Increases the healing inspired by the UA8 Playtest Healing Buffs in DND, from 2d6 to 5d4+SpellCastingModifier.
Aura of Vitality still does 2d6 in the 2024 PHB, though. It has specifically not been buffed because it’s already pretty bonkers. Especially adding the modifier on top is a bit broken.
That's why I said inspired and not based on. Baldur's Gate 3's balance is a whole other matter because it's a videogame with different difficulties that change enemy stats and AI, exploitable NPC behaviour plus the fact that BG3 literally has A TON of homebrew changes that Larian applied, making the game even more different than actual DnD, and don't forget the overabundance of camp supplies, powerful Scrolls and how healing Potions of all sizes rain down the sky and be used for only a Bonus Action, and how you can easily pickpocket anything too... I have to respectfully say I don't agree with what you are saying.
Let me explain my reasoning (if you are interested):
Given the power levels and speed of movement and combat in this game, healing is usually not that useful in the higher difficulties (similar to DnD the opportunit cost it too high). The UA8 Healing buffs applied to Baldur's Gate 3 help a lot in that way and are very good (there's a mod for doing exactly that).
But in BG3 Warden of Vitality (Aura of Vitality with a different name by Larian) is still not really one of the good spells because you are always off better doing damage or casting other powerful spells, SPECIALLY when you put those UA8 Healing buffs into the picture it makes using Warden of Vitality even more of a bad choice when you can just upcast another healing spell whose healing amount DID get increased by UA8. All this in context makes it so WoA is not good enough. The main thing about AoV is how good it is at healing off-combat because it lasts 1 minute and you can heal every turn, but that's a non-factor in BG3 where:
combat usually doesn't last many turns so you will never get to use all it's healing potential in a meaningful matter because...
out-of-combat healing is not that valuable in this videogame when...
you can Long Rest all the damn time without any penalties,
you have powerful Scrolls and Potions of Healing of all sizes raining down the sky,
and you can get virtually infinite camp supplies;
all of this get's even worse when you take into account how Pickpocket in the game works, how easy you can escape from Jail when commiting crimes, how you can exploit Disguise Self, etc.
you can even throw potions to use them as range healing, and potions are superstrong because they have Flat bonuses to their healing as you go up in quality
AND TO TOP IT ALL: Drinking a Potion REQUIRES A BONUS ACTION!!!!
as an additional note, because it's a videogame, there is the fact that once you played through things once you already know everything's that's coming at you at all times and that has a small secondary effect on the efficiency and need for healing
That's why WoA needs a buff in BG3. Leaving DnD aside, no one ever says in BG3 unmodded that WoA is OP, if anything people think it's usually not worth the opportunity cost and they are right. Doing the math:
Healing Word heals 1d4+MOD vanilla, that's 5.5HP average (with 16 WIS) BUT has 18m range and its range is increased further by High Ground
Healing Word with UA8 mod it heals 2d4+MOD, that's 7HP average
Warden of Vitality heals 2d6 vanilla, that's 7 HP average BUT it requires someone to be close enough to you so your Aura affects him to enable you to cast the spell on them, the range of this Aura is HALF of Healing Word's range, costs a lvl 3 spell slot to cast which is one of the most contended spell slots in this game because of level cap (Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Haste, Fly, upcast of very good 1st and 2nd level spells, etc.).
Warden of Vitality with this buff heals 5d4+MOD, that's 15HP average
Consider this: what's the practical difference when the enemies at which you unlock WoA do way more damage than both 7HP (buffed Healing Word) and 15HP (buffed WoA) per turn? Your EFFECTIVE HP hasn't really changed that much. You are not escaping the infamously called yoyo of death (you go down, you get picked up with a heal, you go down again, you get picked up again, always playing with very little HP left because you constantly go up an down...), specially when enemies' are so dumb when making decisions on who to target because it's a computer videogame. The reality is there isn't much difference in practice, but at least this buff makes it worthwhile to use this spell because the increased HP average can MAYBE help you not fall down one turn. Upcasting the UA8-buffed Healing Word STILL heals more than buffed WoA (6d4+MOD vs 5d4+MOD) so in critical situations you can still do that (because remember combat doesn't last many turns making the most of your current turn is usually better), and let's not forget buffed Cure Wounds exists which heals double the amount (upcasted to lvl 3 buffed Cure Wounds heals 6d8+MOD, 30HP average) so it can more realibly let you survive one more turn and while yes, it has only Touch range, WoA doesn't have the same range as Healing Word and the way the AI works in this game makes it easy to exploit (most of the time you can easily maneouver to get in, touch your ally, and get out).
So to conclude: out-of-combat healing is completely a non-factor in BG3, and in-combat the overabudance of powerful potions (that require a Bonus Action to drink and can be thrown to heal at range) and scrolls, the dumb AI, plus the UA8 Buffs to the other healing spells makes it non-worthwhile to cast unbuffed Warden of Vitality because of the opportunity cost. When you get it at the minmum level possible it will feel strong, but as you level up and enemies start doing more and more damage, the Effective HP it's actually giving you gets reduced further and further to the point it becomes 1 Effective HP (because all it does is pick you up, the healing amount doesn't let you survive further attacks). At least now it can be useful IN-COMBAT (the section of BG3 where it matters the most) for a portion of the game until the high damage of higher level enemies makes it practically identical to unbuffed WoA because of Effective HP regain per turn.
Let me explain my reasoning (if you are interested):
I am, thanks.
So to conclude: out-of-combat healing is completely a non-factor in BG3
Yeah, the main use case in tabletop is to top off people out of combat. 20d6 of healing spread around the party for a 3ʳᵈ level slot is pretty good. Which is kind of not a thing in BG3 outside of very few specific areas where you cannot long rest. Otherwise … long rests are essentially free. I mean, even the tadpole timer is just narrative and not a mechanic.
I don’t think WoV should be buffed to the levels you did (7 avg healing → ≈16.5 avg healing + more consistent), but at that point I guess we should just agree to disagree.
Edit: maybe make it 2d6+mod? That still a massive buff to the consistency of the healing.
I will add a 2d6+MOD version, sounds like a good alternative for people that want a smaller buff. Additionally I've decided to lower the healing from the main version from 5d4 to 4d4. That way is equivalent to a Healing Word upcasted to level 2 (but it can be re-used obviously). I will see how it feels on my playthroughs and up it again to 5d4 if I find it too weak. One thing I will mention is that I always play on the hardest difficulty and I even use mods to make the game more difficult (Combat Extender and Combat Extender AI, etc), but I keep that in mind when making changes knowing not everyone plays with things turned up that high.
4 comments
Let me explain my reasoning (if you are interested):
Given the power levels and speed of movement and combat in this game, healing is usually not that useful in the higher difficulties (similar to DnD the opportunit cost it too high). The UA8 Healing buffs applied to Baldur's Gate 3 help a lot in that way and are very good (there's a mod for doing exactly that).
But in BG3 Warden of Vitality (Aura of Vitality with a different name by Larian) is still not really one of the good spells because you are always off better doing damage or casting other powerful spells, SPECIALLY when you put those UA8 Healing buffs into the picture it makes using Warden of Vitality even more of a bad choice when you can just upcast another healing spell whose healing amount DID get increased by UA8. All this in context makes it so WoA is not good enough. The main thing about AoV is how good it is at healing off-combat because it lasts 1 minute and you can heal every turn, but that's a non-factor in BG3 where:
That's why WoA needs a buff in BG3. Leaving DnD aside, no one ever says in BG3 unmodded that WoA is OP, if anything people think it's usually not worth the opportunity cost and they are right.
Doing the math:
Your EFFECTIVE HP hasn't really changed that much. You are not escaping the infamously called yoyo of death (you go down, you get picked up with a heal, you go down again, you get picked up again, always playing with very little HP left because you constantly go up an down...), specially when enemies' are so dumb when making decisions on who to target because it's a computer videogame. The reality is there isn't much difference in practice, but at least this buff makes it worthwhile to use this spell because the increased HP average can MAYBE help you not fall down one turn. Upcasting the UA8-buffed Healing Word STILL heals more than buffed WoA (6d4+MOD vs 5d4+MOD) so in critical situations you can still do that (because remember combat doesn't last many turns making the most of your current turn is usually better), and let's not forget buffed Cure Wounds exists which heals double the amount (upcasted to lvl 3 buffed Cure Wounds heals 6d8+MOD, 30HP average) so it can more realibly let you survive one more turn and while yes, it has only Touch range, WoA doesn't have the same range as Healing Word and the way the AI works in this game makes it easy to exploit (most of the time you can easily maneouver to get in, touch your ally, and get out).
I don’t think WoV should be buffed to the levels you did (7 avg healing → ≈16.5 avg healing + more consistent), but at that point I guess we should just agree to disagree.
Edit: maybe make it 2d6+mod? That still a massive buff to the consistency of the healing.
EDIT: files are up now.