[RPG] What ways are there to end a reduction to a character’s hit point maximum

dnd-5ehit-points

As a DM, I've been using a Mummy, and as a result, the character of one of my players has had their hit point maximum reduced a lot. In my head, it was clear that the character would go to the nearest town and ask the priest to heal them; the priest can cast remove curse to halt the bleeding and greater restoration to end the effect reducing their hit point maximum. However, they only removed the curse (by spell swapping at a level up) and went on.

So I might throw another way to get their hit point maximum on the road, but what? Besides greater restoration (and wish), what are the other ways of ending a reduction to someone's hit point maximum, especially at level 4-5?

Best Answer

In your specific situation, remove curse is sufficient; greater restoration is not needed.

According to the description of the mummy's Rotting Fist attack, a remove curse spell is sufficient to undo the curse inflicted by Rotting Fist. This includes the reduction to maximum HP.

However, other monsters, such as the clay golem with its Slam attack, are capable of reducing a character's maximum HP. In the case of the clay golem, "a greater restoration spell or other magic" is needed to reverse the max HP reduction.

The spell greater restoration is the only thing I am aware of in D&D 5e that is specifically stated to end an effect that reduces a creature's maximum HP. But both the mummy's and the clay golem's descriptions allow for "other magic" to restore the reduction as well. The phrase "or other magic" means that DMs should use their discretion in deciding alternate ways of restoring the max HP reduction.

In a game I run, a PC's max HP was reduced by a clay golem. After the character had suffered the effects of the reduction for a few sessions, I decided that a potion of vitality would be appropriate thematically for restoring his max HP, despite the fact that the potion's description does not state that it does this. I placed one in the possession of a boss enemy for the characters to find upon defeating it, and they eventually did.