Contagion Sorcery

Rarely infectious arcane agents bind themselves to the host to strengthen rather than destroy. When this happens, the host becomes a conduit for the disease and is blessed with innate magic. Your magic might be a blessing for you, but detrimental to those around you. As an option, you can pick from or roll on the Contagion Sorcery Quirks table to create a quirk for your character. You can also make up your own Contagion Sorcery Quirk if you so choose.

Plague Sorcery Quirks 

d6	Quirk
1	You have a persistent cough. Whenever you cough, plants around you bloom
2	You have rainbow colored sores across your body that change colors every time you rest.
3	You have a constant runny nose. Whenever you blow your nose, everything around you feels pushed back.
4	You always have a fever. If someone touches your forehead for too long they get a 1st degree burn
5	You are always tired. The tired feeling is contagious
6	Your blood has an odd green hue to it, and is considered abnormally acidic

Contagion Spells

1st-level Contagion Sorcery feature

You learn additional spells when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown on the Contagion Spells table. Each of these spells count as a sorcerer spell for you, but it does not count against the number of sorcerer spells you know.

Whenever you gain a sorcerer level, you can replace one spell you gained from this feature with another spell of the same level. The new spell must be an enchantment or a necromancy spell from the sorcerer, warlock, or wizard spell list.

Contagion Spells

Sorcerer Level	Spells
1st	Detect Poison and Disease, Ray of Sickness, Poison Spray
3rd	Blindness/Deafness, Ray of Enfeeblement
5th	Bestow Curse, Slow
7th	Confusion, Hallucinatory Terrain
9th	Cloudkill, Contagion

Arcane Plague

1st-level Contagion Sorcery feature

Your innate magic allows you to spread the disease which infects you to another creature. Starting at 1st level, as an action, you can target one creature within 30 ft that you can see. The chosen creature must make a CON saving throw against your Spell DC. If the creature fails, they receive the Arcane Plague Condition for 1 minute. At the end of each of the targeted creature’s turns, they can repeat this saving throw to end the Arcane Plague condition. When a creature receives the Arcane Plague condition, roll on the Arcane Plague Condition Table to determine the arcane effect produced. You can only have one creature infected with the Arcane Plague Condition at a time.

This feature can be used a number of times equal to your spell casting modifier (minimum 1) per long rest and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest. If you have no more uses of this feature, you can spend 3 sorcery points to use this feature.

Arcane Plague Condition Table
d8	Condition
1	Arctic Migrant. Mind numbing migrants make it difficult to concentrate. The target must subtract 1d4 from all INT, WIS, and CHA saving throws.
2	Raging Fever. The target has an abnormally high fever. All flammable objects or creatures the target wears or touches ignite. The target also takes fire damage equal to your proficiency bonus at the start of each of its turn.
3	Metallic Attraction. The target emits a light magnetic field. Attack rolls against the target with metallic weapons add a 1d4 to their attack roll.
4	Confused Perception. The target loses the ability to distinguish friend from foe and regards all creatures it can see as enemies.
5	Radioactive Skin. The target sheds green light in a 10 ft radius and dim light for an additional 10 ft. The target cannot become invisible and cannot benefit the hid action.
6	Stone Bones. The target’s bones begin to morph into stone and become heavier. The target’s speed is reduced by 10 ft.
7	Blossoming Joints. Vines grow at all of the target’s joins, making it difficult to make precise movements. Whenever the target makes an attack roll they take a 1d4 penalty to the attack roll.
8	Eroding Vision. The creatures eyes begin to decay and have trouble focusing. The target’s vision is reduced to 30 ft and beyond that is indistinguishable.

Seroconversion

1st-level Contagien Sorcery feature

Living with your condition has allowed you to be able to resist, and in some cases remove other pathogens from yourself and others. Beginning at 1st level you gain proficiency in Wisdom (Medicine Skill) Checks and are immune to Disease. You also gain resistance to Poison damage and have advantage against the Poisoned Condition. 

 

Cross Contamination

6th-level Contagion feature

Your disease fueled magic has become harder to keep contained. Beginning at 6th level, whenever you cast a spell of 1st level or higher which deals necrotic or poison damage, you can select one creature within 10 ft of the target or target area. The selected creature receives necrotic or poison damage (same as the spell cast) equal to half your Sorcerer level. 

Beginning at 14th level, you can select up to two creatures within 10 ft of the target or target area to receive damage from this effect.

Gain of Function Mutation

14th-level Contagion Sorcery feature

The infection within you has mutated and become more potent granting you the following benefits:

• Improved Pathogenicity. Whenever you roll on the Arcane Plague Condition table, you can roll the dice twice and choose which of the two effects to unleash. If you roll the same number on both dice, you can ignore the number and choose any effect on the table.
• Protective Antibodies. You are Immune to Poison Damage and the Poison Condition.

Incurable Plague

18th-level Contagion Sorcery feature

Beginning at 18th level, when calculating the Spell save DC for your Arcane Plague, double your spell casting modifier as shown below.

Arcane Plague Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + (2 × your Charisma modifier).

 

 

Design Notes

Below are the most recent changes:

• 1st-level feature "Seroconversion"  now includes immunity to Disease.
• 6th-level feature "Cross Contamination" has been modified to selecting a target near original target. Also increases possible targets at a higher level.
• 6th-level feature "Induced Virulence" has been removed.
• 18th-level feature has been modified to be simpler and "to the point"

Features / Changes under consideration:

• At higher level (14 or 18) have a bump in Arcane Plague effects
• Change Cross-Contamination feature to
  • "splash damage" around the target, change damage to PB.
  • Change Cross-Contamination to damage OR Poisoned condition, but not both.