Healing Spirit: Alternative Medicine
Spell Level: 2
School: Conjuration
Casting Time: 1 bonus action
Range: 60 feet
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Components: V, S
You call forth a nature spirit to soothe the wounded. The intangible spirit appears in a space that is a 5-foot cube you can see within range. The spirit looks like a transparent beast or fey (your choice).
Until the spell ends, whenever you or a creature you can see moves into the spirits space for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, you can cause the spirit to restore 1d6 hit points to that creature (no action required). The spirit can’t heal constructs or undead.
As a bonus action on your turn, you can move the Spirit up to 30 feet to a space you can see. The spirit can heal a number of times equal to 1 + your spellcasting ability modifier (minimum of twice). After healing that number of times, the spirit disappears.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the healing increases 1d6 for each slot level above 2nd.
Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
I’ve stated many times that I think the only healing spells you really ever could need are Healing Word, Goodberry, and Mass Healing Word. The predominant benefit of healing magic is it gives an unconscious player who can’t take actions their actions back by bringing them off of zero. Doing that as a bonus action or with a delivery system familiar gives you room to keep pushing towards victory as opposed to backpedaling away from defeat.
I hate to say it, but I was wrong. I think Healing Spirit is another great option for healers, and can be on the short list of “the only healing spells you’ll ever need”. It's not really that much better than any of the aforementioned spells, but it does do some things better you’ll want from time to time.
Healing Spirit best compares to Mass Healing Word. This is an area of effect heal that can bring multiple creatures up off of zero. What Healing Spirit offers over Mass Healing Word is bonus HP every round to people up as well so long as they are near it. You can move it around a decent distance too, meaning splitting into two groups can be a meaningful way to mitigate Fireball formation while also getting a bit more out of Healing Spirit each round.
The largest upside of Healing Spirit is when the creature gets the HP. Being able to scoot it to the unconscious player and bring them up as their turn starts guarantees them a turn, something most other healing magic can’t do. So long as you can stay safe, you can ensure the barbarian can get up, disengage, and run like the wind away from the danger.
On top of all of that, Healing Spirit is only a bonus action to cast. You get a decent chunk of uses (normally around four) which is usually enough to justify the cast when things are going incredibly poorly. If one particular party member is getting their ass handed to them, this can just be four uses to get them back up and away from danger. If three people go down all at once for being in Fireball formation, this can get them all up on each of their turns. All of these effects are excellent, and give you room to hide, dash, disengage, attack, or cast a cantrip while healing.
Xanathar’s Guide to Everything and other supplemental books are pushing out the next generation of spells. We’re seeing a lot of content that upgrades some of the worst spells and features from the Player’s Handbook, and Healing Spirit highlights what upgraded healing magic should be. This is a genuinely solid healing option that can turn the tide of a fight, save lives, and costs very little to use. If you’re looking for a 2nd level healing spell to get multiple people up, this can be a fantastic option that doesn’t really exist anywhere else.
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