Lesser Restoration: A Complete Users Guide

Spell Description:

You touch a creature and can end either one disease or one condition afflicting it. The condition can be blinded, deafened, paralyzed, or poisoned.

What Is Lesser Restoration?

Lesser Restoration is the first of many healing spells focused on removing adverse conditions. Lesser Restoration can remove a curse or remove the Paralysis, Blinded, Deafened, and Poisoned conditions.

The limit of “curse” removal is intentionally vague. No explicit rules on curses have been provided by Wizards so far, so it can be assumed that it works on anything defined as a “curse” in the text from which it was sourced.

This includes, but is not limited to, curses such as mummy rot and lycanthropy.

Who Can Cast Lesser Restoration?

Bards, Clerics, Druids, Divine Soul Sorcerers, and Celestial Warlocks can all start casting Lesser Restoration at the 3rd level. Artificers, Paladins, and Rangers will need to wait until the 5th level when they get their first 2nd-level spell slots.

When and Where Should I Cast Lesser Restoration?

Lesser Restoration is a great way to keep your party in tip-top fighting shape, both in and out of combat. Lesser Restoration allows you to keep allies in battle by curing their status conditions and curses.

Out of combat, Lesser Restoration is a great spell to use just before you take a long rest since you can use it to clear up any remaining status conditions or curses afflicting your allies before you regain all of your spell slots during your long rest.

Why Should I Take Lesser Restoration?

Lesser Restoration is pretty much a core spell for healers as it allows them to purge a lot of shorter and less potent status conditions off their allies. Divine Soul Sorcerers, in particular, can use their Distant Spell Metamagic to turn Lesser Restoration into a ranged spell giving them the ability to keep to the edge of the battlefield.

Common Questions About Lesser Restoration

Can you use Lesser Restoration on yourself?

Yes, you can use Lesser Restoration on yourself! It’s a touch range spell, and so long as you can touch yourself, you can use it on yourself.

Can you use Lesser Restoration to cure drunkenness?

This will be up to the DM’s discretion on whether or not they consider the state of drunkenness to be a disease.

Can you use Lesser Restoration to cure paralysis?

Yes, but it’s important to remember that you cannot use this on yourself as a paralyzed character cannot take any actions or speak and is, therefore, unable to complete the verbal and somatic components.

Can you use Lesser Restoration while blinded?

Yes, you can use Lesser Restoration on yourself if you are blinded. The spell stipulates that you need to be able to touch them, but not that you need to see them.

Alternatives to Lesser Restoration

• Greater Restoration
• Remove Curse
• Lay On Hands

How To Use Lesser Restoration

For Players

Lesser Restoration is a great tool to ensure the health and safety of party members in and out of combat. There are a variety of perils that can inflict status conditions and curses on your party. Being able to purge them with Lesser Restoration is vital to the continued survival of the party.

Outside of combat, dungeon crawling may be particularly dangerous in this respect. They are often built with the squashing of adventurers in mind and come armed to the teeth with traps and decoys to lead your party astray and give them something to think about. 

Forests are also a great place to find uses for Lesser Restoration, with a wide array of venomous and poisonous flora and fauna to trip up your party members. Whether it’s a snake bite or a toxic mushroom, your party will thank you for bringing along this healing spell to maintain their well-being.

Other great places to have Lesser Restoration on hand are crypts, tombs, and other places well-known for being cursed. Though you’ll need Greater Restoration if you want to help unbind Derek the Goblin from that cursed dagger he just picked up, Lesser Restoration can be used on things like minor curses and status ailments that he may run into while looting the corpses.

For Dungeon Masters

When looking to include Lesser Restoration in your campaigns, this is a place where the Dungeon Master’s creativity gets to shine. “Curses” are an incredibly vague concept within the Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition errata. You, the Dungeon Master, get to design your own curses at your whim!

The most iconic curses in the Dungeons & Dragons universe are, without a doubt, mummy rot and lycanthropy. However, this does not mean those are the only options. Given the stark lack of information provided to the players and DMs alike, it’s clear Wizards intends for us to flex our creativity and create our own curses.

Some good starting points are curses that reduce stats, curses that alter the creature’s physical characteristics, and curses that have mental components like “Insanity”. However, the creation of such afflictions is meant to be tailored to the specific party that you are playing with. 

If you find that the Barbarian is the biggest problem, a Strength reducing curse might be an excellent way to challenge them, but it’s essential to be aware and sensitive to the players’ needs.

If the Barbarian hasn’t been having much success, it’s probably better not to pick on them, even if the “source” would give a Strength-reducing curse.