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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 8190136" data-attributes="member: 2629">When we introduce things that negate player abilities, we diminish our heroes.  It tells the players, "You're here to play my story, to live in my world, and anything you build, I can take away whenever it is convenient.  In short, you're my toys." I can remove curses!Nah, Bro. I have a curse based storyline in mind, so I'm just going to take that away from your PC by saying this curse is immune to you spell.I can cure poison!Nah, Bro. I have a poison storyline in mind, so I'm just going to take that away from your PC by saying this super poison can't be cured with a spell.This is the same problem that made Superman boring for so long in comics. His only vulnerabilities were Kryptonite and Magic. For a long time, every enemy he faced was using one of those two abilities. Superman isn't Superman if Superman is always facing Kryptonite. Your cleric does not have the divine granted powers to cure disease, poison and curses if you make the disease, poison and curses immune to his power. Your cleric is not a cleric if you negate his abilities. Let the cleric shine!You can go to that well once or maybe twice a campaign, but I really try not to use it at all. Poison based storylines work well at levels 1 and 2. After that, the heroes have grown beyond poison being a long term threat. Let them have that growth - because the growth is what makes them feel like big dang heroes.After 5th level. curses are not a long term threat. They can be a short term threat, because few PCs will have remove curse available without taking a Long Rest, but by 9th level they will often have greater restoration available to stop a curse as soon as they hear about it. Don't negate their abilities by saying This curse ignores your abilities. Let them have grown beyond curses.Tell these stories when it is appropriate to do so, and then move on to more advanced stories that capitalize upon their current abilities. When PCs gain new cures, divinations, movement, etc... that negate threats, they also open up new storyline possibilities. They are worthy of facing off against threats that are greater than a poison, disease or curse - so throw those things at them.Does this mean that poison, disease and curses have no role above 3rd/5th/9th levels? Of course not.Few PCs (although definitely some) are immune to poison. They can suffer short term impacts from poison. And NPCs can be killed using poison. It becomes more flavor and nuisance, but it still has a role.A disease can spread in a community faster than clerics can cure it, too. That gives the PCs a different story - there are 8 NPCs with a disease that will kill them in the next 6 hours - and they can only cure 5. Can they find 3 more cures? And if they do, who is going to die in the place of these NPCs? There is no time foe a long rest....A curse can be easily cured by a remove curse spell - but what if the curse is a blessing and a curse at the same time and people have different ideas on whether it should be cured or not? A cursed being that can't die regardless of their wounds. A cursed being that can feel no pain. A cursed being that knows neither joy nor sorrow. How does the cursed being think or feel about their curse?What if the mixed blessing also impacts others? The high priest knows neither joy nor pain - his acolytes feel it for him.There are a lot of things you can do with mechanics even if the PCs have a tool to 'fix' a problem.  Try looking for the more interesting 'advanced' storyline rather than negating the PC abilities.</blockquote>

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