Greater Restoration 5e D&D Guide

The world of Faerun is full of danger. Pests such as goblins or kobolds can be a problem for solo adventurers. They also have massive monsters like mind flayers or dragons.

There are also other issues like curses, diseases, spells, and illnesses. All of these issues can quickly decimate a group of adventurers, and even end a campaign before it begins.

It’s important to have someone heal at your party. Health is an important aspect of 5e D&D, as well as any other tabletop game. 

There are tiers for healing and restoration spells. Some will restore hit points while others will remove other ailments.

Greater restoration is the one restoration spell everyone wants. It almost acts as a card that gets you out of jail for your adventuring party. 

How do you achieve it? Which situations is it appropriate to use? This guide will answer all of these questions.

What is Greater Restoration?

Here’s the excerpt from the player’s handbook for Greater Restoration:

  • Greater Restoration
  • 5th-level abjuration
  • Casting time: 1 Action
  • Range: Touch
  • Components: V, S, and M (diamond powder worth at least 100gp which the spell consumes).
  • Duration: Instantaneous

You give a creature you touch positive energy to reverse an effect that makes it weak. You can lower the target’s exhaustion level by one or end one of the following effects on the target.

• One effect that charmed or scared the target

• One curse, including the target’s connection to a Cursed magic item

• If one of the target’s Ability Scores goes down

• One effect that lowers the target’s max hit points

Let’s take a look at this powerful spell. You must take an action to make it work. Verbal, Somatic, and Material components are also required. 

This is the diamond dust and the ability to use your hands and mouth the words of the spell.

You can now reduce the exhaustion of your target by one, or undo any of the following effects. Charm, certification, and curse effects can all be removed. 

This is especially true if your party has unknowingly been exposed to a cursed magical object. You will see this more often than you might think, especially in games that have darker themes like CoS.

Certain effects can also reduce the character’s ability scores and hit points. A greater restoration will be able to heal this immediately. 

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It cannot restore hit points or health, and it can’t resurrect dead people. However, it can help you remove debilitating conditions if you find yourself stuck in a dungeon without any hope.

Who can use greater restoration?

Unfortunately, this spell is not available to everyone. This spell is only available to bards and druids in the base game.

However, artificers and celestials may also be granted it at the 5th level. It’s a 5th-level spell, which you can get a slot for at the 9th level.

This makes it more of a midgame-level spell. It’s still a spell every party member should have.

The enemies are becoming more dangerous at the 9th level. A restoration spell that can override most of the negative status effects experienced during encounters can prove to be very helpful! 

It is important to have the means to turn to stone, especially when petrification is involved.

What are the best times to use greater restoration?

Certain enemies can benefit from many of the same effects that greater restoration cannot. An Intellect Devourer attack can permanently lower your score and drain your intelligence.

A medusa can paralyze your party with its gaze and some undead can drain your life and lower your hit points. 

If your party is the victim of a cursed weapon or item, greater restoration can remove them and keep them from sticking to you.

The nature of the fight will determine how much restoration is needed. You might not notice any negative effects if you are fighting common enemies like goblins or other goblins. 

It is very useful if you are trying to fight your way through an Illithid Ship, an undead Lich’s Keep, or a medusa’s Lair.

Do I Really Need to Know What’s Happening?

Greater Restoration 5e

Sometimes, a character might have a problem that your characters won’t know about. However, your players will. 

Your cleric can still cast the spell if the character isn’t aware of what’s going on or doesn’t look healthy. 

If your barbarian has a new sword, and they are acting strangely, you may be able to cast greater restoration, which will automatically remove a curse or remove charming effects.

Your DM will describe the changes to the barbarians. A wise D&D player might be capable of guessing what the change was.

However, it is not necessary to know that a character has been cursed or associated to cast the spell.

Is the Spell Worth It?

Your first 5th LVL spell at LVL 9, as a cleric or bard, or artificer, is going to be a very powerful one. There are many good options.

This will make it difficult to choose. A party should have at least one spell-wielding person.

This spell will help even the playing field if you’re fighting multiple enemies that drain your party via negative status effects. 

If you don’t fight these types of creatures, you may not need the spell as often, and you can delay its selection until later.

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Is Greater Restoration Good?

Overall, the score is blue. This means that greater restoration is a good spell, and you should give it serious thought for your character.

Overall, this is a great spell to have because it can help you or other people in your party get out of a lot of trouble.

What Doesn’t Greater Restoration Cure Do?

The Greater Restoration spell can be used to overcome petrification, attunement with cursed items, and damage to hit points maximums, ability scores, and charm effects. 

Although it seems like a panacea, it is not. Some effects are beyond the reach of even greater restoration.

One of these is the disease called lycanthropy. This is especially true if the person in question was born with it. 

It could be treated with more restoration if they were cursed to get it in adulthood. This is usually at the discretion of the DM.

Greater Restoration is not able to heal people or bring them back from the grave. Only higher-level resurrection spells, and other healing spells, can do this. 

Phobias are another thing it cannot cure. They can’t remove the fear, but they can eliminate the phobia.

If your character is fearful of the beholders and more restoration was made to eliminate the fear, they could be confronted by one again without being terrified. While they would still feel uneasy about it, they would be able to function normally.

You may be unsure about what greater restoration can or cannot do. Consider the meaning of the word “restoration”. To restore something is to bring it back to its original condition. 

The greater restoration spell can be used to restore your character to the point they were before they were cursed. 

If the curse was placed on the character before their birth, the greater restoration spell can restore them to the point they were in.

What is the difference between greater and less restoration?

A restoration spell that does more than one thing can also be called a greater restoration spell. There is also a spell that does less restoration. These are the stats as per the player’s manual:

  • Lesser Restoration
  • Abjuration at the 2nd level
  • Casting time: 1 Action
  • Range Touch
  • Components: V S
  • Duration Instantaneous
  • Classes – Bard, Cleric, and Druid; Paladin Ranger

Touching a creature can stop it from suffering one or more diseases or conditions. You can become blinded or deafened, paralyzed or poisoned.

There are some advantages and disadvantages to less restoration than more extensive restoration. 

It is also easier to use it as a 2nd-level spell, which most characters obtain pretty early. It can also be used by Paladins or Rangers, who are not allowed to use greater restoration.

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There is a decrease in what it can do and what you can do. This means that you can only cure one condition or all of them. 

At lower levels, paralyzing a character and making them poisoned are quite common.

However, being blinded or deafened can be more uncommon. It’s still a useful spell that can be used to correct any of these conditions.

Although it doesn’t have as many effects as greater restore, it can provide a useful option for your party if you want the Paladin and Ranger to have a few spell options until LVL 9.

FAQs

Which Spells can you pair with greater restoration?

Support spells work best when they are combined. If your cleric or druid has multiple spell slots, they can create some really good combinations with higher restoration. If your main damage dealer is paralyzed by Medusa’s gaze, he will likely take some damage from both that attack and non-paralyzing attacks. 

They might also be able to use a healing word to increase their mobility and hit points.
Mass healing and Mass cure can be used to prevent death. If the druid is unable to reach the party member in distress, then a huge burst of healing magic can quickly boost everyone’s HP until the battle ends and the other spells can be cast.

Where can I buy diamond dust?

You need approximately 100gp to cast one spell of the greater restoration spell. The party’s spellcasters will be financially stressed, but we should first look at where to find them. 

Diamonds can be found in almost all jewelers’ shops, as well as in magical shops or alchemical shops. These are expensive and rare items so be aware of that. You can also take diamonds, and begin smashing them using hammers or other tools. Although diamonds are the hardest metal on the planet, they are not indestructible.

If you’re looking for uncut gemstones, diamonds can be expensive. Because they are used in spells, magic places will likely have diamonds or diamond dust.

Is Greater Restoration a Source of Knowledge?

Knowledge about the process of curing is one thing that greater restoration does not do. You don’t have to know the cure if you want to do more restoration. You can simply pick an effect to cure. You can, for example, cure a charming effect by knowing the source of the charm.

Using Greater Restoration Against Vampires

If you find yourself in a conflict with vampires, you may consider greater restoration to treat vampirism. Vampirism, unlike other media, isn’t a curse. It happens after death. You die, then you are reborn as an undead vampire. That’s it. Vampirism would not be treated by greater restoration. Although you can kill them, then you can use a resurrection spell to stop curses from affecting them in death. However, that is not an easy task.