Any official way to erase a fire brand?

[Rad]

One of my players (if you're one of them close this thread) managed to piss off a bad guy a lot AND get captured in the process. The bad guy being a subtle and refined person, he decided to torture him and brand him with a literal branding iron he happened to have handy. The player liked the interaction, but the character is pissed and would like the brand gone.

Is there any spell or other effect that would do that? The brand is cosmetic, so I kind of doubt it.

If it's left to the DM, I want brands and scars to be hard enough to remove that most people just live with them but it should definitely be something that can be fixed by less than a wish-level magic (which I just realized would qualify as a RAW way to do that).
I was thinking something along the lines of Greater restoration (party is level 3). It's doable but feels uncommon enough. Maybe Regeneration would be more appropriate?

[DeTess]

Regeneration feels appropriate, if a bit overkill. I feel like removing bad scars would be in the territory of a 5th level spell, so greater restoration seems like a good fit. But that's just my gut-feeling on the matter.

[Greywander]

Regeneration would work for sure, since it explicitly restores lost body parts (and "skin" can be considered a body part). But it is a pretty high level spell. If it's up to DM fiat, Greater Restoration is probably fine. I might consider Lesser Restoration, but that might be too easy. Maybe use an upcast Lesser Restoration? Consider how easy you want it to be, and how that would impact the world. If a 1st level Cure Wounds can remove a scar, then probably a good chunk of people don't have any scars, period. Anyone who can afford to higher a cleric to cast Cure Wounds. Greater Restoration would make it quite a bit more costly, something that only the expert clerics would be able to cast (I generally view 5th level spells as the highest most people have heard of or can cast; anyone with access to 6th+ level spells is probably a named character important to the plot, and themselves a renowned adventurer).

[Burley]

Maybe multiple Lesser Restorations over the course of several long rests? That'd allow for a lower level character access to the healing. It could be good bonding time between characters or it could be a down-time activity for the one character, requiring them to pay for the casting.

Scarring is a weird thing in D&D because characters are constantly getting axe hack'd and dragon breath'd, but the only scars they'll have are the ones from their backstories.

[Unoriginal]

In that situation, I would introduce some kind of healing spring, forest grove populated with beauty-focused fey, secret magical spa for the city's elite, temple of a minor deity whose Domain includes/is appearances, or the like that is nearby enough the PCs won't have to go out of their way to get to it, but still requires the PC who wants it to do some efforts to find it/be allowed to use it.

Turning a misadventure's consequences into an adventure can work, as long as the players are fine with it.


I think Candlekeep Mystery has a whole scenario happening in a magical beauty ressort, but that would be kinda overkill, IMO.

[Rad]

Thank you all for the replies. I have no hurry to fix the thing, just want to let the player know, so Greater restoration seems the way to go.
I like the idea of repeat castings of a lesser spell, it doesn't fit this campaign though.


I think Candlekeep Mystery has a whole scenario happening in a magical beauty ressort, but that would be kinda overkill, IMO.

We're headed to Candlekeep in the mid-future,so that might be happening! :smallbiggrin:

[Sorinth]

I would be tempted to have the brand be linked to curse of sorts that was placed during the branding. So normally a Lesser Restoration would fix scars/brands but when the players attempt it, it either fails or seems to work but then the brand reappears after a couple days. They would need to figure out it's a curse and then Remove Curse followed by Lesser Restoration or just Greater Restoration to actually get rid of it.

[Rad]

I would be tempted to have the brand be linked to curse of sorts that was placed during the branding. So normally a Lesser Restoration would fix scars/brands but when the players attempt it, it either fails or seems to work but then the brand reappears after a couple days. They would need to figure out it's a curse and then Remove Curse followed by Lesser Restoration or just Greater Restoration to actually get rid of it.

I didnt'think about that at the time but my players did right away. I had detect magic come out negative but that still leaves some options open :smallamused:.

[Sigreid]

If the character is hard core enough, he could have another party member cut the brand out and then cure wounds should work.

[Burley]

Remove Curse is a 3rd level spell and Lesser Restoration is 2nd level. It's not that much more difficult to find a Remove Curse caster for it that to find a LesserResser. So, maybe, there needs to be more than just a spell slot.

Maybe the scar itself isn't magical, because the scar isn't where the curse exists. The curse is actually on the brand: If this brand is ever removed, it burns itself in again. As painfully as before. So, when the scar is restored, the curse doesn't reactivate on the person, it reactivates on the brand. OH! Maybe the brand reburns the mark on EVERYBODY each time it's activated, so, the PC could get random pain when somebody else tries to heal their own scars. Maybe the PC learns this only after having tried to heal it themselves a couple times.

Possible character responses:
They could stop trying to heal themselves, in the hopes they'd no longer cause pain to others.
They could go on a quest to claim the brand and break the curse for every victim.
They could do a Highlander style quest and kill everybody else who has been cursed. (This path wouldn't do anything productive, but I needed a third thing, so...)

[Demonslayer666]

The brand is healed, so you would need to remove it or obscure it, likely by causing damage.

I don't think this should require any high level spells, but I think greater restoration is a good solution spell-wise (because it can restore ability damage).

[Sorinth]

I didnt'think about that at the time but my players did right away. I had detect magic come out negative but that still leaves some options open :smallamused:.

I don't think by RAW a detect magic would necessarily detect a curse, it seems very much DMs discretion, so you have your options open. And a simple explanation would be that it's undetectable while in a dormant mode, it's only once some condition gets met that it wakes up and starts doing stuff that it can be detected/identified/arcana skill checkable. I would even be tempted to have a triggering event, where it wakes up for 1hr and then goes back dormant.

[PhoenixPhyre]

In real life, I knew a kid who did the reverse to obliterate some prison tattoos. He heated up the bottom of a soda can and pressed it to the tattooed area (just his wrist, not anywhere more sensitive, but still), leaving a big scarred area.

So if your player mostly objects to the pattern, a second brand (this one just flat) would likely work. If a bit painful.

[Chronos]

Or a random jumble of other scars, to obscure it. Or maybe if someone in the party is artistic enough, take the current brand and incorporate it into some other pattern.

(the Old West included cattle thieves who would re-brand cattle with a shape that included some legitimate rancher's brand, in a way that it was unrecognizable)