Potion of Healing 5e

Lying in the darkness, the Rogue could feel her blood slowly draining away… if only she had dodged that blow a bit faster. She was losing consciousness and knew she didn’t have much time. Suddenly, a shadowed figure approached, cradling her head and lifting a bottle to her lips. Without thinking, she drank, knowing she had no other choice.

Within an instant, the world around her brightened and her strength returned. Brought back from the brink by a Potion of Healing.

Read our guide to Potion of Healing 5e and find out more about Hit Points and Potions 5e.

Healing Potions and How To Use Them in DnD 5e

If there is any magical item that seems ubiquitous in lore and fable, something found everywhere from fantasy films to Disney cartoons to fairy tales to the escapist tabletop and roleplaying games, it is the magic potion.

You see them everywhere, from Harry Potter to Impractical Magic, from the Fighting Fantasy books to The Worst Witch. You could even argue that Popeye’s can of spinach is some kind of Strength potion. And, of course, you find them all through the world of roleplaying games. DnD in all its editions and iterations is no exception.

And of the most prevalent, and arguably most useful, to be found, in the DnD world at least, is the humble healing potion. They might not be the most powerful of items, but as a form of sustenance, they are vital.

With adventurers bludgeoning and brawling their way through the world and being battered, bloodied, and bruised in return, a quick repair job is vital to keep the party on the right track. Healing may be easy to find if your quest takes you through well-populated lands or, indeed, if it takes place in a city itself.

A helping and healing hand might be harder to come by when you are hundreds of feet below the earth or rifling through the catacombs of the ruined temple of an ancient Monkey Goddess.

What are healing potions? 

A Healing Potion is a magical or at least semi-magical elixir that, when drunk, restores a number of the drinker’s hit points, thus restoring their health, partially or entirely, depending on the potency of the potion.

Depending on the exact nature of your campaign, a Healing Potion can be either a purely magical drink or something derived from more natural ingredients, unique plants, or bark, perhaps. Either way, the results are the same.

They have vital and restorative power and give the drinker an extra zap of energy, partially negating the effects of the injury. This will restore Hit Points to the character’s current total in game terms. (Usually, up to their natural maximum.)

Again, depending on the nature of your campaign, such Healing Potions can be garnered from several sources. If magic is rare in your world, such potions might only be available from specialists, hard-to-find apothecary and druidic herbalists, good wizards, and the like.

If magic is a more regular part of your world, then magic suppliers in larger towns will be a good source when stocking up before an adventure. And, of course, Healing Potions will often be found in treasure hordes and as dungeon booty, perhaps collected and coveted by some Goblin Warlord or smooth-talking dragon.

However you obtain them, a self-respecting party of adventurers would only venture into the wild or go dungeoneering with a few of these to fall back on. In short, don’t leave home without one. Two, if possible. Three would be great!

How Healing Potions Work

Healing potions are a type of magic item in Dungeons & Dragons 5e. They are used to best affect on a party member or ally that is seriously injured, ill, or even near death. When consumed, a healing potion will restore a certain number of hit points to the injured party.

When a character consumes the potion, usually in the form of a liquid and generally kept in a glass bottle, leather flask, or wineskin, they will find themselves infused with energy. This energy will immediately counter the effects of injury or combat wounds.

Cuts begin to heal and close up, bleeding stops or at least slows to a non-threatening degree, and even broken bones magically fuse and return to full strength.

The potion doesn’t necessarily wholly restore the character to total health (although if you drink multiple potions, this is likely the case). Still, it will give them a much-needed boost, enabling them to return to combat quickly or have the strength to continue on their quest through the wilderness or searching through the secret catacombs, which you hope is the key to fame and fortune.

The number of hit points a character can regain from a healing potion depends on the rarity of the potion (see the table below).

Healing Potions 5e

GameCows Tip: Before you drink any potions in DnD, make sure you know what you’re drinking! There are a lot of dangerous potions out there too. It’s also a good idea to confer with your DM about healing potions to avoid any unpleasant incidents or disappointments!

How do I use a Potion of Healing? 

The DnD 5e rules state that it takes a real action to drink a potion; similarly, it takes a whole action to administer it to another person. You can find all you need to know on page 153 of the Player’s Handbook.

This means your complete action will be taken with finding, unstoppering, and drinking the potion. This is a reasonably inefficient rule, in many people’s opinion. More importantly, it slows gameplay and reduces the level of fun and excitement, mainly if you are in combat. Breaking off from the melee so you can step back and Heal yourself is a bind.

Many campaigns have adopted a rule precedent set by Matt Mercer of Critical Role. His variant states that drinking the potion yourself only requires a bonus action, although giving the potion to someone else still requires a full action. This makes sense.

It is easy to take a quick glug from a bottle in your own pocket without straying too far from the action. Administering to a comrade a few feet away, on the ground or incapacitated, communicating with them what you intend to do, helping them get the drink inside them, and doing all of that whilst trying to remain alert and aware of swords being swung and pointy things poked in your general direction, takes a bit longer.

What this means is that if you are trying to drink the potion whilst engaged in combat, you can fight your opponent and use any appropriate lull in the cut and thrust of the action to take a quick drink without leaving the line of combat.

House Rules Potion of Healing

One of the advantages of DnD, and indeed most roleplaying games, is that you can tweak the rules to suit your game. As long as there is a justifiable logic to the change, then there is no reason why you can’t customize the rules to suit your own preferred style of play.

After all, this is a game of fantasy, epic deeds, action, and excitement. Anything that slows the game’s pace down might need looking at by your DM and players. Remember, this is your world, your campaign, and your game; it should only be restricted by your imagination to change what you like.

Rules are there to be…well, perhaps not broken but at least bent into a more desirable shape.

What form does a Healing Potion Take?

Again, this is where you don’t have to follow the norms and conventions. The term Healing Potion conjures (pardon the pun) images of a funny-colored liquid swirling about in a glass bottle. But have fun with the form and introduce other forms of potion-like healing applications.

The potion may be a salve, a paste to be spread on the body rather than ingested. It could be more of a tincture than a drink, and a few drops are enough to unlock its effects. It could take the form of foodstuff rather than a drink, a healing biscuit, or perhaps a rare and wonderous nut with magical properties that contains a miraculous, stimulating oil.

As is always the way, it’s your world; build it as you see fit.

The effects of Healing Potions

There are several ways that you can play Healing Potions. Firstly you could say that the potion has to be drunk in its entirety, and when you do so, it will restore the character’s health to its starting maximum. This would make the potion very powerful indeed.

Usually, upon drinking, a number of dice are rolled, dictated by the strength of the brew, and that random number is the amount of Hit Points the player gains. 

A third way is that the potion has a total number of Hit Points of Healing assigned to it, and any character can sip any number at any time up to the total and be restored by that amount.

Say, if a character has a potion rated 10 points of Healing. After combat, they drink enough to restore 6 Hit Points; the brew would then only be able to restore a further four points, to be sipped away in any combination of Hit Points the party decides.

For those who like to play by the rules, the Dungeon Master’s Guide includes this rough guide on page 187 regarding what they suggest healing rates. But of course, this is just a guide, and you should choose whatever system works best for you and your campaign. And that includes ignoring all of the above suggestions and creating your way of doing things.

• Healing Elixir – 2d4 + 2 (from Unearthed Arcana, 36)
• Healing – 2d4 + 2
• Greater Healing – 4d4 + 4
• Superior Healing – 8d4 + 8
• Supreme Healing – 10d4 + 20

How can you make a healing potion? 

Here are a few things that you need to know before you even think about brewing your own Healing Potion: firstly, only some have the ability to brew potions straight away. All classes potentially have access to its secrets, but it is only through character proficiency with herbalism kits that the ability is unlocked.

Such an ability is generally gained during the character creation process and comes through choosing a background such as Hermit or something similar in touch with the wilderness and wild world that they start with the required skill set.

The full rules for making your potions can be found in the Dungeon Master’s Guide of the core rules or Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, depending on how close to the official rules you prefer to keep. Generally, success will depend on a check against Herbalism.

However, the DM might rule that other abilities might be more suited to the task depending on the nature of the character, perhaps Alchemy Tools or something else entirely.

The general outline of the steps taken is that first, you must collect the required ingredient components. Again, depending on the nature of your campaign and how ordinary or otherwise magic is, it could be a simple task or something more complex.

One campaign might require a trip to the magic supply shop or at least a few trips to various specialized traders for the eye of a frog or the leaves of a rare herb. In another, obtaining those ingredients might mean you have to search out them from their natural habitat — something which could form the basis for a small, interim adventure.

Again, the brewing stage of the process will vary from campaign to campaign, but generally, the creation of the potion shouldn’t take too long or be too arduous. Even in the most magically restrictive campaigns, the Healing Potion is one of the most common magical items available, so the ability to source, brew and create such a potion should reflect that.

Where can I buy a healing potion? 

As touched on a couple of times, access to Healing Potions will depend on your campaign’s nature, but remember that the Healing Potions should be one of the most common items in the grand scheme. 

Some campaigns have magic and magical items woven through them so that everyone is aware of magic; wizards are a common feature, not quite an everyday trade but not an uncommon sight. This would mean that supplies of magical ingredients, lower power magical items, spell scrolls, and the like would be readily available, though not necessarily cheap.

In such a campaign, Healing Potions could be bought off-the-shelf in magical supply stores, herbalist stalls, and apothecary shops in most reasonable-sized towns. Large cities also have Wizard schools, important temples, and universities, which are again helpful points of purchase.

If your campaign is one where magic is seen as a rarity, when spell casting and those who do so are still viewed with suspicion and wonder, then access to off-the-shelf magical products might not be so readily available.

Cities might still have specialist vendors, though they are harder to find. Of course, some city leaders might look poorly on the magical classes meaning that you may have to resort to the black market and a few suspect deals down by the docks with a shifty-looking Half-Orc smuggler.

Again, something that you could weave into a campaign or use as a one-session aside when only some of your players are available. Where magic is rare, it may be down to the character to make their potions and, in doing so, venture far and wide to find the necessary ingredients. 

It all depends on the nature and flavor of your campaign. Just because the core rules suggest magic is an everyday thing, and the films and associated books are awash with magical acts, doesn’t mean that you can’t be more restrictive.

Consider the wizards in Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, hardly a common sight, largely misunderstood, and indeed mistrusted by the population at large, not given over to regular and public acts of magic (save for a few child-friendly fireworks) and spending time researching in distant libraries to find the information that they need when researching specific information.

How much does a Potion of Healing cost? 

The vast and varied nature of the Healing Potion, coupled with the different types of approaches towards the availability of magic from one campaign world to another, means that the cost of a potion could vary wildly.

Generally speaking, the price would vary with the potion’s strength; one that restores a handful of Hit Points might be available for a few gold pieces, and one that restores a character to total health would probably run into hundreds.

Other factors would be things such as how close you are to trade routes and large towns, just because such potions are cheap and easily found in the capital city of a prosperous Empire, should you find yourself in a small pig farming town in the middle of nowhere, the cost of a Healing Potion might be massively inflated — assuming that you could find one available to purchase in the first place.

It is best to appreciate the usefulness of having a few of these potions in the party’s supplies. Healing Potions often differ between completing a quest and turning back halfway through. They are the difference between keeping your fighters in the fray rather than watching them get pushed around by a horde of rabid ratmen.

They are that extra burst of energy when you need it most. They are often the difference between returning home with the same amount of adventurers that you set out with and losing a few friends along the way.

It is also worth talking about economies of scale. Although Healing Potions are useful and reasonably common, if they are too cheap, then they become valueless, a given that every party will have them in numerous quantities.

But, on the other hand, if they are too expensive, too time-consuming to make, and too laborious to indulge in, then the cost means that all that effort far outreaches the reward gained when drunk.

The balance of economies isn’t something that most DMs spend a lot of time fretting about, but some consideration should be put its way. In any campaign, such a potion’s effects need to justify the time it takes to make it and/or the cost of purchase.

It should also be uncommon enough that adventurers aren’t heading out on an adventure with a wagon loaded with such items, impervious to the long-term effects of combat dues to a veritable reservoir of healing juices.

Are there mana potions and stamina potions in DnD 5e? 

Taking the idea of Healing and restorative potions a stage further, you could add all manner of similar potions to your gaming world. If those in the magical world have been clever enough to have invented Healing Potions, what else might they have stumbled across along the way?

All manner of accidental inventions have been created and discoveries been made on the path to a given end, so the potion makes, and apothecaries of your campaign wouldn’t be any different.

A Mana Potion might restore a spell slot for a character that drank it, the cerebral equivalent of mending a broken bone or staunching the loss of blood.

A Stamina Potion would confer the equivalent of a long rest on the character, thus enabling them to keep going and regain the benefits usually restored by a decent sleep when pressed for time. In some campaigns, such a potion is often called a Potion of Vitality.

What does an Elixir of Health do? 

Another potion that falls into similar realms as the Potion of Healing is the Elixir of Health. If the former mends physical damage, heals cuts and bruises, mends fractures and breaks, the latter administers all other types of ailment.

When drunk, rather than restoring Hit Points to the character, it tackles disease and ailments. It can cure disease, both magically inflicted and naturally acquired, and even has the power to restore blindness, deafness, and paralysis and neutralize poison.

Although these are all afflictions that can be naturally developed, it is more likely that on an adventure, these will be magically conferred on a character through combat with creatures or due to a spell caster or possibly even an otherworldly foe.

Again, a handy potion to have with you, especially in higher-level campaigns. 

What does a Potion of Cure Disease 5e do? 

A Cure Disease Potion is essentially the same as an Elixir of Health, curing natural and unnatural diseases and ailments such as blindness, deafness, paralysis, and the effects of poison.

Of course, as a DM, you are free to invent less powerful and more targetted cures; perhaps some only counter the effects of one of those ailments, and maybe some act as a preventative cure, meaning that for the duration of its products, you are safe from certain diseases and ailments, sort of like a fantasy equivalent of a vaccine. 

We are now more into the realm of medicine than magic, but in a fantasy world, these are going to be two areas where the lines blur. Such preventatives could be helpful if you find yourself heading into a region that has recently been afflicted with a plague or a wasting disease.

A potion like this would render you immune to the worst effects of those illnesses.

Other magical healing items

Although we are looking specifically at Healing Potions, it is worth taking a slight diversion and looking at some other options for helping keep the party’s health and Hit Points in good shape. Potions of Healing are useful, but there are plenty of other options available. Here are just a few.

Scrolls

A scroll might be seen as a Healing Potion only in written form. When the incantation is read out, then the spell will heal a designated ally just as if they had drunk a potion. The advantage of a scroll is that it is less bulky and less likely to break than a glass vial or jar. Also, being on a scroll means that it doesn’t take up an additional spell slot.

However, your character must be of the correct class to cast that spell. If, for example, a Barbarian happened to find a scroll inscribed with a healing spell, the mere act of possession is not enough for them to actually be able to cast it; they wouldn’t know how to use it. Even if they have the required language skill to read the words.

Spell casting is more than just reading the words out loud; you have to be magically attuned to the world to be able to draw out its eldritch powers. 

If the spell is on your spell list of a higher level than the spell you can currently cast, you will have to make an ability check. This check must be equal to 10+ the spell’s level. The scroll itself determines the spell’s level.

Goodberry

The Goodberry is a healing spell that is available to those of a Ranger or Druid class. When cast, it creates ten actual berries that can be consumed. When a character does so, each berry restores one Hit Point. The fruit also sustains the eater for a whole day, regarding more normal nourishment.

However, one Hit Point isn’t that great for a healing spell, and you can make a good argument that the benefits of such a spell barely warrant the spell slot that it takes up. It is commonly used to keep your character fed rather than having any major healing properties.

Although, perhaps at low levels, there is some merit to its inclusion.

Staff of Healing

The Staff of Healing is a reasonably rare magic item, one that can be bought at the more reputable magical supply shops but is just as likely to be found in a dungeon hoard or looted from a wizard’s keep.

The staff must be attuned to a Bard, Cleric, or Druid. It contains ten charges that regain at dawn, and each charge is able to heal the target for 1d6+4 charges Hit Points.

Wand of Cure Light Wounds

Similar to the Staff of Healing, the Wand of Cure Light Wounds contains charges that heal other creatures. The wand comes from a non-canon part of DnD and first appeared in additional rules that were found in the Pathfinder campaign.

There is no such item in the current rules for D&D 5e. Neither is there a corresponding spell in the Fifth Edition. But, it is easy to add such an item to your campaign, and should you want to implement this item into your world, perhaps the costs would be 750 gold pieces, and it heals 1d8+1 Hit Points per casting level.

Monsters with Healing Potions

We tend to use the word “Monster” to describe any opponent that the party encounter on an adventure. This can range from the smallest patch of slime to the grandest of dragons; they can be out for blood, or they might be more easily swayed to help out or at least not get in the way of the party’s interests.

But because we use such a term, it is easy to see them as merely canon fodder, as unintelligent, unresourceful creatures.

But, we know that not to be the case. Of course, some of the lower order, pack animal type creatures encountered will obviously be operating out of adherence to instinct or knee-jerk reactions, but most are as smart, switched on, adaptable and logical beings, often more so than the characters who encounter them.

If a monster has access to magic items, like a sword or spell, then they are going to use them, and the same is true of Healing Potions. Why would a monster not seek to patch itself up mid-melee in the same way that a player character might? 

This brings us to the whole availability of potions. It is logical that potions are made and sold in towns and cities not just for adventures but for military units, the town militia, and those who put themselves in danger as part of their everyday existence.

But how would such potions find their way into dungeon lairs or wilderness camps? Well, that isn’t too hard to imagine. A goblin chief might have sent raiding parties to the fringes of the civilized lands, and such treasures have been brought back in the spoils of war. 

Drow warriors, devils and rogue wizards would be smart enough to stockpile such items for the same reasons that adventurers do. And even the less intelligent denizens of the dark dungeon worlds might have acquired such magical items from slain adventurers who have gone before you.

After all, it is probably how they came by the +1 sword or that Ring of Invisibility. And if a monster owns such a useful item, they will surely use it when the time is right.

This also gives the adventures access to such potions even when they are wandering the far fringes of the world, well away from the towns and cities of the civilized world.

But, that said, don’t make the monsters stack such items; they are not going to stockpile potions when they are going to be the difference between staying in a fight and turning and running. Monsters are people, too… sometimes, anyway.

Can you Dispel Magic on a Potion of Healing 5e? 

This is an interesting question and one that is for each gaming group to debate and decide what is the most logical for their world. A potion is a magical item (unless your world has them more as exceptional natural medicines), so technically, a Dispel Magic spell will null and void its effects. 

Feel free to rule that, in this sense, potions don’t conform to this definition, and such spells have no effect.

Alternatively, you could argue the opposite and state that this spell turns magical potions into interesting flavored drinks with no actual benefit. Again, it is down to the DM and players to decide on the ruling that best matches the flavor of their campaign.

Can a Potion of Healing be harmful?

One last idea, one that works for all potions but might be particularly fun to apply to Healing Potions, is the idea of the imbiber having a bad reaction to the potion itself.

Considering magical potions are made from all manner of exotic ingredients, if the DM wants to spice up the campaign a bit or perhaps add even more layers of unpredictability, he could rule that very occasionally, characters might have a strange reaction to some of the more bizarre ingredients.

Maybe there are actually allergic to the honey of a giant hornet which is the active ingredient in the potion, or maybe the exotic Gooble Berry, whose juice is a necessary reagent, brings the character out in an unnecessary rash.

The healing might still work, but you could have fun with all manner of odd and inconvenient side effects.

Final Thoughts on Healing Potions in 5e

Healing Potions are a very important, essential part of the DnD world. But, they are as varied as the imaginations of those running each campaign. In some worlds, they will be low-cost, two a penny, first aid kits; in others, treasured items that result from hours of hard work on behalf of the creator.

The fact that they had to travel great distances, wrestle a giant frog to extract some rare skin secretion, and climb a fabled mountain to obtain the purest and untouched waters to make it will mean that it isn’t something used lightly.

There are variations on this theme, and all manner of similar Healing Potions could be made, ones that restore all manner of statistics or temporarily boost them or reduce fatigue, repel disease and tackle any ailment and injury that you think of.

At the risk of repeating myself, though I am going to anyway, such potions are limited only by the DM’s imagination or, in the case of characters with access to herbal and alchemy skills, the players too.

However, if you use such items, make sure they are reasonably accessible to the party, though not too ubiquitous, to make them stop seeming special and, more importantly, have fun with them, change the form, throw in unexpected side effects or rule that there is a slight chance that the imbiber might have an allergic reaction to one of the ingredients in the potion.

Subvert the form, throw a curve ball, and enjoy the game.

Potion of Healing FAQs

D&D Player’s Handbook

$49.95 $26.10

Buy on Amazon Buy at Noble Knight

We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.

03/28/2023 07:51 am GMT