Staff of Healing 5e: Charges, Healing per Charge and 2024 Changes

The Staff of Healing is a rare staff that requires attunement by a bard, cleric or druid. It holds 10 charges and casts Cure Wounds (1 charge per spell level, up to level 4), Lesser Restoration (2 charges) or Mass Cure Wounds (5 charges) using your own spellcasting ability modifier. It regains 1d6 + 4 charges at dawn; spend the last charge and there's a 1-in-20 chance it vanishes. The 2024 version heals far more, because the 2024 healing spells it casts heal more, and its Lesser Restoration is a Bonus Action. For a party healer, it's a second pool of spell slots that only does healing.

Table of Contents

• •Staff of Healing Rules Text
• •How the Staff of Healing Works
• •Staff of Healing: 2014 vs 2024
• •Is the Staff of Healing Worth It?
• •Staff of Healing for DMs
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Staff of Healing Rules Text

How the Staff of Healing Works

Casting from the staff

You must hold the staff. Spells cast from a magic item use no spell slots and need no components unless the item says otherwise, and you must be attuned. The staff uses your spellcasting ability modifier. If you have more than one (a bard/cleric has Charisma and Wisdom), the 2024 SRD lets you choose which to use; the 2014 SRD doesn't address it.

The action cost differs by edition:

• •2014: the staff text says casting from it takes an action, whatever the spell.
• •2024: the staff gives no casting time, so the general rule applies: a spell from an item uses its normal casting time. Cure Wounds and Mass Cure Wounds take an action; Lesser Restoration is a Bonus Action in 2024.

Healing per charge

Assume a +4 spellcasting modifier.

Cure Wounds gets more efficient per charge at lower levels in 2014, because the modifier is added once per cast: a 1-charge cast heals 8.5 per charge, a 4-charge cast 5.5. In 2024 every level adds 2d8 (9 hit points), so higher casts lose less.

Mass Cure Wounds is the best use when four or more allies are hurt. Healing six creatures for 26.5 each in 2024 is 159 hit points from 5 charges, about 32 per charge, against 10 to 13 per charge for Cure Wounds. Even in 2014, six targets get 105 hit points, 21 per charge.

Mass Cure Wounds early

Mass Cure Wounds is a level 5 spell. A cleric or druid can't cast level 5 spells until character level 9, and a bard likewise. The staff ignores that: a level 5 cleric can cast it twice from a full staff. That's the staff's strongest effect at low and mid levels.

Lesser Restoration

Two charges end one condition: Blinded, Deafened, Paralyzed or Poisoned. In 2014 it can instead end one disease; the 2024 spell dropped diseases. A ghoul's paralysis, a poisoned scout or a blinded fighter are all two charges away from being fixed.

Combining with your own spells in one turn

• •2014: if you cast a spell as a bonus action, you can't cast any other spell that turn except a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action. Casting Healing Word and then using your action for the staff's Cure Wounds isn't allowed, because the staff casts a spell too.
• •2024: the limit is one spell slot per turn. The staff uses no slots, so a cleric can cast a slotted spell with an action and still use the staff's Lesser Restoration as a Bonus Action on the same turn.

Charges and the last-charge risk

The staff regains 1d6 + 4 charges at dawn: 5 to 10, 7.5 on average. If you expend the last charge, roll a d20; on a 1 the staff vanishes for good, a 5 percent risk. The risk only exists when you spend the last charge, so keeping 1 charge in reserve avoids it entirely. Draining it to 0 every day carries the risk every day: about a 40 percent chance of losing the staff over ten such days.

Staff of Healing: 2014 vs 2024

What it means: the item text barely changed, but the spells it casts heal more. With a +4 modifier, the 2024 staff heals about 1.5 to 1.8 times as much per charge as the 2014 one (Cure Wounds at level 1: 13 vs 8.5; at level 4: 40 vs 22), and a 2024 party can use it on a construct or undead ally, which the 2014 cure spells couldn't heal.

Is the Staff of Healing Worth It?

For a dedicated healer, yes. Ten charges, refilled by about 7.5 a day, work like an extra level 5 slot plus a few low slots that only heal, and it frees your own slots for spells like Spirit Guardians or Revivify. Druids and bards who only heal in emergencies get less out of it.

It costs an attunement slot. For a cleric, the Cloak of Protection (+1 AC and saves) keeps the healer alive; the staff keeps everyone else up. The Staff of the Woodlands is the other rare staff in this space, for druids only, and trades healing for a +2 weapon, a +2 to spell attacks and nature spells.

Staff of Healing for DMs

Where it turns up. Rare, so mid-level treasure. The 2024 SRD values rare items at 4,000 GP and says they're usually found only in cities. The 2014 SRD has no prices. The magic item rarity calculator helps price it against the rest of the hoard.

What it changes. Attrition. One Mass Cure Wounds alone restores 105 hit points across six characters in 2014 and 159 in 2024, and the staff refills most of its charges every dawn. A long dungeon day gets noticeably easier. If your adventure relies on attrition, add a fight between rests, or lean on threats that cost charges rather than hit points: every Ghoul paralysis the cleric ends with Lesser Restoration is 2 charges not spent on healing.

The vanishing. If the staff disappears, describe it. The text says it vanishes "in a flash of light," which makes for a good scene at the worst possible time.

Hooks.

• •A temple lends the staff to the party for one job: clear a plague village. It wants the staff back with every charge accounted for.
• •A druid circle's staff vanished when its keeper spent the last charge. A seer says it reappeared somewhere, and the circle wants it found.
• •An injured knight offers the party his Staff of Healing in exchange for safe passage. He has been keeping one charge in reserve for weeks, and he's dying.

When the cleric spends the last charge and rolls the d20, everyone remembers the result. Loreify records the session and writes it into your campaign notes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who can attune to a Staff of Healing?

A bard, cleric or druid, in both editions. Any character with a level in one of those classes qualifies.

How many charges does a Staff of Healing have?

10 charges. It regains 1d6 + 4 expended charges each day at dawn.

What happens when you use the last charge of a Staff of Healing?

Roll a d20. On a 1, the staff vanishes in a flash of light and is lost forever. Keeping one charge in reserve avoids the roll.

Can you cast Mass Cure Wounds from the staff below level 9?

Yes. The staff casts it for 5 charges regardless of your level or spell slots.

How much is a Staff of Healing worth?

4,000 GP under the 2024 SRD, the value of a rare magic item. The 2014 SRD gives no prices.

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.