Talk:Healing Wind (5e Spell)

Cure wounds lets one creature, at touch range, regain 1d8 + 3 (average 7) hit points (with a typical ability score).

Healing wind lets each party member regain 50d2 (average 75) hit points. This might be over the course of 5 minutes, but it is enough to remove the need for spending Hit Dice during a short rest, for the whole party. It deals that amount as damage to undead creature as well. Marasmusine (talk) 09:39, 9 October 2016 (MDT)

Uhh, how does 1d2 turn into 50d2? It would be 5d2 (Average 7) not 50d2 over 5 minutes. At most, if you cast it at level 9, it would be 45d2 (Average 67) over 5 minutes, but using what would be the person's only level 9 spell slot. The damage is meant to be a deterrent against using this if you have an undead in your party, for whatever reason. The damage is only 1/2 of the amount you roll, so if you roll a 1, it takes 0 damage that minute, if you roll a 2, it takes 1. During combat (correct me if I'm wrong) each round is 6 seconds, so 1 minute would be 10 rounds. So 1d2 healing every 10 rounds and you wouldn't be able to cast any other spells while this is in effect because of concentration?

Also, wrote this at 4am this morning using my phone, copied the overhead, and changed it, but left things I didn't know what they were as I don't post on wiki's often. Sorry for the formatting. Also changed the wording, as people might get confused when I said "even if you can't see them" after saying line of sight. Was meant to be that if something is invisible, it is still affected. "Klistofklades" 17:17, 9 Oct 2016 (EST) P.S. Is there a way to capitalize "Wind" on the page title? It is bugging the heck out of me.

As a note, damage is rounded up by default in 5e. So if you roll a 1, you halve it to .5, then round back up to 1.

As for concentration, you can still cast other spells, just if any of those spells -also- require concentration, you lose the one you were previously concentrating on. It doesn't prohibit you from casting spells at all, just on how many ones that require concentration can be active at any one time. If a spell doesn't have concentration, you can go nuts.

Balance wise, this will obviously not be a combat orientated spell, so it needs to be balanced in the idea that it will be used -outside- of combat. The two other healing spells at 1st level are Cure Wounds (1d8 + casting mod) and Healing Word (1d4 + casting mod), each to -single- targets. This spell will provide equal and better healing than each of these spells, but to entire groups of people in the area. That's a 30-foot radius of people.

Now, imagine 3 characters each cast this 1st-level spell at the same time, and the party of 6 sits down for 5 minutes, and everyone regains 15d2 (average 22) hp, for a grand total amount of healing of 132 hp, average. For 3x 1st level spells. That's a lot.

Compare that to 3x healing word or cure wounds? This is a -LOT- more efficient in that regard, and as such, problematic with general game balance. Each casting is about 6x as effective as other 1st-level heals.

Now, for theorycrafting, the maximum amount of creatures you can heal at any one time is 96, due to the 30-foot radius -FLAT- area. If you count up and down in elevations (such as flying critters or perhaps a human pyramid, etc), add -many many- more, but let's just go with the 96 creatures in a 30-foot flat radius, no elevations. That's 672 HP healing divided among 96 creatures from a single casting of the spell.

Does this beat a single healing word or cure wounds? You betcha.

And that's why massive healing is an issue. It's why the Mass Cure Wounds, a 5th-level spell, only allows you to target 6 creatures in a 30-foot radius, so you can't heal tremendous amounts of people, but you can effect what would be a normal sized party of player characters. Also note, Mass Cure Wounds only heals for an average 13 hp (+ casting mod) per person, and with this now a 2nd-level version of Healing Wind can equal it in average heals based on amount. That is really awkward in balance when a 2nd-level spell ties with a 5th-level one.

Basically, the spell needs a target cap, and it needs to ensure that the healing it provides does not eclipse spells that are multiple levels higher than it. Perhaps removing the cast at higher levels benefit? And/or making it a one-off heal for an amount equal to casting mod--Kahz (talk) 05:18, 19 October 2016 (MDT)

I'm an idiot, ignore my message at the top, I misread "per minute" as "per round", but Kajz makes good points. Marasmusine (talk) 08:12, 19 October 2016 (MDT)

After a good nights sleep, I thought up a few ways you could still keep the mass(ish) healing.

1. While not a way to keep the effect, a good balance mark is to take a look at the 2nd-level spell Prayer of Healing, which does particularly similar to this spell in its intent. I just remembered this one, which was nagging at the back of my mind the whole time.

2. You could alter the idea of the spell away from itself providing healing, to instead allowing creatures in the area to expend a hit dice and heal based on the die roll + your (the casters) casting modifier. Effectively like a mini-short rest heal, with none of the other benefits. If you did this, the at higher levels could simply allow an extra dice to be expended every 2 lvls above 1st (instead of every level), so it doesn't scale effectively to compete with higher spells, but fills the lowest level niche.

3. You could have it target a number of creatures equal to 3 + your casting modifier in the spells area, instead of all.

4. The at higher levels increase could be removed, or altered in another way.

5. Increase the casting time to 1 minute (or higher), so it really gets grounded in a non-combat idea, since that's when it's likely to be used anyway.

6. Reduce the duration to instantaneous, and make it a one off heal. This removes abuse from the healing based off of combinations, such as the Life domain clerics Disciple of Life feature, which would otherwise add 2 + the spell's level to the healing amount each tick (increasing the amount of healing by a minimum of 15 per cast per person)

7. You could give the spell a consumable material component, with a relevant gold cost (let's say 50-100 gp, or something rare-ish to acquire). That way the spell requires more of a resource investment than simply a spell slot.

You could pick several of these, which would go a long way to bringing the effect into line with 1st-level healing spells. It just needs to compete with them, not outshine them, and definitely not outshine the mass cure and prayer of healing spells.

These are just a few ideas as to what could be changed to help bring the spell into a bit more balance.--Kahz (talk) 15:33, 19 October 2016 (MDT)