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

[wingsandsword]

I'm curious - why not? Nothing in the SRD spell description prevents it from being used on an sentient parasite. I can use swords and fireballs on sentient creatures, but not Remove Disease?

I'd be quite okay with Remove Disease destroying a sentient parasite. If it counts as a Disease for infection rules, then Remove Disease should destroy it. Then again, I saw a lighthearted game where a Cleric cast Remove Disease on a trashy bar wench and she vanished entirely.

The way I see it, if it's a infectious bacteria, virus, fungus, or prion, or parasitic protozoa causing the infection, Remove Disease kills it dead. If it's magically augmented (like in the example of some Fey plot) it may require a higher level caster, but the spell itself should work.

Or, if you simply don't have that many clerics in the game world, there may not be enough of them 5th level and over to cover the problem.

Personally, I would go with this. 5th Level Clerics aren't supposed to be horribly common. In my campaigns, a 5th level NPC Cleric would probably be the parish priest at a small temple, or a more senior functionary in a larger cathedral. The rank-and-file of the Clergy are 1st and 2nd level, maybe 3rd level at most. Most towns would only have a handful of Cleric of 5th level (or higher) and they might get 1 or 2 3rd level spells per day. Assuming they only prepare/memorize Remove Disease (or Cure Disease, edition-dependent), they can cure a couple of people a day. . .which may include themselves.

Basically, you can use Clerical magic for miracles to save a few people, but basic sanitation, hygiene, and Heal skill checks will do a lot more for the masses than magic. Use the Magic to fix up the worst cases, with people near death whom non-magical healers can't help, quarantine the ill, and good cleanliness using plenty of soap and alcohol for disinfection will stop a normal plague in a D&D world.

 

[Filcher]

And cure disease isn't immunization. You might still need to cure disease on that same temple paladin tomorrow. And then next day, and the next. Just keeping core believers safe is a full time job. Let alone once the nobility finds out – suddenly a town that outlawed evil cults is going to be importing high level cultists just to keep the nobility alive.

 

[Bullgrit]

I once had a situation where the PCs [almost] started an epidemic in a city after an encounter with a chaos beast in the city sewers. Chaos Running Amuck Total Bullgrit

I had to make a ruling that ended the problem to avoid turning the campaign into something I didn't want to go into. But by the rules, a single chaos beast loosed in a city can, and probably will, create a huge and deadly plague.

Drop a chaos beast into a city. Or a wight. Or a shadow. Or a wraith. Etc.

In my campaign mentioned above, a single chaos beast transformed two PCs -- professional adventurers -- into chaos beasts. Imagine what one could do if loosed in a tavern. The number of beasts can grow crazy in a matter of minutes. And chaos beasts can't be turned.

Bullgrit

 

[Scott DeWar]

Bullgrit, thos undead ideas are \just plain nasty!

As for an Idea I just found, i am looking at a holloween adventure: the haunted manse. As i parused the pathfinder list of monsters i found one called a Drekavac-basicly a child killed by a plague carried by another Drekavac. It listed the following information:

Bubonic plague: Touch—injury; save Fort DC 15; onset 1 day; frequency 1/day; effect 1d4 Con damage, 1 Cha damage, victim is fatigued; cure 2 consecutive saves.

so it takes a day for any signs to show, but you are contageous!

here is the link in the D20 pathfinder SRD

 

[Bullgrit]

Bullgrit, thos undead ideas are just plain nasty!

Back in my AD&D1 days, I had an unwritten house rule, (really just a DM decision), that undead more powerful than skeletons and zombies were limited to their haunt. I used this rule once I realized just how crazy dangerous a single level-draining & spawn-producing undead could be if it ever wandered into a populated area.

I kept that rule into D&D3. Any undead that requires only a single touch, (like for level drain, vice strength or constitution drain), to kill and create a spawn is just wildly dangerous to civilization.

Bullgrit

 

[Herobizkit]

Some creatures are immune to diseases. For example:

Paladins of level 3+ (d20 3.5)
Warforged and all other Constructs
Undead.

Strangely enough, everyone else is fair game unless disease immunity is specifically called out in an individual creature's description.

There are many more creatures immune to poison.

Something to think about, assassins...