D&D General Diabetes in dnd

[tetrasodium]

Prosthetic Limb is a common magic item with zero function other than replacing the missing limb & being functional. It's practically on the same level of availability as the useless fluff starting trinkets a lot of backgrounds already grant. "Hey GM can I start with it because $reason" probably doesn't need an entire background to circumvent.

 

[Krachek]

For your own fun you can make a search on google with « list of marvel hero with disabilities » and get a long list of characters.
If we made a list including all type of fantasy and sci-fi and all type of physical and mental disabilities we would have a very very long list.

 

[Umbran]

I would normally break it down as:

Physical/chemical damage: Cure family of spells

Bacteria, virus, fungus: Disease family of spells

Congenital defects, scarring, or long term damage: Regenerate family

Genetic: Wish or similar (or a creative curse).

Insert my usual gripe about how we treat in-world biology/medicine as if it were real-world medicine, when there's no real call to do that.

Working in a pseudo-medieval fantasy world, why not take a model that predates the Age of Reason? There's a bunch of them out there - every culture had one! And most of them have spiritual components, making clerics a pretty natural choice for medical practitioners!

 

[MGibster]

Working in a pseudo-medieval fantasy world, why not take a model that predates the Age of Reason? There's a bunch of them out there - every culture had one! And most of them have spiritual components, making clerics a pretty natural choice for medical practitioners!

Thats' right. Germs? Why that's just a portion of a creature capable of developing into a new creature or a part of a creature. We all know diseases are caused by malodious and foul air. Spontaneous generation isn't a theory it's a fact!

While I generally expect daily life to be similar in a fantasy setting, I don't see why I necessarily have to adhere to a modern understanding of how the world works. Darn it, if centaurs can exist then a lot of bets are off.

 

[Faolyn]

Insert my usual gripe about how we treat in-world biology/medicine as if it were real-world medicine, when there's no real call to do that.

Working in a pseudo-medieval fantasy world, why not take a model that predates the Age of Reason? There's a bunch of them out there - every culture had one! And most of them have spiritual components, making clerics a pretty natural choice for medical practitioners!

"Sigh... hand me my exorcism kit. Rognar has demons in his bowels again."

Then we need an archetype that's all about (im)balancing the humours, and maybe a Discworld-style retrophrenologist.

 

[Umbran]

"Sigh... hand me my exorcism kit. Rognar has demons in his bowels again."

Yep. Exactly.

Then we need an archetype that's all about (im)balancing the humours, and maybe a Discworld-style retrophrenologist.

The maul-wielding barbarians love practicing corrective phrenology!

 

[Krachek]

To go back to the OP I ask:
why drinking a potion should influence sugar ratio in blood?

It’s not a digestive process that make the drinker turn invisible or polymorph into a dragon.
Same thing with oil, herbs, dust. It’s not a matter of physic, biology, physiology, or chemistry that explain the effects.

Games give various clue about the composition of a potion.
Mosty Water that conduct a magical energy?
Alcohol based? In this case alcohol addict may be tempted to drink all their potions during a rest!
Highly acid, sweet, bitter, salty? Who knows!

 

[Starfox]

There's definitely some interesting discussion to be had around how much a character's Background in 5e describes their character, and how much mechanical benefits/changes that should grant. People have gone into this in much more detail in other discussions.

But, regardless of where you fall in that debate, I am slightly skeeved by the idea that an character's entire Background is a disability. That has condescending connotations. The idea that a person's identity is defined by their disability (while others are defined by their deeds, professions, or lifestyle) feels like it's encroaching on some problematic ideas. [...]

I respect your views here, but I do not feel bound by them. Nobody's entire origin story can be summed up in any background, it is just a moniker used to get a quick grasp and some hints for role-playing. In this way, Folk Hero is as bad a description as Invalid. No-one is just a folk hero. But a folk hero is a fantasy trope that can be easily grasp. The limit of my ambition is that my invalid background should be that too. That's enough justification for the background in my mind.

Disabilities giving supernatural effects is an effect of fantasy as fairy tale, as opposed to fantasy as science-fiction. In a folk tale or fantasy story about a blind kid, that kid is going to gain unique benefits from their blindness, but the blindness is going to hamper them in other situations. This makes such a protagonist special and the story interesting as the reader identifies with someone in circumstances different from the reader's own. Is it a reasonable side effect of their handicap, from a scientific perspective? Absolutely not. But it works with story logic.

 

[Starfox]

You are very incorrect here. Certain words, including invalid, have very negative connotations when used with people even if they can be used appropriately with non-people. So you may want to do some research, if you think that this is something that exists only for me. Here, I'll get you started with stuff from the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, and South Africa (just so you don't think it's a whiny American thing): [...]

I find that Chat GPT is very good at this, but you need to ask.

 

[Starfox]

@Starfox, I gotta say, Invalid is a terrible word to use for this, as it's deeply insulting. Go with disabled, if you must.
Well, here's the thing. Blindness and deafness are already part of the game, as conditions that negatively affect the PC.

The idea here, which I would include if I ever publish this, is that your infirmity is a part of your identity to such a degree that it is the state that any healing will return you to. So if you try to Regenerate a crippled leg gained as a part of this background, it won't work, because the spell restores you to your natural state, and your natural state is legless.

Speaking of this from a value perspective, I feel that this validates the invalid (I'll continue to use that term in this discussion as we all know what I'm talking about). They are not unhealthy, they are in their natural state, that state just differs from many other peoples' natural state.