D&D (2024) So how do you remove disease in 5E 2024?

[SkidAce]

Its interesting how folks sharing much of the same interests (TTRPGs) look at things so differently.

Yeah, if they use term "poisoned" as a condition for all "diseases", its a trivial thing. Easy to embrace or work around.

At the same time, it creates cognitive dissonance. Diseases are not poisons. My brain knows this and when I read otherwise it goes "huh"? But thats me.

And imagine if they changed the term "action" to "opportunity". i.e. "You get two opportunities this round, which can be used to attack a foe or use an ability" (just an example, dont over analyze it). Some people would shrug and say its trivial, carry on. It would bother others.

BL: Its not edition warring, like somebody claimed upthread, or crusading for backwards compatibility...for some people it just crosses the threshold of "doesn't make sense" and they are expressing that.

 

[Lanefan]

That’s still a thing, it’s just expressed by the Poisoned condition now. I imagine any disease one might design that they want to be curable with lay on hands would simply inflict the poisoned condition and then say “while poisoned this way, [the other effects of the disease]”

Had it been done that way since Day 1 my guess is we'd have long since been calling for that specific condition to just get its own name and have done with it.

 

[Lanefan]

In 5e, the poisoned condition means "you are sick"

Then why call it "poisoned" rather than "diseased"?

 

[Lanefan]

Why exactly can’t you do that with the poisoned condition?

Poison in D&D has long (as in, since the game began) been seen as a fast-onset effect that's usually deadly if not fixed Right Now. Further, with most poisons the victim can't recover without some sort of help.

Disease in D&D has always been seen as a slower-onset effect that lasts longer but does not necessarily kill, and that the victim can often recover from without aid if given enough time and rest.

Different effects, different narratives and play results, different cures. Seems fine to me.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Then why call it "poisoned" rather than "diseased"?

I'm not following you - why would you call it "diseased"? That would be the least common story-event in the game that could make you "sick".

Do you mean, "Why not leave disease and poison separate things"? Sure, you could do that - but as I said above, if you think of (and they probably ought to call) the "poisoned" condition as "sickened", then it can be used more broadly to include disease, poison, motion sickness (such as seasickness), common illnesses, and infections. And probably curses, as well.

They've gone partway there, but not quite all the way, which is why some folks are confused by it.

 

[Lanefan]

I'm not following you - why would you call it "diseased"? That would be the least common story-event in the game that could make you "sick".

Do you mean, "Why not leave disease and poison separate things"? Sure, you could do that - but as I said above, if you think of (and they probably ought to call) the "poisoned" condition as "sickened", then it can be used more broadly to include disease, poison, motion sickness (such as seasickness), common illnesses, and infections. And probably curses, as well.

They've gone partway there, but not quite all the way, which is why some folks are confused by it.

To me, "sickened" and "diseased" are direct synonyms, and the game already has (or had) one of those terms in place.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

At the same time, it creates cognitive dissonance. Diseases are not poisons. My brain knows this and when I read otherwise it goes "huh"? But thats me.

Venoms are also not poisons, but very few folks have any problem with that crossover.

Again, this is why I would advocate for the condition being called "sickened" (though as I said upthread to @dave2008 , I don't really care if they do it or not, I just think that it would be better by a degree). It would then be useful for the things that they're using it for anyhow, only without as much of the head-scratching.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

To me, "sickened" and "diseased" are direct synonyms, and the game already has (or had) one of those terms in place.

How do you get that idea? Have you ever been seasick? Food poisoned? Nauseated? Drunk? None of those are "diseases", but they certainly make you "sick".

 

[Charlaquin]

Had it been done that way since Day 1 my guess is we'd have long since been calling for that specific condition to just get its own name and have done with it.

It has been done this way since day 1. There are already a ton of effects that use that “while poisoned this way” wording, some of them poisons, some of them other drugs or contagions, some of which could very reasonably described as diseases. And if each and every one of them had its own named condition, the conditions section would be a whole lot longer.

 

[lall]

I’ll be using Wish for disease immunity.