D&D 5E Can a Paladin Cure Addiction?

[Fenris-77]

In most non-gritty games I wouldn't have an issue with a Paladin curing addiction. It fits what I expect a Paladin to be able to do in that kind of game and is exactly the kind of minor objective I'd include in a four color game. In a grittier game I'd go the other way, for a whole bunch of reasons. In both cases it directly indexes the grimdark-ness of the campaign. I'm unconcerned about the real life classification of addiction in both cases.

 

[Tonguez]

Addiction is a disease according to WHO standards irl. The problem is when it is a substance abuse addiction the disease is partly physical and partly psychic. If it is something else like gambling addiction it is purely psychic.
I would rule that a paladin could cure the physical part of an addiction with his cure disease ability. The mental part is only curable if the patient desires it, that is fact. Maybe a heal spell would do the job, maybe not.
In fact a popular medical view on addictions is that you stay "sick" even if you are clean, in such, that you cannot expect to behave like a healthy individual when it comes to the subject of your addiction.

Generally it is regarded that Addiction is a complex disease with physical, psych and behavioural factors and up to 50% of Addiction is genetic.

If you want to go the pseudo-science route then the question arises - can paladins/divine healing affect genetic factors/defects and how deep does that rabbit hole go?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Drugs and addictions aren’t part of the core rules. If you want to add this stuff in (beyond what has already been described above) then you’ll just have to decide on the ramifications. You’re not going to find a rule about curing something that isn’t in the game.

If you want to look at earlier editions for inspiration, 3e addiction affected ability damage in the same way a disease did, and I believe it could be cured in the same way as a disease.

I don’t think anyone is looking for an official rule in the books.

 

[uzirath]

If you want to go the pseudo-science route then the question arises - can paladins/divine healing affect genetic factors/defects and how deep does that rabbit hole go?

Yeah, that's a messy rabbit hole. Perhaps some paladins would specialize in different genetic traits: "Oh, you want your baby to have green eyes? I don't do green eyes. Go see Sir Bighead in the next town for that."

This thread makes me think of a possible utopia/dystopia in a game where a deity empowers their clerics to cure all ailments, returning mortals to the Perfect Template that the deity devised. No diseases, no mental conditions, but also very little personality.

 

[generic]

Yeah, that's a messy rabbit hole. Perhaps some paladins would specialize in different genetic traits: "Oh, you want your baby to have green eyes? I don't do green eyes. Go see Sir Bighead in the next town for that."

This thread makes me think of a possible utopia/dystopia in a game where a deity empowers their clerics to cure all ailments, returning mortals to the Perfect Template that the deity devised. No diseases, no mental conditions, but also very little personality.

Do personality quirks come from diseases in your world?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Yeah, that's a messy rabbit hole. Perhaps some paladins would specialize in different genetic traits: "Oh, you want your baby to have green eyes? I don't do green eyes. Go see Sir Bighead in the next town for that."

This thread makes me think of a possible utopia/dystopia in a game where a deity empowers their clerics to cure all ailments, returning mortals to the Perfect Template that the deity devised. No diseases, no mental conditions, but also very little personality.

Personality traits aren't a result of disorders and diseases and other ailments, though. I mean, you could construct that world in order to run the sort of game that would result, but it certainly isn't something that leads naturally from the premise "divine characters can cure ailments".

 

[MGibster]

Would an individual in a faux medieval setting view loving your wine too much in the same category as the bloody flux, pox, or grippe? I doubt it. I wouldn't allow cure disease to remove addiction in my game.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Would an individual in a faux medieval setting view loving your wine too much in the same category as the bloody flux, pox, or grippe? I doubt it. I wouldn't allow cure disease to remove addiction in my game.

What’s the character’s views have to do with it?

 

[MGibster]

What’s the character’s views have to do with it?

Presumably we're all role playing characters who were inculcated into a society radically different from our own and therefor don't interpret everything the same way we do. But it's not just the character's views that matter when it comes to a setting we're talking about philosophers, physicians, and the majority of people who might see addiction as a character flaw rather than a disease.

 

[Big J Money]

Alcoholism is called a "disease", but my understanding is that it's not the scientific meaning of disease, which is something that can be contracted and cured, but rather just a word to help people understand that there is a biological component that goes beyond someone's mere choices.

This biological component is genetic. So to ask whether a Paladin can "cure" genes, one is asking: Can genes be 'cured'?

Some would say that to answer this with "yes" leads to racism / sexist lines of thinking, since race and sex are other examples of genetic components. There is the similar ethical question often posed in science fiction about what happens when we try to make the "flawless human"? Does this make unmodified humans inferior?

Leaving ethics aside, and focusing only on the scientific / magical side of it, I don't think D&D has any precedence for clerical magic (particularly healing magic) to make permanent, genetic changes to an individual. However, wizards have polymorph, which could be viewed as a change to genes, and in older editions you could get "stuck" in the new form, making the change permanent; so it's not without precedence that magic, in general, can make lasting genetic changes. Flesh to stone I do not see as genetic, but more as conversion of matter (converting from one type to another, not a change that occurs solely within the DNA).

So, my conclusion is that for more than one reason, I would probably not bring this kind of thing into my campaign...

...well naughty word, now you've got me thinking though. It might be interesting to have a villain around this concept. They start as a traveling healer who claim to have found magic to "cure" the masses of their "imperfections". They start out seeming like a good person, or at worst a snake-oil salesman, but really they are creating a cult of magically "perfected" people, and once they have amassed enough devotees and come into power, their true side comes out.