Custom Diseases

[koesherbacon]

Does anybody have any cool custom DND diseases I can give my players?

We're headed off into the Underdark and I want them to contract some diseases from misc. molds, fungi, mushrooms, monsters, stagnant water, etc. I already jotted down every disease I could find in the official DND Books. Are there any in Dungeon/Dragon mags that I might have missed?

I'll take whatever you can come up with!

Thank you

 

[Rechan]

Fiend's Tongue
Level 3 Disease
Fortitude Attack: +6
Endurance Improve DC: 16
Maintain DC: 11
Worsen: 10 or lower

Stages of the Virus
0: Target is cured.
1: Initial Effect Target speaks only Abyssal.
2: An abyssal tumor grows on the host's body. This growth has sentience, and begins to effect the host's mind. -2 to Will Defense, lose 1 healing surge.
3: More, powerful tumors spread. The host takes -2 to Fort. The Tumors begin influencing the host more, subconsciously encouraging the host to spread the virus to as many uninfected individuals as possible. Host will also refuse to succumb to a Cure Disease or Remove Affliction ritual.
4: Final Stage The Tumors' control of the Host's will has become complete; an entity that can possess targets does not need to succeed in an attack to possess the Host. Furthermore, the Tumors have gained enough power to connect to the Abyss; once every Extended rest, the target is attacked with a +8 vs. Will attack. A hit results in the target being possessed by a demon.

Contraction

Fiend's Tongue is an utterly wicked plague, not only due to what it does to a victim, but how it is spread. The first symptom of the virus is that the host speaks Abyssal (but does not understand it, unless the host knows the language already). Anyone who hears the infected host speak is exposed to the virus and subject to an attack (but if the attack misses, the target is safe from that carrier for 24 hours).

Ulterior Motive

The actual infection is not the final threat of the virus. Certainly an outbreak ending in an infected population who are possessed is bad enough. But the actual words in Abyssal are a threat. If enough entities are speaking at once, there is a significant chance that demons can be summoned from the Abyss. The Tumors are aware of this, intentionally infecting hosts and coordinating until they have enough to carry through a summons.

 

[vagabundo]

Rechan@ And the disease kicks ass..

I need to put together some infections - there was a dungeon adventure with a few good ones that could be converted; The Stink I think it was called.

 

[Mesh Hong]

This is a rapid acting disease I used in the first encounter of a chain of 5 encounters I knew the group would be facing without rest, (i.e. they had 4 encounters after infection).

I don’t tend to use diseases that often, as they usually end up being trivial. In this case I wanted to try and make a disease that had a better chance of making an impact on the game by acting on its targets much quicker.

Skin Rot (level 21 rapid acting disease)
Identify with a heal DC20 or a Religion DC30 as a fast acting necrotic disease

Infected either make an endurance check or receive a heal check by ally at the end of each encounter after the initial infection. Note each PC may only make one heal check at the end of an encounter.

Worsen DC 22 or less
Maintain DC 23 to 26
Improve DC 27 or more

-2 Target is cured

-1 Feel sickly, skin feels better;
Total healing surge -1

Initial Feel sickly, skin is tender to the touch;
Total healing surge -1, take a -1 penalty to Fortitude defence

+1 Feel ill, flesh starts to sag and lose its elasticity;
Total healing surge -2, take a -2 penalty to Fortitude defence, take a -1 penalty to speed

+2 Feel very ill, flesh sags and peels away easily;
Total healing surge -3, -3 penalty to fortitude defence, -2 penalty to speed, gain only half benefit when regaining HPs