I really like the rules for contracting the savage disease, but I have a few questions about it. It turns you chaotic evil and lowers your Int by 6, but do you automatically turn into a slavering beast, bent only on eating any one you can get? For instance, if it does happen that one of my PC's contracts it and he was a high Int character to begin with, how does he behave now? Say the party wizard with an 18 Int, is now diseased and has a 12 Intelligence. How should I encourage him to roleplay this? He is still pretty smart, would he try to trick his companions into a situation where he can kill and eat them, or would he just launch himself at them, biting and snarling?
I really like the rules for contracting the savage disease, but I have a few questions about it. It turns you chaotic evil and lowers your Int by 6, but do you automatically turn into a slavering beast, bent only on eating any one you can get? For instance, if it does happen that one of my PC's contracts it and he was a high Int character to begin with, how does he behave now? Say the party wizard with an 18 Int, is now diseased and has a 12 Intelligence. How should I encourage him to roleplay this? He is still pretty smart, would he try to trick his companions into a situation where he can kill and eat them, or would he just launch himself at them, biting and snarling?
While savage creatures are consumed with the need to feed, if they retain a decent intelligence, I would say they are within their rights using chicanery and cunning to aid them in their quest for tasty flesh! :-)
Heck if he can cast disguise self at an opportune time (before he is hideously deformed by the disease) he might even stay with the party to single them out one by one for gruesome consumption. ::shudder::
Seems like it might be hard to hide given the slow transformation period. For example, assuming all saves are failed for the disease that Int 18 fellow is likely going to take 5-6 days for his Int to drain down to 0 (triggering the coma and transformation to a savage creature). At the worst, it'd take 3 days. He'd then take 12 days (faster with magic or other ability healing) to work back up to a 12 Int. The character would retain his normal alignment until the transformation to a savage creature, so would likely want to seek out a cure...
Now, for someone hit by the savage tide and instantly (or nearly so) transformed, that would be a different story. In this scenario, I could see that 18 (now 12) Int character quickly playing off the disease, esp. if no one was around to see the transformation and some means of disguise were available. The transformed phanaton noted as the most Int. creature from the first tide used sneaky tactics, and that was only with a Int 6. So that Int 12 character would be a nasty foe.
Treating it more like lycanthropy could work well for the "hidden killer" scenario. Perhaps each time a character with savage features fails a save and loses Int, they also transform for a short period into a savage creature. The confusion might even lead folks to think the character is a were-creature and so go the route of curing lycanthropy, most methods being ineffective against savage fever.
"I've got savage fever... and the only prescription is more cow bell!"
Hmm, another item for consideration would be adding some of the "need to feed" type traits found in Libris Mortis. I'm going to be using the Taint rules for the entire area touched by the savage tide (and all savage creatures) so a build-up of taint might lead to characters becoming savage without even contracting the disease.
Hannibal Lecter? A lot of really messed up folks have high intelligence. The desires are there, and the characters are comfortable with carrying them out but they aren't stupid. They have a kit prepared and a place sorted out and a plan for what to do with the body--even a patsy or two to pin blame on.
I'd play a higher intelligence savage as a cold blooded killer driven by his uncontrollable need to feed.
Vampires are actually a pretty fair model for their way of acting and hunting.
But the Hannibal Lecter type cold-blooded killer doesn't really fit with the idea of the disease, to me. It is supposed to turn you into a bestial monster. Now maybe, Patrick Bateman...
Where to find information about savage disease ????
Libris mortis ?
Book of vile darkness ?
thanks....
Its a Bullywug Gambit original. It's included in the appendix of the adventure wherein the shadow pearl is detailed.
Creative Director
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PCs who catch savage fever and succumb and become savage creatrues are probably no longer fit to be PCs. Since they're driven to feast on the tender addictive flesh of their kin, and all that. If you're looking for a movie to inspire how these poor souls act around others, check out 28 Days Later.
Another question on savage creatures--there doesn't seem to be anything within the template/disease that would prevent them from focusing their savagery on one another. Is there anything (mechanically) that draws them to work together rather than destroy each other? I can see, perhaps, the semi-intelligent (Int 4) savage pirates still working together (at least until food runs out). The less-than-animal savage krenshars (Int 1) however, along with Ripclaw...seems like they'd kill anything they saw in order to feed. So the krenshars would kill each other, for instance, before the PCs ever show up.
Is there anything (mechanically) that draws them to work together rather than destroy each other?
Perhaps they are only drawn to eat untainted flesh? Perhaps it's one of the ways that the disease guarantees it will continue spreading itself around.
Perhaps they are only drawn to eat untainted flesh? Perhaps it's one of the ways that the disease guarantees it will continue spreading itself around.
That was my thought as well, just wondering if that's written into the stats anywhere. Having a savage creature's flesh be repugnant to other savage creatures woudl keep them (generally) form focusing on one another.
Navesh is noted as being afraid of Ripclaw, but that could be because phanatons would normally be afraid of such creatures.
That sounds right, Somnambulant. I had wondered the same thing with the four savage monkeys: why don't they just rip each other apart rather than going after the party? But when you think about it, throughout the whole section of Kraken's Cove it only describes non-tainted creatures being killed/eaten/dismembered by tainted creatures.
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Creative Director
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Another question on savage creatures--there doesn't seem to be anything within the template/disease that would prevent them from focusing their savagery on one another. Is there anything (mechanically) that draws them to work together rather than destroy each other? I can see, perhaps, the semi-intelligent (Int 4) savage pirates still working together (at least until food runs out). The less-than-animal savage krenshars (Int 1) however, along with Ripclaw...seems like they'd kill anything they saw in order to feed. So the krenshars would kill each other, for instance, before the PCs ever show up.
Savage creatures don't try to eat other savage creatures. Their preferred flesh is untainted meat from their own kind; so Ripclaw would really groove on deinonychus steak, while Brissa's all about the longpork. They wouldn't really be interested in the flesh of other savage creatures, althoguh it's likely that savage creatures of different base creature stock would end up fighting each other for territory or just out of evilness if they were cooped up close by for too long.
Yes, that seems to be the general consensu. I was just wondering if it was actually stated anywhere in the adventure. I'm going to tweak the template a bit with the ideas from this thread--definitely adding a "need to feed" trait (as from Libris Mortis) that details their dislike for savage flesh. Still thinking if I want to make it more like lycanthropy in its onset or not...
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I was just wondering if it was actually stated anywhere in the adventure.
On page 18, column 3 of Dungeon 140 it says:
Two savage pirates hide (...) waiting for untainted flesh to draw them out.
From one skim-through of the adventure, it's the closest I've seen to a definitive statement within the magazine.
I bought the little 25mm scale Pirates of the Caribbean crew of the Flying Dutchman plastic miniatures to represent savage pirates when I run this path. Cool ideas so far implemented in these adventures!
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Creative Director
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Yes, that seems to be the general consensu. I was just wondering if it was actually stated anywhere in the adventure. I'm going to tweak the template a bit with the ideas from this thread--definitely adding a "need to feed" trait (as from Libris Mortis) that details their dislike for savage flesh. Still thinking if I want to make it more like lycanthropy in its onset or not...
There was one a line of text in the savage creature description that specifically said: "Savage creatures do not eat savage creatures," or something to that effect. We had to cut it for space, since we figured it was obvious from the behavior of the savage creatures in the adventure that they don't really go after each other.
There you have it...
Thanks James. I'm obviously (if you're reading other threads) not one that minds changing/making things up as needed. Just have this OCD tendency to run some questions down. I doubt any of the players in my campaign will ever even care!