Spell Rating

Category	Score
Combat Rating	8/10
Exploration Rating	5/10
Social Rating	3/10
Raw Power	7/10
Versatility	4/10
Efficiency	9/10
Upcast Scaling	1/10

Lesser Restoration 5e

Lesser Restoration is a no-nonsense spell that instantly cures a common condition that’s afflicting you or your ally in DnD 5e. While the conditions that Lesser Restoration resolves are limited, it’s only a second-level spell, so it is well worth keeping around at later levels.

How Does Lesser Restoration Work in 5e?

Lesser Restoration instantly removes one condition from a creature you touch. The conditions you can end with Lesser Restoration include:

• Blinded

• Deafened

• Paralyzed

• Poisoned

Spell Rating: Lesser Restoration

Overall: 🚑 A-Tier (Essential Support)

Contextual Performance (1-10)

• Combat: 8/10. In the 2024 rules, this spell becomes a lot more usable in combat. Because it is now a Bonus Action, you can remove a fight-ending condition like Paralyzed from your heavy hitter and still use your Action to cast a cantrip or attack. It effectively gives your party an extra turn every time you use it. If your Fighter is Paralyzed, they deal 0 damage. If you cure them as a Bonus Action, they deal their full damage round. That swing in momentum is worth a 2nd-level slot.
• Exploration: 5/10. Decent utility. Traps often inflict the Poisoned or Blinded conditions, and this is the cheapest way to fix that instantly without resting. While the 2024 text removed the explicit “Disease” cure, most environmental sicknesses in 5e effectively apply the Poisoned condition anyway, so it retains its role as a cure-all for dungeon hazards.
• Social: 3/10. Highly situational. You might use it to sober up a drunk NPC (curing the Poisoned condition) to get information out of them, or help a noble who has been blinded by a rival. You might even sell your healing capabilities to earn some GP during downtime, if you’re in a big enough city. It creates interesting roleplay moments, but it isn’t a dedicated social tool like Suggestion.

Core Metrics (1-10)

• Raw Power: 7/10. It doesn’t deal damage, but it negates effects that would otherwise kill your party. The Blinded and Paralyzed conditions are death sentences in 5e (granting enemies Advantage or auto-crits). Being able to delete those conditions instantly is arguably more “powerful” than dealing damage yourself.
• Versatility: 4/10. It does four things: cures Blinded, Deafened, Paralyzed, and Poisoned. That is a specific list. It won’t help against Stunned (you need Greater Restoration or Power Word Heal for that), Petrified, or Charmed. It is a specialist tool, but it specializes in the most common physical debuffs.
• Efficiency: 9/10. Almost perfect score for the 2024 update. A Bonus Action is incredible value. You still sacrifice a 2nd-level slot to cast this, but that matters less and less as you enter higher tiers of play. In the 2014 rules, this was a 6/10 efficiency because it cost your Action.
• Upcast Scaling: 1/10. No benefit. Casting this at 9th level does the exact same thing as casting it at 2nd level.

Playstyle and Synergy

• Playstyle: This is the “Combat Medic” staple. It allows support casters (Clerics, Druids, Bards) to maintain their offensive pressure while keeping the party healthy. You no longer have to choose between “Winning” and “Saving your Ally.” You do both.
• Party Synergy: High. This spell exists entirely to enable your allies. Using it on a Rogue allows them to get Sneak Attack again (removing Disadvantage from Poisoned). Using it on a Paladin allows them to Smite again (removing Paralyzed). It is the ultimate force multiplier.

How to Use Lesser Restoration in 5e

Lesser Restoration has a straightforward use, but it also has some fun alternative uses:

1. Restoring allies. Lesser Restoration’s main function is to restore important allies (including yourself) back to fighting condition. This can be a short-term boon in a tough fight or a long-term benefit for parties that explore trap-laden locations far from a healer’s temple.

2. Downtime side gig. Depending on your DM and party’s preferences, downtime activities can be a fun way to flesh out your character’s life outside of adventures.

   Seeing as parties without healers and wizards are always running to temples and mage towers for spells like Lesser Restoration and Identify, it’s perfectly reasonable that you yourself could sell these services.

   The rules even suggest that spells like Cure Wounds and Identify “might cost 10 to 50 gold pieces” — it’s fair to say that Lesser Restoration would fetch a similar price from folks in need.

3. Charlatanism. Maybe you’re not so interested in earning cash off your divine powers, but how about starting a following among village bumpkins? Making a great display of your restorative powers could even make you something of a legend, especially if you only pass through at certain intervals or demand strange rituals in return for your service.

4. Save it for mid-late game. If you’re trying to optimize your spell selection early in a DnD campaign, you know that spell slots are not easy to come by.

   But in the later game, with more spell slots, more marathon-like dungeon crawls, and more common negative effects in the world, having a cheap second-level spell at the ready is a huge boon for any party.

5. Sobering someone up. You know that expression bartenders use, “what’s your poison?” Alcohol is technically poisonous, and since Lesser Restoration cures the effects of poison, the spell should work as an instant sobriety-inducer or hangover cure.

   If you’re doubtful, here’s Mike Mearls confirming that alcohol is indeed treated as a poison in DnD 5e. And the WoTC staff also confirmed that it’ll work on Sage Advice.

   Yes! We had alcohol rules in the playtest, treated it as poison there. https://t.co/oXYmIDVhBE

   — Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) January 24, 2016

6. Clearing up paralysis. Blind and deafen effects are usually short-term enough to render Lesser Restoration unnecessary. But long-term paralyze effects, like Hold Person, can really hurt your party’s total power level in a fight. Lesser Restoration is a quick way to get the fight back in your favor (if you can’t break the enemy caster’s concentration).

What Are the Rules for Lesser Restoration in 5e?

The rules for Lesser Restoration in DnD 5e are as follows:

• Lesser Restoration removes one total effect. Only one of the conditions listed.

• Lesser Restoration has no effect on exhaustion. Spells only do what they say they do, and exhaustion is not mentioned in Lesser Restoration’s spell description. Greater Restoration, however, does work to reduce the target’s exhaustion level.

• Lesser Restoration has no effect on curses, however, it may be able to end a condition caused by a curse if the curse’s source is a spell.

• Lesser Restoration cannot cure lycanthropy. Lycanthropy is a curse, and so outside of the powers of Lesser Restoration to cure.

• Lesser Restoration cannot cure permanent/innate blindness or deafness. Lesser Restoration ends a condition, two of which are sometimes contentious at DnD tables. Blindness and Deafness, as conditions, are the “result of a spell, a class feature, a monster’s attack, or other effect.”

  That “other effect” certainly leaves the door open to natural or physically-caused blindness/deafness, and nobody would argue that a regular humanoid who was born blind wouldn’t suffer from the Blinded condition in 5e.

  However, it feels a little strong for a 2nd-level spell to perform the work of literal miracles. Especially with a 7th-level spell like Regenerate being 5e’s version of medical miracle-working.

Who Can I Target With Lesser Restoration 5e?

You can target any creature you can touch with Lesser Restoration, including yourself. Touch implies that you must be on an adjacent square if you’re using a grid battle map.

Divine Soul Sorcerers can use the Distant Spell metamagic to extend Lesser Restoration’s range to 30 feet, and Celestial Warlocks with Pact of the Chain can use their Find Familiar to cast Lesser Restoration on an ally up to 100 feet away, so long as the familiar is within touch range of that ally.

Is Lesser Restoration 5e a Good Spell?

Yes, Lesser Restoration is a good spell. It has limited uses and doesn’t get much play in the early game, but as you progress through your campaign, you’ll always want one party member to have this spell in their arsenal.

It allows for a heavy-hitting ally to rejoin the fray, a healer to escape a bad situation, or for that silly party member that keeps triggering poison traps to keep enjoying their life of regret-free curiosity.

Lesser Restoration 5e Compared to Greater Restoration

A 5th-level spell, Greater Restoration is, well, greater in potency than Lesser Restoration. It removes charms, petrifies, curses (including attunement to cursed items), ability score reductions, and effects reducing the target’s hit point maximum.

What it doesn’t do is remove any of the four minor conditions that Lesser Restoration does. For that reason, Greater Restoration doesn’t really replace Lesser Restoration. Rather, it expands on the lesser spell’s effects and allows for a dedicated healer to cover (almost) all their bases with regard to negative effects placed on allies.

Remove Curse is a third-level spell that does exactly what it says (removes a curse) and nothing else. All three spells have their place in a healer’s toolkit, and none becomes obsolete as you level.

DnD 5e Lesser Restoration FAQ

1. Can Lesser Restoration heal? No, Lesser Restoration does not restore lost hit points; it removes certain conditions: blinded, deafened, paralyzed, or poisoned.

2. Is Lesser Restoration a ritual? No, Lesser Restoration is not a ritual spell. It requires an action to cast.

3. Can Lesser Restoration regrow limbs? No, Lesser Restoration cannot regrow limbs. The spell that can regrow limbs is Regenerate, a 7th-level spell.

4. Does Lesser Restoration remove madness? No, according to the rules as written (RAW), Lesser Restoration does not remove madness. However, a Dungeon Master may choose to allow it in their campaign.

5. Does Lesser Restoration cure mummy rot? Generally, no. Mummy Rot is usually classified as a Curse, which requires the Remove Curse spell. However, check the specific monster’s stat block, as some older versions classified it as a disease.

6. Does Lesser Restoration cure fear? No, Lesser Restoration does not cure fear. The frightened condition is not one of the conditions that Lesser Restoration can remove.

2014 Lesser Restoration 5e

For reference, here is the legacy version of the spell from the 2014 rules, which requires a full Action to cast and can also remove a disease.

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