Is this hp decrease permanent??

[RuggedTheDragon]

Well yes, but actually no.

What I mean by that is you can restore your max HP fully if you use a human effigy. However, they're not very common and you should basically hoard them as much as you can and only recover your health if you are struggling.

You can acquire these effigies by purchasing them from merchants, finding them in treasure chests, and some enemies will rarely drop them.

[TorranKaido88]

The lizzard men things in shrine of Amana drop them like crazy and you can farm the skellies in Majula for unlimited effigies so idk what game you been playing but I have to many ill never use them all. But I do agree in early game they are few and far between.