Dire Rabies [3.5 Template]

[Admiral Squish]

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While many animals have been bred and magically enhanced to become larger and more fearsome than their normal counterparts, the process unintentionally enhanced some microscopic organisms. In most cases, this did nothing, but in some, this led to creating more fearsome viruses and bacteria, some of which still infect creatures to this day. The most well-known of these 'dire diseases' is rabies, which reduces it's victims to furious, animalistic savages.

{table=head]Disease|Infection|DC|Incubation|Damage
Dire Rabies|Injury|20|1 week|1d4 Wis*[/table]

Whenever a creature with dire rabies takes wisdom damage, if their intelligence score is greater than their wisdom score, they take 1d4 points of intelligence damage as well. A creature that contracts dire rabies that reaches 0 wisdom from the ability damage dies. Fortitude saves cannot allow a creature to recover from dire rabies, though successful saves prevent damage as normal. Dire rabies is exceptionally resistant to attempts to cure it. Remove disease spells are only effective during the incubation period. Once the disease begins to take hold, only a wish or miracle spell can save the victim. The victim will become more irritable and angry during the incubation period until the disease properly takes hold. Once the victim takes at least one point of wisdom damage from dire rabies, they gain the rabid template.

Sample Rabid Creature

Rabid Wolf
{TABLE]Size/Type:|Medium Animal
Hit Dice:|2d8+8 (16 hp)
Initiative:|+2
Speed:|30 ft (6 squares)
Armor Class:|12 (+2 dex, +2 Natural, -2 Rabies), touch 10, flat-footed 10
Base Attack/Grapple:|+1/+4
Attack:|Bite +4 melee (1d6+3 plus 1d6 acid)
Full Attack:|Bite +4 melee (1d6+3 plus 1d6 acid)
Space/Reach:|5ft/5ft
Special Attacks:|Trip, Savage Strikes, Corrosive Foam
Special Qualities:|low-light vision, Scent, Fury
Saves:|Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +5
Abilities:| Str 17, Dex 15, Con 19, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6
Skills:|Hide +2, Listen +3, Move Silently +3, Spot +3, Survival +1*
Feats:|Track (B), Weapon Focus (bite)
Environment:|Temperate Forests
Organization:|Solitary, pair, or pack (7-16)
Challenge Rating:|2
Advancement:|3 HD (Medium); 4-6 HD (Large)
Level Adjustment:|
[/TABLE]

A rabid wolf is a furious combatant who rushes into battle, biting madly with almost no thought for it's own safety.

Trip (Ex)
A wolf that hits with a bite attack can attempt to trip the opponent (+1 check modifier) as a free action without making a touch attack or provoking an attack of opportunity. If the attempt fails, the opponent cannot react to trip the wolf.

Savage Strikes (Ex)
A rabid creature takes a penalty equal to 1/2 their Base Attack Bonus on all attack rolls, but gains a bonus to all melee damage rolls equal to this penalty. These bonuses and penalties stack with those imposed by using the power attack feet.

Corrosive Foam
A rabid creature's bite attack deals 1d6 points of acid damage. A creature that takes damage from either the bite attack or the acid damage risks contracting dire rabies.

Fury
A rabid creature's mind is consumed by a mad rage. A rabid creature is immune to charm and compulsion effects, and gains a +4 bonus to will saves. They cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills (except for Balance, Escape Artist, Intimidate, and Ride), the Concentration skill, or any abilities that require patience or concentration, nor can they cast spells or activate magic items that require a command word, a spell trigger (such as a wand), or spell completion (such as a scroll) to function. They can use any feat they have except Combat Expertise, item creation feats, and metamagic feats.

Skills
*Wolves have a +4 racial bonus on Survival checks when tracking by scent.


Creating a Rabid Creature

'Rabid' is an aquired template than can be applied to any living, corporeal creature (referred to hereafter as the base creature).
A rabid creature uses all the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

Size and Type The creature's type and size are unchanged.

Speed A rabid creature increases their base land speed and all other movement speeds by 10 feet.

Armor Class A rabid creature takes a -2 penalty to armor class as they become increasingly bloodthirsty.

Attack A rabid creature gains a bite attack if they do not already possess one. This bite attack deals 1d4 points of damage for a medium creature. The creature's bite attack automatically becomes their primary attack.

Special Attacks A rabid creature retains all special attacks of the base creature and also gains the following special abilities.
Savage Strikes: A rabid creature takes a penalty equal to 1/2 their Base Attack Bonus on all attack rolls, but gains a bonus to all melee damage rolls equal to this penalty. These bonuses and penalties stack with those imposed by using the power attack feet.
Corrosive Foam: A rabid creature's bite attack deals 1d6 points of acid damage. A creature that takes damage from either the bite attack or the acid damage risks contracting dire rabies.

Special Qualities A rabid creature has all the special qualities of the base creature, plus the following special qualities.
Fury: A rabid creature's mind is consumed by a mad rage. A rabid creature is immune to charm and compulsion effects, and gains a +4 bonus to will saves. They cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills (except for Balance, Escape Artist, Intimidate, and Ride), the Concentration skill, or any abilities that require patience or concentration, nor can they cast spells or activate magic items that require a command word, a spell trigger (such as a wand), or spell completion (such as a scroll) to function. They can use any feat they have except Combat Expertise, item creation feats, and metamagic feats.

Abilities A rabid creature's abilities increase from the base creature as follows: +4 strength, +4 constitution.

Environment Rabid creatures can be found in any environment.

Challenge Rating As base creature +1

Alignment Always Evil (any)

[Noctis Vigil]

Balance, Escape Artist and Ride are Dex based, and thus unaffected by an inability to use Wis, Int and Cha abilities by default.

Also, you never actually say how the disease spreads. I'd assume that the bite attack always makes you roll to see if you got it?

Finally, do you continue to take Int damage over time? You only state it as causing the damage once, but I would assume it continues to sap the stat till they die (at least your text implies that it should).

Other than that, looks interesting, and could cause some nasty problems and time-based quests for players.

[Admiral Squish]

Balance, Escape Artist and Ride are Dex based, and thus unaffected by an inability to use Wis, Int and Cha abilities by default.

Also, you never actually say how the disease spreads. I'd assume that the bite attack always makes you roll to see if you got it?

Finally, do you continue to take Int damage over time? You only state it as causing the damage once, but I would assume it continues to sap the stat till they die (at least your text implies that it should).

Other than that, looks interesting, and could cause some nasty problems and time-based quests for players.

Oh, hell. I copied a bunch of material from the barbarian rage, but I messed up the abilities. Fixed

I did mention it in caustic foam, but I should probably make it it's own ability.

Yeah, it's supposed to deal it daily after incubation. I think that's a universal feature of diseases.

Thanks! Not entirely sure where the idea came from, but I realized there was nothing like this and decided to fix that.

[Noctis Vigil]

You only fixed it under the sample creature, not under the template itself.

[Admiral Squish]

You only fixed it under the sample creature, not under the template itself.

Curses! Foiled again! Curse you, formatting! Curse youuuuu!

[TuggyNE]

The main problem I see with this is that as-written, less than 15% of infected animals will ever gain the rabid template -- the others will drop dead of Int damage on their first failed save. (All Int 1 creatures, and any Int 2 creature hit by 2-4 on the d4.)
Perhaps Wis would be a better simulator of progressive insanity/loss of control? Among other things, it has a much larger buffer in most cases before death.

Note that I believe the incubation period and the repeated save vs. damage are generally the same, so this will do 1d4 int once per week, save negates. Which should be OK; regular rabies has about a three-four week course, if I recall correctly.

[Noctis Vigil]

Perhaps Wis would be a better simulator of progressive insanity/loss of control?

I second this. Wis indicates common sense, and the madness you describe sounds like a lack of all common sense and inhibition.

[Roguenewb]

I want to get this template on a character ASAP. I think it's solid and well done, the mandatory power attack was brilliant design.

[Admiral Squish]

The main problem I see with this is that as-written, less than 15% of infected animals will ever gain the rabid template -- the others will drop dead of Int damage on their first failed save. (All Int 1 creatures, and any Int 2 creature hit by 2-4 on the d4.)
Perhaps Wis would be a better simulator of progressive insanity/loss of control? Among other things, it has a much larger buffer in most cases before death.

Note that I believe the incubation period and the repeated save vs. damage are generally the same, so this will do 1d4 int once per week, save negates. Which should be OK; regular rabies has about a three-four week course, if I recall correctly.

I consulted with my mom, who is a nurse, on the effects of rabies, as well as wikipedia. That all told me that intelligence was the best metric to use, since humans become more animal-like.

Actually, according to disease on the SRD, you take the damage daily. Rabies has an incubation period that actually ranges from 3 weeks to a year, with an average of like 7-10 weeks. I sped it up. However, the disease itself progresses very, very quickly once symptoms show, and it's almost universally fatal within days.

I second this. Wis indicates common sense, and the madness you describe sounds like a lack of all common sense and inhibition.

Hmm... I still think intelligence was the best representation, but I suppose it could be done with wisdom too.

I want to get this template on a character ASAP. I think it's solid and well done, the mandatory power attack was brilliant design.

I'm glad you liked that feature. I was originally just gonna make it a flat penalty/bonus, but I like it more this way.

[TuggyNE]

I consulted with my mom, who is a nurse, on the effects of rabies, as well as wikipedia. That all told me that intelligence was the best metric to use, since humans become more animal-like.

Actually, according to disease on the SRD, you take the damage daily. Rabies has an incubation period that actually ranges from 3 weeks to a year, with an average of like 7-10 weeks. I sped it up. However, the disease itself progresses very, very quickly once symptoms show, and it's almost universally fatal within days.

Hmm, fair enough.

That still doesn't address the problem that very few animals would ever gain the template, though. I mean, "fatal within days", and "drops dead instantly or one day later" are two different things.

[Admiral Squish]

Hmm, fair enough.

That still doesn't address the problem that very few animals would ever gain the template, though. I mean, "fatal within days", and "drops dead instantly or one day later" are two different things.

I did decide to go with the wisdom damage instead of intelligence damage after a while.

[Eldan]

The text still says that you die when INT is reduced to 0. You should change that to WIS as well.

[Fitz10019]

Great idea for a template, overall.

To address the Wisdom/Intelligence issue: Perhaps the disease damages Wisdom, but as a secondary effect, your Wisdom score becomes your maximum possible Intelligence. Unless that's too far from how things usually work.

[Admiral Squish]

Right, fixed the text in the disease info section.

Hmmm... An interesting idea in regards to the intelligence capped by your wisdom. I'm not entirely sure, though. I'm concerned about characters with high int who dumped wis. Maybe if your int is higher than your wis when you take the damage, you take 1d4 int damage too?

[Noctis Vigil]

Right, fixed the text in the disease info section.

Hmmm... An interesting idea in regards to the intelligence capped by your wisdom. I'm not entirely sure, though. I'm concerned about characters with high int who dumped wis. Maybe if your int is higher than your wis when you take the damage, you take 1d4 int damage too?

That's actually a good idea. I like.

[Admiral Squish]

That's actually a good idea. I like.

Alright, it is done!