Healing Word: The Only Healing Spell You’ll Ever Need
Usable By: Bard, Cleric, Druid
Spell Level: 1
School: Evocation
Casting Time: 1 bonus action
Range: 60 feet
Duration: Instantaneous
Components: V
A creature of your choice that you can see within range regains hit points equal to 1d4 + your spellcasting ability modifier. This spell has no effect on undead or constructs.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the healing increases by 1d4 for each slot level above 1st.
Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
Healing magic is like taking care of a drunk frat bro friend; you do it when they’re unconscious and otherwise could die without you. For those times, Healing Word is what you want, and it shows how utterly unusable Cure Wounds is in comparison.
To preface this, there are only ever two times you’ll want to use healing magic: when somebody drops in combat, and when you’re out of combat. Otherwise, you’re net losing actions and wasting a resource on something that could otherwise be killing or more efficiently detering damage from foes.
If the intended goal is to get somebody up from zero, there isn’t any compelling reason to use Cure Wounds over Healing Word. Healing word can happen from up to 60 feet away; if you’re targeting a creature that’s unconscious, you now don’t need to approach whatever has attempted to murder them. A wise move. More importantly, you only need to spend a bonus action to heal this way giving you your entire action to medicine check up another fallen ally, dash, hide, disengage, or bash monsters faces in with magic or weapons. With how cantrips scale, this remains a decent option as the game progresses.
The difference in hit points barely matters; both still potentially give 1-4 + mod health back meaning half the time you cast Cure Wounds you’re healing the same as you would with Healing Word. When enemies are dealing 1d6-1d12 + a modifier damage (or a lot more at higher levels), the bonus hit points you’re delivering with a first level Cure Wounds is rarely keeping the target up for an extra round or wasting extra enemy actions to drop them again. This makes the impact on a fight functionally the same as Healing Word, but it costs you an action and requires you be with the target or you simply can’t use the spell.
Out of combat, if you’re willing to spend precious spell slots to get you and your friends healthier, you probably are better off short resting and spending hit dice. If you’re in between fights and don’t have the time, you’re better off banking on something like Prayer of Healing, which you’d only ever prepare should you foresee a gauntlet style series of encounters anyway. If you’re less than ten minutes away from the next fight, you are going to potentially get a lot more out of clutch Healing Words or other relevant magic than you would wasting the slots on a bit of extra health here Cure Wounds could provide.
Even in the higher tiers, healing magic doesn’t get much better. Grabbing Mass Healing Word can be great in particularly lethal scenarios, but overall Healing Word will get you what you need in combat all the way up to level cap. Otherwise, don’t waste your actions or spells on healing, and especially don’t if the person you’re healing is conscious.
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