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The Level 3 Antipaladin ability Plague Bringer says, "He can still contract diseases and spread them to others..."
What are the mechanics of spreading a disease? Does he just need to be in close contact with others? Does he add "Disease" to his special attacks? Is it limited to Natural or Unarmed attacks? Can it be added to Armed attacks, and does that require an action?
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The Type entry for the disease gives a starting point. A GM could decide that details vary by the disease, or simply that the save DC represents the likelihood of transmission:
- Contact: Transmitted by touch (potentially specific forms of contact) and probably by items he has worn or handled extensively.
- Ingested: Infects a victim who drinks or eats something contaminated by contact with the antipaladin.
- Inhaled: This is the really nasty option. All creatures within some radius of the antipaladin (maybe 10 feet), or who enter an enclosed space where he has been moving around for some time, are at risk of infection. The antipaladin might be able to breathe on an adjacent target to force an immediate check.
- Injury: Transmitted by a bite attack and maybe by other slashing or piercing natural weapons. Some diseases could be passed on by saliva or blood smeared on a bladed weapon.
Contaminating an item with a contact, ingested or injury disease probably requires a standard action, as for poison.
The ability also seems to indicate that the Antipaladin can, for lack of a better term, collect diseases.
So, assuming he can contaminate a blade similar to using poison:
1. Would that last for a single attack, as poisoning a blade does?
2. Would the Antipaladin have a limited period of time to make the attack after it is applied? If so, what is the limit?
3. Are all of the "collected" diseases applied, or does he have to choose one? If all apply, does the affected creature save against each? make one save for all?
Basically, I am crafting an adversarial nuisance for my players. Their kingdom is soon to be plagued by outbreaks of disease and death. Eventually, they'll be attacked by the source of all of this misery. A character from their past, who they wronged considerably but did not kill, is returning to destroy them. However, he is far too weak to challenge them directly and has no capacity to recruit others to his cause.
A lot of his "attacks" are happening behind the scenes, so the mechanical aspects are irrelevant there. But, eventually, whether my players track him down, or he ambushes them, they'll have to come to blows. I'm hoping to use a lot of hit-and-run tactics, traps, etc. and create some long-term problems for them with what is a very weak character (based on his stats and equipment).
I have been wondering about that too. His blood (or other body fluids) would make potent biological poison. I'd love to hear replies to those last questions of Mr. Crusader.
Imagine this scene:
Hero and Villain (AntiPaladin) have been exchanging some heavy blows with swords (meaning each has lots of deep and open wounds).
Then the Villain violently swings his unoccupied arm at the hero, spraying his blood all over him.
GM: Make 12 fortitude saves... okay you have now 5 diseases.
No matter how the usual way for transmitting a disease is, direct blood-to-blood contact is possible for pretty much any disease. And an Antipaladin can collect a lot of sicknesses (I don't know how many there are exactly in all the supplements). Especially supernatural (like mummy or zombie rot) can get ugly.
It seems like overkill. But on the other hand the time till the sickness has any effect is long enough to much likely not matter for the fight. And a cleric can easily remove most diseases with a single spell.
Are there diseases that can't simply be "Remove disease"'d?