Other than Lycanthropy and Mummy Rot I have not seen too many uses of Supernatural diseases utilized in sessions I’ve attended. And so here are 5 new ones I homebrewed. The first four are based on the four energy types (fire, water/cold, acid/earth, and air/electricity respectively). And the fifth is based on gravity. I think it would be fun to add these to monsters of the appropriate subtype as an added danger to players. Enjoy and please feel free to add your on homebrewed Supernatural diseases to this thread.
Boiling Boils: What appear at first to be warm blisters is soon followed by a pounding headache, fever and hot boils that sizzle and pop. The disease increases the creature’s body heat until it dies. Once dead, the corpse bursts into flames and is reduced to ash in 1d4 minutes.
Type curse, elemental disease (injury); Save Fortitude DC 16
Onset 1 minute; Frequency 1/hour
Effect: 3d6 fire damage and fatigued; Cure: Boiling Boils can only be cured by successfully casting both remove curse and remove disease within 1 minute of each other.
The Stygian Chills: Believed to have originated from the coldest layer of the Nine Hells, the Stygian chills combines the flu with an erratic chattering of the teeth.
Type curse, elemental disease (contact); Save Fortitude DC 19
Onset 1 minute; Frequency 1/day
Effect 1d6 Con damage and 3d6 Cold damage. 50% chance of failure to use any skill or spell requiring a voice; Cure the Stygian Chills can only be cured by successfully casting both remove curse and remove disease within 1 minute of each other.
Terra Reflux: This disease increases the acidic potency of the creatures stomach acid, saliva, and gastric juices, utterly ruining them from the inside out.
Type curse, elemental disease (injury); Save Fortitude DC 17
Onset 1 minute; Frequency 1/day and hour (see text)
Effect 1d6 Con damage, must roll of Fort save DC17 every hour or become sickened for 1d6 rounds and taking 2d6 acid damage per round; Cure Terra Reflux can only be cured by successfully casting both remove curse and remove disease within 1 minute of each other.
Bioshock: This disease found on ravenous air elementals increases the bioelectric surges that deliver messages from the brain to the body, causing violent shocks throughout the creature’s nerves.
Type curse, elemental disease (inhaled); Save Fortitude DC 20
Onset 1 minute; Frequency: Special (see text)
Effect; Each time the creature takes a standard, full round, or movement action they deal 1d4 points of electricity damage to themselves. Bioshock can only be cured by successfully casting both remove curse and remove disease within 1 minute of each other.
Gravititus: This disease increases the personal gravity of a creature, hindering them no matter how strong they may be.
Type curse, supernatural disease (injury); Save Fortitude DC 16
Onset 1 minute; Frequency : Once
Effect: The creature's carrying capacity is treated as if its Strength Score were 10 points lower than it actually is; Cure: Gravititus can only be cured by successfully casting both remove curse and remove disease within 1 minute of each other.
Zombieitus: Carried by zombie saliva and other juices. This disease causes anyone infected to become one of the mindless undead.
Type Curse: Supernatural disease (injury): Fort save dc16
Onset 1 hour; Frequency 5
Effect: Every hour the infected must make a save or loose one point of con. When con reaches 0 the infected is a zombie. Requires 5 consecutive saves to cure without magical aid.
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In my home brew all diseases are the result of possession by Disease Spirits. They range from the common, lesser disease spirits, i.e. a Cold Spirit, up to the greater disease spirits, such as the Plague. I've kept them fairly generic (Cold, Fever, etc.) with variations (and minor differences) in different regions with specific names. Things like the Mummy Rot and Lycanthropy are curses. It involved some changes to the systems (Cure Disease becomes an Abjuration and the save vs. it is the Disease Spirits save for example). A shaman can "wrestle" with the Disease Spirit and "throw it out" of the possessed individual's body. Disease Spirits reproduce while within the host and the new spirits (and the old if the requisite saving throws are made) try to find new hosts. A spirit can not repossess a host it has been ejected from. New spirits can not possess their human "parent's" body. It's more fun than a scientific model for disease and it fits how many cultures in the ancient and medieval periods viewed disease.
In my home brew all diseases are the result of possession by Disease Spirits.
Dude! What an awesome and thoughtful idea!
In my home brew all diseases are the result of possession by Disease Spirits.
Dude! What an awesome and thoughtful idea!
Thanks. Take enough anthropology and history classes and weird ideas crop up. It's made for some interesting ideas such as summoned Disease Spirits, Disease Spirits being compelled and used in war, wards and barriers to such spirits etc. Dreams, and Nightmares, are spirits within my game as well. It makes for a world that *looks* normal but has different laws under the hood.
Word Vomit Some unfortunate enough to utter the curses of old find their voices so tainted that attempts to speak result in vomiting up black ichor, causing them to eventually lose their voice and their sanity.
Type: Curse, Supernatural disease (inhaled): Fort DC 18
Onset: 1 hour Frequency: 1/hour
Effect: 1d2 Cha drain and a cumulative 5% chance to vomit up a thick black fluid whenever the creature attempts to speak. Once the creatures Cha would be reduced to 0, it's Cha is set to 1, it is inflicted with permanent insanity effect, it can no longer speak, and takes no further drain from Word Vomit. Word Vomit can be cured by successfully casting Remove Curse and Remove Disease successfully within one minute of each other. The insanity caused by this disease can only be removed with Heal, Limited Wish, Wish, or Miracle.
The Devouring:
Type: Supernatural disease (ingested; only found in Abaddon naturally) Fort DC 16
Onset: 1 day Frequency: 1/day Cure: A casting of Remove Curse and Remove Disease within 10 minutes of one another.
Found in tainted food or water in the plane of Abaddon, the devouring begins by making a human feel anemic with no ill effects. By the next morning, they are filled with a great hunger and thirst as their blood cells turn on each other in a cannibalistic glee, causing 1d6 CON damage. The following day, the afflicted ceases to be able to keep food or water down as their digestive system joins the foray, causing another 1d6 con damage. By the end of the third day, after taking another 1d6 CON damage, if the disease is left uncured, the afflicted body collapses in on itself in a sudden and final attack, leaving only a bloodied mess behind that, if left alone, morphs into a unique, malignant, and carnivorous ooze.
The trouble with all of these is the cures are all listed as "remove curse and remove disease" in combo, meaning that unless you've got a reasonably experienced cleric handy, everyone who gets them is doomed.
If you compare lycanthropy and mummy rot, there's still a chance for folk remedies to work. Do you have some wolfsbane handy to chew? Can you find some? Maybe gargling with silver and holy water? And mummy rot, while horrible, is slow, and you generally only get it from meddling in ancient tombs that have copious warnings on the door.
The trouble with all of these is the cures are all listed as "remove curse and remove disease" in combo, meaning that unless you've got a reasonably experienced cleric handy, everyone who gets them is doomed.
Hmm. Good point. Folk remedies or even the right spell might work. The AntHaul spell could cure gravititus permanently, I suppose.
Why not make this a creative cure thread, as well?
I think that's sort of the point of supernatural diseases. Once you get them, you are totally screwed unless you have a powerful cleric to deal with it.
Mummy rot, while rare, isn't really that slow of a killer. It's dealing 1d6 to con and cha a day while blocking healing effects, meaning an average person can expect to die in 3 days, and there isn't any way to get rid of it other than a high level cleric. I'll admit that's slower than some of the stuff posted, but it's not that slow.
Lycanthropy isn't deadly in and of itself, but it can get a character in serious trouble, and the only real cure other than a cleric is to poison yourself with wolfsbane, which can be fatal itself.
Heartstopper Fury
Suspected to have originated in a mad alchemist's attempts to create an empowering brew, the frightful disease known as 'heartstopper fury' causes the subject's muscles to swell with power until they burst, finally causing death when the heart explodes. It is often accompanied with an increase in violent outbursts and with the subject's heightened strength, these can be increasingly dangerous. Many sufferers of the disease die in combat before the fury can run its course.
Type disease (injury); Save Fortitude DC 16
Onset 1 hour; Frequency 1/day
Effect 1d3 Con damage (this damage cannot be healed while the creature is infected). Additionally, a creature infected with heartstopper fury gains an alchemical bonus to its Strength equal to its current amount of Constitution damage from the disease; Cure 2 consecutive saves
I was going to write a mechanic for flying into a rage, but eh. Whatevs.
A callous overlord could infect minions with this a few days before battle. Or a large animal could have become infected and is getting more savage and dangerous every day, attacking a village.
The trouble with all of these is the cures are all listed as "remove curse and remove disease" in combo, meaning that unless you've got a reasonably experienced cleric handy, everyone who gets them is doomed.Hmm. Good point. Folk remedies or even the right spell might work. The AntHaul spell could cure gravititus permanently, I suppose.
Why not make this a creative cure thread, as well?
Sounds reasonable.
For example, with the Boiling Boils, I'd say that lancing the boils with a stirge could do trick as well. Herbally, let's say that, sympathetic magic being what it is, the disease might also be cured by binding freshly picked snowdrops to the wounds.