SangoProduction
2023-06-24, 03:35 AM
The nurses blew out one of my veins while I was donating blood... and I cannot be arsed to do a damned thing today. But I hate that feeling, and for some inexplicable reason, I feel this deal of spite towards the medical systems.
I want to see which talents in spheres can be mapped onto actual diseases.
Let's also try and stick largely to communicable disease - those most often actually referred to as diseases within the game. Those spread by infection of some kind, which is specifically not a poison. (Which can get murky, because many microbes exude poison. But the microbes are the vectors for the poison, rather than the poison itself being the issue.)
Let's start with Death sphere, since it's so obvious a connection, and honestly most of the Ghost Strikes will work perfectly.
Exhausting Strike: Almost any disease or affliction will inflict exhaustion on account of forcing your body to spend energy fighting off the disease rather than... well... anything else. And not having the energy for that anything else is what we call exhaustion. True insights only found here, my dudes.
Weakening: Also a very common symptom of most diseases, on account of the same Exhaustion deal.
Bleeding Wounds: A variety of diseases cause bleeding, though they tend to be genetic, or chemical (aka poisons) in nature, as opposed to typical communicable diseases. But... well, let's just say Africa is a very special stew of diseases, and leave it at that so as to not incite anyone to actually look them up. You should thank me.
Curse: Literally any negative effect you wish, within the bounds of being no worse than -4 to an ability score (at level 1), which is equivalent to a -2 in vast sums of effects. Or no worse than -3 to attacks, saves, ability checks, and skill checks. That's a lot of wiggle room. You can fit pretty much any virtually-permanent-disability-causing disease here
Drain: Negative levels are truly debilitating. Kind of like cancer. But this has no real chance of being permanent, without substantial investment and very high levels. Which is does sort of describe the growth from tumors to actual cancer.
Inflict Disease: I mean, it's only a small set of diseases, but they are canonical diseases, with prescribed effects. No need to fluff it up any differently.
Lich Strike: There are shockingly few communicable diseases that specifically cause short-term paralysis. Guillain-Barré Syndrome is hypothesized to be caused by common infections moving into the nervous system, and your own body attacking the nerves in zealous rage. (Though as of my current knowledge, there's no real consensus on that.) But if it's gotten to the point of actual paralysis, it's not going to last a couple rounds. Ticks can also spread diseases that result in paralysis, and if located, removed, and treated, tends to be temporary... but that's also not in the course of rounds.
Sickening: Literally any disease. Almost by definition.
Poltergeist. There are diseases that cause hallucinations, even to the point of interfering with your life. But very few if any that basically stop the moment you let it interfere with you one time.
Destruction... let's just leave it at "most diseases don't cause you to spontaneously explode," and just outright ignore the ones that do, so as to not put those images into your mind. Nature is fookin weird.
Now, for alteration sphere... you're going to have to assume, for most of them, that they are all using Blank Form, and not giving additional traits.
Animal Mind / Aberrant Form (Gibbering): Rabies, just for the most present example, does cause mental deterioration. But plenty of neuron-targeting diseases can easily cause mental decay. It is incredibly sad.
Bestial Spirit (Ferocity): There are diseases that cause excess adrenaline production, but they don't tend to be communicable. But cancer was used previously as an example, and tumors on the associated glands are one of those diseases.
Bestial Spirit (Speak with Animals): Again, neuron-targeting diseases can easily lead to mental decay, and detachment from reality.
Odiferous: A whole host of things can change about your body to make it more smelly. But most mundane of all: your sweat isn't innately smelly, but it is instead the fault of the biproducts bacteria on your skin make when intaking your sweat.
Twisted Transformation: Suffice it to say that everything but the Flesh Pocket are definitely not unheard of from many diseases. And Flesh Pocket... can generously relate to cysts. But by god that's got to be one hell of a cyst.
Vitality (Sleepless): Insomnia tends to be the opposite reaction to the body fighting an infection. And it tends to be a fatal symptom. The body driven so far to the edge that it cannot even rest properly any more.
For most of the Transformation talents, it's a case of generally being genetic defects, and it's purely restricted to minor cosmetic traits. Or a very short life. So nit really much to consider here. Although the natural armor can be mapped onto the diseases that harden the skin, like Leprosy, or Scabies... if taken to a magical extreme. Again, normally generic instead of transmissible, like FOP (Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva).
Blood is, perhaps unsurprisingly, pretty good for this.
OK. I got 2 talents into this, and just decided that I have better things to do with my time than to traumatize people. Let's just set it as: Yeah. Nature's fooked up.
Mind sphere... as mentioned, diseases can target the neurons, which makes the overwhelming majority of mind sphere talents viable emulators of symptoms. But perhaps there are particular talents which stand out, over and above that generalized statement.
Cerebral Strike: There are some neurological diseases that cause hallucinations, but non are particularly severe enough that the hallucinations themselves cause someone to pass out (from shock or what have you). Instead, the passing out tends to be a result of hemorrhages, or swelling of the brain. Which still tracks. But it's also very much not non-lethal damage.
Suggestion (and its similar talents like Inception): Mostly general disintegration of the mental capacities. But when one is less mentally there, they are more easily suggestable.
Fear: Rabies is known to cause patients to exhibit symptoms such as anxiety and agitation, as well as hydrophobia.
Life may be a strange one, but there's potential for many of these.
Affliction: Obviously. This almost goes without saying.
Adrenaline Surge: As mentioned with Bestial Spirit, tumors on the glands can induce excess adrenaline.
Painkiller: Although much less common of a symptom than Pain, it does happen, especially with neurological diseases. Like Leprosy, which can such damage to peripheral nerves that they largely lose the ability to feel damage to their skin... which is perhaps a blessing in disguise. Syringomylia is also a (generic) condition where cysts form in the spinal cord, which leads to a loss of pain (among other sensations).
There are perhaps more, but man is this a long list of emulations of disease. Could easily make a "disease" mage, without too many limits, even if you keep strictly to communicable diseases rather than like... a broader category.
I want to see which talents in spheres can be mapped onto actual diseases.
Let's also try and stick largely to communicable disease - those most often actually referred to as diseases within the game. Those spread by infection of some kind, which is specifically not a poison. (Which can get murky, because many microbes exude poison. But the microbes are the vectors for the poison, rather than the poison itself being the issue.)
Let's start with Death sphere, since it's so obvious a connection, and honestly most of the Ghost Strikes will work perfectly.
Exhausting Strike: Almost any disease or affliction will inflict exhaustion on account of forcing your body to spend energy fighting off the disease rather than... well... anything else. And not having the energy for that anything else is what we call exhaustion. True insights only found here, my dudes.
Weakening: Also a very common symptom of most diseases, on account of the same Exhaustion deal.
Bleeding Wounds: A variety of diseases cause bleeding, though they tend to be genetic, or chemical (aka poisons) in nature, as opposed to typical communicable diseases. But... well, let's just say Africa is a very special stew of diseases, and leave it at that so as to not incite anyone to actually look them up. You should thank me.
Curse: Literally any negative effect you wish, within the bounds of being no worse than -4 to an ability score (at level 1), which is equivalent to a -2 in vast sums of effects. Or no worse than -3 to attacks, saves, ability checks, and skill checks. That's a lot of wiggle room. You can fit pretty much any virtually-permanent-disability-causing disease here
Drain: Negative levels are truly debilitating. Kind of like cancer. But this has no real chance of being permanent, without substantial investment and very high levels. Which is does sort of describe the growth from tumors to actual cancer.
Inflict Disease: I mean, it's only a small set of diseases, but they are canonical diseases, with prescribed effects. No need to fluff it up any differently.
Lich Strike: There are shockingly few communicable diseases that specifically cause short-term paralysis. Guillain-Barré Syndrome is hypothesized to be caused by common infections moving into the nervous system, and your own body attacking the nerves in zealous rage. (Though as of my current knowledge, there's no real consensus on that.) But if it's gotten to the point of actual paralysis, it's not going to last a couple rounds. Ticks can also spread diseases that result in paralysis, and if located, removed, and treated, tends to be temporary... but that's also not in the course of rounds.
Sickening: Literally any disease. Almost by definition.
Poltergeist. There are diseases that cause hallucinations, even to the point of interfering with your life. But very few if any that basically stop the moment you let it interfere with you one time.
Destruction... let's just leave it at "most diseases don't cause you to spontaneously explode," and just outright ignore the ones that do, so as to not put those images into your mind. Nature is fookin weird.
Now, for alteration sphere... you're going to have to assume, for most of them, that they are all using Blank Form, and not giving additional traits.
Animal Mind / Aberrant Form (Gibbering): Rabies, just for the most present example, does cause mental deterioration. But plenty of neuron-targeting diseases can easily cause mental decay. It is incredibly sad.
Bestial Spirit (Ferocity): There are diseases that cause excess adrenaline production, but they don't tend to be communicable. But cancer was used previously as an example, and tumors on the associated glands are one of those diseases.
Bestial Spirit (Speak with Animals): Again, neuron-targeting diseases can easily lead to mental decay, and detachment from reality.
Odiferous: A whole host of things can change about your body to make it more smelly. But most mundane of all: your sweat isn't innately smelly, but it is instead the fault of the biproducts bacteria on your skin make when intaking your sweat.
Twisted Transformation: Suffice it to say that everything but the Flesh Pocket are definitely not unheard of from many diseases. And Flesh Pocket... can generously relate to cysts. But by god that's got to be one hell of a cyst.
Vitality (Sleepless): Insomnia tends to be the opposite reaction to the body fighting an infection. And it tends to be a fatal symptom. The body driven so far to the edge that it cannot even rest properly any more.
For most of the Transformation talents, it's a case of generally being genetic defects, and it's purely restricted to minor cosmetic traits. Or a very short life. So nit really much to consider here. Although the natural armor can be mapped onto the diseases that harden the skin, like Leprosy, or Scabies... if taken to a magical extreme. Again, normally generic instead of transmissible, like FOP (Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva).
Blood is, perhaps unsurprisingly, pretty good for this.
OK. I got 2 talents into this, and just decided that I have better things to do with my time than to traumatize people. Let's just set it as: Yeah. Nature's fooked up.
Mind sphere... as mentioned, diseases can target the neurons, which makes the overwhelming majority of mind sphere talents viable emulators of symptoms. But perhaps there are particular talents which stand out, over and above that generalized statement.
Cerebral Strike: There are some neurological diseases that cause hallucinations, but non are particularly severe enough that the hallucinations themselves cause someone to pass out (from shock or what have you). Instead, the passing out tends to be a result of hemorrhages, or swelling of the brain. Which still tracks. But it's also very much not non-lethal damage.
Suggestion (and its similar talents like Inception): Mostly general disintegration of the mental capacities. But when one is less mentally there, they are more easily suggestable.
Fear: Rabies is known to cause patients to exhibit symptoms such as anxiety and agitation, as well as hydrophobia.
Life may be a strange one, but there's potential for many of these.
Affliction: Obviously. This almost goes without saying.
Adrenaline Surge: As mentioned with Bestial Spirit, tumors on the glands can induce excess adrenaline.
Painkiller: Although much less common of a symptom than Pain, it does happen, especially with neurological diseases. Like Leprosy, which can such damage to peripheral nerves that they largely lose the ability to feel damage to their skin... which is perhaps a blessing in disguise. Syringomylia is also a (generic) condition where cysts form in the spinal cord, which leads to a loss of pain (among other sensations).
There are perhaps more, but man is this a long list of emulations of disease. Could easily make a "disease" mage, without too many limits, even if you keep strictly to communicable diseases rather than like... a broader category.