Is it possible to catch the same disease twice? E.g., if a character fails his save against the savage fever, would he need to check again if wounded by the same (or another) savage creature, and risk more intelligence loss (and possibly a faster decline into savagery)?
Let's imagine a character fails his initial save against a disease, and is exposed to the disease a second time. I suppose that the possibilities are as follows:
* The second exposure doesn't have any effect.
* The second exposure requires a save; if failed, no additional effects are suffered, but the character needs to save twice each day (once for each failed exposure), and all saves need to be successful for two days straight to beat the disease.
* The second exposure requires a save; if failed, the effects of exposure are applied again, and subsequent daily saves could apply effects twice if both are failed.
I couldn't find an answer in the DMG, though it may well say somewhere.
I would say no. The disease effect wouldn't stack unless stated otherwise which in most cases is 24 hours.
Once they have a disease, they have it, if they dont then they may have a chance to catch it again at a later time, at least 24 hours.
The way we play (and this is because we think it is meant to be played like this) is that the same disease does not stack, but you still roll your saves and damage, because the worst of effects actually counts.
Simply put, suppose there is a disease that does 1d6 con dmg. You fail your save the first time, and get 3 con damage. A second contact with the infected source calls for another save which you fail, and the result is 4 con damage. This one is higher, so you now have 4 con damage.
I think I'm going to answer my own question, at least for how we'll play in my group. (This is based on the 3.5e FAQ dated 12/20/2006, p. 76, the question about carrion crawlers and ghouls.)
A character can be infected multiple times by the same disease. However, for a given disease, the effect will only be applied once, regardless of the number of infections. In the case of multiple infections, the daily save will be against the highest DC. If that infection is resisted (two successful saves in a row), the next-lowest DC infection becomes active, and the character will need to save against that one the following day.
So, a character is infected by a DC 12 disease that causes 1d6 Int damage after 1 minute, and 1d6 Int damage daily thereafter. The character is exposed to the disease and fails the initial save, taking 1d6 Int damage a minute later. Some time later that day, the character is infected by a DC 13 form of the same disease, and fails that save as well. No additional Int damage is suffered; the character has already taken Int damage that day. However, from that point forwards, the daily save DC will be 13; failure means 1d6 Int damage, and the DC 12 infection is not rolled against and causes no damage. If the character successfully saves against that twice in a row, that infection will be beaten, and the DC 12 infection becomes active, causing 1d6 Int damage on each failed save.
If the second infection had been DC 12, there would still be two infections, one active and one latent; making two DC 12 saves in a row would beat that infection, leaving another DC 12 infection to beat.
Here's the way I handled it in BG. It went outside the rules, but it was fun for all.
I didn't have the PCs make saves until the combat was over. In game time, most combat lasts a couple of seconds and the onset of Savage Fever is given as 1 minute.
Each bite was a chance for infection. I had the PCs add a "star" on their character sheet for each chance of infection.
At the end of the combat, I took the save DC given, minus one, then plus one for each star. I figure a mauling by a rabid dog is a better chance of rabies than a mere 1 bite.
Then the PCs erase the stars and record the save DC. Any future combats that required saves used either the modified save from the new combat, or the highest previous save, whichever was worse.
Of course, they could not catch the disease multiple times, so anyone infected did not have to roll again.
Oh, how they dreaded those stars! The Swashbuckler/Favored Soul actually refused to enter melee on purpose once the the disease was known. If cornered, he would buff, dodge, and go full defensive until rescued. In the end, it was still only a 50% infection rate for the group. They still talk about those monkeys, in game and out, 2 months later.
Thanks for the suggestions!
I ended up running it as I described in my previous post. The sorceress got infected once and the ranger (who has taken over the fighter/rogue's string of bad luck) three times; they've both lost 2 Int, and the ranger is now going need to make two consecutive saves, three times, to be clear. (Or, you know, get someone to cast remove disease.)
They were so distraught after the encounter with the monkeys that they were this close to packing up and going back to Sasserine to regroup, giving up on catching Vanthus. They would've found Kraken's Cove in more or less the same state, except that Cpt. Javell would have left (her info would have been in notes written down by ... that guy, the one who was in charge of the cove).