Disease?

[mhensley]

Anybody heard of how diseases will be handled in 4e? My love of dire rats needs to know...

 

[Baka no Hentai]

I certainly hope that there are diseases or even some poisons that dont end based on a saving throw each round... if not, Im'a'gonna be house-ruling some in, as I have some evil plans in the works.

 

[mhensley]

So far it doesn't look like any of the monsters reported to date have disease as an attack. I don't think the Paladin or Cleric pregens have any disease related info either.

 

[Hella_Tellah]

I don't think the Paladin or Cleric pregens have any disease related info either.

I bet removal and magical bestowal of diseases will be the stuff of rituals. Ditto for curses.

 

[FadedC]

I never really liked disease in 3rd edition, it took so long to have an effect and was so easy to cure it was barely worth keeping track of. It also required you to pull out the DMG and look up the disease ona disease table....something which was rarely worth the time of doing.

If we do see monsters with disease as a combat ability, I suspect it will have a unique effect for each critter, rather then forcing you to consult the disease appendix.

 

[Vecnasaurus]

1 in 4 halflings carries an STD

I've always liked diseases conceptually, but they're not implemented well in 3e (though, to be fair, I can't come up with anything better). It's not dissimilar to the "long-term injury" problem. If you have a means of curing it, you wave your wand and move on. If not, then you sit and hole up for a few weeks of game time - and DMs rarely have any "during recovery" encounters, 'cause they are essentially random monsters that leave at least one character lying in bed while the others protect him/her. Makes for good movies, but it's not much fun for the player with the sick character. I always had better luck using disease on important NPCs, that the PCs then had to protect. But, of course, once you have access to a curative effect, well, so much for that.

 

[mhensley]

I agree. I think magic disease should hit you immediately- just like poisons, only with a different effect. Maybe most diseases should do damage to your healing surges instead of to hit points and you only get to save once per day to end it.

 

[Cyronax]

I agree. I think magic disease should hit you immediately- just like poisons, only with a different effect. Maybe most diseases should do damage to your healing surges instead of to hit points and you only get to save once per day to end it.

I bet diseases are a great way to inspire adventures in 4e. Perhaps they are actually one of the few ways to have longterm effects applied? A long running debilitating illness affects the princess of the land ..... oh no ... it turns out that its a curse from some BBEG.

PCs go forth.

C.I.D.

 

[Lurker37]

I agree. I think magic disease should hit you immediately- just like poisons, only with a different effect. Maybe most diseases should do damage to your healing surges instead of to hit points and you only get to save once per day to end it.

Poisons act quickly. Diseases tend to be the exact opposite. You complete the adventure, get home, then realise you're in trouble.

And that you may have been contagious for a while now.

Edit: Note that I'm talking about how I've run them in the past - I have no knowledge of how 4E will handle diseases.

 

[Shroomy]

I wonder how high of a level the prospective remove disease spell/ritual will be in 4e. My guess will be mid to high level paragon tier. That should have some interesting effects on adventuring on campaign worlds since diseases will actually be a threat for a longer spread of adventures.