D&D (2024) Diseases

[John R Davis]

Erm.
Have these now all been replaced by "Magical Contagions?".Page 61 DMG.

 

[Shiroiken]

Disease is now handled as a form of poison, IIRC. They wanted to move away from it being its own type.

 

[Charlaquin]

Erm.
Have these now all been replaced by "Magical Contagions?".Page 61 DMG.

Disease is now handled as a form of poison, IIRC. They wanted to move away from it being its own type.

Both of these are correct. Mundane diseases are expressed through the Poisoned condition in the revised rules, and all of the (semi-)magical diseases that appeared in the 2014 DMG are still present in the 2024 DMG but now as magical contagions. The practical difference is that these magical contagions are not removed by Lay On Hands by default (or the Cure Disease spell, if you port it over), but are removed by the Remove Curse or Greater Restoration spell instead.

 

[GMMichael]

Sounds like an opportunity for a DM's Guild sourcebook. Although I bet EN5ider has plenty of material there, already. I'm wondering if the WotC marketing division just found that "disease" ranks right up there in term popularity with "race."

 

[Zaukrie]

Sounds like an opportunity for a DM's Guild sourcebook. Although I bet EN5ider has plenty of material there, already. I'm wondering if the WotC marketing division just found that "disease" ranks right up there in term popularity with "race."

I have one half written!

 

[Charlaquin]

Sounds like an opportunity for a DM's Guild sourcebook. Although I bet EN5ider has plenty of material there, already. I'm wondering if the WotC marketing division just found that "disease" ranks right up there in term popularity with "race."

I imagine it’s either out of sensitivity (I would argue over-sensitivity) in the wake of the COVID pandemic, or addressing the fact that the existence of Lay on Hands and Cure Disease implying that diseases should be a problem adventurers sometimes have to deal with, while simultaneously making them a completely uninteresting problem to have to deal with. Same fundamental problem a lot of people have with the 2014 ranger’s Natural Explorer feature - it’s useless unless the DM goes out of their way to make it useful, at which point it completely circumvents any challenge the DM might invent to try to make it useful.

Might also be a combination of those two things.