D&D (2024) So how do you remove disease in 5E 2024?

Hussar

Legend
Completely disagree.

Paladins in our campaigns were excited to have that ability.

They cured a town of disease (cured the near death with lay on hands) hunted down the source (a vile river serpent like a komodo dragon) and then went back to town and cured anyone else who had symptoms.

Classic adventure. Lay on Hands curing disease was no more or less "a weird pantomine" than any other characters ability.

IMHO of course.
But you could do that identically the same plot with any character trained in Medicine. Why did it have to be specifically magic to fix the problem? And, all that aside, ok, you had one adventure where the paladins were excited. One adventure out of how many over the past ten, twenty years?

Just like anything, sure, we can point to single examples, but, do you really think that it's been a major element of play? Or even a minor element most of the time?
 

log in or register to remove this ad

I see now in 5e the ghouls can cause "infection" and this was one of the its main monster traits.

If my memory doesn't fail, the infectious bacteria caused two type of damage on health, one was stealing the nutrients, and the other was the toxins produced by these bacteria. The damage by virus is different because this directly destroyed the cells.

Other point is if a character survives a contagius disease then this should be immunized, at least until a new strain appeared.

Even if the divine magic could heal those diseases this could too expensive for ordinary citizens.

* Other point is if game mechanic of "incantations" from 3.5 Unearthed Arcana could be used for healing magic.
 

MerricB

Eternal Optimist
Supporter
In 5e, the poisoned condition means "you are sick"
Worth noting that Detect Poison and Disease spell still exists, but now refers to "magical contagion" instead of disease.

Unfortunately, the only way of getting rid of a magical contagion in the PHB 2024 is True Resurrection!

Cheers,
Merric
 

FitzTheRuke

Legend
Worth noting that Detect Poison and Disease spell still exists, but now refers to "magical contagion" instead of disease.

Unfortunately, the only way of getting rid of a magical contagion in the PHB 2024 is True Resurrection!

Cheers,
Merric
Well, you can certainly have a disease and not be sick, and vice-versa. @Charlequin has it right - the condition should ought to be "Sickened. Story-wise, it tends to denote that the character is physically ill. Weak, head-swimming, feverish, & sick to the stomach.

Poison is only one of many things that gives you the condition (more and more, but it was previously thus, as well). And heck, if they'd called it that, they could use the condition for things like seasickness, where "poisoned" seems like a far fetch, but the physical results are effectively the same.
 

Charlaquin

Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
Well, you can certainly have a disease and not be sick, and vice-versa. @Charlequin has it right - the condition should ought to be "Sickened. Story-wise, it tends to denote that the character is physically ill. Weak, head-swimming, feverish, & sick to the stomach.
I’m Charlaquin, with an a (like someone pretending to be a clown). Apparently there is also someone with an account here using the name Charlequin, with an e (like a clown that has been badly burned).
 

Retros_x

Adventurer
I think thats a good abstraction they introduced to lessen complexity. I never witnessed diseases play a larger role in any of my games where the missing differentation to poison would've been important. Sure its another good point to complain about 5e24 and make "backwards compatibility" memes, but I doubt it will have negative impact on more than a small minority of games.
 

dave2008

Legend
This sure is bad news for any 2024 player encountering everything from the lowly Diseased Giant Rat to the mighty Aboleth from the 2014 monster manual... so much for "backwards compatibility"... 🤷‍♂️
Is that really a problem? This seems like you are simply fishing to get people to yell" "this is not backwards compatible! WotC lied!"

Please, this is a simple issue my son could handle when he started trying to DM at 12 years old.
 

dave2008

Legend
Well, you can certainly have a disease and not be sick, and vice-versa. @Charlequin has it right - the condition should ought to be "Sickened. Story-wise, it tends to denote that the character is physically ill. Weak, head-swimming, feverish, & sick to the stomach.

Poison is only one of many things that gives you the condition (more and more, but it was previously thus, as well). And heck, if they'd called it that, they could use the condition for things like seasickness, where "poisoned" seems like a far fetch, but the physical results are effectively the same.
Doesn't being drunk give you the poisoned condition, IIRC? Perhaps that condition is trying to do a bit much for simplicities sake. Doesn't really bother me one way or the other much.
 

And if there were no paladins?

Then we are into an entirely different genre where the party must watch in horror as the townspeople die around them.

And if the solution to the problem resulted in the same amount of deaths then did the lay on hands make a difference?

I think that's the problem.
Sounds like a problem of scenario design then. The DM is supposed to set a timer so people start to die if the disease goes untreated. It's up to the party to come up with a solution for the scenario.
 


Remove ads

Top