D&D 5E Why do disases feal so pointless?

[Charlaquin]

But, if diseases aren't used by the DM because they think that they're useless because of the paladin, doesn't that also make the paladin feel like their anti-disease features are useless?

That was my point. If Paladins didn’t have disease curing abilities I probably wouldn’t bother with diseases most of the time, but since they do, I try to include them, mostly so Paladin players will have a use for those abilities.

 

[Charlaquin]

Really? How many players actually look at their PHB and say oh cool at third level I get immunity to disease, I really love that!!! Now I have to be a Paladin suckers!

I don’t know. Probably more than zero? In general I think it sucks to have abilities that never feel useful. Even if it wasn’t the thing that made you excited to play the class, it’s still more satisfying when your abilities end up being relevant in the game than when they don’t. Accordingly, I try to make contracting diseases a meaningful risk in my games, mostly so that any players who choose Paladin will have something to use those abilities on.

 

[Ath'kethin]

Here's a question: why do you need your PCs to get sick?

To my mind, diseases are a plot device, not a threat to PCs. It's easy to forget that 1) PCs are exceptional people in the world and 2) magical healing is well beyond the reach of most of the populace.

How many commoners can a paladin heal in a day? What other threats are they ignoring in order to heal those people?

 

[Dausuul]

Here's a question: why do you need your PCs to get sick?

To my mind, diseases are a plot device, not a threat to PCs. It's easy to forget that 1) PCs are exceptional people in the world and 2) magical healing is well beyond the reach of most of the populace.

How many commoners can a paladin heal in a day? What other threats are they ignoring in order to heal those people?

Yeah, this.

Historically, diseases have been killers on par with any cackling movie villain. COVID-19 today gives us a tiny, tiny window into what it was like, but smallpox and the Black Death were on a whole different scale. Plague spreading through a city will swiftly overwhelm even a large church's supply of healing magic. That would be the way I would use disease--not a direct threat to the PCs personally, but a threat of ruin and slaughter to everyone around them.

 

[zarionofarabel]

Yeah, disease should be nonexistent in D&D settings. The proliferation of simple healing magics would make it and most injuries a very easy thing to fix. In fact, in most settings unless you are killed outright it should be easy as pie to get fixed up. Heck, even being killed isn't a big deal, especially if you are the adventuring type with oodles of gold.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I don't think that diseases should be nonexistent from D&D, I quite like the magic disease in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (I forget the name of it), mostly because paladins cannot cure it.

 

[Weiley31]

A fun idea is a virus that spreads through Lay on Hands.

Paladins testing for STH diseases.

 

[Dausuul]

Yeah, disease should be nonexistent in D&D settings. The proliferation of simple healing magics would make it and most injuries a very easy thing to fix. In fact, in most settings unless you are killed outright it should be easy as pie to get fixed up. Heck, even being killed isn't a big deal, especially if you are the adventuring type with oodles of gold.

Unless your setting is absolutely crawling with clerics, this is... not how it would be.

For infected wounds or minor ailments, you could reasonably expect to have enough 3rd-level clerics to deal with them. But a disease outbreak in a major city, infecting people by the thousands or tens of thousands every single day? The clerics couldn't possibly keep up.

 

[Pauper]

Unless your setting is absolutely crawling with clerics, this is... not how it would be.

For infected wounds or minor ailments, you could reasonably expect to have enough 3rd-level clerics to deal with them. But a disease outbreak in a major city, infecting people by the thousands or tens of thousands every single day? The clerics couldn't possibly keep up.

Agreed. A well-known infectious disease that can easily be identified when it first appears in a community would be fairly easy to spot and contain, but a 'mysterious ailment' that only kills after a fairly long incubation period would allow more than enough spread so that clerics and paladins would be largely unable to keep up.

And if the disease is being deliberately spread as part of a villainous plot, keep in mind the possibility of 'false clerics' that purport to treat the disease or provide a blessing to prevent it, but in fact are themselves vectors of the disease. (Such a scenario actually happened in Neverwinter in the Forgotten Realms, during the time of the Wailing Death -- see Bioware's Neverwinter Nights CRPG for more details.)

--
Pauper

 

[Voadam]

Most of D&D it has been a yes/no with whether you had a paladin or cleric capable of cure disease so it was not a big deal for most medium level on up games. There have been some exceptions.

Mummy rot has usually been a pretty serious disease in D&D. I generally avoided using AD&D mummies because it is so nasty.

Lycanthropy has been a big deal needing more than just one shot magic, particularly in Ravenloft. It has been an issue in games I have run.

Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path in Pathfinder 1e has a major plague in a city theme in I think the second module that is too widespread for clerical magic to stamp out.

Fate of Istus had a big Red Death plague theme as part of the transition from 1e to 2e in Greyhawk.

I liked the disease track with heal checks mechanic that 4e had for dealing with disease. I liked the importance of the heal skill here.