My players don't fear Poison/disease. What do you think of magic versions?

[mmu1]

I'm fine with higher-level characters being immune - or virtually immune - to non-exceptional poisons and diseases.

I had a 14th level dwarf character once with a Fort save of +20 or so and the feat that stopped natural 1s from being an automatic failure on Fort saves, and - aside from kicking ass in a fight - he was a lot of fun to RP...

He'd do stuff like get shot by a poisoned projectile, pluck it out, lick it, roll the poison around in his mouth with the expression of a wine connoisseur, then go "Oh, come on, really... wyvern poison?" and proceed to hurt the attacker while shaking his head in mock disappointment.

 

[blargney the second]

That's actually a pretty cool idea, Hjorimir!

 

[Harmon]

The players get bit, stung, etc. They have a decent heal check (10+) and no longer fear secondary poison effects.
They don't fear diseases at all.
I don't remember the last time someone memorized neutralize poison, let alone slow poison.
So I was thinking magical poisons/diseases.
Some creatrures have them (Up the CR a little) and you need magical curing to get rid of them.

Alternatly, a curse thrown at them could manifest as a disease and no curing gets rid of it, only a remove curse.

What think you all?

My 13th level Cleric and my wife's 11th still take Remove Disease or Neutralize Poison once in a while, granted they have not been used in a while. I always try to keep a scroll of each on hand.

Maybe you should try flubbing a Fort for them once in a while and just hit them with the symptoms- "you wake in the morning with a fever, chills, ash white, and coughing. Game wise you have lost 6 Con."

That might get them to wondering.

 

[Dykstrav]

Poison/disease generally is an issue only for lower-level characters. The resources to combat it are easily available to mid-level characters in a typical D&D game.

That being said... If you want to make your characters fear these things, make them a major part of an adventure.

Maybe they have to go fight the king of the lizardfolk in his secluded temple deep in the jungle. A five day trek through a malaria-infested jungle would certainly make me think about buying some bug repellant and checking my boots. Add in the lizardfolk archers that poison their arrows (who also happen to have the advantage of familiarity with the terrain and camoflauge). After a day or two of this sort of thing, the characters will either be concerned about poison and disease or they'll be in serious trouble. Even high-level characters are bound to fail a Fortitude save every once in a while, after all, and being exposed to dozens of them a day will make them think about it.

You could have the characters investigating a rash of mysteriously ill children and street urchins in your campaign's city. Each victim they investigate potentially exposes them to the illness. They track the vector to the sewers, where you can easily tailor the villain to any number of D&D staples: a thieves' guild that wants to make a small fortune selling the antidote, wererats, or maybe even some sort of new undead creature that gets its jollies off by spreading infectious diseases. Poison could easily figure into any of these villain's repertoire as well.