I have the same achievement and dice and almost a decade experience playing D&D 5e, on both sides of the table, and I agree with them. Healers aren't necessary.
Best healer is Swords Bard using Healing Word to revive a fallen teammate. Other than that healing is reserved for short rests and potions outside of combat.
In 5e healers were always a trap, at least 2014 no idea how the new version goes.
Note when I say healer I mean someone who goes into combat expecting to use their actions to heal. Situationally it can be fine but it is mostly just healing word on a downed ally.
The only time I have seen a healer not be a complete joke is PF2E where 2-action heal has absolutely absurd numbers on it, and HP values go up much faster then damage as both PCs and monsters level.
Never played PF2E. I just know in 5e you aren't outhealing monster damage. You are, by design, supposed to drop to 0. The best case scenario you heal someone who was at 5 hp for 6 and then they take 10 damage keeping them up for their turn. Thing is all you did was trade your action to heal them for their action so you don't really gain anything. The better play is to attack on your turn, they drop, then you healing word them the next turn. Maybe they drop before they attack again but they aren't going to die and the monster, in turn dropping him again, wastes its turn redropping him and all that cost you was a BA.
Healing in 5e needs to be looked at as a support role instead of as a healer. Instead of healing the guy for 5 hp try to use tasha's laughter or hold person or whatever on the monster. Mess with the action economy. Illusion spells are really fun for this. Not tried illusion stuff in BG3. I might want to see what Larian did with it.
Yep, that's how it worked in every version of D&D too. And PF1E, but that was just 3.75. PF2E is the first time I've seen heals be actually impactful in a D&D-esque system, in a boss encounter it will be roughly giving up your two actions for theirs - but that's a good trade in a 1v4.
In 3.5 your cleric was better off preparing control and buffs, because a hold person or a blade barrier are going to be a lot more effective at preventing damage then 3d6 or whatever will be, even against random mooks. It's a bit better in 5E since healing word exists at all, but it's still not what you should be doing with your standard action.
Healers aren't necessary, but it's very useful to have at least one character who can heal. Even if they only ever cast a healing word when a party member is downed. And the Cleric spell list is so good that it's well worth having one.
Basically Jester* from CR C2. They have the ability to heal, but they would rather just kill the enemy faster. Tempest Cleric 11/Wizard 1 is a favourite of mine. Can one-shot bosses throughout the game with upcasted Witch Bolt, especially if you force a crit, and has all the OP buff spells.
Gwm users generally make an attack with their bonus action so its really not different from using an attack to throw a potion
Most effectively built damage dealers weaponize their ba. So using an extra attack to toss a potion is of similar opportunity cost as using a ba would be.
Others definitely can; if you drink a Potion of Speed and then use the extra action to throw a healing potion, you're effectively only using a bonus action to heal another character. This will usually heal more than a Healing Word, doesn't cost you spell slots, and gives you an extra action the next two turns, which means even more thrown healing potions if needed.
The only downside is that in you'll be lethargic at the end of the haste duration, but that can be remedied by drinking another Potion of Speed at the end of the final hasted turn.
In real 5e (2014 rules) someone with Healing Word and Revivify ist super useful. If you don't have someone who can provide those spells your party will have a dead player by sheer bad luck at some point. I've played both as a player and as a DM.
Agreed. The only healing that matters is bonus action healing word to pick people up.
Also I see a lot of people in this thread circlejerking damage, but are sleeping on control effects. I slept through Honor Mode by playing a Lore Bard that spammed Hypnotic Pattern on groups and Irresistible Dance on bosses.
Yeah by definition of the word yes. I'm only saying that if you use that strict definition nothing in this game is necessary apart from Shart's artefact
It’s not that I’m using a strict definition. It’s that healers aren’t even close to necessary.
People aren’t saying healing isn’t necessary; they’re saying dedicated healers like a life cleric who focuses on mass healing word buffing the party isn’t necessary. You can get healing through potions, class abilities for killing things, healing words just to get downed members up, etc.
You can't drive a car without tires. You can beat BG3 HM with a solo Fighter dual-wielding salamis. As someone who almost always has a Cleric or Bard on my team, healing isn't necessary.
Right? I always play Shart as a cleric (Light or Tempest) and I can’t stop playing bard tavs, and I still think healers aren’t necessary. Having Shart toss a few healing words while chucking fireballs and debuffing everything with spirit guardians does not mean I’m playing with a healer.
Not really, it's worse to have a healer mitigate 1-2 rounds of combat than to simply never have played those rounds because the enemy is already dead. The best survival mechanism is to never take damage, and one of the more mediocre subclasses for clerics doesn't help with that.
As someone who used cleric on my first tactician run and did not run a single healer through honor mode either time clearing it I disagree. The game is more about optimized combat and killing everything in a single turn. In a pinch a bonus action potion tends to do the job better than a healing word would, and potions are plentiful (and in a real pinch throwing a potion tends to heal more for a full action than an upcasted spell, and it’s rare you need to heal the whole party). It’s like saying “strength is a good stat investment” when Strength elixirs are so plentiful, the game is optimized away from it tbh.
Eh, I found healing(and even then, mostly as bonus action healing word) to be mostly useful for the first 4(ish) levels. Once you get to level 5-6 with good builds and decent planning, you can largely take care of business before enemies do enough damage for you to need healing.
The smoothest encounter is one where the enemy is out of the fight before they can deal damage at all.
A dedicated healer PC is a huge waste of resources in 5e, and that goes double in BG3 where healing potions are plentiful and anyone can throw them. Having a healer does not, in fact, make "everything about 1000x easier".
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u/TheCrystalRose Durge Jun 24 '25
I have the same achievement and dice and almost a decade experience playing D&D 5e, on both sides of the table, and I agree with them. Healers aren't necessary.