𝗕𝗘𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗘 𝗔 𝗗𝗠 𝗟𝗔𝗜𝗥 𝗣𝗔𝗧𝗥𝗢𝗡- Get Lair Magazine, our new disease system, play D&D with me, and other perks ▶▶ www.patreon.com/thedmlair 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗠 𝗟𝗔𝗜𝗥 𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗘 - Get Into the Fey, back issues of Lair Magazine, map packs, 5e adventures, and other DM resources ▶▶ the-dm-lair.myshopify.com/ 𝗟𝗔𝗜𝗥 𝗖𝗢𝗡 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟮 October 7, 8, and 9 in Pensacola, Florida ▶▶ www.thedmlair.com/lair-con/

This video gave me an adventure idea: Party is called to slay Patient Zero. A disease has turned him into an oozing monstrosity. After killing it, the party discovers that they are infected. It is a slow-progressing disease that can be managed but not cured by Lesser Restoration. The party must retrace Patient Zero's steps back to an entire town that is ravaged by the disease. Much of the town is monsters already. Anarchists and a mad wizard have been drawn to the town, but they are not the real cause. The party eventually finds a portal, and Zuggtmoy or Juiblex are at the root of it. You could go all the way from 1 to 20 on just that. Good stuff!

@solarflarestudios719

Жыл бұрын

Okay that is super cool dude ohmygosh

Me and my party are all medical doctors so in every campaign there’s at least one (often more) epidemics. One tip i feel to give is that, while inventing plagues is nice, nature is a lot better than us. Serching for real life infectious disease: from great Classic like the bubonic plague to some very orrific ones like hemorrahic virus, tubercolosis and parassitic infestations (some of the best thing because, being the agent macroscopic is easier to justify the PC discovering it) nature is an endless well of ispiration to copy or get inspired by

I really appreciate how you talk about the way you guys designed these systems for your game. As someone who can't really afford to buy every issue, it's nice to know how you designed a system so I can design it myself

@dans3379

Жыл бұрын

Agreed 👍

@EpicParsnips

Жыл бұрын

Yesss, that is why I love this channel

@poetrywithbennit

Жыл бұрын

❤️

Disease sucks in most settings because many classes can just nope it away for as little as a spell slot. You have to create homebrew diseases with explicit text like "THIS CAN ONLY BE REMOVED BY X" otherwise they become too trivial.

I think lesser restoration is fine as is. It only cures one player, it does not destroy infectious materials, and it has a range of touch. You are burning a second level spell slot every time, and you probably need to cast it many times. If you don't have enough slots to get the whole party they are just going to reinfect each other. All their gear will be contaminated. They have to deal with that it be reinfected. The best part is, the caster always has to keep a spell slot in reserve for themselves, because every time they cast the spell, they have to touch the infected. They are constantly exposing themselves. And after all that, they will constantly be running out of spell slots, leaving them vulnerable in normal combat.

@JMcMillen

Жыл бұрын

For most diseases/conditions it probably would be, but for special ones maybe the spell would need to be cast with a higher level spell slot, multiple castings, and/or some kind of roll for success. I've had the same thought about the 3rd level Remove Curse spell, where it's fine for those run of the mill curses but when the source is extra powerful, it should be a lot harder to get rid of. In either case, these need to be for very plot specific reasons and not something the players will have to risk dealing with on a regular basis.

4e had a disease track that allowed for worsening and improving. It really didn't deserve the amount of hate it got when I see so many videos from various D&D personalities lamenting missing features, that were present in 4e and stripped out for 5e.

@christopherbronson3275

Жыл бұрын

THANK YOU! I have been saying 4e was NOT bad, it just had a weird feel to it. It had a lot of really great mechanics baked into it that go stripped out to make 5e as user friendly as possible

@kamilrichert8446

Жыл бұрын

most of these features were indeed not necessary to have in core game. It would be a different story as optional rules - mind you that most of this laments are not for something to be added as a houserule for every campaign. It's more of a niche thing to have prepared for one or two campaigns

“A minor disease for a PC may be dire for a commoner.” *flash backs to the WOW plague*

Literally PERFECT timing for this video! This week I'm going to start DMing a campaign set in the world of Avatar, and the central conflict is going to be a plague that is spreading throughout the four nations during their medieval ages.

Just found and watched this video! Interestingly, I had mapped out a bunch of these ideas in my own homebrew system... incubation, contagion, (usually) 4 Stages of worsening. I use Lesser Restoration a little differently - it just gives a bonus save against the disease (using the caster's spellcasting ability instead of the victim's CON). and all but the minor diseases require multiple successes to overcome. For example, after battling a town of heat-bloated zombies, multiple PCs were "feeling unwell". The 6th level cleric used his one remaining 2nd level slot to Lesser Restore the low-CON bard. In the morning the rogue, the cleric (nat1!), and the warlock all came down with a nasty disease. The party stopped for the day, and the cleric spent all his 2nd and (upcasting) 3rd level spell slots trying to heal the sick folk; the cleric (a hardy dwarf) did recover, but the others only "felt better". The rogue (who had 1 druid level) ended up using Inspiration on a Nature check to find an herbal remedy for herself, but the warlock was sick for 3 more days (the party continued on, unwilling to spend all the cleric's spells again and "Waste time")... later infecting a friendly goblin village. Which the players don't know about, because they left the next day in their new boat (and the disease had a full day incubation period)... The warlock had just trudged along with the extra Exhaustion and minor STR penalty because who cares? I did note in my system that disease severity is based on DC, and "immunity" to disease is actually only as strong as the source... a low-level Paladin is only immune to DC 15 disease or less for example. Supernatural (spell/creature) diseases are effectively "10 + level*2" or "10 + CR*2", so that low-level paladin can be infected by 3rd level or CR 3 supernatural sources... like the nasty CR 5 "rotfiends" that were in the zombie town! And the next "boss fight" in my game will be either with a bunch of weak diseased zombies trapped in a barn (created by a passing death dragon) *or* after they burn down the barn with all the zombies inside, three rounds with a flaming acid-fleshed dragon zombie abomination that then explodes in diseased gobbets! Anyone critically hit in the fight, or caught in the explosion, has a chance (CON DC 15) of contracting "creeping crud" (malaise that leads to cholera, dysentery, swamp fever, or influenza at Stage 3; 2 successes to recover), "melting fury" (melts the flesh from your bones, Stage 4 kills you and animates you as a skeleton warrior, 2 successes to recover), or "fragile bones" (extra piercing damage when hit, then from movement, then from breathing! [Sewer Fever, DC 14, 1 success, exhausts you with cramps and fever, but doesn't kill. Cholera, DC 10, 1 success, dehydrates you and kills you at Stage 4. Dysentery, DC 20, 2 successes, dehydrates and starves you, makes you too weak to move, but doesn't *technically* kill you. Influenza gives you fever and runny nose (DC 10, only 1 success)... but Stage 4 still kills you from organ failure!] The Pal7/Tomelock3 is immune to everything - his 7 levels of Paladin will prevent him getting the initial disease. But the 8th level cleric will likely be working overtime to heal the diseases in the rest of the party! [And the real danger is that most of these diseases have a d4 incubation period with no symptoms...]

I LARPed for 2-1/2 decades, and whenever there was a plotline disease, the people running the event(s) had to first make it not cured by common player spells. Then, most of the more fun ones did what Luke is talking about. The best ones were difficult or expensive to cure, or required a trip to a specific location for a cure, and if left uncured would result in either a character death or temporary transformation into a disease-spreading monster for a short time. - edit: BACON!

I'm actually heavily considering a plague to my steampunk-inspired game. I think it would add a nice touch of dread and a sense of danger to the adventure. I don't think I want it to be the main thing, but I would definitely like them to consider it when they travel.

I used disease on players in NPCs twice. Both times it was a mild inconvenience, barely noticeable mechanically, but the players freaked the heck out. They got it cured by the next day no problem. You are correct about threatening the populace over the PCs. If I want a disease to be compelling, then it should spread to a population greater than the number of available spell slots for lesser restoration.

@NoNamesLeft0102

Жыл бұрын

Extra points if it's more than what a few temples can handle.

I like making diseases that instead of nerf players, offer a quirck. Something like 'dragon's disease' which makes the affected creature's touch absurdly hot, dealing 1 fire damage to all creatures on touch and smoldering objects on touch.

Was running the Curse of Crimson Throne campaign for my group using D&D 5e. There is a whole section of the campaign that is all about dealing with a rampant disease wreaking the town. My players loved that section. Disease can be a very interesting story point or even a major plot point. Most definitely will use diseases more in my games. Wonderful video.

In my main game, a cult tries to open multiple portals across the world to the Plane of Phyrexia - inspired by the Magic the Gathering-Plane of the same name. Long story short, that plane contains an oil, that spreads and acts a little bit like a disease, trying to convert normal folk into minions of the Plane. I was a bit struggling with a coherent ruling of the disease for next time the cult opens one of the portals, so thanks for these tips. I'll definitely consider them when creating the specifics of the disease. ^^

I once ran a disease based game, made all the characters roll a constitution check every morning in game time (making just one roll for downtimes) to see if they'd picked up a disease that existed in the area at the time. A fail resulted in me rolling on a table to see if they caught a disease and if so, which one - and that told me what the symptoms were. Once infected, their con check determined whether their immune system was succeeding in fighting it off. I never told them why they were making con checks. I also never told them they had a disease, I merely told them that they started suffering the first symptom to show up when it finally did. If they failed their con check again the next day, they'd get the next symptom as well. If they passed, they'd not suffer the next symptom on the list and instead just keep suffering the first one until they passed again the next day then that symptom would subside as well. Depending on the disease, some would take a few fails over a period of days for symptoms to show, and for some the first symptom was becoming contagious but not having anything else to show for it. It took them a long time to figure out what the con checks were for, meanwhile they had spread diseases around to each other and npcs they encountered, blamed bad food on some symptoms, and didn't figure it out until one of the characters got seriously ill. I've also done a similar thing with poisons and envenomations, but with con checks happening a lot more often depending on the toxin (per round for some, per hour for others), with the symptoms being based on the type of toxin, which was most commonly a real life one. Getting bitten by a completely natural 1-2hp venomous snake in that game was potentially more deadly than fighting an army of bugbears.

I ran a plagued realm adventure for a campaign centered around planes traveling. The party accidentally brought a minor disease (think common cold) to a plane where the virus was exceptionally contagious and deadly to the residents.

My PCs are currently fighting a powerful fiend who carries a shit-ton of diseases in his body. I had planned for them to get infected by some while fighting but I couldn't figure out a way to make it work. Fortunately your video came !

I'm actually running a game centered around the party having contracted a modified strain of lycanthropy. They haven't infected anyone (yet), but they killed quite a lot of people during their first transformation. One of them is also trying to use the infection's strength to their advantage and has had to be restrained by the party once already. I also have always made curing disease a DC to be overcome with CON (to resist) or a caster's spellcasting ability (to cure). Even paladins and monks just get to add their 'casting' modifier to their resist.

I love that after Luke shouted bacon, I got a BK ad for the Bacon Whopper!

I still use restoration spells on my table, BUT i ad a priced component which the spell consums AND the component depence on the severity of the disease . So, some need only some mushroms from the nearby forest and could easy purchased, others requiere a extremly rare flower from the tip of a mounten. So simple and in the hand of DM.

I can't remember who posted a video about the PCs being afflicted with a disease as an alternative to "you start in a tavern". I made a case of tetanus the crux of an adventure, requiring the PCs to seek the aid of a (nerfed) Green Hag for the proper herbs to cure the afflicted NPC. Also also... trichinosis, the disease spread by bacon!

I am so planning on having one of my players go through an incredibly painful and traumatic infection (that progresses over a week in game) with lycanthropy that they must seek treatment or a cure for or become a werewolf. They also will be able to choose to simply embrace the disease and the advantages and disadvantages that come with it.

I have a few diseases in my campaign however this one is my favorite. Black Hand: A fungal infection that attacks the hands and turns it into a micro biome for bacteria and overtime paralyzes and eats away at your hand(s) flesh. It is physical contact and airborne with spores. It lives in unsanitary dungeons and moist caves. Stage 1. Contact, and increased dark pigmentation in your hand. No set backs just the beginning symptoms Stage 2. Fungi and lichen grow on your hands. Disadvantage on sleight of hand and thieve’s tools checks Stage 3. As your body fights off the disease it cannot fully heal other injuries. The number of hit dice you roll when regaining hit points is halved. Stage 4. Cannot wield martial weapons as your hands decay and has a -1d6 penalty to sleight if hand checks. Stage 5. Cannot pick up or wield weapons and heavy objects and cannot cast spells with somatic components . Hit point maximum is reduced by 1d6. Stage 6. Final stage, your hands LITERALLY FALL OFF. So hopefully there is a scroll of regeneration, can cast mage hand, or are high enough level to cast regeneration.

@aubyrunes6523

Жыл бұрын

Also it can be cured by making sure the fungi don’t get moisture for 48 hours. No water, no food and a lot of exhaustion.

I’m working on a kind of demon lord thing that takes the form of a Raven, who’s wings spread devastating sickness(it’s supposed to be pestilence of the four horseman). Trying to work out how to make it threatening, and how to make its fight basically a giant “please just kill the birb before we all waste away”.

"A minor disease for a PC could be something dire for a commoner." Commoners don't have anywhere near the health pool of adventures. An adventurer could survive but a town might get wiped out. This reminds me of a story I heard once about World of Warcraft where players would go into a dungeon, their pets would get a terrible debuff and eventually (inadvertantly) spread it while in town. Virologists rose a brow because it was similar to real life spread.

I mainly a Pathfinder DM but I absolutely love the addition of Aunty playing in pathfinder Aunty plague can be made with 50 gold worth of materials such as rare herbs but the damn should make the players go out and either find or Farm then it only gives a +5 to help them over covet disease as for the problem of spell slots just fixing everything it’s a great time To remind players of their limited spell slots by having there be more patience than their spouse can handle diseases One on one things with the spread of a disease you may have seven cast of a spell but if there’s 400 people who are vectors spreading that illness in the populous you’ll need a better answer I think it’s awesome that you’re thinking about this and newer additions

In the current campaign I am running the events have progressed to a prophesied time when the tomb that is containing the ancient evils locked away is weakened. The herald to this time was the release of essientially the four horsemen. Pesitilence will start spreading through the city. Disease/sickness will start to increase. The party will have to decide to deal with cause of the sickness or the threat of the tomb opening. It will be interesting to see the threat of disease, I plan on using your tips, so thank you for the timing of the video.

This is great! My party is currently lvl8, and the monk is a follower of the Silver Flame (in Eberron). I'm going to introduce a life threatening plague when they're lvl 9. Perhaps the monk contracts it, and at their darkest moment the monk levels up to level 10 and gets the purity of body feature - flavored as the light of the Silver Flame suffusing his body granting him immunity to the plague. I wonder how he'll play this to the commoners around him hehe

Suddenly, making a campaign around the cultists of Grandfather Nurgle sounds both doable and fascinating.....

I'm sold! This specific video and system are why I am now a patron

I love this channel, and the Barbarian!

Easy fix. Magical bacteria. The evolve fast. So immunity to magic is a giving..so you will need to develop a specialiZed magic spell or a potion . Regular lesser/greater restoration wouldn't just fix it.

Ooh. A lot of your content, I have arrived at myself, or heard before elsewhere. This is pretty much unique, though, and definitely something missing. Disease (and exposure and malnutrition) were the primary killers in war for most of history.

Just read the 4e section on poison and disease. It's super good and does a lot of what you talk about here.

Hey Luke, I am playing a Rogue assassin atm, and I want him to center a bit around poison. Looking into the poison rules, I've noticed that it is much more trouble than it's worth to buy/get poison. I was wondering if you would do a vid about your opinions on poison in D&D, and what you would change?

this video has given me some fun inspo for a subplot in my next campaign.....

I remember one of the D&D novels. It was a trilogy called House of Serpents, I believe. Featured some cool stuff, including Yuan-Ti, psionc powers, and a pox going around. The book did a great job of describing people's reactions to the illness, where it came from, and the different stages of the disease. So if you need inspiration beyond Luke's explanation, House of Serpents. I don't remember the author.

I have living a Wretched lifestyle result in risking Sewer Plague.

Bring back age tracking and effects :D I've always wanted getting bit by a spider or something like that on a random encounter table and a character having a chance to catch a disease from it. This also brings another way to make use out of the nearly useless medicine skill.

I'm intrigued, interesting idea

In the game I'm running "dragonblight" is a disease nobody's got a magical answer for, or so it seems. It's actually acute radiation sickness; the dragons' metabolisms are nuclear in nature. Only two players out of five have figured it out, and obviously no characters have, so I'm deeply enjoying the fear spreading around it.

In my campaign, I have a disease that plays a central role in one of the story arcs. There is a mild version which isn't very threatening (for adventurers), and the "primal" version which, among other things, makes infected creatures lose 1d4 of their max HP per day, basically putting them on a death timer (the max HP can only be restored by curing the disease). In addition, creatures that die from this disease will rise as undead after a few days. It can be cured by a special medicine that needs a rare plant root as an ingredient.

From my experience and understanding Revivify does not state it removes any former afflictions, therefore the player would still be poisoned if they were poisoned prior to their death.

My favorite thing to throw in is magical mutations they can be cured if the owner doesn't want them but most of my group keep them one didn't but I get it having a third arm that likes to wonder isn't for everyone

Step 1: check the spell Contagion Step 2: ask random con saves to players and say nothing else Step 3: dont say 'you have X disease,' instead say the symptoms and consequences Step 4: magical diseases or cursed diseases cannot be magically cured with simple spells, only greater restoration or higher can do the trick

I had a question regarding the join monthly subscription. Is there an email for questions? Or should I ask on here? Thanks!

So far the closest to a disease my party has had to deal with is last session the party's lizardfolk ate a humanoid infected with lycanthropy

This is an airborne disease Incubation period until you finish your next long rest Level 1 disadvantage on ability checks(coughing) Level 2 speed halved(coughing up blood) -1 on con saves Level 3 disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws(boils) Level 4 hit point maximum halved(skin lesions) now -2 on con saves Level 5 speed reduced to 0(all blood coming out of you is now black)[If you have a positive Con modifier the number is halved, round down, in relation to hit points and Con saves] reduce your Max hit points by 10%(round down) of your current maximum hit points per hour. ( reducing your maximum further)

Does becoming a Patreon get access to prior magazine issues or just future?

There is a way to allow Lesser Restoration to be cure-all and still have diseases be threatening - have magic be extremely rare and/or expensive. This is a good idea if you want Paladin or Cleric be hailed as the savior in every town, for curing people who could not affort magical treatment themselves. A niche use, but it has its place.

Back in 4e, diseases had multiple stages. You started somewhere in the middle, and your saves and failures made you better or worse. You also couldn't just cure all diseases instantly by simply knowing a paladin or casting a spell. 4e's disease model is one of the few things it did better than 5e. Intelligent item abilities were similar... Multiple levels based on how much the item likes you.

😊 thank you for the food for thought.

I saw the title and got really excited.

@niko3648

Жыл бұрын

I over thought the word excided to much and it isnt a word in my brain any more. Just weird letters lol.

What about poisions and venomous afflictions? There are by far more toxins here in the real world (not counting youtube comments) then those that are listed in the books.

@Ixnatifual

Жыл бұрын

Poison is a scam created by antidote-selling clerics of Ilmater.

@nevisysbryd7450

Жыл бұрын

While I agree, complexity to depth ratio. While depth tends to scale positively with complexity, accessibility and usability tend to scale inversely. The amount of diseases, toxins, and such in real life are too numerous to be practical for DMs/GMs and players alike to deal with. Doctors are divided into specialized fields on that premise because there is too much variety even for a single trained professional.

@Argumedies

Жыл бұрын

I've noticed that 5e has kinda gone the "video game" approach when it comes to toxins and remedies or antidote explanations are almost nonexistent.

I wanna throw this out as a thought. Even if lesser restoration could cure the disease, at most you get 3 casts a day? And how does that affect the kingdoms/people who see you curing yourself or your party but not their family or friends? Mechanically they wouldn’t know you can’t just keep doing this till everyone’s cured, and this could cause plot point of tension between players and the people they’re working for/with.

As always your game is your game, however I worked at a funeral home for awhile and I learned Most (but not all) diseases viruses etc die with you. But I also don't make ressurection easy peasy so I allow it to work this way

Dead man's itch (a purple rash that leads to death within a week) was a plot hook in my Warhammer campaing. Medicine was available and the PCs delivered the goods. Source of this sudden plague? Why a Liche of course, looking to jump start his undead army and soften his targets.

I actually just ran a game with a blight as the main ploplt point It had direr consciences if you left it alown for to long Stage 1 had a 25%chance of being inflicted with and inflicting others by contact, its symptom was more roll play based as i described ther pcs being uncomfortable in thear cloths and armor and then tjay found a rash on them Stage 2 has a 40% infection rate as the razh gets raw and more contagis this makes the playerd very uncomfortable and both gibes them disadvantag on movment based checks and reduses thear movment by 10ft Stage 3 has a 50% infection rate as boils apear on ther skin The charicrwts are severly uncomfortable and loose all armor proficiencys, and must take it off on a short of long rest to gain the relivent benifits Stage 4 is the bad one 60% infectivity as the skin beneath the boils necrosises and blood pools in the boils making a caustic solution that burns skin Symptoms are realy bad at this level as its 1 step away from npc death +1d4 damage on you as your body is roting from the inside out, -1/4hp and disadvantage on all ability checks Stage 5 for npcs is death but for players it has an infection rate of 80% to infect others as thear wholl body is a bloody mess of decaying skin hp permanently redused by 1/2 . If thay dont get it treted soon death quickly follows Ea h stage has different tretments but the last one is basically "pray the gods have pity on you" mecanicaly thear are a few ways to cure it st that point but the players only had one person get thst far, he died but not due to the disease

the first edition dmg has a whole table on disease (and parasitic infections...don't forget those!) (severity, penalties, etc) I lost the first 12 or so (i lost count) characters to that disease table )back when cure disease was a 3rd level spell) as no one in the party could cure it and the npc clerics would charge 5k gold + to cast the spell. yep -survived the first adventure, died 1-2 weeks later died from disease....got to learn a bunch of new words, like small pox, polio, leprosy etc ...oddly, I miss the extra risk (not all diseases were simply fatal, some imposed major ability score reductions that made your character nearly unplayable. there is a lot to play with here

Hey you forgot one important one for murder hobos it's a great deterrent too. Bloodborne disease.

Bacon madness, a mild disease that begins with a craving for the salty meat, then progresses through a chemical addiction and ending in heart disease and morbid obesity.

One of my campaigns revolves around a disease. Zombie ish of course, but pretty far from the norm (more enhanced aggression/animalistic behavior instead of undead or pure aggression. The infected are still very much alive and even feel emotions such as fear)

@johncollins8070

Жыл бұрын

So more the real world possible version of it with rabies combined with another diseases?, sounds fun!

If I ever get back into Dnd. I wana try this stuff out.

Have to echo others here. Lesser Restoration (2nd level), ANY 3rd level cleric instantly ends any threat of disease. In populated areas, Clerics would perform this service for free so their church members can continue to attend and pay their tithings. . . MAYBE if 5e had a "Hardcore" mode . . .

My players are 'bout to be "Down with the Sickness"

I had this cool three stage system called blood rot, or something like that. I think I got my dad and brothers character to like stage two

I find myself world building lately and magic is dangerous to cast...I now have some ideas on diseases and treatments.

Looks like a good system for the game, though I think I will stick to stealing Pathfinder 2e's disease system in my games. I like how you can bounce between the stages of the disease, which feels very real.

Muito bom!

Do you need a map and terrain to play your own d&d game

My PC was infected with something spread by infected gigantic rats. He was cured by the paladin almost on the spot, but interesting point - I had an idea for him to donate blood (or samples of said rat, or both) to med elven scientists and try to encourage them to work on the vaccine. But it didn't play well with our plans, so idea was given up. Not sure they would be interested in it in the first place...

Conceptually and narratively, disease and sickness sound great. However, it feels really, really bad if a character gets infected by chance, as even in the real world taking precautions is no guarantee of safety, and become a dead man walking because you don't have special immunity and you failed a Fort save or two. Having a character die because of something comparatively mundane or even out of your control entirely kinda sucks. Disease is probably the hallmark of mechanics that sound really threatening in a vacuum, but are actually mechanically trivial when the mechanics are taken as a whole. Poison feels similar to me in a number of systems I've read; it's either so expensive per dose as to be impractical to use (and almost as impractical to craft), or the means of defense against it, like saves, are so statically low that it's a coin flip that may not even be in your favor if it works. Sometimes it's both. It's one of those "oooh, this sounds super scary and menacing, but we're going to give you so many things to counter or blunt it that it's not actually that scary" things. I've wanted to make underhanded characters who make use of poisons to make them deadlier or at least more dangerous, but it feels like I'd have to spend 3/4 of my levels worth of loot to get enough doses for a single fight that, if I'm doing it at range, has a chance to be wasted on a miss and even on a hit might only have a 50/50 chance of doing anything. However, you make good points here on how they an be managed more effectively, like effectively asymptomatic, or how a fairly minor infection for a PC could be a lethal pathogen to others (I mean, just look at the history of colonialization). Honestly, having PCs get fevers and colds for fairly mild penalties and such could even liven up the roleplay of a session, make it feel more real in a sense. Anything severe enough to threaten to kill or otherwise take a PC out of commission should be a major plot event, but more minor things that are simply a temporary inconvenience can potentially liven things up.

Considering running a game where healing spells, ie hit point restoration and disease curing spells, nonexistent. Would certainly weaken some classes and builds, bit might make things more gritty.

One more common mistake to add: making most diseases magically get through disease immunity. The ability loses it's meaning that way

Didn't world of warcraft effectively run the first large scale disease simulation? Could probably draw some mathematical models from that if you want something relatively simple.

My Favorite is when PC's plunge into the sewers, knee deep in filth, to check for wear rats, and they are shocked you need them to roll con saves for there time spent there. Open wounds in the sewers fighting rats? I mean come on man!

It seems strange that a character immune to disease could be a carrier. To be a carrier you get infected, just generally asymptomatic.

Is there a way to buy these rules as a stand alone?

'...and plan to infect your players'.........precious characters' Who says the DM's not out to get me?

I made my own disease and my characters are about to enter a cave with oozes infected with this disease. Little do they know killing them and letting the slime touch the characters will infect them, and the disease is deadly mwahaha

How do I reword being a DM in my resume?

I understand your points BUT I STRONGLY DISAGREE WITH THEM!

So dumb question, but wouldn't this system kinda depend on how magical cures actually do their work. In many cases of illness (especially viral infections), the symptoms are the result of the body's innate immune system fighting and buying time for the adaptive immune system to create antibodies against the disease-causing agent. Other times, the disease is caused by toxins released by bacteria or microscopic parasites. If a spell like lesser restoration is used on a viral infection, does it work by simply removing the symptoms and the disease-causing agent, or is it also giving an instant shortcut to antibody production? In the first scenario, reinfection is almost a certainty, while the second means they'll likely be immune to the disease (Not always, of course; viral infections run the gamut in terms of reinfectivity and there's also variance between each person to consider). Also what about primitive vaccines? Smallpox was defeated by inoculating people with cowpox, a related but much more mild virus and is where the name "vaccine" comes from.

How about using the affliction caused by the Lone Star tick. It's after affect leaves the victim allergic to most land-based meat, including BACON 🥓 (😱🙀)!!!!! This is actually a real thing. Horrifying!

B A C O N !

Know why paladins get immunity to disease... They have "Olay on hands"

Pathfinder

Dungeons of Drakkenheim anyone?

Yo. Commenting for bacon... not the algorithm. Priorities.

BACON!!!!

🥓 bacon!

To be honest I think having a disease carrying Monk or Paladin feel wrong to me. I you want to play it that way, sure have at it, but if a DM would tell me my monk spreads diseases the I would leave that game, since that is simply not th class fantasy I have in my head when I play a monk.

Black death, anyone?

Realistic diseases are a game-killer since coping with most real-life diseases generally involves some variation on "stay in bed and eat little and often while sleeping a lot." If you think about it, you quickly realise that this is even more boring in a game than it is in real life, and even in real life it's either horrible or boring or horribly boring. So I guess the basics of your advice is, "disease" in D&D needs to NOT be something which will incapacitate the PCs.

Dnd players will homebrew for hours just to come up with pathfinder 2e subsystems . 😂

Love your normal content, but this one felt like a long ad for your magazine.

6:14 Well, this one wasn't that bad, either. People just overreacted