Healing Items in D&D 5e: Staffs, Amulets, Potions and More

Last Updated on January 22, 2023

In Dungeons and Dragons, we go up against some pretty terrifying creatures. Long gone are the days where every encounter was a deadly encounter, but that doesn’t mean we make it out of combat unscathed in fifth edition.

Part of becoming famous heroes throughout the lands is staying alive, and doing that means being able to heal up when we take a big hit.

A lot of the time, that role falls to the cleric or paladin, but having those classes in your party isn’t the only way to regain a few hit points.

Today, we’re going to be looking at all of the healing items available in 5e. We’ve included a full list of items and a deeper dive into some of the more impressive ones, and we’re even looking at how to put scrolls into your game. 

All 5e Healing Items

There are a few ways that an item can be defined as “healing” in 5e. Generally, if something is giving you hit points, it’s healing you.

More specifically, there are items that cast healing spells, give you temporary hit points, help to stabilize you at 0 hit points, increase the effectiveness of your Hit Dice, cure conditions, or allow you to regain hit points.

We use these sections in our master table of healing items below. In the Healing Type column you’ll see Spells, Temp, Stabilize, HD, Condition, or Regain. We also have columns for Rarity, Item Type, and Cost.

*For the table above, the prices we chose were based on the general pricing of items by rarity and how impressive the items are when compared to other items of similar rarity. 

Best Healing Items in 5e

Potions of Healing

A healing potion has to be the most iconic healing item in D&D. As a potion, these items have a one-time use and allow you to regain a significant amount of HP for their rarity level.

Potions are typically one of the easiest ways to get your hand on some healing without needing to cast a spell. The actual “rarity” of potions in your world might be far less than the rarity assigned to them in the DMG.

Basically, I’d say that in most worlds, the standard rarity is fitting. In high-magic worlds, places like Eberron or Ravnica where magical creations are abundant, they might go down a rarity.

And in low-magic settings where wizards and sorcerers are the things of legend, potions might be much harder to come across.

Then, when it comes to pricing healing potions in 5e, I find that a good rule is to have the price be half of the maximum purchase cost per rarity in the DMG.

That’s how we came up with the values above, but again, you can certainly tweak this to match your settings specific requirements.

As for how well these work, well, they’re a disposable item. They work great considering that they’re a single-use item that allows you to heal.

You do have to use an action to take a potion, but if there isn’t someone around to heal you, it’s a far better alternative than death.

I’m also a big fan of more variety in potions, specifically when it comes to potions of healing.

There are some huge gaps in price once you leave first-tier (common/uncommon) potions, so I like to fill in those gaps with more mid-range potions. 

A “Potion of Impressive Healing” might be a rare healing potion that allows you to regain 6d6+6 and only costs somewhere between 500 and 1000 GP. 

This works especially well if you have a party without a healer or if you’re running a high-magic setting that can justify such a vast potion market.

Otherwise, our players run into a problem where they’re either spending a ridiculous amount of money or burning through multiple actions in a row to heal themselves.

Crafting Healing Potions

According to Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, you can craft healing potions if you have a proficiency in the herbalism kit without needing to hunt down any extra materials.

This is a very compelling argument for tool proficiencies, and I fully support it. 

Staff of Healing

Rare, Requires Attunement by a Bard, Cleric, or Druid

This is a staff with 10 charges that allows you to cast three healing spells: Cure Wounds (1 charge per spell level, up to 4), Lesser Restoration (2 charges), and Mass Cure Wounds (5 charges).

The staff regains 1d6 + 4 charges at dawn. If you use the last charge, you have to roll a d20 with the staff being destroyed on a 1.

This is an amazing item that you can get your hands on pretty early. Realistically, you could get this item before you even have access to 5th-level spells, meaning that Mass Cure Wounds will feel game-breakingly powerful. 

Sword of Life Stealing

Rare Weapon (any sword), Requires Attunement

Weapons tend to just hurt people, so having one that you can use to heal is pretty incredible. Essentially, this gives you the vampiric ability to steal life from your enemies, but it does only happen on a critical hit. 

If you manage to roll a 20 with your attack, this weapon will deal an additional 10 necrotic damage to your target and allow you to regain 10 life.

Since this is reliant on a critical hit, it’s going to go best with any martial class that has an extra attack. Maximizing your chance of a critical hit is a great way to maximize your chance of healing. 

Dhampir

While this isn’t an item, choosing the Dhampir lineage is another great way to get a “life steal” ability. The Vampiric Bite ability of the Dhampir allows you to regain life equal to the piercing damage that your bite deals. 

Necklace of Prayer Beads

Rare, Requires Attunement by a Cleric, Druid, or Paladin

A necklace of prayer beads and its counterpart the necklace of fireballs are interesting items that are quasi-disposable.

Rather than a single-time use potion, this necklace comes with a certain number of beads (1d4+2) that you can pull off and throw down to cast a spell.

Now, there are several spells that might be on a bead. Bless, Cure Wounds or Lesser Restoration, Greater Restoration, Branding Smite, Planar Ally, and Windwalk are all found on different beads.

DMs should let their players know which beads are on the necklace, but surprises can be fun too.

The Curing bead, which can be used to cast either Cure Wounds or Lesser Restoration, is the one we’re focused on here. Use these sparingly, but be sure to remember that you have them.

Since you can’t upcast these spells, this necklace becomes decreasingly useful as you gain levels. 

Ring of Regeneration

Very Rare, Requires Attunement

The healing of this very rare item is pretty dismal at a rate of 1d6 hit points every 10 minutes. However, add that up over a period of time, and you’re going to get more healing out of this ring than most items on this list.

The big draw of this item is its actual regeneration though. If you lose a body part, it will grow back within 1d6 days.

Severed limbs vary in frequency from one D&D campaign to the next, but if they’re common at all, this is a nice reassurance to have.

Amulet of the Drunkard

Uncommon

This is probably the best healing item out there. When you drink any sort of alcohol (it specifically mentions ale, mead, beer, or wine, but I’m assuming that’s based on the uncommon appearance of other alcoholic beverages in D&D games), you regain 4d4 + 4 hit points. That’s a potion of greater healing.

Also, you’ll notice that this doesn’t require attunement. So, we have an amulet that turns alcohol into healing potions. You might need to start going to fantasy AA meetings, but you’ll have the chance to heal a good amount every day.

If this amulet didn’t work once a day, it would be the only healing item you’d ever need, but as it stands, it’s definitely one of the best.

Healing Scrolls in 5e

While there are plenty of magical items out there, there are only a few that explicitly have anything to do with healing.

There are more magical items that you won’t find in the treasure section of source books though. Spell scrolls are an excellent way to get some healing that doesn’t require any attunement.

You can find or create spell scrolls with any spell on them. Then, anyone with access to the scroll can cast the spell. This makes it extremely easy to go about healing the whole party.

If you’re a caster with access to healing spells and proficiency in the Arcana skill, you can even craft up your own scrolls.

This does require a certain amount of gold and time based on spell level, but until you get into 5th-level and higher spells, it tends to be well within reason.

That is, the amount of work you put in is going to be worth the spells you’re getting out.

Best Healing Spells To Scribe on a Scroll

We’ve picked a few healing spells that are excellent to put onto a scroll. Next to the spell level is the amount of time and money needed to craft the spell scroll if you meet the other requirements. 

Naturally, finding any healing spell on a scroll is going to be beneficial, but we’ve chosen the spells that will give you the most bang for your buck if you’re the one crafting it.

Cure Wounds

1st-Level (1 Day, 25 GP)

Cure wounds heals a creature by 1d8 + your spellcasting modifier in hit points. This is going to be roughly as powerful as a Potion of Healing and cost half the resources. 

Healing Spirit

2nd-Level (1 week, 250 GP)

This spell creates a spirit that can be moved around. Whenever a creature enters or starts their turn in the spirit’s space, you can cause them to regain hit points.

You can also move the spirit around as a bonus action on your turn.

Since both druids and rangers can learn this spell, this is a nice scroll for the druid to make and then hand over to a ranger that’s more focused on ranged combat then spellcasting.

As long as they’re willing to hold off on hunter’s mark for a bit, this plays out really nicely.

Prayer of Healing

2nd-Level (3 days, 250 GP)

Being able to heal up to six creatures by 2d8 + your spellcasting modifier is huge. Being able to do that without burning a spell slot? Well, I’d definitely say that’s worth the resources it takes to make this scroll.

Sure, using a lay-on-hands or burning through some spell slots is great when you have no other options. If you can save your resources though, you should. That’s where magical items come into play.

I hope you get the opportunity to use some of these in your next campaign and that they contribute to your party living long and happy lives.

As always, happy adventuring.

Leave a Comment