, and if your allies pass their saves, you can do it as a bonus action with mass healing word.
If this really needed a buff, A 4d8+wis mass cure wounds, or 23 average hit points, would have been healthier, as that doesn't' invalidate options like shatter and still edges out the damage fireball does on a save. Out healing the save damage of fireball is kinda a big deal in itself. At the same time, that doesn't mean I or anyone would actually cast this. You know what's more fun than undoing a fireball? Casting your own fireball! Or flame strike since that got buffed to the same damage and scales better. So while yeah this is kinda OP now and great allows superior combat attrition, hell you probably can't lose as long as you have slots to drop on this, fireball is still more fun to cast. Which might be an interesting way to look at how Wizards of the Toast approaches "bAlAnCe". How strong, neigh how OP does mass cure wounds have to be before it's actually fun to burn a 5th level spell slot on? Then again, RIP shatter.
I believe the thought process is to pick up a large group of allies after a near TPK and not have them keel over again immediately afterwards. 2024 monsters are stronger, so the players' tools need to keep pace.
This heals around 26.5, factoring in a non-casting-stat feat like Resilient (Constitution). Cone of Cold does roughly 36 damage, and base Fireball does about 28. By itself, MCW is not keeping up with that kind of output, but maintaining and restoring the party's action economy is critical to winning engagements.
I'd recommend pairing this with Beacon of Hope. That 26.5 healing from earlier becomes 44.
Getting knocked down should probably come with a level of exhaustion otherwise you can more or less keep spamming healing word until the fight ends.
It'd be more fair to compare MCW to Mass Healing Word, as the two fulfil the same goal of healing multiple people in a single cast. If only one person is getting dropped at a time, then you'd obviously pick regular Cure Wounds or Healing Word over MCW. That's simple efficiency.
Both MCW and MHW heal 6 targets within their ranges. MHW's radius is bigger (anywhere within 60' of you vs MCW's sphere centered on a point within 60'), but MCW heals more and its maximum range reaches a tad farther (point chosen 60' away, radius reaches beyond that). The biggest difference is the casting time; Action vs Bonus Action. Will the guys you just healed stay standing after the next round passes if healed w/ MCW? If yes, MCW is fine; else, MHW is probably better.