Dungeoneering: The Cleric Conundrum

“So who is going to play the cleric this time?” A phrase that was common in early editions of Dungeons & Dragons. It was hard to heal damage without access to magical healing, and clerics were the only class that could do it well. So someone always had to play the cleric. Which is kind of boring.

A typical dwarven cleric by Chris Seaman

Technically, you can play Pathfinder without a dedicated healer. I know, because I've played in a group that pulled it off. You just have to play the right combination of classes. In my game we had a paladin, witch (me), alchemist and wizard. You may notice that everyone except the wizard has self-healing. My witch had the healing hex and quite a few cure spells, which was normally enough to keep the wizard alive, but in a pinch the paladin could channel. I'd say you need to know what you're doing to pull it off, but...none of us had actually played Pathfinder before. Which was why I was under the mistaken impression that witches were actually good at healing. So it is possible – but not very advisable, as I suspect our DM went easy on us. I just can't get him to admit it.

So how do you actually fix this cleric issue? Dungeons & Dragons tried to remove it in 4e (shorthand for 4^th edition) by changing how the healing system worked – they made it much easier to naturally regain hitpoints out of combat. They created the five minute short rest, which allowed them to regain health based on their hit dice (the dice you use to determine your health when making a character). They also reduced the amount of healing clerics could deal out, and gave some nifty healing powers to other classes. This worked well on the surface. But 4e Edition suffered from too much homogenisation – people complained all the classes felt too similar too each other. Which is still boring.

Druid & Bard by Tim Kings-Lynne

So in 5e they revamped healing again, and this time I think they got it right. It's not as easy to heal as it was in 4e, as short rests are now an hour (so you can't stop to rest between every battle), you have less hit dice to use on healing during short rests, and you don't always get them all back after a long rest. Life domain clerics are still the best healers, having access to mass healing via channel divinity - but they are not essential. Bards and druids are now as good at healing as most other clerics, especially with the flexibility of Cure Wounds and the existence of the new spell Healing Word that can be cast as a bonus action. Even non-spellcasters can get in on the action by taking a healing feat.

Pathfinder, on the other hand, took a different tack and created the oracle class. Technically the life oracle uses the main healing mechanic of the cleric – channel positive energy. Which means it's basically the same class, right? Well, no. Because somehow, playing an oracle feels totally different to cleric. Maybe it's because their casting is spontaneous like a sorcerer (and based on charisma, which is nice, because channel is charisma-based too). Maybe it's because they are dedicated to an ideal (called a mystery) rather than a specific god. Maybe it's because they all suffer from a curse, which gives a really nice hook to build a character around – as opposed to clerics, whose hook is usually the god they follow. Whereas clerics feel strictly religious, oracles are more like that friend you have who talks about being in tune with the universe.

Oracle by Wayne Reynolds

More recently, the Advanced Class Guide gave us a third class that can play healer – the shaman. The shaman is an strange hybrid of the witch and druid classes. She gains magic and hexes from a familiar, like a witch, casts nature-based divine spells like a druid, and has a feature called spirits, based, for some reason, on the oracle's mystery feature. Shaman dedicated to the life spirit get (of course) channel positive energy. But the hexes she gains are an odd twist – giving her the ability to reduce the amount of healing an enemy can receive, completely prevent healing for a short time, or drain her own health to heal an ally. Shamans bring a very nature-based feeling to the healing game, one that might leave you suspicious that they are not very nice. Shaman is notable for being the only class that allows an evil character to channel positive energy. Nature, it seems, doesn't really care about good or evil.

So the next time you find yourself needing to play a healer, remember, cleric is not your only option! D&D players can go with bard or druid, whilst Pathfinder players can pick oracle or shaman.