Another player who was at the table during the incident sent me this meme after the problem player in question (they had a history) left the group chat.
Felt like sharing it here because Iām sure more people should keep this kind of thing in mind.
Maybe the spell only removes acquired forms of blindness, say through the magic spell Blindness, curses, etc, and has no ability to generate new, functioning tissue for someone that never had any.
Pathfinder 1e / dnd 3.5 : https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/removeBlindnessDeafness.htm
Remove blindness/deafness cures blindness or deafness (your choice), whether the effect is normal or magical in nature.
5e spell: https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/lesser-restoration
5eās spell might be interpreted as in, it removes the āblindedā condition, which might be different than being āblindā. However I would guess that when they developed the spell they did not think about it, they just bundled a bunch of spells in 1.
Yeah, I would agree that they probably didnāt even think about it. Iād probably interpret the spell as removing the āblindedā condition, whether itās caused by magic or just someone throwing sand in the characterās eyes or other ānormalā causes of the blinded condition.
The Pathfinder version also specifies āThe spell does not restore ears or eyes that have been lost, but it repairs them if they are damaged.ā Someone with congenital blindness or deafness may not have ādamageā that can be repaired, and with the ears/eyes being naturally non-functional, the spell giving them a new ability (sight/hearing) that they previously didnāt possess could be interpreted as being beyond the spellās scope.