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

[xoth.publishing]

Is disease that big a thing in the average D&D game that it couldn’t fold into poisoned? I don’t think it was as common as poisoned was.

Of course, that depends on what you classify as "the average D&D game", but I'll just quote from the 2014 SRD:

Diseases – 5th Edition SRD

"A plague ravages the kingdom, setting the adventurers on a quest to find a cure. An adventurer emerges from an ancient tomb, unopened for centuries, and soon finds herself suffering from a wasting illness. A warlock offends some dark power and contracts a strange affliction that spreads whenever he casts spells.

A simple outbreak might amount to little more than a small drain on party resources, curable by a casting of lesser restoration. A more complicated outbreak can form the basis of one or more adventures as characters search for a cure, stop the spread of the disease, and deal with the consequences.

A disease that does more than infect a few party members is primarily a plot device. The rules help describe the effects of the disease and how it can be cured, but the specifics of how a disease works aren’t bound by a common set of rules. Diseases can affect any creature, and a given illness might or might not pass from one race or kind of creature to another. A plague might affect only constructs or undead, or sweep through a halfling neighborhood but leave other races untouched. What matters is the story you want to tell."

The base 2014 SRD has 3 diseases (cackle fever, sewer plague, sight rot) and there are dozens more from third parties as the link above shows.

You could say "whenever you get a disease you are also Poisoned and removing the Poisoned condition will also remove the disease" but I don't see this as something that needed "fixing" in the 2024 rules, why not just leave it as it was?

 

[FrozenNorth]

If only there were like, some sort of skill that could be used to cure disease, like some sort of Medicine skill, that could be useful in this situation.

Not everything has to be a spell.

 

[xoth.publishing]

If only there were like, some sort of skill that could be used to cure disease, like some sort of Medicine skill, that could be useful in this situation.

Not everything has to be a spell.

That would be great, but are there any details on that in the core rules somewhere?

 

[TiQuinn]

Of course, that depends on what you classify as "the average D&D game", but I'll just quote from the 2014 SRD:

Diseases – 5th Edition SRD

"A plague ravages the kingdom, setting the adventurers on a quest to find a cure. An adventurer emerges from an ancient tomb, unopened for centuries, and soon finds herself suffering from a wasting illness. A warlock offends some dark power and contracts a strange affliction that spreads whenever he casts spells.

A simple outbreak might amount to little more than a small drain on party resources, curable by a casting of lesser restoration. A more complicated outbreak can form the basis of one or more adventures as characters search for a cure, stop the spread of the disease, and deal with the consequences.

A disease that does more than infect a few party members is primarily a plot device. The rules help describe the effects of the disease and how it can be cured, but the specifics of how a disease works aren’t bound by a common set of rules. Diseases can affect any creature, and a given illness might or might not pass from one race or kind of creature to another. A plague might affect only constructs or undead, or sweep through a halfling neighborhood but leave other races untouched. What matters is the story you want to tell."

The base 2014 SRD has 3 diseases (cackle fever, sewer plague, sight rot) and there are dozens more from third parties as the link above shows.

You could say "whenever you get a disease you are also Poisoned and removing the Poisoned condition will also remove the disease" but I don't see this as something that needed "fixing" in the 2024 rules, why not just leave it as it was?

I think that there’s two types of diseases being described there. One, like they say, is an obstacle or nuisance for the party. Someone’s been infected with a disease, they have to get a lesser restoration cast on them before they can really move on, and the overall impact is that it’s a drain on resources. But in that case, I’m not sure it matters too much if it’s poisoned versus diseased.

The other is a plague overtaking the kingdom type of situation and that is much more of a story based problem, and probably requires a specific solution beyond just a spell the party has at their disposal. They have to find an artifact, they have to destroy the creature responsible for causing it, etc. In that case, the rules for dealing with that plague are specific enough that detailing it in the PHB are likely not as helpful anyways, and fall outside of just a basic condition or spell that can be cast to make it go away.

 

[ezo]

If you look at the Paladin, even Lay on Hands only removes the poisoned condition, so it seems they just decided "diseased = poisoned" and left it at that.

Ideally, they would have something under the Herbalism kit or Healer kit or something, but skimming things I didn't find any references to disease.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

The DM's Toolbox preview video for the DMG 2024 mentions Sight Rot and other diseases, but it sounds like they have been included with curses. Perhaps they are now explicitly magical in nature and include information on how to cure them in their own descriptions.

 

[the Jester]

This is one of those things that they changed and I have no idea why. Does this somehow improve the game? Should anyone with any disease with an in game effect, even a mild one, really give you disadvantage on all checks and attacks? Ugh.

Disease is another area where (IMNSHO) 5e should have imported the 4e rules, which were cool, robust, and allowed for highly variable effects from different diseases. Instead we got a half-hearted version of the 3e rules (which were also fine, btw) and now even less differentiation than that.

 

[Shadowdweller00]

AFAICT, diseases in the 2024 rules are essentially extra effects added to the poisoned condition. For example the Contagion spell now imposes the poisoned condition with the added malus of disadvantage on one type of saving throw of the caster's choice as long as the victim remains poisoned (in addition to a significant amount of damage).

I'm guessing that effects which remove the poisoned condition will therefore essentially cure diseases.

 

[jasper]

2024 diseases got sick and died out by listening to much glam band metal rock Poison.

 

[Lidgar]

2024 diseases got sick and died out by listening to much glam band metal rock Poison.