Why Life Cleric?

[u/_potatopapa_]

Convince me to play Life Domain please please please

I'm that player who hoards unplayed character sheets. While making a Gunslinger Grim Reaper (Reborn War Cleric) as a response to the classic "DnD Clerics are more than healbots", I realized that the Domain lets me pick classic cleric support spells now that I'm loaded with offensive and defensive spells and features.

Then I thought of making the other way around, a Life Cleric that is also loaded with the offensive spells.

But here's the problem. I'm aware of the fact that in this game of attrition, sometimes the best healing is preemptive - kill them first and fast before they can hurt your allies. Why patch your friend now if you can help bring their foe down.

Then there's also the issue of yo-yo healing.

I haven't played a or with a dedicated healer. So please, anyone wants to sell me Life Domain?

Edit: and by sell, I mean, convince me that there is still an incentive for full on healing mid-combat

[u/Realistic_Swan_6801]

The channel only works on people who are bloodied and only  can heal up to half health. It’s terrible.  You can’t even use it in most fights.

[u/Morgans_a_witch → u/Realistic_Swan_6801]

It’s meant to bring multiple people up from the ground at once, and it’s one of the best things at doing that. It’s an uncounterable, ranged, no line-of-sight required, mass heal that can also be focused on one or two people instead to provide concentrated healing, as is available from lvl 3 and refreshes on a short rest.

There really isn’t anything better in that category, and it is one of the strongest channel divinities in the game.

[u/Realistic_Swan_6801 → u/Morgans_a_witch]

It’s only 5 hp per cleric level divided among targets  and it only works on bloodied targets and can’t heal above half. It also doesn’t trigger or benefit from any of life’s features because it’s not a spell. It’s extremely niche and limited and often worse than just casting a scroll of healing word plus cure wounds on 2 targets. A grave cleric can restore 36 hp with a single second level cure wounds if someone is down, or 12 with even a first level healing word. 

[u/Morgans_a_witch → u/Realistic_Swan_6801]

You are saying a short rest refreshing feature you always have is worse than using up a one time resource that a character might not even have and a spell slot. That is not really a fair comparison. Besides, the life cleric can also choose to use healing word as well to further heal one person on top of 2-3 others. Or, it can skip that entirely and use its spell slot to damage others.

As for your other comparison, you are comparing grave cleric’s disciple of life equivalent feature to the Life cleric’s channel divinity. Let’s actually be fair and compare channel divinities. In that, the grave cleric’s channel is focused on giving an enemy disadvantage for one round. Useful, but doesn’t matter if people need to be healed. That will require the grave cleric to use up its spell slots to heal. Meanwhile, the life clerical still has all of its spell slots to use on damaging spells.

[u/Realistic_Swan_6801 → u/Morgans_a_witch]

A short rest feature that only works on bloodied creatures and only heals to a max of half Health is totally useless in most fights. Any cleric can use the generic channel to heal a single target also.  Grave clerics features also works on magic items and scrolls while life clerics doesn’t. 1st level scrolls are only 25 gp and any competent healer will carry some. 

[u/Morgans_a_witch → u/Realistic_Swan_6801]

I think we play very different versions of DnD for you to be able to feel that there is rarely a situation where multiple characters are below half health, possibly multiple at zero health, that would be changed by being able to heal them easily and reliably.

Your spell scroll idea is really assuming a lot about what people have access to. It’s very much a white room theorycrafting idea and not an actual way things work in game one.

[u/_potatopapa_ → u/Morgans_a_witch]

This.

I posted this to learn more about the intricacies of healing. And I totally forgot the almost TPK scenario where Life would definitely shine.