D&D 5E Can a Paladin Cure Addiction?

[doctorbadwolf]

I suppose it would depend on the setting. The availability of Level 1 Paladins are probably much much higher than the availability of Clerics/Druids that can do the same thing, unless your world has fewer Paladins by default. Like some kind of Lowkey Planet.

All PC class level people are pretty rare by default.
But even if there is at least one Paladin in every town, they aren't going to just burn their limited ability to cure disease on every addict that asks, because there are absolutely more people suffering than there are Paladins, and if Detect Poison and Disease identified addiction as a disease, then there are probably mundane treatments for it at temples and the like. People are out there dying, and you think Paladins will just always cure addiction every time they're asked, even from repeat recipients?

It more than strains credulity, it shatters it.

 

[Iry]

All PC class level people are pretty rare by default.
It more than strains credulity, it shatters it.

Once again depends on the setting. Eberron, for instance, is going to have a considerably higher population of people Level 1-4 than Greyhawk. Forgotten Realms is somewhere in the middle. If you're running a homebrew setting then the numbers can be whatever you want. I personally enjoy some variety in my homebrew, where some regions might have almost no classes... while a holy city might have quite a few clerics and paladins, and a mageocracy would have decent amounts of low level wizards, etc.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Once again depends on the setting. Eberron, for instance, is going to have a considerably higher population of people Level 1-4 than Greyhawk. Forgotten Realms is somewhere in the middle. If you're running a homebrew setting then the numbers can be whatever you want. I personally enjoy some variety in my homebrew, where some regions might have almost no classes... while a holy city might have quite a few clerics and paladins, and a mageocracy would have decent amounts of low level wizards, etc.

Okay, but actually no.

Eberron will have fewer individuals of level anything than forgotten realms. The PCs are truly exceptional in Eberron. Even the “adventurers” that the papers write about are mostly not leveled.

In no published setting are there Paladins in every town.

But more importantly, the number doesn’t matter. Paladins aren’t servants of the populace, they serve an ideal and/or gods. They can (let’s assume for the moment) cure addiction, but they can also cure life threatening illnesses, and bring people back from the brink of death, and Smite the enemies of their faith. They’ve got other stuff that needs doing.

And they can say no.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

Good point.

It definitely can’t cure the reasons people turn to the things they get addicted to. If that person’s response to hopelessness is intoxicants, that isn’t going to change just because they are free of a specific addiction now.

Hopefully they can use the experience of addiction to keep themselves from getting addicted again, but that root cause is partly environmental.

That said, I don’t think the last part is likely. Most people who get organ transplants don’t go back to behaviors that risk the health of that organ.

Root cause is genetic more often than environmental. By a wide margin. For literally all forms of addiction. Environmental effects are very strong for addiction though.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Root cause is genetic more often than environmental. By a wide margin. For literally all forms of addiction. Environmental effects are very strong for addiction though.

People don't do drugs because of genetics. The root cause is what causes the drug use, not what causes the drug use to more easily turn into addiction.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

People don't do drugs because of genetics. The root cause is what causes the drug use, not what causes the drug use to more easily turn into addiction.

Well you can think whatever you wanna think. You wont right, but eh. Doesnt matter. This is the internet.

(Laughing my ass off because genes also are the strongest factor for beginning drug use.)

 

[Coroc]

People don't do drugs because of genetics. The root cause is what causes the drug use, not what causes the drug use to more easily turn into addiction.

Wrong.
They did experiments with mice which they made addicted to alcohol. The mice have a life span of three years. For one year they made them addicted to alcohol. The second year they made them sober and gave them only water for drinking.
The third year they offered the mice to drink alcohol or water, whichever they chose.

About thirty percent of the mice chose the alcohol again, which is only explicable by genetic precondition, since all the social factors and things like "strong will" or whatever is thought to have an influence on humans getting addicted and experiencing a relapse, simply are not present in mice.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

Theyve done crap tons of twin studies on this with humans. Environment is far less signifficant of a factor for beginning any given drug use AND for addiction. Both. Environment has a lot of influence. Its not even actually close to the amount of influence genes have. They of course also both influence an individual at the same time.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Mice aren’t humans.
Also, way to miss the entire point of a post while quoting it.

 

[Iry]

Okay, but actually no.

We have arrived at the "Agree to Disagree" part.