D&D 5E Can a Paladin Cure Addiction?

[Helldritch]

From the DMG p 260.
Curing Madness
A calm emotions spell can suppress the effects of madness, while a lesser restoration spell can rid a character of a short-term or long-term madness. Depending on the source of the madness, remove curse or dispel evil might also prove effective. A greater restoration spell or more powerful magic is required to rid a character of indefinite madness.

So no, a paladin could not heal addiction (indefinite madness). But your high level cleric could.

 

[MarkB]

Perhaps if you consider an addiction to be an affliction that makes a person do (or not do) something they don't (or do) want to do, then that seems to fall in line with something like charm, petrify or curse.

Yeah, that's pretty much where I was coming from. I'd consider addiction to be a debilitating mental/physical effect, but not a disease, which places it in the realm of things that Restoration spells can help with.

EDIT: Also, as per Helldritch's excerpt, there are a few instances within the rules of specific effects being called out as curable by Greater Restoration, even though they're not covered by the spell description itself.

 

[Prakriti]

EDIT: Never mind; it's not worth arguing about.

 

[Tonguez]

And yet there are many talented writers -- Hemingway, Raymond Chandler, Stephen King, etc. -- who produced their best work while they were heavily dependent on drugs and/or alcohol. What do you think would have happened to them if you had magically "cured" that part of their personalities?

They would be talented writers who created their best work while not heavily dependent on intoxicants?
the work might be different but their talent isnt a result of their intoxication and may simply be coincident with their addiction

 

[Azzy]

From the DMG p 260.
Curing Madness
A calm emotions spell can suppress the effects of madness, while a lesser restoration spell can rid a character of a short-term or long-term madness. Depending on the source of the madness, remove curse or dispel evil might also prove effective. A greater restoration spell or more powerful magic is required to rid a character of indefinite madness.

So no, a paladin could not heal addiction (indefinite madness). But your high level cleric could.

Addiction isn't a "madness", though. I most forms, it has a very physical component.

 

[Helldritch]

Addiction isn't a "madness", though. I most forms, it has a very physical component.

Excellent! Greater restoration cures both.

 

[Azzy]

Assume, for the purpose of this discussion, that addiction is not just a failure of character, or a personal weakness, or whatever other anti-junky argument one might think to make, and instead that addiction is some manner of affliction upon a person.

If it's a disease, by any definition, can a paladin simply cure it?

Sure, why not. It's very heroic, I'd let it work.

If so, if a Paladin can cure a disease that is at least partly psychological, can they cure disorders that we don't define as diseases, in the modern world? Can they cure ADHD? What about Anti-Social Personality Disorder (Psychopathy/Sociopathy), or Schizophrenia?

Now, these things aren't diseases in the modern definition, and it's dangerous to classify them as such, because of how humans have treated eachother when mental disorders and the like are defined as diseases, curses, or the like, but I think there's a decent argument that since we know that mental health is physical health, meaning a mental disorder is a physical disorder whose symptoms effect the operation of the mind, and since some mental health issues can be gained due to environmental and experiential factors, such as Borderline Personality Disorder and PTSD, we can conclude that Lay On Hands should be capable of genuinely curing these disorders.[/QUOTE]

That's getting kinda sketchy. I'd say those would require a Greater Restoration if anything.

 

[Iry]

Let me add another:

Can a Paladin cure pregnancy?

 

[Tonguez]

Let me add another:

Can a Paladin cure pregnancy?

Pregnancy is not a dehblitating status effect

 

[Son of the Serpent]

pretty sure that paladin's (and other's for that matter) "cure disease" abilities were initially created with the idea of the "disease" being "cured" to be that pathogens causing things against your anatomy to occur were purged as if they were an unholy "taint" of sorts.

we may come up with (and later game developer's for d&d may themself have) new ideas and interpretations (and those may be what your dm decides to go with) but its pretty likely that "cleansing away the taint (pathogen of effects against natural anatomy)" is probably what was originally intended.

so by the original RAI of the mechanic, probably, addiction and pregnancy would be no more curable by this particular effect than would be cancer, a broken bone, alzheimers, or puberty.

that said, he who goes by RAI and only RAI too strictly is generally going to have a very rough and boring game.

mostly i think the original intent on this one is probably the best conception of this spell though. albeit i would add an alternative version of the spell (i'd paracitize contagion or something in some way). a negative energy using one that good aligned paladin's can't use and evil aligned ones can (just the way i'd do it. doesn't have to be the case for everyone) wherein for certain special cases it can "cure" people. for instance, need an abortion? negative energy cure all kills the baby and causes early labor. need cancer treatment? all the cancerous cells (but you take 1 hp/character level drain damage) are lysated.

but obviously people can go with whatever they want. still, for certain diseases that i think fall outside the conception originally intended i find this to be an interesting way of handling it. and it gives necros something medically interesting they can do.