You still need someone to cast them, naturally, and here comes my class selection advice.
But again, I reiterate, that a person casting it does not necessarily need to be part of your main party.
You can literally just grab a hireling to buff your party and sit in camp until after your next long rest.
The only things that are explicitly needed in your party are Enhanced Leap and Featherfall because they do not last Until Long Rest (But are also easily available via scrolls and potions)
You mentioned having a sort of a tank with high constitution as one of the solutions to the party comp question. I mean, can we look at it that way: 2 points in constitution equals 1 HP/level, while (up)casting aid grants around 2 HP/level to the whole team. Having 3 tanks and a 1 alpha-tank sounds good, doesn't it?
Except (Up)casting aid is using one of your spell slots that can be used on other more useful spells. While Constitution is a passive thing that isn't taking anything away from your effectiveness (AND provides Contitution saves)
That's the problem I have with Aid itself. It's not just Aid vs no Aid. Since it's not a ritual like Longstrider. It competes with other, more useful spells that can far outperform the health increase. The higher you upcast it, the better the spell you're losing out on to cast it.
Health matters, I would say - even more so when you are just a beginner prone to make mistakes or non-optimal decisions.
No. Survival matters.
Again, I'll reiterate for the nth time. The spell slot you spend on Aid, can often be used on another spell that will provide more defensive benefit than Aid itself will.
Longstrider is a difference between outpacing/reaching an enemy or always standing in their reach, 12m of movement worth for the party of four. Same story as Aid - creating room for mistakes, having more freedom to screw up and survive the consequences.
Longstrider is useful, but nowhere near as impactful as you make it out to be. Most encounters are not as dynamic as you portray. They're usually a bunch of melee guys running at your team (Until they get within Threaten distance of someone where they will then usually stay still) and ranged enemies standing within ranged attack distance (Unless you are out of their line of sight where they will move around)
Some encounters may be more mobile, like the Spiders in Act 1. But generally having some form of ranged attack prevents the need to do much running around.
As far as I know, Aid is a universal spell which is available to all cleric subclasses, it is not exclusive to life domain.
And I never said it was. I was equating to the thought process that many new players have that to get more survivability, they use a Life Cleric so their heals provide more healing. Whereas what actually provides more survivability is Light Domain and its ability to make attacks outright miss.
It also is not reactive in any way, because it is an in-advance buff that does not require any active resource spending.
It quite literally costs a spell slot.
That is enough of a cost to make it have to be compared to all other uses of that spell slot. Of which there are many that provide bonuses far in excess of the meagre health that might not even do anything (Having +5 health doesn't matter if you just got crit for 20 with 10 of it being overkill for example)
In order to take action you need to be alive, having some extra meat on those bones makes a difference between lying on the ground licking your own blood OR turning the tables in one fell swoop.
Extra health can make a difference. Depending on how much damage you take and in what intervals. But again, for the nth time, how does spending a spell slot on Aid compete with OTHER uses of a spell slot in terms of survivability is the key part here.
Locking down an enemy with Hold Person so they do 0 damage and you kill them in 1 turn because they take guaranteed hits from everything and guaranteed crits from melee can prevent far, far, far more damage than a cast of Aid for example. Preventing enemies from casting powerful spells with Silence can prevent far, far, far more damage than a cast of Aid. Having a Spirit Weapon help kill an enemy sooner (Or other things, like making a Harpy fail a concentration save and stop singing) can prevent far, far, far more damage than a cast of aid.
I mean, calling extra health not important is kinda anti-newcomer friendly, at least in my book.
That's because as someone who actually is aware of the mechanics of the game. I know that health and healing is a common newbie trap. That the best way to stay alive and healthy is to use preventative measures.
Extra health is nice and I definitely will never say to dump Constitution as a stat. But when it comes to a limited resource like spell slots, there are far more effective things than Aid to provide survivability to a party.
If someone wants the extra health from Aid, by all means, grab a Hireling to upcast Aid for your party. Just don't waste one of your Cleric's spell slots on something so mediocre when there are much better things available to use instead and don't only bring a Cleric just for Aid (And don't relegate them to being just a healbot either. I know that's another common thing for newbies, to get used to having a Cleric just to spam Healing Word and Cure Wounds and not actually do any fighting. Which honestly I blame more on Shadowhearts stats being complete trash)
