Lesser Restoration: Rub Some Dirt on It

Usable By: Artificer, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Paladin, Ranger

Spell Level: 2

School: Abjuration

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: Touch

Duration: Instantaneous

Components: V, S

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

Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold

Lesser Restoration solves five specific problems: diseases and the blinded, deafened, paralyzed, and poisoned conditions for a 2nd level spell slot. As something you can prepare when you need it, Lesser Restoration is great to have. As something you’d have to learn, it is quite a bit worse.

Prepared casters create a bit of an issue for long term conditional effects. If you’re playing a cleric or druid, Lesser Restoration feels more like a class feature that offers you a solution to these kinds of problems long term alongside a variety of long duration spell effects, and only asks you complete a long rest to do so. It is entirely reactive; there is nothing you can do proactively with Lesser Restoration to protect creatures from getting afflicted in the first place, meaning it's not something you want to cast prior to fights, nor cast in fights, to change the outcome in your favor. Characters that’d have to learn it, then, will tend to feel pretty bad when it's eating one of their precious few known spells, and is pretty un-castable the majority of the time. If you’re a bard or ranger partying with an artificer, cleric, druid, or paladin, why spend a known spell on something they can prepare only when needed?

This leaves Lesser Restoration as a game bound, an unsaid rule to guide DMs away from long term debilitating effects because of how common and easily the prepared casters can dismiss these kinds of effects. For that reason, I think Lesser Restoration is pretty good for the game, as debilitating long term effects can feel terrible to play with over multiple sessions. At the same time, curing any disease makes it so there isn’t a lot of room to easily play around with interesting disease effects that could expand monsters into more engaging environments. It can be hard to justify trying out diseased creatures when a player, knowing they are about to confront diseased creatures, can simply prepare a solution to the problem starting at 3rd level and never have to worry about lasting consequences, at least without feeling like their spell isn’t doing what its supposed to.

If you’re a bard or a ranger partying with any of the prepared casters that can learn this, even the half-casters, you don’t need to take this. Even without them, it's not something I’d consider until the upper tiers when you comfortably have spare spells known to play around with. If you are a prepared caster, you probably should only prepare this when going against enemies you know bring one or more of the five problems to the table, and impart long duration versions of them. Otherwise, you’ll almost always be better off letting somebody save off the effect while spending your spell slots on effects to end the source of the condition outright.

Lesser Restoration FAQ

Can I use Lesser Restoration on myself?

Certainly! The only exception to that would be if you’re paralysed, in which cast you can’t cast anything. But you could absolutely use it to cure blindness, deafness, diseases, etc…

Will Lesser Restoration cure lycanthropy?

Sadly, no. Afflictions such as lycanthropy and mummy rot fall under curses, which would require a Remove Curse spell.

5e Spells

Lesser Restoration: Rub Some Dirt on It

Lesser Restoration FAQ