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Message: <blockquote data-quote="steeldragons" data-source="post: 6308160" data-attributes="member: 92511">D&D has always used "Disease" as a potential threat for PCs. Rats, I believe originally, had a percentage to infect those bitten with some kind of debilitating disease that wasn't really specified, but somehow could kill you eventually (iirc). Then there were the (infinitely more interesting for many, I'm sure) "magical" diseases/curses, like lycanthropy, "ghoul fever", and the variety of other undead creatures who, if they damaged you enough could/would turn you into one of them. Some games this was fixed with a Cure Disease...some even just handwaved low level players with a Cure X Wounds to remove the disease as well. Generally speaking, the more magicky/undead stuff would require a bit more attention, such as a Remove Curse.I just started thinking about/wondering...how bad/what happens in a world where "Cure Disease" and "Remove Curse", while certainly not necessarily "common" in all campaign worlds, might not be that uncommon either...and in the face of an outbreak of a killer disease, squads of "healer" clerics (and paladins) could just go and zap it all away in a few days? What happens in the world? Do religions start to fall apart because the cleric's magic can't cure it?What would it take (in a world of moderate numbers of spell-casting clerics who could, conceivably, cast a Cure Disease) for there to really be a "plague" of threatening proportions? What would the world look like in a disease panic?I mean, other than DM fiat "It's a special [magic/demon-created/supernatural/otherworldly] disease so Cure Disease won't work." Which seems, to me, kinda ****ish. How do you make a "real-feeling" pestilence that can both freak out the PCs and seem to be a true threat for the world?Legitimate threatening pestilence in a magical fantasy world. Go!</blockquote>

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