havocfett
2011-06-10, 12:42 PM
So, I've been trying to create a leper/nerve damaged character and realized: there aren't many good traits, flaws or diseases for this in DnD. With this in mind, I propose the following flaws and traits, though more are welcome.
Note: These are based off of my experience with leprosy due to family members with the syndrome, some things may be inaccurate due to complications or habits that my family members in particular deal with, tell me if I get them wrong)
Traits:
Leper:
Advantage: You are highly resistant to pain due to having fewer nerve cells than most other people. You gain a +2 to rolls to continue a forced march, you gain +4 to rolls to resist spells that cause pain as part of their affect (E.G. Symbol of Pain). Your resistance to pain also causes you to go in when others would stop, giving you an extra hit point per level.
Disadvantage:
You are unable to notice small wounds due to a lack of pain stimuli. Though you as a player know of how much damage you have taken, your character is unaware of small wounds and should act accordingly. The GM should disallow this flaw or trait if the player proves to be unable to restrain himself from metagaming in order to remove the downside of this trait. The Character must make a DC 20 search or heal check in order to find small wounds. You find one hitpoints worth of wounds for each point you exceed 20 by on the check, you automatically find large wounds (Over 5 hitpoints of damage). As a result small wounds may go untreated and do not heal properly due to your disease. If at the end of the day you have unfound wounds damage you must make a fortitude save DC 15+Unfound wounds (Max 5) or have the wound be infected with a disease of the GMs choice. You must make a save weekly no matter what due to minor wounds becoming infected.
Flaws:
Numb:
Disadvantage: You take a -4 penalty to skills involving manual dexterity to the lack of feeling in your extremities. Examples or Open Lock, Climb, Disable Device and some cases of Use Magic device
Infested Wounds:
Disadvantage:
You are unable to notice small wounds due to a lack of pain stimuli. Though you as a player know of how much damage you have taken, your character is unaware of small wounds and should act accordingly. The GM should disallow this flaw or trait if the player proves to be unable to restrain himself from metagaming in order to remove the downside of this trait. The Character must make a DC 20 search or heal check in order to find small wounds. You find one hitpoints worth of wounds for each point you exceed 20 by on the check, you automatically find large wounds (Over 5 hitpoints of damage). As a result small wounds may go untreated and do not heal properly due to your disease. If at the end of the day you have unfound wounds damage you must make a fortitude save DC 15+Unfound wounds (Max 5) or have the wound be infected with a disease of the GMs choice. You must make a save weekly no matter what due to minor wounds becoming infected.
Roleplay ideas:
Leprosy is not always visible, but a low charisma Leper may have particularly visible side-effects.
The Leper may be sensitive about his condition, attempting to hide what symptoms there are, and may be more standoffish than the rest of the party due to an erroneous belief that they are infectious.
They may avoid combat, as even minor wounds can kill them due to disease, or they may revel in their near-painless state and ignore injuries until danger is passed and it's time to treat the injuries.
Lepers are almost certainly compulsive about having wounds checked and treated, though some may be more thorough than others. A Leper may simply check thoroughly for his wounds and ask for treatment for what he finds, or they may demand healing even after visible wounds are found in the belief that they've probably missed something, likely causing the healer to waste resources.
notes
Diseases need to be pinned down. Can't find mundane diseases though. :(
Currently making the trait a plus health trait, but I think that what I'm basing that off of is how my relatives act instead of a common thing with the disease. So that's subject to change.
I think that the flaws need tweaking, Numb might not be debilitating enough and Infested Wounds might be too debilitating.
Trying to balance 'Massive Wounds are obvious' with 'if I make certain wound thresholds obvious, then how much healing needs to be done can be inferred and the disadvantage negated'
If anyone has ideas on more stuff, and actual disease, or improvements, it would be appreciated.
Note: These are based off of my experience with leprosy due to family members with the syndrome, some things may be inaccurate due to complications or habits that my family members in particular deal with, tell me if I get them wrong)
Traits:
Leper:
Advantage: You are highly resistant to pain due to having fewer nerve cells than most other people. You gain a +2 to rolls to continue a forced march, you gain +4 to rolls to resist spells that cause pain as part of their affect (E.G. Symbol of Pain). Your resistance to pain also causes you to go in when others would stop, giving you an extra hit point per level.
Disadvantage:
You are unable to notice small wounds due to a lack of pain stimuli. Though you as a player know of how much damage you have taken, your character is unaware of small wounds and should act accordingly. The GM should disallow this flaw or trait if the player proves to be unable to restrain himself from metagaming in order to remove the downside of this trait. The Character must make a DC 20 search or heal check in order to find small wounds. You find one hitpoints worth of wounds for each point you exceed 20 by on the check, you automatically find large wounds (Over 5 hitpoints of damage). As a result small wounds may go untreated and do not heal properly due to your disease. If at the end of the day you have unfound wounds damage you must make a fortitude save DC 15+Unfound wounds (Max 5) or have the wound be infected with a disease of the GMs choice. You must make a save weekly no matter what due to minor wounds becoming infected.
Flaws:
Numb:
Disadvantage: You take a -4 penalty to skills involving manual dexterity to the lack of feeling in your extremities. Examples or Open Lock, Climb, Disable Device and some cases of Use Magic device
Infested Wounds:
Disadvantage:
You are unable to notice small wounds due to a lack of pain stimuli. Though you as a player know of how much damage you have taken, your character is unaware of small wounds and should act accordingly. The GM should disallow this flaw or trait if the player proves to be unable to restrain himself from metagaming in order to remove the downside of this trait. The Character must make a DC 20 search or heal check in order to find small wounds. You find one hitpoints worth of wounds for each point you exceed 20 by on the check, you automatically find large wounds (Over 5 hitpoints of damage). As a result small wounds may go untreated and do not heal properly due to your disease. If at the end of the day you have unfound wounds damage you must make a fortitude save DC 15+Unfound wounds (Max 5) or have the wound be infected with a disease of the GMs choice. You must make a save weekly no matter what due to minor wounds becoming infected.
Roleplay ideas:
Leprosy is not always visible, but a low charisma Leper may have particularly visible side-effects.
The Leper may be sensitive about his condition, attempting to hide what symptoms there are, and may be more standoffish than the rest of the party due to an erroneous belief that they are infectious.
They may avoid combat, as even minor wounds can kill them due to disease, or they may revel in their near-painless state and ignore injuries until danger is passed and it's time to treat the injuries.
Lepers are almost certainly compulsive about having wounds checked and treated, though some may be more thorough than others. A Leper may simply check thoroughly for his wounds and ask for treatment for what he finds, or they may demand healing even after visible wounds are found in the belief that they've probably missed something, likely causing the healer to waste resources.
notes
Diseases need to be pinned down. Can't find mundane diseases though. :(
Currently making the trait a plus health trait, but I think that what I'm basing that off of is how my relatives act instead of a common thing with the disease. So that's subject to change.
I think that the flaws need tweaking, Numb might not be debilitating enough and Infested Wounds might be too debilitating.
Trying to balance 'Massive Wounds are obvious' with 'if I make certain wound thresholds obvious, then how much healing needs to be done can be inferred and the disadvantage negated'
If anyone has ideas on more stuff, and actual disease, or improvements, it would be appreciated.