Your DnD party is battered and beaten. The lich cackles as it calls forth another wave of wretched undead. Things look dire, but then the group enjoys a five second catnap, and returns to the fight rejuvenated and ready for action.
New rules for the DnD Cleric in the 2024 Player’s Handbook appear to allow you to cast the spell Prayer of Healing in battle, bypassing its 10 minute casting time to let your friends heal up and gain all the benefits of a short rest in the middle of combat.
It’s all thanks to the new version of the Cleric’s 10th level DnD class feature, Divine Intervention. Whereas previously this ability was dictated by GM fiat – causing a random effect your Dungeon Master decided – the control is now firmly in the hands of the players.
Divine Intervention lets you call on your chosen DnD god to help you out. It now essentially lets you cast any Cleric spell of level five or below, ignoring material costs, and without expending a spell slot.
Do you get to skip casting times too? There’s some unclear wording here – a problem we pointed out in our DnD 2024 Player’s Handbook review – which has caused disagreement in the Reddit thread where this nifty rules interaction was pointed out. But the description says the spell is cast “as part of the same action”, so until Wizards of the Coast issues a Rules FAQ to clear things up, we’d allow it at our tables.
Once per long rest, this is going to allow for an awesome moment in combat. You get to heal everyone, which is obviously going to come in clutch now and then, but perhaps more importantly, Prayer of Healing gives all the other benefits of a short rest, letting players regain their abilities.
Most classes can get some benefit from a surprise short rest, but it’s particularly impactful for the DnD 2024 Monk (which can regain all its Focus points) and the DnD 2024 Warlock (which gets all its spell slots back). Being able to effectively force a short rest is a powerful, and really cool ability.
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Source: Wargamer
