Looking back at diseases in TES from Morrowind to Skyrim, there is a thought to occured to me: Diseases are a fairly trivial matter in the games.


My reasoning probably requires explaining to some, as we are surely all familiar with Blight Diseases in Morrowind, Astral Vapors in Oblivion and the Rockjoint(rather common for such a significant disease, giving a 25% melee damage decrease carried by the numerous wolves), Droops and Witbane diseases in Skyrim. All diseases that can mess with your character if they aren’t cured.


And that is where I have a problem with diseases, even the bad ones, in the last 3 TES games. The diseases are simply too easy to cure. Even for characters unversed in Alchemy and Restoration, the cure for diseases are rather common.


In Morrowind you get several scrolls to cure common diseases available for free by simply joining the Mages Guild. Potions of Cure Common and Blight diseases are also not all that expensive, as well as being somewhat regular loot in caves and the like. Sure, that time you got a Blight disease without having a cure at hand had some consequence, but that seems to be the minority of the cases, given how common the cures are.


Oblivion makes this worse, in that most all diseases don’t have much impact at all, while curing items are even more common. Mandrake root(for example) is cheap, readily available at most alchemist vendors and cures anything and everything. Curing spells are also cheaper to acquire and use.


In Skyrim, while there are no longer any cure spells, the potions are common enough for it not to be a problem for the most part.


My view is that the games might be better served with having less severe diseases than some of the things on this list, while limiting options for curing oneself a bit. Say only at shrines and by hiring a healer to do it for you. And have diseases be more frequent in general, making the risk of getting one higher.


While not any one disease might be that “I’m screwed” thing(like Astral Vapors), with less options for curing oneself in the wilds, it could be a matter of deciding whether or not to, for example, leave the cave to get cured or to continue in a weakened state. And with more frequent chances of getting infected, the accumulative effects could impact your character quite a bit.


Just some braindroppings on diseases. It bothers me how little impact diseases have on the games when it comes down to it in the games from Morrowind to Skyrim. And I don’t think making the diseases worse is what needs to be done in the first round, since the ease of which you cure yourself seem to be the problem.