D&D 5E Does Condition Immunity: Poison give Disease Immunity?

[the Jester]

The difficulty is our understanding of poisons and diseases will be based on real-world examples with real-world rules.

Real-world rules don't apply to D&D. It's a game. With magic. Most of the diseases don't equate nicely to real-world diseases either.

Once you get to a molecular level a lot of the actual illness caused by many infectious pathogens is due to toxins.

In a D&D world, the fundamental building blocks are not hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, etc. They are air, earth, fire and water. You can't apply real world chemistry to D&D in the name of internal consistency without messing up far more than you fix.

And non-infectious, partly psychological 'diseases' are based more "poisons" - alcoholism for example would still affect someone with "disease immunity" but not if they had "poison immunity"?

Alcoholism is an interesting case.

With disease immunity, you could get drunk but not become addicted (arguably).

With poison immunity, you could get addicted, but not become drunk (arguably).

 

[Eejit]

I assumed Hand of Evil was referring to real-world diseases and poisons. We know only the most sparse detail of those in the game in order to sort them.

 

[Grazzt]

Also, I love the image of a ghoul suffering from some horrible venereal disease that has opened boils on its face, like that one nasty guy in Stephen King's the Waste Lands (I don't remember his name).

Gasher?

 

[Hand of Evil]

I assumed Hand of Evil was referring to real-world diseases and poisons. We know only the most sparse detail of those in the game in order to sort them.

A good bit but also in game, as below both one is a poison that crosses over to disease and one a disease that crosses over to a poison, they would be in the middle, showing immunity covered by both.

Otyugh/Death Dog bites:
If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 15/12 Constitution saving throw against disease or become poisoned until the disease is cured.

So you have diseases delivered the same way as most of the poisons too.

Gas Spore:
Death Burst. The gas spore explodes when it drops to 0 hit points. Each creature within 20 feet of it must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or take 10 (3d6) poison damage and become infected with a disease on a failed save. Creatures immune to the poisoned condition are immune to this disease.

 

[Boarstorm]

Would it be wrong to give every single creature 3 levels of paladin and avoid the issue entirely?

 

[the Jester]

YES!! Gasher! That was it!

 

[TerraDave]

It's even odder when you consider some of the specific diseases mentioned in the MM:

Otyugh/Death Dog bites:
If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 15/12 Constitution saving throw against disease or become poisoned until the disease is cured.

So you have diseases delivered the same way as most of the poisons too.

Gas Spore:
Death Burst. The gas spore explodes when it drops to 0 hit points. Each creature within 20 feet of it must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or take 10 (3d6) poison damage and become infected with a disease on a failed save. Creatures immune to the poisoned condition are immune to this disease.

A very weird oversight in general.

So, you have answered your own question? [MENTION=7175]jadrax[/MENTION] basically has it. Disease is not a damage type or a condition. If the disease does poison damage or poisoned condition, then poison immunity stops it. But a disease can be lots of things, including fantastic things. Its true that, for example, a mummy could give a wight a taste of its own life draining, but I don't think that's really a bad thing.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Its true that, for example, a mummy could give a wight a taste of its own life draining, but I don't think that's really a bad thing.

I was always told two negates created a positive, so he would be giving life to the mummy.

 

[Joe Liker]

So, you have answered your own question? [MENTION=7175]jadrax[/MENTION] basically has it. Disease is not a damage type or a condition. If the disease does poison damage or poisoned condition, then poison immunity stops it. But a disease can be lots of things, including fantastic things. Its true that, for example, a mummy could give a wight a taste of its own life draining, but I don't think that's really a bad thing.

^ I'm going with this logic. I'm not convinced it was an oversight. It's not listed in those places because it doesn't fit those categories. Because there's an example of a disease that ties its own immunity to poison immunity, I'm going to assume that any disease that works the same way will have that wording. Not sure how I'd deal with the contagion spell, but it seems unlikely that I'll have to.

I was always told two negates created a positive, so he would be giving life to the mummy.

Two wrongs make a right? That's exactly the sort of philosophy I'd expect from the Hand of Evil!

 

[TerraDave]

I was always told two negates created a positive, so he would be giving life to the mummy.

In this case, using mummy rot to increase a wights max hp?

That is also interesting....