D&D 5E Recovering Ability Score Damage

Dragongrief · Mar 22, 2016

Am I missing something, or is recovering ability damage virtually impossible per the base rules?

The first player-controlled ability I could find is the 5th level Greater Restoration spell.

Is that it, or did I miss an entry somewhere about natural recovery?

The Crimson Binome · Mar 22, 2016

I think it should be listed alongside the source of the drain. For example, Shadows mention that lost Strength recovers when you take a short or long rest.

UngeheuerLich · Mar 22, 2016

Yes. It is missing from the rules. If an ability does not list a way to recover you need greater restoration.

Here is what I would do. A combination of medicine checks and downtime to cure someone from his disease.

EzekielRaiden · Mar 22, 2016

If you're the DM, you could probably implement ways to get around it. Spending some money on a prescribed cure might work: you have to take your daily dose for a week, if you miss it you have to start the treatment over kind of thing. Perhaps it leaves you at just a mild penalty (say -1 or -2) until the treatment fully takes hold--still hurts, but not impossible to fix.

Alternatively, this can be an opportunity to bring in outside forces trying to get something out of the party. And it doesn't even need to be nefarious--though that can be a great source of drama. Team Good has no shortage of issues to address, and pre-emptive "payment" of healing in exchange for a vow to complete some task is perfectly compatible with good allies.

I'm A Banana · Mar 22, 2016

The way to do this by RAI, I believe, is the Recouperating function of downtime - that's the way Adventurer's League handles this stuff.

But, RAW, the wording of what you can recouperate from is vague enough that it's basically up to the DM if you can heal ability score drain (for instance). Does it count as a "debilitating injury?" Most games I've been in would say yup. But it's not explicit.

GX.Sigma · Mar 22, 2016

Dragongrief said:
Am I missing something, or is recovering ability damage virtually impossible per the base rules?

The first player-controlled ability I could find is the 5th level Greater Restoration spell.

Is that it, or did I miss an entry somewhere about natural recovery?

As far as I know, inflicting ability damage is impossible per the base rules. It just doesn't exist in 5e.

Mouseferatu · Mar 22, 2016

GX.Sigma said:
As far as I know, inflicting ability damage is impossible per the base rules. It just doesn't exist in 5e.

Except for the shadow. The shadow drains Strength.

It's weird and yeah, so far as I can tell, the only example in the entire game.

GX.Sigma · Mar 22, 2016

Mouseferatu said:
Except for the shadow. The shadow drains Strength.

My point is that the concept of "ability damage" does not exist in the 5e rules. Sure, some exceptional effects may reduce an ability score for a specified duration (the feeblemind spell is another example), but there's no need to have a core rule about it.

Illithidbix · Mar 22, 2016

Ability score damage is so rare in 5E that every source mentions how to regain it, and Greater Restoration (level 5 spell) specifies it cures ability score damage.

A Shadow's Strength Drain is until the target finishes a long or short rest.

The Hit Point Maximum loss from Wight, Spectre and Wraith's Life Drain and Vampire's bite lasts until the target finishes a long rest

The Hit Point Maximum loss from a Clay Golem's Slam lasts "until removed by Greater Restoration or other magic." (It's CR 9)

... Except this seems to have been missed out of the Intellect Devourer's "Devour Intellect"

Personally I think Intellect Devourer's case is an oversight and I'd go with "until long rest" if it's not otherwise specified.
(But I'd rule the Clay Golem is specific enough that it's not cured by rest, also as the Clay Golem is CR 9 and Greater Restoration is *just* within the capacity of Level 9 Bards, Clerics and Druids)

I think it would be a bit odd if you needed a 5th level spell to cure something a CR 2 creature does.
(Amusing comments about CR 1/8 monsters requiring Raise Dead to fix aside...)

GX.Sigma · Mar 22, 2016

The Devour Intellect power doesn't make any sense at all. Reducing a character's Int to 0 should represent the complete destruction of their mind. The Intellect Devourer already has a different power that does exactly that. So why even have the Int reduction at all? It should just say "stunned" for whatever duration.

Also the flavor text on that page is dumb, but that's beside the point.