Healing gets a huge boost from the changes to spells in PHB24, and two classes gain some healing ability that were completely lacking it before.
Here’s the breakdown:
All healing spells appear to have moved into the Abjuration school, where they were previously in Evocation
Arcane Vigor: Wizards and Sorcerers get a Level 2 spell that lets them use up to two of their available Hit Point Dice to heal for the result plus spellcasting modifier as a Bonus Action. Upcasting lets them add 1 Hit Point Die per spell slot level (p. 242)
Aura of Vitality: No change to the amount of healing it grants, but now it restores HP on casting and at the start of the caster’s turn. This removes the previous need to take a Bonus Action to activate its healing (p. 244)
Cure Wounds: Gains an additional 1d8 to its base healing and per level of upcast to make it 2d8 plus spellcasting modifier, and an extra 2d8 per level of upcast (p. 258)
Healing Word: Gains an additional 1d4 to its base healing and per level of upcast to make it 2d4 plus spellcasting modifier, and an extra 2d4 per level of upcast (p. 284)
Mass Cure Wounds: Gains an additional 2d8 to its base healing, no change to upcasting to make it 5d8 plus spellcasting modifier, and 1d8 per level of upcast (p. 296)
Mass Healing Word: Gains an additional 1d4 to its base healing, no change to upcasting to make it 2d4 plus spellcasting modifier, and 1d4 per level of upcast (p. 296)
Special mention: While the cantrip Spare the Dying isn’t technically a healing spell, it has been updated to include the condition that the target be at 0HP and not Dead (emphasis mine). This change specifically excludes the following from this spell’s effects:
It lets a healer truly function in their support role. I’ve been in groups where the tactic was to neutralize the threat as fast as possible to not have to deal with healing at all. It makes sense; but now a healer has to outweigh is the benefit of healing better than taking a chance with an atk since the heals will be more beneficial now.
Tactically, it also encourages healers to let their allies take a bit more damage before resorting to healing which, yeah, slows down the spell-slot burn, but it also opens those damage-takers up to the chance of being taken out of the fight.
The upcast scaling on Cure Wounds and Healing Word is interesting that it adds the base dice effect for each level of upcast. Healing Word feels like it stays in balance because d4s just aren’t very compelling.
Cure Wounds scales up pretty rapidly, though. The nearest comparison to a damage spell I can make is Divine Smite, which does 2d8 at Level 1 and upcasts at +1d8 per Level. They’re both melee spells, but Divine Smite is class-locked (albeit to a class that gets a few of them free each day. At Level 3, Divine Smite does 4d8 damage while Cure Wounds will do 6d8 healing - average rolls makes that a 9 HP difference in favor of healing.
With “break glass in emergency” like that, I hope it means we see “swing-ier” combats that let healers play a greater variety of supports than just casting Cure Wounds round after round
oh lawd, there was a typo on Healing Word that made it look bonkers, fixed it
Having played cleric perhaps more than any other class, I have to agree with @Bork_N_Beans. In 2014, if I am using a 2nd level slot I could go Guiding Bolt which is 4d6 Radiant damage (averaging ~18) vs healing word which was 2d4 (averaging 5). Unless someone is in death saves or knocking on that door I feel like the choice is almost always take the damage.
In 2024 the balance is between 5d6 for the Guiding Bolt vs 4d4 healing (average 10) is a a minimum a tougher decision.