SangoProduction
2018-09-18, 07:16 PM
The Death sphere in SoP has the ability to force an enemy to immediately contract a disease. Pretty interesting, even if I don't exactly know what "contract a disease" neccesarily entails.
But the list of possible diseases is quite large, and I'm having a hard time understanding the value of each one. Can someone assist me in assessing the value of each of the following as a debuff?
blinding sickness, bubonic plague, cackle fever, filth fever, leprosy, mindfire, red ache, shakes, or slimy doom.
And just for ease of reference, here's the talent in question.
Inflict Disease (ghost strike) [Core]
You may spend a spell point to make a ghost strike that causes the target to contract a disease (Fortitude negates). The subject contracts one of the following diseases: blinding sickness, bubonic plague, cackle fever, filth fever, leprosy, mindfire, red ache, shakes, or slimy doom. The disease is contracted immediately (the onset period does not apply). Use the disease’s listed frequency and save DC to determine further effects.
So Blinding Sickness seems pretty devastating at "1d4 Str damage, if more than 2 Str damage, target must make an additional Fort save or be permanently blinded" So, after the first failed saving throw, there's a 75% chance that he has to make a saving throw (against DC 16, without Plague Lord in the new Death Sphere playtest), or be blinded for the rest of the fight. That's really good, right? But then again, it's gating the debuff behind 2 saves and a random chance, and the primary effect is a relatively minor hit to strength.
Bubonic Plague is "1d4 Con damage and 1 Cha damage and target is fatigued", which is basically scaling HP damage (with a side effect of reducing their saves), but also afflicting fatigue until the con damage is healed, which is relatively difficult.
Cackle Fever is "1d6 Wis damage", which is just boring, unless you're trying to abuse a wizard's low fortitude to access their will, I guess. But if you're using it as a win condition, then you're basically working on a different track than everyone else, who's likely using HP damage. And if they beat him, you've basically done nothing the whole fight. If you beat them, they might as well have sat back and done nothing. If the target is a wisdom-based caster, then they probably have remove disease.
Filth Fever is "1d3 Dex damage and 1d3 Con damage". So, on average a -1 to range attacks, AC, and initiative, and 1 damage per level. May as well just use Bubonic Plague, and get them basically fatigued for the fight, which inflicts a bigger penalty, ans does more Con damage.
Leprosy is "1d2 Cha damage", which is like Cackle Fever but worse. Like, really really bad. The only upside is that it targets an often dump stat (because there are so few benefits to it). But then you're still targeting a separate track than your party.
Mind Fire is "1d4 Int damage". Again, like Cackle Fever. At least you could hurt a wizard's spell casting, by an average of 1 spell level per affliction, which can actually be pretty nice...if the wizards actually have a low level of intelligence to begin with to the point where hitting it actually causes him to lose spells. Incredibly niche. Pretty cool.
Red Ache is "1d6 Str damage". Pretty boring, and again falls in to the separate track problem. But strength is more widely used for attacking, and it also affects damage, so it can be decent...ish. At about 3.5 Str damage per hit, if we round up (or the monster has an odd str score), that's a -2 to hit and to damage (-3 with two-handed), which is kind of notable. It's better than Fatigue.
Shakes is "1d8 Dex damage".......WOW! That's a lot of Dex damage. What the hell? Still the track problem, but holy cow! The debuff is actually pretty massive at 4.5 damage per hit. Is this as massive as I think it is?
Slimy Doom is "1d4 Con damage, target must make a second Fort save or 1 point of the damage is drain instead".....really boring. Maybe has utility against really quick healers like trolls or priests...but they are likely to be able to resist this anyway, and the damage is quite low.
But the list of possible diseases is quite large, and I'm having a hard time understanding the value of each one. Can someone assist me in assessing the value of each of the following as a debuff?
blinding sickness, bubonic plague, cackle fever, filth fever, leprosy, mindfire, red ache, shakes, or slimy doom.
And just for ease of reference, here's the talent in question.
Inflict Disease (ghost strike) [Core]
You may spend a spell point to make a ghost strike that causes the target to contract a disease (Fortitude negates). The subject contracts one of the following diseases: blinding sickness, bubonic plague, cackle fever, filth fever, leprosy, mindfire, red ache, shakes, or slimy doom. The disease is contracted immediately (the onset period does not apply). Use the disease’s listed frequency and save DC to determine further effects.
So Blinding Sickness seems pretty devastating at "1d4 Str damage, if more than 2 Str damage, target must make an additional Fort save or be permanently blinded" So, after the first failed saving throw, there's a 75% chance that he has to make a saving throw (against DC 16, without Plague Lord in the new Death Sphere playtest), or be blinded for the rest of the fight. That's really good, right? But then again, it's gating the debuff behind 2 saves and a random chance, and the primary effect is a relatively minor hit to strength.
Bubonic Plague is "1d4 Con damage and 1 Cha damage and target is fatigued", which is basically scaling HP damage (with a side effect of reducing their saves), but also afflicting fatigue until the con damage is healed, which is relatively difficult.
Cackle Fever is "1d6 Wis damage", which is just boring, unless you're trying to abuse a wizard's low fortitude to access their will, I guess. But if you're using it as a win condition, then you're basically working on a different track than everyone else, who's likely using HP damage. And if they beat him, you've basically done nothing the whole fight. If you beat them, they might as well have sat back and done nothing. If the target is a wisdom-based caster, then they probably have remove disease.
Filth Fever is "1d3 Dex damage and 1d3 Con damage". So, on average a -1 to range attacks, AC, and initiative, and 1 damage per level. May as well just use Bubonic Plague, and get them basically fatigued for the fight, which inflicts a bigger penalty, ans does more Con damage.
Leprosy is "1d2 Cha damage", which is like Cackle Fever but worse. Like, really really bad. The only upside is that it targets an often dump stat (because there are so few benefits to it). But then you're still targeting a separate track than your party.
Mind Fire is "1d4 Int damage". Again, like Cackle Fever. At least you could hurt a wizard's spell casting, by an average of 1 spell level per affliction, which can actually be pretty nice...if the wizards actually have a low level of intelligence to begin with to the point where hitting it actually causes him to lose spells. Incredibly niche. Pretty cool.
Red Ache is "1d6 Str damage". Pretty boring, and again falls in to the separate track problem. But strength is more widely used for attacking, and it also affects damage, so it can be decent...ish. At about 3.5 Str damage per hit, if we round up (or the monster has an odd str score), that's a -2 to hit and to damage (-3 with two-handed), which is kind of notable. It's better than Fatigue.
Shakes is "1d8 Dex damage".......WOW! That's a lot of Dex damage. What the hell? Still the track problem, but holy cow! The debuff is actually pretty massive at 4.5 damage per hit. Is this as massive as I think it is?
Slimy Doom is "1d4 Con damage, target must make a second Fort save or 1 point of the damage is drain instead".....really boring. Maybe has utility against really quick healers like trolls or priests...but they are likely to be able to resist this anyway, and the damage is quite low.