Healing Potion 5e: All Four Potions of Healing, Costs and the Bonus Action Rule

A healing potion in 5e is a Potion of Healing: you drink it and regain hit points, and the amount depends on its rarity. The common one restores 2d4 + 2 (average 7), Greater 4d4 + 4 (14), Superior 8d4 + 8 (28) and Supreme 10d4 + 20 (45). None needs attunement. The edition difference is the action: drinking or administering a potion takes an action in 2014 and a Bonus Action in 2024. The common potion is weak healing, but it's the one way any character can get a downed ally back up, and in 2024 it costs almost nothing in action economy.

Table of Contents

• •Potion of Healing Rules Text
• •How Potions of Healing Work
• •Healing Potion 5e: The Common Potion
• •Potion of Greater Healing
• •Superior and Supreme Healing
• •Potions of Healing: 2014 vs 2024
• •Is a Potion of Healing Worth It?
• •Potions of Healing for DMs
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Potion of Healing Rules Text

Both SRDs print one entry with a table of four potions (2024 uses the plural name Potions of Healing). The healing numbers are identical.

How Potions of Healing Work

Drinking one, or pouring it into someone else

• •2014: the equipment chapter says drinking or administering a potion takes an action. You can't drink one and also attack on the same turn unless something gives you a second action.
• •2024: the magic item rules say drinking a potion or administering it to another creature takes a Bonus Action, and the Potion of Healing's equipment entry adds that the other creature must be within 5 feet of you.

That change decides how the potion plays. A 2024 fighter can attack and drink in the same turn; a 2024 rogue can reach a fallen wizard, administer a potion as a Bonus Action and still attack.

Bringing back a creature at 0 hit points

Any healing wakes a creature at 0 hit points, in both editions. Even a minimum roll of 4 on the common potion gets an unconscious ally back up with 4 hit points and stops their death saving throws. An unconscious creature can't drink on its own, so someone else has to administer it. A dead creature can't regain hit points at all; the potion does nothing until a spell like Revivify brings it back.

Healing can't go over your maximum

Hit points regained above your hit point maximum are lost. A character missing 5 hit points who drinks a Supreme potion still gains only 5, so save the large ones for large gaps.

Identifying a potion

All four potions share the same glimmering red liquid, so the color says "healing" but not which strength. The 2024 SRD says a little taste tells you what a potion does, and a Short Rest spent handling an item also identifies it. The 2014 SRD has no identification rule beyond the Identify spell. The catch in both editions is the Potion of Poison, which looks, smells and tastes like a Potion of Healing; its text says Identify reveals its true nature.

The Thief and Fast Hands

In 2024 Fast Hands adds nothing here: drinking is already a Bonus Action. In 2014, Fast Hands lets a Thief take the Use an Object action with Cunning Action, but the SRD 5.1 magic item rules say an action needed to activate a magic item "isn't a function of the Use an Item action," so Fast Hands can't activate it, and they list swallowing a potion as how a consumable is activated. Read strictly, a 2014 Thief can't drink a Potion of Healing with Fast Hands. Allowing it is a house rule; agree on it before the fight where it comes up.

Healing Potion 5e: The Common Potion

The basic Potion of Healing is the one in the equipment list. It restores 2d4 + 2 hit points: a range of 4 to 10, average 7. Both SRDs list it among adventuring gear at 50 gp, half a pound. That matches the 2024 value rule: a common item is 100 GP, halved for a consumable.

Seven hit points is a lot at level 1 and very little at level 10. Compare it with first-level healing spells:

In 2014 the potion matches a first-level spell and costs an action. In 2024 the spells got stronger, but the potion became a Bonus Action that a character with no spells at all can use.

Potion of Greater Healing

The Potion of Greater Healing is uncommon and restores 4d4 + 4 hit points: 8 to 20, average 14. The 2014 SRD gives it its own entry, shown below; the 2024 SRD lists it as "Potion of Healing (greater)" on the shared table.

Fourteen hit points is twice the common potion for four times the price under the 2024 values: an uncommon consumable is worth 200 GP (half of 400). The 2014 SRD lists no price for it. In the middle levels it's the potion to hold for a real emergency.

Superior and Supreme Healing

The 2024 values put these two well beyond a shopping trip:

The Supreme potion never restores fewer than 30 hit points, which makes it the one to hold for a high-level character who needs a single heal to cover a big hit. The 2024 SRD says Uncommon and Rare items are usually found only in cities, and rarer items might be sold only in wondrous locations such as a city on another plane, so expect to find a Supreme potion rather than buy it.

Potions of Healing: 2014 vs 2024

What this means at the table:

• •Potions got much better in 2024 without the dice changing. A Bonus Action heal next to an attack is a real turn; a full action for 7 hit points usually isn't.
• •Reach matters in 2024. You must be within 5 feet to administer a Potion of Healing, so move first.
• •2024 parties can make their own. Herbalism Kit proficiency turns 25 GP and a day of work into a 50 GP potion.

Is a Potion of Healing Worth It?

Yes, as an emergency tool, not as a main source of healing. The hit points are modest, but the potion needs no spell slot or attunement and anyone can use it. It matters most to parties without a healer, to the healer (someone has to get the cleric up when the cleric drops first), and in 2024 to martial characters who can attack and drink in one turn.

When it's a trap: drinking a common potion mid-combat in 2014 when you aren't about to drop. An action for 7 hit points is usually worse than an action spent ending the fight, and out of combat Hit Dice on a Short Rest heal for free. Storage matters too: retrieving an item from a Bag of Holding takes an action in 2014, so a potion kept there costs two actions to drink.

Potions of Healing for DMs

Where they turn up. Common potions fit early treasure and town shops, Greater potions mid-level hoards, Superior and Supreme potions high-level rewards.

What they change. Cheap potions turn gold into healing, so the party takes longer fights. In 2024 one Bonus Action wakes a downed character, so if nobody stays down, count the potions on the character sheets before changing the monsters.

Pricing. 50, 200, 2,000 and 20,000 GP under the 2024 values (the 2014 SRD prices only the common potion). The shop price calculator and magic item rarity calculator help when the party buys in bulk.

Unlabelled bottles. The Potion of Poison is built to pass for a healing potion: it looks, smells and tastes like one, and its text names Identify as the way to see through it. Use it once, not every session.

Hooks.

• •A temple sells Potions of Healing at cost to anyone who'll escort its next herb shipment through bandit country.
• •A smuggler's crate of identical red potions holds three Potions of Poison, meant for a rival company of adventurers.
• •A village healer brews the only Potions of Healing for 50 miles and has gone missing; whoever took her wants the recipe.

Nobody remembers who drank which potion a month later. Loreify records the session and keeps the loot list in the recap.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does a healing potion heal in 5e?

A Potion of Healing restores 2d4 + 2 hit points (average 7). Greater restores 4d4 + 4 (14), Superior 8d4 + 8 (28) and Supreme 10d4 + 20 (45). The numbers are the same in the 2014 and 2024 rules.

Is drinking a potion a bonus action in 5e?

In the 2024 rules, yes: drinking a potion or giving it to a creature within 5 feet takes a Bonus Action. In the 2014 rules it takes an action.

How much does a Potion of Healing cost?

50 gold in both SRDs' equipment lists. Under the 2024 values, a Potion of Greater Healing is worth 200 GP, Superior 2,000 GP and Supreme 20,000 GP. The 2014 SRD prices only the common potion.

Can you give a healing potion to an unconscious ally?

Yes. An unconscious creature can't drink on its own, but you can administer it: an action in 2014, a Bonus Action within 5 feet in 2024. Any amount of healing brings a creature at 0 hit points back to consciousness.

Can you make your own Potions of Healing?

In the 2024 rules, a character proficient with the Herbalism Kit can brew a Potion of Healing using 25 GP of raw materials and 1 day (8 hours) of work. The 2014 SRD says Herbalism Kit proficiency is required to create Potions of Healing but gives no cost or time.

Does a Potion of Healing require attunement?

No. Potions never require attunement, so anyone can drink one or feed it to someone else.

Item text: System Reference Document 5.1 (2014) and 5.2.1 (2024), Wizards of the Coast, CC-BY-4.0. Analysis, rulings and ideas are Loreify's own.