Heighten Spell + Lesser Restoration = Restoration?

[The Appleworm]

Hello. I have a question about how the Heighten Spell feat would work with the spell Lesser Restoration.

If I had a level 5 cleric and can, therefore, cast Lesser Restoration, would the Heighten Spell feat convert Lesser Restoration to Restoration? The description of the feat states: "A heightened spell has a higher spell level than normal (up to a maximum of 9th level). Unlike other metamagic feats, Heighten Spell actually increases the effective level of the spell that it modifies. All effects dependent on spell level (such as saving throw DCs and ability to penetrate a lesser globe of invulnerability) are calculated according to the heightened level."

It's the last sentence that gives me the impression that I could cast Lesser Restoration with the Heighten Spell feat and the effect would be the Restoration spell (given that there is a progression in this spell from Lesser Restoration to Restoration to Greater Restoration).

My questions, then, are these:

1. Does this feat have this effect on this spell?
2. What about the material components? There are no material components for Lesser Restoration, but there is for Restoration. Would I bypass those required components?
3. Can my level 5 cleric cast a spell that heightens the effect to a spell level beyond what he can currently cast?

Anyway, I'm pretty new to the game and don't always understand the subtle nuances, so any guidance in this particular issue would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[Johnny_Devo]

Lesser restoration has no effects that scale with spell level, so there's no benefit to heighten.

An important distinction with "heighten spell" is that you're still casting the same spell... It's just that the DC goes up, basically. And as pointed out in the paranthesis, whether it can penetrate a globe of invulnerability.

So no, a lesser restoration heightened by 2 spell levels is still a lesser restoration, and will not gain any additional effects.

[wraithstrike]

1. No, it doesnt work like that.
Heighten changes the base level of the spell, but it doesn't change it into a different spell that is based on the same theme.
The main benefits of heighten spell would be to increase the save DC of a spell, and to allow it to bypass things that block spells of a certain level. As an example there are ways to block spells that levels 3 and below. If you heighten a spell to level 4, it would no longer be blocked.

2. No. See above.

3. No. You can't cast a spell without the slot for it. Heighten spell changes the level of the spell, and that affects the slot level it uses. You can't cast a higher level spell(to include metamagic'd spells) from a lower level slot unless you have a special ability that allows you to do so.

[The Appleworm]

Thanks for the help, Johhny_Devo. The way that the feat reads just kind of confused me, and I was just hoping there was a way to cast Restoration before I actually get access to the spell at Level 7.

Thanks for the explanation as well, wraithstrike. I think that I'm starting to understand what the feat does (and how it could be useful).

BTW, if either of you (or anyone else) knows of another way to be able to do that, let me know. The party is in a bad situation at the moment where I can't really get access to a scroll, but if there is a feat that I can take as part of leveling up at level 5 that will allow me to access Restoration (or to remove negative levels by some other means), I would love to know about it.

Thanks again!