home-brew campaign-central disease.

[Danielqueue1]

I've been working on a plot device for a campaign I'm brewing and would like some feedback and suggestions.

basic concept. campaign starts BBEG is established, looks like a normal run of the mill campaign. slowly this entity/disease/force/poison/plague spreads across the land and in the end is more dangerous than the starting BBEG ever could be. The plague starts out in a few secluded locations but starts to spread up and down rivers into lakes, and at the final stages of the campaign the rain itself.

the "plague," for lack of a better term, infests water permanently making those sources dangerous.

A creature that enters infested waters or starts its turn there takes 1d6 necrotic damage. each round that creature remains in the water the necrotic damage increases by 1d6. If a creature takes (number) or more necrotic damage from infested waters in a single round they must make a Constitution Saving Throw (still trying to balance the DC) or become infected.

a puddle isn't enough to hurt someone, but diving into an infested lake or fording an infested river will be a risk.

the "plague"



The effects of being infected or increasing stages only manifests after the infected creature takes a long rest. If multiple affects would cause a creature to increase a stage between long rests, the creature only progresses a single stage when a long rest is taken.

Stage 1: the affects at this stage are hardly noticeable leading most people in this stage to not even know they are sick, also leading some healers to believe that their charges have been cured. A DC 20 Wisdom (medicine) check (active only), or magical disease detection, is required to detect the disease and a DC 25 Int (medicine) check to identify it.
A creature who is critically hit or takes damage as a result of rolling a natural 1 on a saving throw has their maximum HP reduced by the ammount of damage taken.

stage 2: could really use some Ideas for this one. everything I've come up with doesn't seem to fit. (DC 15 detect DC 20 identify)

stage 3: creatures in this stage are visibly ill (DC 10 detect, passive okay), a feeling of futility pervades most that reach this stage. Infected creatures have discoloration in their skin resembling swirling blood stains that cannot be washed away.
A creature who is knocked unconscious due to dropping to 0 HP does not stabilize. successful death saving throws only delay the inevitable. Healer's kits only remove 1 death saving throw failure, only healing can save the creature. In addition, the corpse of an infected creature decays unnaturally quickly. The ammount of time that an infected creature can be affected by magic to bring it back to life is reduced by half not to exceed 24 hours. (True Ressurection doesn't require a body so it is unafected) a creature who interacts with the corpse while it decays must make a DC (number) constitution saving throw or become infected. if already infected the infection progresses 1 stage at next long rest.

end stage: creatures in this stage never heal from even the slightest cut and quickly become covered in scrapes, sores and infected wounds. even those who know little of disease instinctively avoid those who reach this point. (no check needed to detect or identify unless someone intentionally conceals their infection)
A creature who reaches this stage no longer takes damage from infested water and can pass through it freely. 1 minute of uninterupted contact with uninfested water corrupts it and it may become permanently infested. Any damage taken reduces your maximum HP by the same ammount. If that creature's maximum hitpoints are reduced to 0 in this way, the creature immediately explodes. all creatures within 15 feet of the explosion must make a DC (number) Constitution Saving throw or become infected. If an affected creature is already infected the infection progresses 1 stage at next long rest.


A creature who has observed a living creature through stage 1-3 has the DC to identify infection reduced by 5.

Treating the "Plague"



• The plague is not actually a disease, creatures immune to disease instead have advantage on the saving throws against initial infection but no benefit on the saving throws against it progressing.
• Spells, class features, potions, and magic items that cure disease such as a paladin's lay on hands or the Lesser restoration spell reduce the stage by 1.
• greater restoration returns a creature to stage 1 orrestores the creature's maximum HP. if a creature is already at stage 1 and their maximum HP has not been reduced, the creature is cured.
• there are alchemical means of curing the disease and purifying water, but as the "Plague" spreads they become more and more coveted. Ingredients farmed to scarcity, and nobles hoarding vials for themselves. (buying a cure gets more expensive as the campaign goes on)
• purify food and drink works as normal as a preventative measure for containers, but flowing water will re-infect itself in seconds.




so I am looking for help with
• a name for this thing
• good numbers for the DCs
• something to do for Stage 2
• major concerns or exploits.
• ideas for implementation that you think would be neat.

side note fish in infected rivers take no damage from the "Plague" but carry it to any who eat them.

[darkrose50]

The Pirates of Dark Water

https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=SUmRXP-sMsiwtgX8zK3gDw&q=the+pirates+of+darkwater&btnK=Google+Search&oq=the+pirates+of+darkwater&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0j0i22i10i30j0i22i30l8.1082.7216..7468...1.0 ..0.354.2591.21j3j0j1......0....1..gws-wiz.....0..0i131.jtczaY5rpb4

[Grek]

Stage two should have internal signs of the disease. A discolored liver, splotchy serous membranes, lesions on the lungs, something like that.

From an epidemiology perspective, the fact that the disease gives people an awful wasting disease is dwarfed by the fact that it rapidly and permanently converts running water into deadly poison. Even if there's enough clean water to drink (and that isn't a guarantee) that stuff is going to get into the water table and cause a famine due to crop failures. And it will be nearly impossible to get out of the soil, so the entire region will probably end up as an uninhabitable wasteland.

If the rivers reach the sea, this is could easily destroy your entire campaign setting.

[Hobbo Jim]

Sounds pretty interesting! I'll do my best to help.

I'm pretty bad with names, but depending on the time it might be easiest to name it after the symptoms, followed by "plague" or "death".

A DC depends on a couple of things. How deadly you want it to be, WHO you want it to be deadly to, what level the players SHOULD be when they start fighting it, and what level of realism you want.
For example, most regular, but dangerous, diseases would probably have a DC of 12-15. This would hit most common folk. DnD rules usually use the same DC for each stage as it progresses, but if you like realism then it is more than likely the DC will get higher as the person progresses in disease (or it will affect their con mod/give them disadvantage). If this is the kind of disease that kills everyone, including adventurers, then you could go for a higher DC, such as 18+.

Stage 2: Give em a point of fatigue. That always sucks, but the first point of fatigue isn't detrimental, just leaves you super vulnerable if you get a second point of it.

Major Concerns/Exploits: Know how fast this disease progresses. If you create a deadly disease that is supposed to be the end of this campaign, you also need to be prepared for the adventurers going towards it too early, but also you don't want (or maybe you do?) every city to be a ghost town before they make it there. Also make sure you know that the party isn't entirely evil, otherwise this could turn into a profit thing or weapon rather than the enemy. Also, how is this disease spreading? Is the BBEG doing it? A deity? Someone else? Some suspension of disbelief is fine, and you know your group better than I, but knowing a vague mechanism would be good. Right now the only one I see is that someone who is infected with stage 4 wanders into some clean water. This can technically happen, but usually people use the same source of water, especially if they don't know that the water supply is causing it. Might be worth looking into some of our real diseases that spread through water like Cholera.

Implementation: Think about how hard it is to detect the infection in the water. Usually it's more difficult than the person, and might even require magic. Might also be fun to have some cults start worshipping the disease, particularly those who worship deities of disease and death. Maybe they eventually use it to empower themselves, becoming monstrosities of this horrific plague. It would also be cool to see players immediately assume that they are the ones who created it, when in reality they found it and just help it spread. Also, does something happen to the land if enough of the surrounding water supplies are infected? Crops? Flora/Fauna? It's magical, maybe if a pool of water is large enough it would start spawning monsters, or maybe the infection coagulates and fights back when you try to cleanse it. I know you said that the cure would get more expensive, but what is the cure? Regular herbs that need to be farmed? Special reagents like a basilisk's scale? If they are high level will they need to find a holy relic to circumvent the depletion of curative resources? Overall know how you want them to go about actually fighting it after it has become dangerous.

Overall it sounds like a lot of fun!

[MThurston]

Here is the issue of using water as the catalyst, everything needs it to live.

So plants, animals and people will die off.

[Hobbo Jim]

Here is the issue of using water as the catalyst, everything needs it to live.

So plants, animals and people will die off.

Who knows? It's a magical disease, maybe it only affects humanoids. Some angry/corrupted nature spirit conjured it to get back at humanity because they chopped down the wrong forest. Definitely something to think about though.

[Cynthaer]

In order to properly tune this, we'll need to know what the intended impact to the players will be. Here are some questions and observations, in no particular order.

- At what character level do you expect the PCs to start encountering this? The resources required just to mitigate the effects are largely out of reach for low-level characters.

- Do you expect the party to be able to completely avoid infection through careful gameplay? Do you expect infection to be inevitable at some point (i.e., once it infects the rain itself)?

- Consider the actual party makeup, and tweak the harshness accordingly. The characters may or may not have the necessary skills, spells, or abilities to identify and interact with the disease. You may need to alter the disease, or provide outside resources/NPCs so the players can actually mechanically engage with it.

- If the party does have a cleric/druid/paladin, be careful about possibly making them feel like they're forced to become a "healbot", instead of whatever they originally planned. There's a fine line between "I feel good because I have the tools to deal with this infection" and "I feel bad because all my resources are spent on this infection".

- Stage 1 is the most important, because players won't allow themselves to stay at later stages if they can avoid it. Expect infected PCs to spend most of their time in stage 1.

- Don't tie max HP reduction to the damage roll on a critical hit—that's the "swingiest" possible implementation. It won't feel like a creeping illness; it'll feel like an illness that does nothing for a while and then suddenly kills you outright. Multiple small, predictable effects (like -1 max HP on every hit) are better than large, unpredictable effects (like -X max HP on criticals).

- Lowering max HP is probably way more painful than you think it is, especially if it can only be restored with a 5th-level spell that only a few classes have.

- Maybe the plague itself isn't a "disease", per se, but is it really crucial that the effect on the players not technically be a disease? Most campaigns don't really deal with diseases, so the spells and abilities that interact with them don't get much screentime. Consider letting them shine here. Your monk will be super excited to actually use Purity of Body for the first time in their life, and their own immunity won't make them any less eager to fix the world-ending problem!

- Don't underestimate the psychological impact of ever-present threats, even if they're weak. Suppose you allowed normal things like Lay on Hands to cure the disease entirely. Every body of water and infected enemy the party encounters still threatens to immediately re-infect them! That's already going to feel very oppressive, even without making the disease itself impossible to remove with normal means.

- Locking information about the primary antagonist behind skill checks is probably unnecessary. If they fail, they just kind of...don't really know anything new until maybe some time later when they get more information? If failure isn't interesting, and they're going to get the information eventually, what's the value in the skill check?

- Many of these fiddly disease mechanics (reducing resurrection window by 50%, reduced DC to identify infection, requiring stage 1 and max HP before Greater Restoration can cure) are more detailed than necessary. It's a bunch of rules that you have to keep track of, and the subtle distinctions won't come across to the players anyway. In fact, it'll probably just feel to them like you're constantly making up new rules just to invalidate their class abilities with your power-trip super-disease.

And finally, the most important thing in my opinion:

Start off gentle. If it's not scary enough, you can always make it harsher later. If you make it too deadly to begin with, you can't easily dial it back.

I mean, the whole point is that this is a progressing threat, right? So imagine you start it off with just stage 1 (using a less-swingy effect than the current one), and you let stuff like Lesser Restoration cure it like normal. You might find that this alone feels very terrifying to your players, because they're constantly at risk of getting infected. In that case, great! You can make it a little harsher as they level up to keep things interesting, but you've nailed it.

Or, you might find that it's not really making any impact on the players, and it needs to be tougher. That's fine too! As the disease progresses through the land, you make the effects harsher. Maybe you need to bring in the "only Greater Restoration can cure" effect. Maybe you increase the stage 1 effect. Maybe you make it easier to get infected.

The point is, you can slowly increase how punishing the disease is, and stop when you've hit a good balance point. And in the meantime, the increasing harshness will scare the hell out of your players.

[Mad_Saulot]

A few ideas for names:

The Necro Phage
The Withering
The Black Consumption
Atrophic Virus
Life Eater
Wither Scale
Crumble Rot
Blight Gnaw
Donald Trump
Perishosis
Fade Sink
Ebboniasis
The Great Devourer
Wiltwane
Blackwind
Super AIDs
Hypersyphilis
Blood Waste

[Man_Over_Game]

A few level 2 ideas:

Hit Dice do not regenerate
You are Vulnerable to Necrotic damage.
Strength, Dexterity and Constitution are reduced by 1.

They feel slightly ill, have cold skin, lose weight, and are somewhat pale. They feel tired quite often, and have a loss of appetite.

[Danielqueue1]

Thank you for all the feedback here's some 0pof my ideas I have for implementation.

The disease is the "trial" of a spiteful deity. And never spreads beyond the borders of the kingdom(s) the deity has a beef with. Defeating this deity's harbinger show that the people "are worthy to live" and will cure the disease everywhere.

The disease doesn't progress over time, only through events so creatures can be in stage 1 for months and have no idea they are even infected. (Most commoners don't get stabbed on a regular basis)

It will start out that only places the "harbinger" has set foot will be infected as well as an abandoned shrine to the above mentioned deity (where the party first encounters it.)

There will be a cult whose leader is stage 4 hailed as a prophet because he passes through infested waters unharmed promissing his followers "absolution from the coming judgement." The cult will be the main reason for the "plague's" spread.

I think I may take the advice and simplify identification.

I like the idea of affecting hit dice recovery and in regards to max hp reduction getting swingy i think i will reduce it to half damage taken.

and I think I will probably rearrange it to

1 hit dice recovery reduced
2 max hp reduced on crits
3 no stabilize
4 explode

That way people who keep it at stage 1 can avoid hp reduction.

Cure potions would be available so that if the party gets in too deep too early I could stick a couple in some loot. They would get super expensive once a city gets infected so I can control the availability that way.

In regards to the "plague" turning the place into a wasteland, that's basically the idea. They can face the "harbinger" whenever they want (after they find out about it) they have to decide between their own readiness and the country's survival.