#21d6 x 3 is a Lot of fire

[dearophelia]

so for detail on how painful it was

(and proof that life domain clerics are where it’s at)

addison had 161 hp. all 100 of mark’s lay on hands pool went into her in round 2.

she also recovered about 90 hp over the span of three turns by doing a bunch of upcast mass healing word spells; not only does she do max healing with her spells, her disciple of life and blessed healer features gave her extra health regen because the spell healed someone else

she finished at 94 hp

more importantly –

addison’s preserve life channel divinity option lets her restore up to 100hp at a time; she can use this four times per short rest (three naturally, +1 from an amulet of the devout). she can’t use it to heal a creature to more than half its hp max

mark had 222 hp.

so at most, addison can heal him back to 111 with preserve life

addison used preserve life four times, pumping 100 hp into him each time. three of these four times, he was unconscious.

she also dumped three fifth-level mass healing word spells into him

when mark dealt the killing blow on the dragon, he had 3 hp left

tl;dr dragon did at minimum 600 points of damage, tip your clerics

[context] okay so i just played it out and it is absolutely doable for a level 20 paladin and a level 20 cleric to duo an ancient red dragon

it is painful and very nearly didn’t work, but it is possible.

the paladin went down three times (thanks, breath weapon) and had one spell slot left after all the smiting. the cleric was surprisingly sturdy in comparison (i suspect this has more to do with staying the fuck out of the dragon’s melee range more than anything else) but thanks to the paladin going down three times was completely out of channel divinity healing uses. but the cleric still had plenty of spell slots left, so could’ve gotten the paladin back up a few more times if necessary (just not as sturdily)

so basically that was an hour in roll20 spent to prove to myself that cleric addison and paladin mark absolutely could rescue their dumbass ranger (or sorcerer; i didn’t have to pull him in from reserve to heroically come in and help) friend derek from an angry ancient red dragon all by themselves

and apparently i have to write this au now because my brain won’t shut up about it