3.P - Spells to Cure Congenital Diseases?

[Rubik]

"Diseases" such as autism and chronic depression aren't actually diseases in the D&D sense, nor are they curses or any other classification I can think of.

What spells (aside from Wish and Miracle, 'cuz, y'know, duh) could cure such things?

[Morcleon]

Mindrape could work. It allows you to go so far as to change alignment and such, so it's not really that much of a stretch to allow it to work on these kinds of things.

Programmed Amnesia also works, but is Permanent instead of mindrape's Instantaneous, so a successful targeted dispel would remove it. It's also vulnerable to greater restoration, unlike mindrape.

[Trasilor]

For all we know Cure light wounds might work.

Our understanding of things like Autism chronic depression is very limited.

Understand that Autism covers is a very broad spectrum of social and developmental issues. There are many theories as why individuals who fall under this umbrella have these issues but in reality we just don't know.

My knowledge of chronic depression is more limited than Autism but again our understanding of the cause is limited.

This all stems from the fact that our brains are very complex and while we understand a significant amount about it, there are still many things we can learn.

Magical healing is not simply speeding up our natural healing rate. It repairs internal organs, fixes damaged tissue, etc. It is like having the worlds best surgeon work on you with instantaneous results.

[Phelix-Mu]

Heal cures insanity.

Heart's ease and one or two others from BoED are decent candidates, as they target the target's mental state.

But a bigger issue is that the game doesn't really model congenital diseases very well. Except for a handful of flaws and traits, I really can't think of a mechanic in RAW that replicates stuff like that (not to mention the huge variety of human congenital diseases/disorders). With all the additional races, too, this could get extremely complicated.

[Skysaber]

Mythic Vistas: Testament, based on the Bible, it actually deals with things that normal D20 products don't touch, like sin, temptation, uncleanliness, and a whole lot of historical conditions like cataracts, the mute condition and other permanent physical or mental disabilities that do not count as actual diseases in a regular D20 sense.

Remove Affliction, 4th Cleric, instantly removes lameness, impotency, and other disabilities.

[holywhippet]

Autism might be treatable by heal since it treats certain mental conditions like feebleminded and insane.

Depression is a different matter as it can depend on whether the person has some kind of physical problem like a hormone imbalance or if they are depressed because life has been treating them badly.

[Drachasor]

Heal would not work on congenital diseases, I don't think. Not anymore than it or Regenerate would treat a the congenital lack of a limb.

For Autism, I think Bestow Curse to give a penalty on all Perception checks would be a starting point. Depression is a bit trickier, but a daily Suggestion could help.

For a lot of long-term cures though, you're going to need spells that basically rewrite a person's body/biology/mind. But part of the problem with figuring out how this works is the fact that we don't have game stats on these diseases, hence working on a cure with game resources is difficult.

[Morcleon]

For a lot of long-term cures though, you're going to need spells that basically rewrite a person's body/biology/mind. But part of the problem with figuring out how this works is the fact that we don't have game stats on these diseases, hence working on a cure with game resources is difficult.

This is precisely what I've been suggesting using mindrape to essentially remake them without the disease. ^_^

[Drachasor]

This is precisely what I've been suggesting using mindrape to essentially remake them without the disease. ^_^

Yes. Mindrape definitely has some sound psychiatric uses.

A more grizzly option might be reincarnate.

[HunterOfJello]

UA has a few rules for this.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campaigns/sanity.htm#gainingOrRecoveringSanity

The Heal skill can be used and several spells can help out considerably.

For a person with depression. A wondrous item with continuous Calm Emotions would be ideal.

[Slipperychicken]

Heart's Ease (Cleric 3, some other classes, BoED) removes lingering effects of torture and other "despair" effects, as well as insanity and wisdom damage. Given the fluff, I'd say it could reasonably be used to treat PTSD, depression, and other stress and anxiety disorders.

It's a matter of some controversy as to whether autism (particularly high-functioning autism, Asperger's syndrome, and similar phenomena) is a disease at all, or simply cognitive variation. It often gives obvious cognitive benefits such as the well-known capacity for autistic people to excel in their chosen area, possess considerable empathy with animals (as exemplified by Temple Grandin*), or the enhanced/extra-sensitive senses many autistic people possess. In any case, I'd say that insanity-curing magic wouldn't classify it as insanity at all. If you ask me, autism is just one way to reduce Charisma in favor of Intelligence. As such, an item which grants a sizable Charisma bonus may be sufficient to treat autistic peoples' social and communication difficulties (especially since speech therapy is generally a decent way of mitigating such difficulties in the real world).


*(Temple Grandin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Grandin) is a famous autistic woman whose deep, intuitive understanding of cows' perspective and psychology made a valuable contribution to slaughterhouse designs, helping the animals walk comfortably to their deaths, and reducing costly panics. She's written some books and made other contributions such as inventing the hugbox. Other, more obscure autistic people sometimes exhibit similar talents.)