Fun Sicknesses?

redrick

First Post
A player character drank something he shouldn't have and failed a con save. I'd like to give him some sort of fun but ultimately not particularly threatening ailment, but I've been on the road since our last session and I'd love to outsource creativity to the good folks of this forum. Any takers?

PC is dwarven eldritch knight. Level 4. (We're playing 5e, but I'm less worried about system specific mechanics and more just the creative stuff.)

Happy new year.
-red
 

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trancejeremy

Adventurer
Clownitus - his nose becomes red and his hair turns orange.

Smurfmonia - his skin becomes blue. (This actually can happen to people who suffer from silver poisoning, though there's some other word for it).

Hobbitosis - His feet swell and grow hair

Elfinism - His ears elongate and become pointy.
 

Dioltach

Legend
His voice becomes higher or lower, depending on the position of the sun. At night he can only speak in whispers.

He developes an intolerance to ale and red meat.

His bladder shrinks to half its normal size.
 

Hand of Evil

Hero
Epic
The worst for a dwarf; BEER FLU - when he drinks any alcoholic beverage, he starts develops flu like symptoms, oh, and he is contagious. Mostly, he looses all taste of alcohol. to make this worse add, makes beer go bad and he may be named a menace to the race!

Slug Runs - yep, nasty.

Sing-Song - everything he says, he sings.
 
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salvaterra

Villager
Wormosity: His sweat turns into small worms that crawl inside of his clothes and are slowly crushed. The small worms fall of the hair and beard when he talks to someone. The only possible cure is to swallow the huge disgusting maggot of a rare type of giant fly called Wethroat.

PS: sorry the bad english, im learning XD
 
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Wicht

Hero
I would suspect you want something that is meaningful, mostly harmless, and does not require extensive amounts of book-keeping. For non-magical afflictions, an affliction of the throat strikes me as particularly believable and noteworthy. An affliction of the throat where the PC's voice becomes always raspy and sometimes is little more than a raspy whisper is a genuine affliction (oft accompanied by difficulty swallowing most foods) which is bothersome but not immediately life threatening. It would require healing magically or be permanent.

Or alternately, if you want something more fantastic, he is stricken with a fever which lasts for 24 hours, but then is gone. However, he is left with an allergy to raw positive energy so that healing magics, while curing hp's also cause Constitution damage. The more often he is healed, the sicker he becomes. This would count as a curse and would need to be healed via remove curse.
 

Janx

Hero
the worst time I got sick, I puked every 10 minutes for 18 hours.

I worked during that time.

I don't think there's such thing as "fun being sick"
 


Janx

Hero
Tequila, the stories OTHERS tell about those drunk on it, are always fun. :)

beats me, I've never been drunk, and mostly disgusted by those who were.

I would think the player who is afflicted will be annoyed at having his PC gimped and made fun of his misfortune due to a die roll. Optimally, his PC will stay home until the sickness clears up, or he'll muddle through to get it cured.

Some % of players will not look on such as "fun". Though I'm sure there are some who love crazy wierd things happening to their PCs. It's a mixed bag. Know your player.
 

redrick

First Post
Some % of players will not look on such as "fun". Though I'm sure there are some who love crazy weird things happening to their PCs. It's a mixed bag. Know your player.

Totally fair point. The player in question is, I believe, a player who enjoys interacting with the world in all sorts of ways and seeing the effects of those interactions, be they positive or negative. The characters had a cleared a room full of zombies and zombie cultists, and the character was then investigating a murky looking barrel of water. (That, in this case, contained nothing of interest.) When he decided to drink from the murky zombie water, I figured that was a risky move and called for a constitution save, which he failed spectacularly. And then I stalled by saying that the water tasted awful and didn't seem to settle so well in his stomach.

Which is all to say that I feel I owe the players something, but preferably something some short-term consequences that are more visually dramatic than punitive. He has plenty of other opportunities to make bad things happen to his character.

I like the worm idea, though. Thinking maybe:

Parasitic Graveworms.

The character wakes up to find himself retching up small deathly white worms. Throughout the course of the day, the worms slowly climb up his throat and into his mouth. At random moments, make a DC 13 Con save to avoid puking up another batch of worms. Disadvantage on all Charisma checks requiring opening his mouth. (Great opportunity to brush up on his ventriloquism.)

Can be cured by drinking a small amount of holy water, or with a Lesser Restoration spell. (Or any other higher level spell that also removes the effects of disease.)

But hey, when he decided to crawl into the coffin of the wight he had just fought, he found a secret compartment containing a magic sword. No investigation check required!
 

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