How to restore all files on a linux client excluding one folder and all its sub folders

So i need to restore a entire drive mounted at /HD2 but don’t need to restore or revert anything in /HD2/things is there a way to excluded a sub folder but get the rest when restoring?

The point being the rest of the folders in /HD2 need to be reverted back to a certain state but the stuff in “things” CANNOT be reverted or i lose work, so i want to exclude it during the restore of /HD2.

Can you restore them to a secondary location, then copy over what is needed?