Healing spells and skills are often tough to balance properly, and initially glance Aura of Vitality seems to be a major example of this. However, once you take a better look it starts to form far more sense.
Aura of vitality was an evocation spell for druids and paladins that created an aura that would heal creatures accessible. The caster created an aura with a 30 ft (9.1 m) radius that was centered on the caster. The caster could pick a creature within the aura to regain some lost health. The aura only lasted for 1 minute.
Aura of Vitality 5e
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self (30-foot radius)
Components: V
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Scales: No
Casters: Paladin
You were designing a session today and on a whim decided to possess my party to encounter a flail snail, cause I feel they’re neat. Once I got a decent check out the outline given near the stat block, though, I found it intriguing – a flail snail’s shell is seemingly a coveted treasure. the outline not only lists a GP value for it but two magic items that use the flail snail’s shell as an important ingredient!
Like the other Aura of… spells, it’s unique to Paladins and may aid allies within 30 ft. The unique point of the power is that it doesn’t simply grant passive buffs, but rather heals one creature for 2d6 hit points.
It lasts a full minute, so in total Aura of Vitality can grant up to 20d6 worth of healing – a mean of 70 hit points – while only requiring a third-level spell slot.
Compared to most other spells out there, this is often absolutely crazy.
A Cleric casting Cure Wounds at this level would be lucky to heal up 20 hit points, and even the sixth-level Heal barely manages to match its average roll. There are a couple of spells that will almost compete in terms of raw numbers, but all of them specialize in targeting large amounts of individuals directly. So why isn’t this the sole thing Paladins ever use?
Well, for a start it takes a full minute to urge the foremost from it, while the bulk of combat encounters are going to be wiped out 30 seconds approximately. If an ally is in trouble it can often be better to dump a middling amount of healing into them immediately, instead of just let it trickle up over an extended timescale.
Not only does it take time for the spell to succeed in its full potential, but it also requires you to take care of concentration throughout. this is often something much easier for a backline Cleric than a Paladin that’s likely to be within the thick of it right up at the front.
The fact that it’s being cast by a Paladin also brings a couple of problems with its own. As half-casters, they don’t get access to third-level spells until much later than specialized casters like Clerics or Druids, by which era it’s somewhat less impressive.
Finally, the action economy of D&D 5E is extremely constrained, and therefore the Aura of Vitality requires you to offer up bonus actions for virtually the whole battle. counting on builds and playstyles this will be less of a problem, but it’s still a downside.
Still, these niggles don’t diminish the very fact that it’s a particularly powerful spell, and one among the absolute best out there when it involves keeping a celebration topped up throughout a desperate struggle.
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