Minor spoilers for part #5, Lord of the Black Sands
Here's how Blightburn Sickness is described by the adventure:
"[the heroes] are forced to experience the lethal blightburn radiation the aeon orbs
no longer repel."
"The rocks surrounding the vault emit a deadly radiation called blightburn sickness."
"[a npc] knows about the highly radioactive blightburn crystals"
"Dangerous green blightburn
crystals twinkle from the cavern’s ceiling like poisonous
stars. They emit a deadly radiation that suffuses the
entire vault; you must be prepared to withstand the
sickness it inflicts."
"In anticipation of the deadly blightburn
sickness, [a npc] provides the heroes with eight vials
of major antiplague. He warns the heroes that eight
vials will almost certainly not be enough, and suggests
they ration it or provide it to the least hardy among
them."
"The most dangerous threat inside the Vault
of Black Sand is the radiation from the crystals
twinkling high above."
Here's the actual game stats for Blightburn Sickness:
Quote:
Creatures native to the Black Desert are immune, as are creatures who are affected by blightburn sickness but recover from it. The target can't recover from the disease's drained or sickened condition except by magic.
Saving Throw DC 32 Fortitude; Onset 1d4 days; Stage 1 drained 1 (1 day); Stage 2 drained 1 and sickened 1 (1 day); Stage 3 drained 2 and sickened 2 (1 week); Stage 4 drained 3 and sickened 3 (1 month); Stage 5 increase drained condition by 1 (1 year)
Now then, my problem is that I feel the mechanics entirely insufficient to warrant the description.
As soon as a hero suffers even stage 1 sickness (no actual effects) a level 8 Cure Disease spell will likely trivialize the sickness, making the entire threat utterly and permanently irrelevant.
This is because "creatures who are affected by blightburn sickness but recover from it [] are immune".
This comes across to me as entirely anticlimactic and insufficient.
I fully understand that it wouldn't be fun to be forced to have several levels of adventure while suffering from lots of Drained or Sickened conditions, but that doesn't mean we should accept this easy nullification of the entire concept.
In the next post I will suggest a replacement mechanic, something with actual narrative power:
First off, let us approximate the number of days a party needs to spend in the Black Sands desert. (Obviously travel magic can greatly lower this)
The reason we need this is to get a sense of the number of Fortitude saves needed if the Sickness is somehow rendered relevant throughout the adventure.
Spoiler:
We have two listed distances. I'm assuming a Speed of 25, which is 20 miles/day. If the GM feels generous, that is - I have zero desert survival skills but would think desert travel is slower than regular cross-country travel. (I checked the old 3E rules - the main deciding factor is that movement is halved through trackless terrain. I assume there are no roads in this desert)
From Spear Hill to the Cradle of Worms: 100 miles. That's five days. (The map suggests more like 150 miles).
From Cradle of Worms to Shraen: 300 miles, or 15 days. (Again more like 400 miles per the map).
Once they reach Shraen they can purchase Blightburn Wards that makes the Sickness a non-issue.
I'd say this roughly adds up to a month. Groups with high-level spellcasters can reduce this considerably, but this is far from given. (Wind Walk seems to be the ticket. If you know of another non-teleportation effect that isn't uncommon or rare that would help, please share!)
So okay. If we simply remove the "as are creatures who are affected by blightburn sickness but recover from it" we get a situation where heroes might need to make as many as thirty saves, practically forcing the party Cleric to prepare Cure Disease in her level 8 slot almost daily ( ≈four slots every 1d4 days), since even Drained/Sickened 1 is something worthwhile to get rid of.
While paradoxically still not explaining why the sickness is described as so very lethal - after all you can't be more than Drained 3 unless a full year passes by, even if you're low level enough to crit fail every save.
This might be too harsh. Besides, it's the THREAT of penalties that makes for a compelling danger, not actually slapping penalties onto the heroes every action.
Blightburn Radiation is considered a level 8 hazard (DC 24 Fortitude save):
Critical Success: You are unaffected by the radiation.
Success: You gain 1 Blightburn point.
Failure: You gain 1 Blightburn point. You contract Blightburn Sickness.
Critical Failure: You gain 2 Blightburn points. You contract Blightburn Sickness and it is considered a virulent affliction for you.
You need to save against Blightburn Radiation at the start of each day you spend in the Black Desert, unless the GM deems you have spent the entire day suitably sheltered (inside a stone or metal structure, or underground). As explained in the module, many inhabitants (not to spoil specifics) of the Black Desert are immune to gaining Blightburn Points.
A creature that is well outside the Black Desert (and not subject to its radiation) can be cured of Blightburn points. Consider each point of Blightburn to be its separate level 15 disease for purposes of counteracting (through spells like Remove Disease). While inside the Black Desert, even a Wish only removes a single Blightburn point.
Blightburn sickness remains the level 15 disease as described by the adventure, but with the following change:
Creatures with zero Blightburn Points are immune to Blightburn Sickness.
A creature with a number of Blightburn Points equal to or greater than its level can't recover from the disease's drained or sickened condition using magic short of Wish. Furthermore, a successful counteract by Remove Disease only counts as a single successful save against the affliction - it no longer purges the disease completely now that the Blightburn has permeated the creature's body.
The Blightburn Ward item no longer provide blanket immunity. (Hint game devs: blanket immunity is the 5E D&D way, and it is considerably inferior to how PF2 usually handles things!) Instead it can absorb a number of Blightburn points equal to its item level (i.e. 13) before being consumed and destroyed. (So a Blightburn Ward with 4 points remaining would be priced at 4/13ths or ~700 gp).
You can still contract Blightburn Sickness directly (through an Ararda's attacks, or the Blightburn Blast spell).
---
The intention is primarily to give heroes a "ticking clock" without needlessly slapping penalties onto them.
Conveniently, it takes a hero 30 days to accrue 15 Blightburn points assuming a 50% chance of succeeding at DC 34 (=critically succeeding at DC 24).
I could of course have made a mistake, but the goal of this rule is to allow players to use all the tools at their disposal (which is to say level 8 Remove Diseases) while still building up to a long-term threat (they can't get rid of Blightburn Points once they get them).
If and when a hero gets his 15th Blightburn Point (or 16th or 17th, given the likely progress of the adventure) further saves against the disease is high stakes, since Cure Disease and such spells can no longer trivialize the effects.
...and it's already time for the first "errata" ;)
It was pointed out to me that the sentence
"Creatures with zero Blightburn Points are immune to Blightburn Sickness."
makes no sense in the context of the changed rules.
Also, the sentence
"As explained in the module, many inhabitants (not to spoil specifics) of the Black Desert are immune to gaining Blightburn Points." is just sloppy.
The rule deserves better phrasing!
Any creature stated to be immune by the adventure should be considered immune to Blightburn Radiation, the hazard. Not Blightburn Sickness, the disease (and not to "gaining Blightburn Points").
Immunity to Blightburn Radiation means that these creatures don't have to make daily Fortitude saves, and thus don't risk contracting Blightburn Sickness from just "everyday" radiation. (They also don't accrue Blightburn Points, since there is no other source for them than Blightburn Radiation.)
It does mean these creatures can technically still be affected by things like the Blightburn Blast spell, but that's a minor issue I don't see any reason to address.
Much more importantly, characters can contract Blightburn Sickness even before gaining their first Blightburn Point. :)
The ceiling of the vault of the Black Desert is studded with deadly crystals that glimmer like stars above the dark sands. These crystals are radioactive and flood the vault with lethal energy. This is considered a level 15 hazard omnipresent throughout the entire Black Desert.
You need to save against blightburn radiation once every day spent in the Black Desert, unless the GM deems you have spent the entire day suitably sheltered (inside a larger stone or metal structure, or underground). Many native inhabitants of the Black Desert are immune to blightburn radiation. There are rumors of "Blightburn Wards", highly sought-after magic items that can absorb the radiation and protect their wearers for a period of time.
Critical Success: As success, plus you lose 1 blightburn point unless you suffer from blightburn sickness.
Success: You are unaffected by that day's radiation.
Failure: You gain 1 blightburn point. You suffer from blightburn sickness (proceed to stage 1 after the onset time).
Critical Failure: You gain 2 blightburn points. You suffer from blightburn sickness (proceed to stage 2 after the onset time).
Blightburn points fade naturally. Once a year, if you have had no exposure to blightburn radiation that year, you gain a DC 32 Fortitude save. On a success, you lose 1 blightburn point unless you suffer from blightburn sickness.
Blightburn points can also be cured by magic. Once a month, if you have had no exposure to blightburn radiation that month, one blightburn point becomes counteractable as if it was a level 15 disease.
Blightburn Sickness
Creatures other than those native to the vault develop a disease called blightburn sickness (level 15 disease).
Saving Throw DC 32 Fortitude; Onset 1d4 days; Stage 1 drained 1 (1 day); Stage 2 drained 1 and sickened 1 (1 day); Stage 3 drained 2 and sickened 2 (1 week); Stage 4 drained 3 and sickened 3 (1 month); Stage 5 increase drained condition by 1 (1 year)
The target can't recover from the disease naturally. A successful saving throw prevents the stage from increasing, but doesn't decrease it.
When a creature has a number of blightburn points equal to or greater than its level blightburn sickness is immune to magic short of Wish.
Since a level 15 affliction is trivial to fix to any party with access to level 8 Remove Disease, I have introduced the concept of Blightburn Points. I have also removed the language about getting immune after recovering from the Sickness.
The disease's actual mechanics are unchanged. (I did rephrase "The target can’t recover from the disease’s drained or sickened condition except by magic" since I found that unclear)
Even if the Sickness is kept at bay, the intention is for the steady accumulation of Blightburn Points to still pose as a medium-term threat to the party. In this way, I hope the Blightburn isn't simply a lot of rules that the players can simply ignore.
It will still remain but a trifle to any character with the Juggernaut class feature (since he or she are more likely to roll a Critical Success than a Failure), but there simply is no way to design around that.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
IDK, needing an 8th-level remove disease spell seems pretty reasonable as a way to ignore the disease. Imagining the effects of the radiation on a culture of xulgaths who didn't have enough castings of that powerful spell to protect their people/crops/etc probably gets the point across.
Also not every party has a divine or primal caster. In that case the base affliction could cause some issues until an appropriate caster is found.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
I'd say a level 15 cleric or druid is pretty rare, but to each their own.
Even a lower level cleric could attempt to remove the disease, but that would only work occasionally with a 7th-level spell, or very rarely with a 5th/6th-level spell.
I do think the part about creatures who recover from the disease becoming immune is weird, I'm not sure if that triggers if the disease is magically removed or only if the creature naturally recovers from the disease by succeeding saves.
I'd say a level 15 cleric or druid is pretty rare, but to each their own.
I would say a level 15 cleric or druid is common in level 15 parties.
Very common in fact.
I think that thewastedwalrus’s point is by keeping blightburn sickness as it is, there are a couple of functions occurring. First, it describes why in Golarion there are not dozens of adventurers moving and looting through Vask. There is a real-game narrative that also provides mechanisms via the rules for this location to be exotic and not often visited.
Second, blightburn sickness as it plays out (at least in my group) is significant enough to a 15th level party for them to figure out how to overcome it while they are in the Black Sands Desert. Since it doesn’t manifest right away, likely the characters with weakest Con. saves get it and then the cleric or someone else needs to deal. That lends the possible help from the urdefhan more weight while the group tries to make sure everyone is immune.
My group is just now trying to work through this. Interestingly, the higher Con. save players are not yet immune because they have not been affected by it yet. I’m intrigued to see how this plays out, especially since they are now realizing how important the urdefhan’s gift was.
