Questions tagged [disease]
For questions about infections of natural, supernatural, or technological origin and mechanics for tracking their spread and/or effects.
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Are there examples in WotC publications of a disease that's "a more complicated outbreak"?
On disease, the DMG says:
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 ...
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Does the paladin's Lay on Hands feature cure parasites?
My rogue is a very promiscuous individual. The paladin in the party is attempting to cure him of his STDs through a nightly application of Lay on Hands.
Would the Lay on Hands feature cure pubic lice?
...
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How can I identify which diseases are Supernatural (and which diseases are other types)?
How do I identify which diseases are "supernatural" and which diseases are other types?
I hoping for a property in the disease's stat block, but cannot find anything that makes the ...
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What might I make a player roll if they ask a physical, self-awareness question?
Say a player asks "Do I feel like I've been poisoned?" Or "Do I feel like I have a disease?" Or "Do I feel like my leg is broken?"
I've considered a few options and have ...
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Are alcoholism and drug addiction curable diseases?
In 5e, are alcoholism and drug addiction "curable" diseases? Could they be cured by Lesser Restoration and other spells/items that "end diseases"? Could symptoms of withdrawal be ...
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How do I determine what in-game features and effects constitute diseases?
The party is exploring a crypt and has come upon a number of mummies.
The party paladin has
Lay on Hands. Alternatively, you can expend 5 hit points from your pool of healing to cure the target of ...
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If a player gets Lycanthropy, does it start immediately? Or does it take a while?
If my players were fighting a werewolf and one of them got bit and failed the con save, would they instantly be able to transform? Or would they have to wait a while?
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How can you undo a Slaad infection?
Both the Red Slaad and the Blue Slaad's Claw attacks have an ability that, if they hit and the target is a humanoid that fails a Constitution saving throw, infects the target with a disease.
For ...
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Do you need to specify an effect to counteract with Remove Disease or similar?
Remove Disease specifies
You attempt to counteract one disease afflicting the target.
Do you need to pick a specific instance of disease to remove? Or is it random/determined by GM/something else?
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RAW, are undead and constructs affected by disease? [duplicate]
I can't find any information on constructs or undead having a disease immunity. The Contagion spell gives diseases. Could someone, RAW, cast Contagion on a stone golem, for example, and give it ...
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Do diseases carry over from polymorph?
I'm curious how polymorph and diseases interact.
Say the following scenario. A character of at least level 5 is polymporphed into a Giant Shark and fights an Aboleth.
Polymorph states the following:
...
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Is goblin dog's allergic reaction automatically removed by cure disease?
Goblin dog's allergic reaction states:
"Remove disease or any magical healing removes the rash instantly."
Does this mean, that you do not need to make a caster level check to remove it, if ...
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Does a Successful Saving Throw vs. Disease protect you until the next day?
So you have a monster that can inflict an Injury Track disease. The PC successfully saves to avoid contracting the disease when he is injured in the first round of combat. If he is injured in the same ...
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Is the Adult Gold Dragon's Weakening Breath considered a curse, disease, or poison?
In a fight with an Adult Gold Dragon today our delightful barbarian suffered from the effect of Weakening Breath. Our transmutation wizard used his Transmuter's Stone for Panacea to restore hit points,...
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Does my character know he's ill while incubating a disease?
My character was bitten by a Dire Rat and through accidental meta-gaming reasons, I know he's incubating Filth Fever. I want to ask the Paladin in our party to remove it before it can affect my stats, ...
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If someone's max HP is reduced by the Harm spell, then Feign Death suppresses that disease, what happens if they're healed and then Feign Death ends?
The description of the feign death spell says, in part (PHB, p. 240):
If the target is diseased or poisoned when you cast the spell, or becomes diseased or poisoned while under the spell’s effect, ...
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Are creatures that are immune to disease unaffected by the Harm spell?
The Harm spell, flavourfully, states it creates a virulent disease:
You unleash a virulent disease on a creature that you can see within range.
It later calls out that
Any effect that removes a ...
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Does the effects of a failed save versus disease or poison carry over into an alternate form?
Most diseases (mundane or magical) and poison deal ability damage upon a failed save after the incubation time.
Once the damage takes place, does the negative effects of a failed save versus disease ...
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What counts as a disease?
Do any books contain a rules definition of what is and is not a disease.
Here are some examples of aliments I, the DM, would like to see if they match the definition if such a thing exists. I put a ...
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Do diseases stack?
Say you're fighting dire rats and get bit 9 times, failing your save each time. If their incubation period rolls are evenly spread, do you take 3d3 Dex/Con damage after 1 day, then possibly 6d3 damage ...
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Looking for a system: Epidemic Outbreak [closed]
What system could suit a short-term survival-horror campaign focused on a "realistic" epidemic outbreak scenario? (Realistic as in crunchy or gritty-ish, I know it's pretty vague, sorry)
I'm thinking ...
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Does an upcast lesser restoration count as magical healing of 6th level or higher [duplicate]
I'm playing through a published module (not naming to avoid potential spoilers) and I just got attacked by an aboleth's tentacle attack and due to not receiving the whisper from the DM on Roll20 (He ...
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Does a Paladin with the Divine Health feature destroy a Green Slime?
The Green Slime (DMG, p105) is a dungeon hazard, and
any effect that cures disease [...] destroys a patch of green slime.
A Paladin, from level 3, is immune to disease thanks to the Divine Health ...
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Does the paladin's Divine Health feature make them immune to the curse of lycanthropy?
Paladins get the Divine Health feature at level 3:
By 3rd level, the divine magic flowing through you makes you immune to disease.
If a were-animal bites a paladin of level 3 or higher, would they ...
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How can I create a character with a chronic illness?
How can I apply an illness during character creation? I'm thinking of a character that has leukemia that its effects can happen during the game and provoke some negative modifiers to all tests (due to ...
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Can a vampire use Bloodheal to cure a human disease?
Not too long ago I pondered whether a vampire would suffer being a carrier of a disease that is spread via blood, for example, HIV, upon feeding on an ill kine.
Now, he seems a bit remorseful that he'...
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If a vampire drinks blood of a sick human, does the vampire get infected?
I'm a vampire, and I'm stupidly hungry, not to mention stupidly stupid. I feed on a random stranger, and, who would've thought - that stranger is HIV positive.
Am I all set for a healthy dose of ...
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How does a character proficient in the Medicine skill help other characters recover from diseases, injuries, or similar effects?
Recuperating is described as a downtime activity option on Basic Rules Version 1.0, page 71:
You can use downtime between adventures to recover from a debilitating injury, disease, or poison.
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Does a disease trigger a saving throw vs. poison?
In What happened to disease in D&D 5e? we see that disease may not be a specific mechanic. However, it seems to be conflated quite a bit with poison, for example:
Here's an example of an ...
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Cerebral Parasites and Where to Find Them
What book do I find cerebral parasites in? I've got an adventure that has them in it but doesn't give me any of the details of what they do. The adventure came from an issue of Dragon magazine, in an ...
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Do multiple cases of reduced HP from Harm need to be cured individually?
If you fail your save against Harm, it will reduce your maximum HP for an hour or until it is cured via some kind of cure disease effect.
You unleash a virulent disease on a creature that you can ...
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Can a Rutterkin's Bite poison a Paladin?
The Rutterkin (from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, pg. 136) has the following attack:
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: + 4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 12 (3d6 + 2) piercing damage. If the ...
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How to slowly kill someone tended by a 13th level cleric
I'm running a 3.5 D&D game where the king is dying of some sort of illness or curse, and was looking to see if there is anything RAW that could slowly kill someone who has access to the impressive ...
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What happens if I use Lay on Hands to cure one disease when there are in fact multiple?
A new player of mine asked me this question:
If I use Lay on Hands to cure what I assume is one disease, but it's actually at least two with similar symptoms, which disease gets cured?
Do I target ...
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What happens if I try to use Lay on Hands to cure disease when there is in fact no disease?
5 points from a Lay on Hands pool can be used to cure disease (or neutralize poison). Some effects appear like diseases but are instead just spell effects or curses.
If I attempt to use Lay on Hands ...
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Would Spawn of Kyuss worms infesting a Paladin die?
At third level, Paladins gain the feature Divine Health:
By 3rd level, the divine magic flowing through you makes you immune to disease. (PHB, p. 85)
There's a monster in Volo's Guide to Monsters ...
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How does bed rest effect Unchained diseases?
How does getting bed rest interact with the disease rules from Pathfinder Unchained?
I find the text in the relevant section to be ambiguous; it first mentions diseases, then poisons, and then bed ...
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What are the CRs for diseases used in traps, and how are they calculated?
Are there guidelines for determining the CR of diseases when they're part of traps? I'm actually interested specifically in Tetanus, but the lack of a clear answer of which I'm aware leads to me to ...
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How to give an antipaladin remove disease, for... reasons
I have an aspiring antipaladin of Urgathoa, may she stay forever gluttonous, and when reading through The Pallid Princess's section in Inner Sea Gods I noticed how in the variant spellcasting section ...
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Where could an aspiring follower of Urgathoa (may she stay forever gluttonous) find a complete list of diseases?
As an aspiring antipaladin of Urgathoa, I noticed the Plague Bringer ability that allows me to contract diseases without suffering any ill effects, thus enabling me to carry and spread disease in the ...
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Can I invent a disease for the sake of my character's backstory?
I'm trying to learn how to play and for my character I am making a backstory to where her mother dies of a disease that slowly takes her energy/food, causing her to grow thinner and thinner till she ...
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Does a Druid's bite when wild shaped into a dire rat inflict disease?
When a druid wild shapes into other forms, they get those attacks.
In this case, when a druid becomes a dire rat, do they gain the filth fever disease on bite attacks?
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Can a character craft and use doses of disease in the same manner as an alchemical item or poison?
I'm looking to make a character (well... villain) who deliberately and stealthily infects people with diseases, perhaps by tainting the local water, or food supply, then charges them for the cure. I'...
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Does Resist All apply to different damage types from the same or different sources?
Here's the scenario: A PC is infected with the initial stage of Black Boils. A disease which causes small acid filled pustules to form under the skin. The initial stage says "Whenever that target ...
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Does the Contagion spell infect the target immediately on a melee attack hit?
Let's say I'm a cleric with the 5th level spell Contagion and I am successful on the melee attack. From the wording of the spell it seems that the effect kicks in immediately, but Jeremy Crawford said ...
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Paladin gaining Divine Health while they have a disease
Say a second level paladin gets a disease, then at the end of the session levels up and gets Divine Health, which makes them immune to disease. Do they still carry that disease and are its markings ...
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What diseases should my cancer mage try to catch?
My cleric would eventually like to enter the prestige class cancer mage (Book of Vile Darkness 52-4). Once he's a cancer mage, what are the best diseases for him to catch both to increase his personal ...
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What mechanical effects would the common cold have?
I saw the common cold statted up in the Dragonstar Player's Companion from Fantasy Flight Games. How would the common cold affect player characters in D&D 5e?
I was thinking it would be -1 to str ...
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When does a PC become aware they've contracted a disease?
I have not used any afflictions in my game as of yet, but the party will shortly be going through a festering bog, which if normal mosquitos don't give them a disease, the stirge or some other ...
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Any way to overcome a Paladin's immunity to disease without GM fiat?
Is there any way to overcome a paladin's immunity to disease without a gm fiat?
The goal is to make a paladin able to fall ill through any means possible without him losing his immunity, but instead ...
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