Developing a pandemic in a D&D type setting - how do you do it?

[Celebrim]

One of the most difficult obstacles in a D&D type campaign is for a DM to be able to develop a pandemic that poses a threat to the characters and such. How do you counter the old standby Cure Disease spell so you can have a plague ravage the land and have the PCs be a part of it?

There are many plagues and maladies on my world of a magical nature, bolstered by the powers of darkness, which resist easy cures. Generally speaking, they require caster level checks to remove.

The seven plagues and the disease they are loosely based on are:

The Black Death (Plague): Caster level check 15+
The White Death (Tuberculosis): Caster level check 12+
The Yellow Death (Yellow Fever): Caster level check 13+
The Purple Death (Cholera): Caster level check 16+
The Red Death (Ebola): Caster level check 18+
The Green Death (Influenza): Caster level check 11+
The Spotted Death (Small Pox): Caster level check 14+

Generally speaking, these diseases are virulent enough that they quickly overwhelm the combined priesthoods ability to cope. A city might be able to cure 2 or 3 cases per 1000 people per day. If scores or hundreds of people are contracting the disease daily, clerical resources simply won't be able to keep up.

Each outbreak of these is also usually accompanied by at least one Greater Disease Spirit, which generally has to be dealt with or appeased to end the outbreak. Remember that we aren't dealing with a culture that lacks a germ theory of disease; we are potentially dealing with a world where germs aren't the cause of disease but rather malevolent spirits are the primary vectors.

It's also worth noting that Cure Disease confers absolutely no resistance to future exposure to the disease.

Some diseases, like Lycantropy, require both caster level checks and the outlay of certain rare ingredients to cure. It's generally far safer to destroy lycanthropes than to try to cure them. It's often hard enough to contain the disease by curing the ones that slew the last batch without trying to redeem the full lycanthropes.

 

[Scott DeWar]

plague zombies-fuuun-need brains .. .. .. .. ..

infect the plague zombie with the type of disease as Umbran mentions : requires a Cl of X to cure. plus increas need for saves and frequency of save checks. This can also be toughened with a simple 'advanced, simple' template with the fungal creature template added to the plague zombie template, just to make it a challenge!

What, isn't that bad enough?

Ok I will think more on this.

 

[howandwhy99]

Plague is the better way to go. Pandemic means the PCs are so high level that they aren't just beyond the local level, the kingdom, or the continent. They are operating on a worldwide scale of superheroism. By that time overcoming a pandemic disease is far beyond any kind of spell per day solution.

Plagues are pretty immune to quick divine miracles. Even a local high priest who could cure a town's entire populace is still at risk for when the plague spreads back. A single Cure Disease or even a full spell prep complement of them isn't going to cure more than a handful of characters. Good for the tactical level? Oh yeah, but not a single answer to overcoming a plague.

Think strategically. Epidemiology in action is all about analysis and logistics. First, identify the disease. How does it spread? How fast can it spread? Who can it infect? How dispersed is it? Only second is determining how to stop its spread while treating those who have been infected as well.

Difficult decisions about priorities on the PCs plan of attack are going to arise. Do we save our friends and allies? What if we lost that overseer dragon who watches the valley to this thing? Do we ignore aiding the sick and instead attempt to stop the spread of the disease? How do we maintain obedience and trust in our forces so they can be the boots on the ground to fight this thing?

Check out stories on epidemiology for more on what fighting disease entails.

 

[Umbran]

The Black Death (Plague): Caster level check 15+
The White Death (Tuberculosis): Caster level check 12+
The Yellow Death (Yellow Fever): Caster level check 13+
The Purple Death (Cholera): Caster level check 16+
The Red Death (Ebola): Caster level check 18+
The Green Death (Influenza): Caster level check 11+
The Spotted Death (Small Pox): Caster level check 14+

Ooh! You know, with minor adjustment, you're looking at... Chromatic Plagues, one for each type of evil dragon! I am so jotting that idea down for future use!

 

[Scott DeWar]

Ooh! You know, with minor adjustment, you're looking at... Chromatic Plagues, one for each type of evil dragon! I am so jotting that idea down for future use!

*SHUDDER* TWITCH*
now look at what you have done. *sigh*

[writer's note]the scream that was omitted was done so to prevent every computer's eardrums from shattering. [/writer's note]

I think i will snarkle at the boute so as to goboggle ut cropfomjuk.

 

[Ghostwind]

I'd like to avoid the disease having a magical component. I'm thinking of something like ebola or smallpox.

 

[delericho]

Simple demographics should be enough. Casters capable of cure disease aren't very common, even in a metropolis (and, actually, the situation will be worst in the metropolis because of the sheer number of people). Give the disease a long incubation time and rapid progression of symptoms and you can easily set it up so the disease goes unnoticed until suddenly there's a major disaster.

Also, it would be valid to rule that cure disease prevents the cured for acquiring any future resistance to the disease, as the spell wipes out all traces of it. So, those same folk that the clerics heal just get infected again, and again, and again.

Basically, while a useful tool, cure disease provides no protection against a society-wide problem such as a plague.

 

[Umbran]

I'd like to avoid the disease having a magical component. I'm thinking of something like ebola or smallpox.

You're in a fantasy world, an world without science - mundane explanations like modern germ theory don't need to apply. Since you don't have any scientists pointing out the metabolic pathways and cell division mechanics of microbes, or explicating the operation of the human immune system, you can do anything you like.

You're perfectly in your rights to say, "This bug is so pernicious that, even though it isn't magical itself, it requires a high caster level to kill it off."

But you can even leave off the "bug" part - that's still modern science talking. Maybe it is an odd imbalance of humors that the spell cannot correct, or a result of some ancient program of breeding slaves in a long-dead empire such that all their descendants (now basically everyone) are subject to a vulnerability only now discovered after an ancient cask from a mummy's tomb is opened....

Also, it would be valid to rule that cure disease prevents the cured for acquiring any future resistance to the disease, as the spell wipes out all traces of it.

Beyond "valid to rule", the spell description says so explicitly (from the d20 SRD):

"Note: Since the spell’s duration is instantaneous, it does not prevent reinfection after a new exposure to the same disease at a later date. "

 

[wedgeski]

How about a disease that feeds on magic. Starts out as a harmless cold, something like that, nothing major, but some noble hires a cleric to cure him of his sniffles. That causes it to mutate into something far more deadly and infectious.

A great idea for a disease designed to kill *only* the nobility -- i.e only those who can afford magical curatives.

 

[kitsune9]

You increase the infection rate beyond the ability of the restoratives to counter it.

Agreed.