The spell doesn’t give objects a save — it just deals the damage directly. Only the paragraph about how it affects creatures gives a save.
This circumvents the object immunity rule, since it’s not being affected by an effect with a save, it’s just being dealt damage.
No, otherwise it would be mentioned by the spells' descriptions.
That being said, I believe the reason why it's not mentioned are the spells' intended usages / their themes.
Lesser Restoration allows you to remove the following conditions:
disease, [...] blinded, deafened, paralyzed, or poisoned
All of them are physical conditions, leading me to believe that the intent of the spell is to be your all-rounder spell for minor illnesses etc. Frightened is not a physical condition, therefore it doesn't fit the theme.
Moving on to Greater Restoration, it can remove the following effects:
- One level of exhaustion
- One effect that charmed or petrified the target
- One curse, including the target’s attunement to a cursed magic item
- Any reduction to one of the target’s ability scores
- One effect reducing the target’s hit point maximum
It removes major detrimental effects, and once again, they are all physical effects (and curses), aside from the Charmed condition. In my opinion, it would be reasonable to include Frightened alongside Charmed, but since Charmed can be way more impactful than being Frightened (in one case, you run away, in the other, you might fight for the opposing team), that's probably why they chose Charmed instead of Frightened.
In addition to the previous paragraphs, there are spells that do help against the Frightened condition (sometimes limited to against specific types), just not the Restoration spells:
- Protection from Evil and Good: immune against being Frightened (and other effects) by aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead, and advantage on saving throws for existing effects.
- Aura of Purity: advantage on saves against Frightened (and other effects)
- Heroism: immunity against the Frightened condition
- Heroes Feast: immunity against the Frightened condition
- Calm Emotions: can suppress the Frightened condition for its duration, i.e. up to 1 minute. Effect resumes afterwards, unless the duration has run out.
There are probably a few others that I failed to find.
Best Answer
RAW a petrified creature is still a creature because petrified doesn't say otherwise
The Petrified condition (PHB p. 291) lists the effects of being petrified. All of the effects talk about "A petrified creature..." or "...the creature..." and none of them list the creature becoming an object. From this we know that a petrified creature is a creature not an object.
Alternatively a petrified creature is still a creature because it still acts like a creature
Another way of looking at this is noting that the Petrified condition doesn't actually change all that much.
Attacks against a petrified creature have advantage but still have to be beat the creature's AC to hit. This is a bit bizarre considering that the Paralyzed condition is more restrictive but... well it's RAW. The creature's AC calculation doesn't change as none of the bonuses actually require the creature to be able to move or take actions. Strange, yes, but it's what's in the book.
You can't take actions, reactions, or move, or speak, and you aren't aware of your surroundings. It sounds limiting but then you think about all the things you can do without those like intelligence checks (probably if you already saw what you needed), maintain concentration on a spell, and make successful saves of all types except strength and dexterity (statues are well known for their excellent charisma).
5e petrification is really more paralysis-lite with some added defense from your makeshift-stoneskin spell. Made of rock but alive inside and certainly not an object.
RAW can be strange
Honestly the RAW interpretation strikes me as pretty lame. Petrification in fiction tends to depict the afflicted becoming a completely inanimate statue and it's equivalent to death unless big mojo is brought in. I think the problem is that while earlier versions of D&D followed this sort of logic 5e petrification is more of a polite timeout where you get the stony exterior for your own protection. Bit of a let down really but easily house-ruled if you prefer a grimmer sort of petrification in your fantasy.