The D&D 2024 Life Domain Cleric is even more of a healer that no one wants to be
I got to be a player once, instead of a dungeon master, in Dungeons & Dragons. It was thrilling. Getting to come out from behind the dungeon master's screen and sit on the other side of the table is eye opening. There were four of us on the players' side, and the dungeon master brought us into his homebrew world he'd been building, piece by piece, for half a decade.
Being something of a "forever DM," I was naturally going to slip into the role of a bard for this one-shot adventure we'd play with 10th level characters right out of the gate. But instead of the musical mayhem I was hoping to wreak during our fights, it turned out that the party instead needed a dedicated healer. Not a problem. If we needed a healer, I was going to be the apex healer: a Life Domain Cleric. During that one-shot adventure, I not only read up on life-preserving spells and wore a polytheistic holy symbol bandolier—I learned the patience of a healer.
As soon as a battle begins, healing spells aren't needed. So, I prepped the party members with temporary hit points and reminded them of my newly formed and completely untested mantra: "Healing begins before you're hurt." They seemed unimpressed. Our first fight was against some homebrewed monstrosity I could only refer to as a "Zombie Ball." I leaped off the city walls, swinging a bludgeoning weapon, and was promptly run over twice by the rolling World War Z mass of rotting humanity. I swung my mace and probably did a whopping 1d6 damage. Again, the other players were unimpressed.
I retreated. My first healing spells were cast on me. It was truly a "Physician, heal thyself" moment. That's when I figured out that my role as a Life Domain Cleric required the aforementioned patience of a healer.
As D&D designer Jeremy Crawford describes in this video, a Cleric with the Life Domain subclass is the preeminent healer. And as with all character classes going into the D&D 2024 Player's Handbook, there are tweaks. The Preserve Life spell now works on undead and constructs. I'm supposing that's become a need as more and more player species (formerly races) and their summons, familiars, etc., dip further and further into undead and construct species—and an undead Toxic Timmy summoned by the Warlock, or the presence of a Warforged species (a living construct), can all use a little healing, too. Especially since they're often the ones being sent in to do the dirty work.
D&D 2024 is also exploring the idea that creatures from, say, the Negative Energy Plane not only can't be healed with normal healing, but that they're harmed by normal healing. That makes sense to me. I didn't even realize that wasn't already a feature of vanilla 5e. Sounds like they're still ironing out the wrinkles, however, and we'll have the final form of that power by the time the D&D 2024 Monster Manual comes out in February of next year.
Clerics are a tough sell. Few players want to exclusively use their actions to heal other players. Most players want to deal some damage instead. Because, let's be honest, the best way to prevent a creature from killing you is to kill them first. That's why in every massively multiplayer roleplaying video game you've ever played, incomplete groups are always shouting for a healer. You need 'em, even if you don't wanna be 'em.
I'm guessing that's what my Dragonlance players are needing right now. The Knight of Solamnia, the Undying Warlock, the Lunar Sorcery Sorcerer, and the War Wizard are trying to regain Wheelwatch Outpost and they're finding out that Red Dragon Army soldiers are a tad more dangerous when there are 20 of them. Where's Mishakal's Blue Crystal Staff of healing when you need one?
