How would you guys handle this?

[Iconik]

Think Princess Mononoke. One of my party members has an afflicted arm. A creeping black disease crawls up from his hand all the way to his shoulder. It's extremely painful when it flares up. Almost to the point where he will buckle over in pain, having to stifle his screams.

How would you guys handle it when it flares up? Last sesssion they had to sneak into a manse to oust a commander of a foreign army that had (with the help of a cult) taken over a city called Strand. While climbing to the top level of the manse, the arm flared up. He screamed alerting foreign grunts. Do I attack his Will? Should he make some kind of check? How would you guys go about doing this fairly?

 

[Reydragk]

Whenever you as DM feel it's appropriate for the arm to flare up, have him make an endurance check. Success means he manages to overcome the pain and keep silent/resist cramping/etc.

Or perhaps you could write up powers that the disease has that target Will, as you suggested yourself.

Also, check out the new Unearthed Arcana article "Curses!" for some ideas on how to model the progression of the disease/curse/black stuff

 

[Mesh Hong]

Like you I would probably have an attack vs. Fortitude or Will, or maybe the higher of the two.

I think I might need a bit more information on this though, namely what sets the attacks off?

Is it DMs whim or is it something a bit more specific?

 

[Iconik]

The flare ups happen randomly or in spots I think would be neat/challenging for him to overcome it. There are instances where the flare ups are triggered. Every time a member of a demonic horde is around it flares up.

 

[Andramelech]

What about a stealth check with a mean ass penalty, vs perception? to see if he bites his lip effectively

 

[NMcCoy]

I probably sound like a broken record on the topic, but this is exactly the sort of thing that I think a fate point compel would work brilliantly for.

However, I'm willing to set my personal fanaticism aside for the moment and work within the preexisting systems of the game you're currently playing. On the longer-term side of things, this seems the sort of situation that a disease track would work well for.

For the flare-ups, you've got a few options, depending on how you want to pace things, and the sort of narrative weight you want them to have. You've hinted at a few criteria: you want to have it happen at dramatically interesting points, and you want to do it "fairly". A good way to accomplish both of these things is to offer a tradeoff to the player - there should be some tangible benefit, either as a purely game-mechanical construct or preferably justifiable in the game world, for the difficulty that the situation presents. The specifics of what would be appropriate depend greatly on the traits and personality of the character - can you provide some more information so we have something to work off of (level, class, motivations)?

For the random flare-ups, I suggest borrowing from the Dark Sun weapon breakage rules: A natural 1 on an attack roll represents the pain of the infection randomly flaring up, interfering with the attack. The character can choose to disregard the pain and reroll the attack, at the cost of having to make an immediate saving throw: failure means that his disease track worsens by one step.

 

[Iconik]

Great stuff, McCoy.

Firstly, what is this fate point you speak of? Secondly, I love your idea about having a natty 1 represent a flare up hindering an attack. We do crit failures on nat 1 anyway so this works out perfectly. Sadly, I've never done a disease track before so I may need a quick run through on that. I guess I never really bothered.

Background on the diseased arm: The party on adventure two had to run away from an invading force of demons that poured out of a "magical" scar. The battlefield was already full of the dead and dying as it was the scene of a great battle between the Empire of Ishir and the mercenary army Brimstone. So, thousands on thousands of these demons pour out of the tear and lay waste to both armies. My party was scattered but ended up in a forest where they decided to run further in to the forest to an ancient ruin of a blood cult. Diving deeper into the ruin they finally come to an old courtyard. The elf (called Nineviil in my world) started sensing one of the spirits of the forest trying to make itself known within the ruin (he's a seeker). A beast arrives and the party fight it. But, the Nineviil (with the aid of an old scholar/court historian on the run that is obviously MORE than a scholar) enters an alternate realm where the spirit is chained to the beast. If the party in the "real world" defeats the beast before the Nineviil can find a way to free the spirit, the spirit dies.

The Nineviil calls upon another spirit that he's familiar with for help. The helping spirit offers the seeker an acorn to trap the ailing, chained spirit in. He does so but not before a Godling makes himself known in the "other realm" and taints the acorn before he is driven off.

So, there you have it. The acorn itself with the tainted, trapped spirit inside isn't causing the flare ups. It's coming into contact with the tainted acorn that has done it.

Sorry if this is wordy.

 

[TarionzCousin]

I probably sound like a broken record on the topic, but this is exactly the sort of thing that I think a fate point compel would work brilliantly for.

Agreed.

A Fate Point is from Fudge/FATE systems, most recently Spirit of the Century and the Dresden Files RPG. If your game were FATE, you could offer the player a token to have his arm flare up (at the moment you offer). If he accepts, he gets the token and can use it later to boost his rolls or benefit his character in some other way. If he refuses, his arm doesn't flare up and he doesn't get the token.

 

[NMcCoy]

(As background, the D&D campaign I'm in has the Aspects and Fate Points system from FATE added on directly, with numerical values doubled to account for the different range of the dice. TarionzCousin has a pretty solid summary of things.)

Here's a disease-track take on the situation:

Corrupted Arm
Stage 1
When you roll a natural 1 on an attack roll, your arm flares with pain, causing your attack to miss. You may choose to push through the pain and reroll the attack. If you do, make a disease check immediately after resolving the attack.
Stage 2
You take a -2 penalty to your Will defense. When you miss with an attack, you may reroll the attack and take the new result. If you do, you lose 1 healing surge and are dazed until the start of your next turn, and you make a disease check immediately after resolving the attack.
Stage 3
You take a -4 penalty to your Will defense, and your attacks deal an additional 5 necrotic damage. While bloodied, you must use your standard action each round to attack the closest creature you can see (ally or enemy).
When you miss with an attack, you may reroll the attack and take the second result. The second roll can score a critical hit on a natural roll of 16-20. If you reroll, you lose 1 healing surge and are dazed until the start of your next turn, and you take a cumulative -2 penalty to your next disease check.
Stage 4
You are dominated by the corrupting influence.


Check: At the end of each extended rest (or when triggered by a reroll), the target makes an Endurance check.
Lower than Moderate check DC: The stage of the disease increases by one.
Moderate check DC: No change.
Hard check DC: The stage of the disease decreases by one (if at
stage 1, no change occurs).

 

[Pyrex]

I would use a hybrid of NMcCoy's disease track and fate point compel suggestions.

Stage 1
Once per day at the DM's discretion, as an Immediate Interrupt the disease makes an attack vs Fort. If the attack hits, the PC is wracked with pain, taking a -4 penalty to any D20 checks made as part of the interuppted action. In addition, the PC becomes Dazed (Save Ends)

Stage 2
As above, but Stunned (Save Ends)

Stage 3
As above, but the condition becomes Dominated (Save Ends) and the attack can be made once per encounter.

Stage 4
As above but the character is Dominated until he recieves a Remove Affliction ritual.

SPECIAL: The PC may spend an Action Point to turn a Hit from the disease into a miss.