Is changing prepared spells a 'benefit of a long rest'?

Question

This problem came up during a post-game discussion in my D&D 5e campaign last night. It concerns the curse ability of the Rakshasa and how that interacts with preparing spells. In game we managed to avoid the encounter; to the relief of the DM, as he was unsure what ruling to make in this situation.

The Rakshasa's claw attack states:

[..] and the target is cursed if it is a creature. [...] The cursed target gains no benefit from finishing a short or long rest. The curse lasts until it is lifted by a remove curse or similar magic.

Our party is level 16 and has a cleric so access to the remove curse spell shouldn't pose much of an issue. However, since the cleric did not have remove curse prepared at the time a question arose as to what would happen if it was the cleric that was cursed.

The cleric's spellcasting feature states the following about preparing spells (emphasis mine):

You prepare a list of cleric spells that are available for you to cast, choosing from the cleric spell list. [...] Casting the spell doesn't remove it from your list of prepared spells.

You can change your list of prepared spells when you finish a long rest. Preparing a new list of cleric spells requires time spent in prayer and meditation: at least 1 minute per spell level for each spell on your list.

We agreed that as DM's we would all likely allow the cleric to change spells while cursed as we tend toward more player-positive rulings. However we aren't sure that is the correct interpretation by RAW and ruling the other way could lead to some interesting consequences.

Does changing your list of prepared spells count as a benefit of a long rest for the purpose of the Rakshasa's curse ability?

Answer 1

Yes.

Is it a benefit? Yes. It's certainly beneficial to be able to change spells, in that it lets you get access to spells you didn't previously have prepared, with no real downside, since it's optional.

Does it result from finishing a long rest? Yes, the rule for changing prepared spells says you may do it upon finishing a long rest, but doesn't say you can do it any other time.

Therefore it's a benefit of finishing a long rest.

Answer 2

It depends

D&D 5e uses the natural language meaning of words, unless contradicted by a defined game term. Benefit is not a defined game term.

Benefit, under the normal meaning of the word is:

an advantage or profit gained from something.

Being able to change spells is contingent on completing a long rest.

The Rakshasa's curse reads:

The magical curse takes effect whenever the target takes a long or a short rest [...]. The cursed target gains no benefit from completing a long or short rest. The curse lasts until lifted by a remove curse spell or similar magic.

Is being able to change your spells an advantage or profit?

It depends on what and when you are swapping it.

For the specific spell in question, remove curse, in this DMs opinion the answer is yes. The creature would gain an advantage or profit by being able to now cast remove curse (and thus remove the curse). As a result the creature is unable to prepare remove curse specifically (or greater restoration).

As to other spells and their preparation, that's where the "it depends" comes in. It depends on your DMs answer to this question. If they think swapping one spell out for another would be profitable or advantageous, then no you can't. If however they don't then you can. For example, swapping out Cure Wounds for Purify Food and Drink can be advantageous in some circumstances but very disadvantageous in others. In the good scenarios they cannot swap it out, but in the bad ones they can.

Can you potentially swap out higher level spells, or forgo preparing all of your spells, or delay enough that an important quest fails (or now has a significant likelihood of failure), to make the trade for remove curse "non-advantageous" from the perspective of the feature?

That is very much in the realm of a DM call. It depends very much on the situation. Are the heroes in a time sensitive situation where an extra day of delay would cause dire circumstances to come to pass, or be significantly harder to prevent? If so, then probably, otherwise no. Note it's important to remember that the heroes in this case are at the top end of tier 3 of play, and the threats they are facing could cause bad things for whole regions or continents. In that context the idea of "advantage" or "profit" is a very mushy context?

So is the party out of luck?

No. Not being able to remove the curse themselves is a pretty dire situation and would, for me as a player, result in returning to whatever safe haven is nearest to enlist the help of whatever cleric, druid, or other spellcaster that could cast greater restoration or remove curse on me. I would be explicitly disincentivised from doing any further adventuring.

Your cleric also has the option of trying their divine intervention feature every day until it succeeds. After 7 days of repeated request, at 16th level, the cleric would have a 71% chance of success in asking their god to intercede on their behalf. By 20 days they would have a 97% chance of success.

As a DM, this situation is an opportunity to provide the players with a social and exploratory pillars of the game. At level 16, the party will, almost certainly, have accrued favours and goodwill from the great and the good of the land. This situation is the time to cash them in. Whats more, the party should, by this stage, have access to fast travel via magic that can put them almost anywhere in the world.

Answer 3

Rules As Written (RAW): Maybe

There is some ambiguity due to the word "benefit" not being used in the Resting or Class sections of the PHB, and that has an argument for being consistent between both.

Contrasting this are several magic items that regain charges after a long rest (most state dawn though). There is also a subclass (I forgot which, so feel free to edit / correct) where the spells are regained at dawn, and not after the long rest!

Rules As Intended (RAI): No

Simple enough. To be a benefit of a long rest then it should be listed a part of the Long Rest block on page 186 of the PHB.

At the end of a long rest, a character regains all lost hit points. The character also regains spent Hit Dice, up to a number of dice equal to half of the character's total number of them. You regain at least 1 Hit Die when you finish a long rest.

As mentioned in the other correct answer, the spell changing is part of the Cleric block (and other classes where relevant) - this is not a benefit to a long rest, but just something that happens.

For the RAI major reason - not having it prepared could mean taking an extra long rest to prepare, or even having to hunt out and find a magic user or other source of removing the curse, but if they still have that spell slot free they could potentially learn it for the day after they realise what has happened (not being able to regain spell slots might make it the same issue anyway).

Answer 4

No

From the preparing and casting spells section for the cleric:

You can change your list of prepared Spells when you finish a Long Rest. Preparing a new list of Cleric Spells requires time spent in prayer and meditation: at least 1 minute per Spell Level for each spell on your list.

Note the word "finish". You don't prepare spells during a long rest so it's not a benefit of having a long rest. Recharging your spell slots on the other hand would likely be considered a benefit of a long rest though.