How to create "curses" like vampirism?

[JusticeZero]

This is a design problem, really, but there might be rules somewhere that I'm not seeing.
In an Epic-6 (no level adjustment) Pathfinder game, I want to have a "curse" along the lines of a lycanthropic bite, vampirism, etc. While I might conceivably need lycanthropy someday, I actually need it to make something different. Is there rules or guidelines for designing some sort of overlay of that nature to apply to an existing character without simply forcing removal from play?

[Ruethgar]

For Pathfinder the first thing that comes to mind are Oracle curses. A few of them are ‘monster lite’ sort of effects. PF also has the whole undead hunger thing to give it a little more punch than just ‘oh your hungry.’

[Particle_Man]

Well E-6 runs off of feats after you hit level 6, right? So maybe you could borrow some of the "heritage" feat-lines from 3.5? Either make the player get them or else give them to the player as "bonus" feats one at a time, on the understanding that they will lose them all once they "remove the curse"? So Illithid Heritage (in complete psionic), Fiendish Heritage, maybe Fey Heritage (both in complete mage) come to mind. Libris Mortis even has a shorter "Tomb-Tainted Soul" line that explicitly changes your character's appearance after the first feat, to emphasize the "cursed" aspect of it.

[Psyren]

Are you looking to make a curse that you can use to spread curses to other people, like how werewolves can spread lycanthropy and vampires can create spawn? That would probably be beyond the power of Bestow Curse, since Bestow Curse can only be used on a single target.

[zlefin]

This is a design problem, really, but there might be rules somewhere that I'm not seeing.
In an Epic-6 (no level adjustment) Pathfinder game, I want to have a "curse" along the lines of a lycanthropic bite, vampirism, etc. While I might conceivably need lycanthropy someday, I actually need it to make something different. Is there rules or guidelines for designing some sort of overlay of that nature to apply to an existing character without simply forcing removal from play?

you might be able to use/adapt the corruption rules
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/other-rules/corruption/

[JusticeZero]

Are you looking to make a curse that you can use to spread curses to other people?
No, I just need to find a balanced ruleset in case say, the local minor God of the Undead turns somebody undead, or the True Weres in the area would gift somebody with The Bite, or whatever.

[Raven777]

No, I just need to find a balanced ruleset in case say, the local minor God of the Undead turns somebody undead, or the True Weres in the area would gift somebody with The Bite, or whatever.

I would check for rules about making monsters and adapt them to making templates (which vampires are).

Pathfinder has some sparse guidelines for monster creation : https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/rules-for-monsters/monster-creation/
I do not know if 3.5 does, those bits are all I found : http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/improvingMonsters.htm

For templates the relevant stuff probably revolves around Step 8: Special Abilities and Qualities. But those are 99% bonuses. You'd need to come up with weaknesses and quirks of your own, and eyeball the whole package's effect on CR and LA.

Surely over the past decade this board has come up with a guide for monster/template creation. One of the regulars might know.

[Psyren]

No, I just need to find a balanced ruleset in case say, the local minor God of the Undead turns somebody undead, or the True Weres in the area would gift somebody with The Bite, or whatever.

I'm not sure what you mean by "balanced ruleset." Pretty much any template is going to be borked in E6 because PCs are expected to only have 6 character levels by definition. Assuming equal classes, the one with 6 levels and the one with 6 levels + a bunch of other abilities and stat adjustments won't be balanced.

[noob]

I'm not sure what you mean by "balanced ruleset." Pretty much any template is going to be borked in E6 because PCs are expected to only have 6 character levels by definition. Assuming equal classes, the one with 6 levels and the one with 6 levels + a bunch of other abilities and stat adjustments won't be balanced.

Or maybe the la and hit dice counts toward the 6 level cap in which case you are going to be weaker probably.
Or maybe it will be at the cost of a bunch of the bonus epic feats and happen gradually?

[unseenmage]

This list of PF creatures that create non-undead spawn (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24615243&postcount=1) could be useful as a baseline for monster instigated transformations.