Enhanced Diseases:
Diseases in D&D are kind of tame. Sure, at the low levels they can be dangerous, but so is everything at low level. By 5th level diseases are little more than a bump in the road, with the 3rd level spell Remove Disease handling just about everything easily. The diseases themselves are kind of simple and similar. They all require a couple of saving throws to remove and most of them are just bits of ability damage with nothing special. Contagion, the one spell that causes disease in others, isn't even that amazing. As a 3rd level spell it can cause a bit of ability damage to a single target, but is competing against other lovelies like Shivering Touch and Ray of Stupidity that can do more or do it at range at lower levels for Wizards, and a variety of useful buffs for Clerics and Druids. I'm not going to rewrite it and replace it, but I do want to give some options to those who want to spread a little microscopic love.
New Diseases:
Disease Infection DC Incubation Damage
Blood Bursting Injury 16 1d2 days 1d4 Con and 2d12 hp and blood splash
Coward's Death Inhaled 17 1 day 1d6 Dex and 1d2 Dex drain and shaken
Enervating End Contact 18 1d4 days 1 drain of each ability score and 1 negative level
Hatefrenzy Injury 18 1 day 1d6 Cha and frenzy
Psychic Degeneration Inhaled 15 1 day 1d4 Int, 1d4 Wis, and 1d4 Cha and spell loss
Blood Bursting Whenever the victim of Blood Bursting is damaged by a slashing or piercing weapon, all other creatures within 10 feet are splashed with the victim's blood. Such creatures must make a saving throw the next time they are damaged by a slashing or piercing weapon or contract the disease too. Infected blood loses its potency 1 minute after being exposed to air.
Coward's Death A creature that fails its saving throw against Coward's Death (including the initial saving throw to catch the disease) is shaken for 24 hours. This condition stacks with other fear effects, but not with itself or other instances of Coward's Death.
Enervating End Creatures that fail their saving throw against Enervating End's damage gain one negative level and suffer from one point of Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma drain, each. The save DC to remove the negative level is the same as the disease's save DC. Creatures that die while infected with Enervating End rise as a Devourer during the next night. The Devourer has energy trapped within it equal to the number of levels or hit dice it possessed in life, including any lost due to the negative levels inflicted by this disease, to a maximum of 15 levels.
Hatefrenzy Creatures suffering damage from Hatefrenzy lose the ability to distinguish between friend and foe. See
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20030421a for more details.
Psychic Degeneration Psychic Degeneration causes creatures that take damage from it to lose knowledge of their highest level spell or power known whenever they are dealt damage by it. Spellcasters also lose their highest level spell slot and manifesters permanently lose power points equal to the cost to manifest the power that they lost (excluding augmentation, metapsionics, and other effects that would modify the power's cost). Lost spells and powers return at a rate of 1 per day once the disease is cured, starting with the lowest level spell or power lost. Lost spell slots return similarly, and lost power points return along with the power they were lost with.
New Spells:
Enhanced ContagionNecromancy [Evil]
Clr 5, Drd 5, Sor/Wiz 6
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
This spell functions as
Contagion except as noted above. The caster can also choose from a wider variety of diseases, listed below, in addition to those allowed by the Contagion spell.
Disease Infection DC Incubation Damage
Blood Bursting Injury 16 1d2 days 1d4 Con and 2d12 hp and blood splash
Coward's Death Inhaled 17 1 day 1d6 Dex and 1d2 Dex drain and shaken
Demon Fever Injury 18 1 day 1d6 Con, failed saves may cause Con drain
Psychic Degeneration Inhaled 15 1 day 1d4 Int, 1d4 Wis, and 1d4 Cha and spell loss
In addition, the caster can select one of the following options for every 6 caster levels, to a maximum of 3 options at caster level 18. The disease caused by this spell is more potent than normal in the chosen manners.
Contagious: The disease spreads to any creature that passes within 5 feet of a diseased creature. Creatures that make their saving throw against contracting the Contagious disease this way are not at risk of infection from the same disease bearer for 24 hours in this way, although they can still catch the disease through other means.
This ability can be selected multiple times. Each time it is selected beyond the first, the radius of infection increases by 5 feet and the save DC to avoid contracting the disease through this proximity increases by 2. This does not affect the save DC of the disease for other purposes.
Debilitating: The disease is more dangerous than most. When rolling for damage with this disease, roll twice and take the higher result for each damage, ability damage, or ability drain type
Sickening: The disease is particularly disruptive. A victim of the disease must make a Fortitude save every round against the disease's save DC or be sickened for that round.
Tenacious: The disease is protected against magic that would cure it and is difficult to be rid of even by normal means. This disease requires one additional successful saving throws to be rid of, and requires the successful saving throws to be consecutive. Spells and effects that would remove this disease, such as the Cure Disease spell, require the spellcaster to make a caster level check against a DC equal to the disease's current save DC, or a similar check. Failure indicates that the ability has no effect. Success does not remove the disease, but only causes the recipient to be treated as though he had succeeded on two additional consecutive saving throws against the disease.
Virulent: The save DC of this disease (other than the initial saving throw as part of this spell) increases by 2, to a maximum of this spell's save DC. Whenever this disease causes ability damage, the victim must make an additional Fortitude saving throw or take 1d2 points of Constitution damage above and beyond any damage already caused by this disease.
This ability can be selected multiple times. Each time it is selected beyond the first, the save DC of the disease increases by 2.
Wasting: This disease causes slow but inevitable death. On a failed saving throw against this disease, the victim suffers half of all ability damage taken as ability drain and suffers an additional 1 point of Constitution drain. Even on a successful save, the victim still takes 1 point of ability damage to each ability score that this disease would normally damage.
Mass ContagionNecromancy [Evil]
Clr 4, Drd 4, Sor/Wiz 5
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft. level)
Targets: Up to 1 creature/caster level within 30 ft. of each other
This spell functions as
Contagion except as noted above.
Vicious ContagionNecromancy [Evil]
Clr 7, Drd 7, Sor/Wiz 8
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
This spell functions as
Contagion except as noted above. The caster can also choose from a wider variety of diseases, listed below, in addition to those allowed by the
Contagion spell. The caster can also select disease options from the
Enhanced Contagion spell.
Disease Infection DC Incubation Damage
Enervating End Contact 18 1d4 days 1 drain of each ability score and 1 negative level
Hatefrenzy Injury 18 1 day 1d6 Cha and frenzy
Mummy Rot Contact 20 1 day 1d6 Con and 1d6 Cha, curse-like disease
In addition, the caster can select one of the following options for every 4 caster levels, to a maximum of 6 options at caster level 24. The disease caused by this spell is more potent than normal in the chosen manners. The caster can choose abilities from the Enhanced Contagion list as well.
Nauseating: The disease is particularly disruptive. A victim of the disease must make a Fortitude save every round against the disease's save DC or be nauseated for that round.
Retributive: Whenever a creature tries to cure this disease using magical means, that creature is immediately infected with no saving throw, even if the effect failed to cure the disease. Creatures that are immune to disease can be affected this way, although they get a saving throw.
Vile: The disease is enhanced with the power of pure evil. All ability damage that it does is considered ability drain and all hit point damage that it does is considered Vile damage.
