Potentially not a simple RAW question: healing congenital and genetic disorders?

[Jon_Dahl]

Let's say that you have a stuttering problem in D&D or you are an albino. Both are inherited. How to cure them?

[Castilonium]

Polymorph Any Object.

In real life, death by old age is caused by some organ in the body failing. Theoretically, if you can keep all of your organs and cells working properly, you can live forever. But not even the best healing magic in D&D can stop you from dying of old age. Genetic disorders are probably in the same camp, so a different type of magic like polymorphing is probably the best way to go.

[Crake]

Isn't stuttering an acquired mental disorder? I didn't think it was possible to a) be born stuttering, or b) inherit it genetically. I could be wrong, I'm no expert on the topic.

Either way, albinoism seems to be at best a template, at worst a whole separate race (as noted by the albino drow), but savage species has rituals that allow you to change your race properly (rather than "permanently" as polymorph any object, which is one dispel or antimagic field away from reverting all changes). Heart's ease is a spell that heals mental conditions as the heal spell heals physical conditions, which, if I'm correct about stuttering, should fix the root of the issue.

[Falontani]

Can Remove Disease cure Cancer?

There is definitely no RAW, however Cancer Mage gets a tumor familiar which if subject to remove disease is destroyed. So.. Yes.. Question Mark?


Can Remove Disease cure diabetes?

Again no RAW, and no clear way to get a tentative raw, however RAI, I believe it would.

I dont know where I'm going with this, but I think it is relevant.

[exelsisxax]

Albinism isn't a thing identifiably wrong like a broken bone or foreign infection. There is no way to justify having it be cured by any normal magical procedure. You'd need to craft a very precise spell that actually does the work of editing every relevant chromosome. Or, alternatively:

Yo, big [insert diety here], can I get some total genetic modification over 'ere? We've got some very pale dudes that need to get tanned!

Which is exactly the same procedure necessary to cure things like huntingtin's, cystic fibrosis, etc. So either magic is poorly thought out enough to be doing that, or genetic diseases remain real problems.

Stuttering has genetic influences, not sole determinism. If there was a neurological issue magic could conceivably correct the issue. Usually, it is a developmental problem, so magic can't do anything about it unless you can also cure 'being an *******' and 'liking puns', as they are deviances of process and not underlying structure.

[Jon_Dahl]

Isn't stuttering an acquired mental disorder? I didn't think it was possible to a) be born stuttering, or b) inherit it genetically. I could be wrong, I'm no expert on the topic.


Don't worry, this is an open question. Stuttering is partly or not at all genetic, or 100% genetic, depending on the case.

[Florian]

Ah, D&D magic follows such a strange logic.....

I´d say that your normal healing-type spells can handle anything up to and including stuff like cancer.
Weird as it might sound, but I guess that things like diabetes, diverse forms of inherited or trauma-based conditions will fall under either Break Enchantment or Remove Curse.

[Malphegor]

Considering that afasia is a condition one can magically place on people (which as someone with a sibling who’s got autism and aphasia irl is a spell I refuse to ever use because it is especially cruel, I feel), D&D magic can impart neurological stuff related to speech...

But can it cure it?

For a wizard, transmutation feels key. Polymorph any object might fix it- you are polymorphing them into a form identical to their body except it replaces the physiological stuff that causes stuttering and albinism. We know that the closer it is to the base form it can be a permanent spell, so I’d personally guesstimate/rule that you could permanently change someone.

It’s not a curse in the magical sense, I doubt remove curse can remove natural things that are bad, but that got me thinking. One way to cure stuttering might be just giving the stutterer telepathy- I don’t believe people who stutter stutter in their thoughts, do they?

Not only is it rad to speak mind to mind, it cures them of their condition at a much lower level of magic. They still stutter, but never need to speak again.

On clerical spells, I’m unsure. Most of the healing spells I’ve countered expect wounds to undo or a desired original state. Restorative magic, not transformative.

I’d sign up for a wizard to fix it before I consulted a godbotherer. A wizard will do it for the magiscience at least.

[zlefin]

hmmm; pondering the issue for a bit, as a dm I'd say congenital issues can't be fixed by the normal stuff like remove disease. So you'd need either a spell that's extremely on-point, or one with a very high power level, or one that permanently changes the body.

I wonder if a tongues spell would fix/help stuttering? probably not.

Greater Restoration might have a chance on the stutter, as would Heal.

Miracle/wish should be able to ofc.

the existence of remove blindness/deafness implies that one should be able to at least research a new spell spell to remove muteness, which might be able to fix a stutter, given the wording on those abilities. (i.e. the wording on those spells could be read to mean that certain kinds of congenital blindness would be cured by them)

[Eldonauran]

I’ll take the easy route and simply attribute all the genetic issues to some kind of minor curse that works similar to a disease. “Remove Curse” for any of those issues, “Remove Disease” for actual (ie, game defined) diseases. And “Remove Blindness/Deafness” as applicable for their respect targets.

I just think it is easier to do so because not many people actually could afford or ever get those kinds of treatments, and thus wouldn’t know it was possible to fix them (barring ranks in appropriate skills). Of course, removing the “curse” doesn’t necessarily repair damage that is already there. That might take more magic. But it stops the “curse” from continuing. Stuttering would cease, albinos would start producing melanin, etc, etc

[Kish]

Can Remove Disease cure Cancer?

There is definitely no RAW, however Cancer Mage gets a tumor familiar which if subject to remove disease is destroyed. So.. Yes.. Question Mark?


Can Remove Disease cure diabetes?

Again no RAW, and no clear way to get a tentative raw, however RAI, I believe it would.

I dont know where I'm going with this, but I think it is relevant.
I don't see the RAW as ambiguous in either case. Both are diseases.

[unseenmage]

Last I pondered this I was considering whether magic could cure male pattern baldness (for... reasons) that'd been worsened by one's affinity for hats.

Could magic cure the distended skin, stretch mark's, and excess fat cells remaining after obesity, or even childbearing.

How about callouses or ingrown nails.

So many largely cosmetic things that a person from our world might want magic to fix that are odd misproportioned combinations of natural growth and environmental exacerbation.

Would Regenerate ruin your tattoos?

How about the mild brain damage from mild childhood lead poisoning? Childhood sports related concussive damage? We've even got images of low grade brain trauma caused by childhood anxiety and stress. Could magic 'cure' it?


My idea was to have my real world originating, middle aged character get himself resurrected only to find that magic had changed him into someone almost unrecognizable. The idealized, never injured version of himself.

How startling that would be. Especially when one begins to notice cognitive changes to a brain from which a host of poverty related brain issues have been regenerated.

EDIT: Oh, and when I stutter I suspect it is to do with the pair of fashionable skull scars I sport and the fact that the brain forms statements on one side, then makes them words on the other (IIRC). Meaning that folk like.me who've been conked on the noggin a bit much can sometimes stammer while our misaligned lobes pass garbled notes to one another.

[ayvango]

Last Breath spell takes lesser level and couldn't dispelled in contrast to PAO

[ExLibrisMortis]

The notions of "disease" and "disorder" depend on some "normal" to be compared to. Which is why it's such a tricky question, politically; expressing the notion that something must be cured places the "sick" outside the group of "normal folks". So we're looking strictly at D&D morality and metaphysics, not real life, here.

I think that the D&D universe does have a notion of "the normal form" of each thing. For one, the deity of X has an idea of what "the essential X" is. For two, the form you take when polymorphing into a non-specific example of some creature, or summoning the same, is "normal", average, an unremarkable example of its kind. Hence, I'd say that you can definitely use magic to change a creature's form towards "the normal form" quite easily, as the reference is just out there on the planes somewhere. What magic you specifically need to do so is up to the DM.