I had a player begin with a potentially life threatening disease that needs to be cured or managed and I'm looking for ideas for any Dragonborn diseases or a disease that would effect a Barbarian player. I was thinking about going with Sight Rot, one of the sample diseases mentioned in the DM Guidebook since a potentially blind Barbarian would lead to a lot of problems, but I wanted to check the forums and my fellow DM's if they've heard of any illnesses that impact Dragonborn in particular or just any advice regarding giving a player such a bane at the start of a campaign.
Don't worry, the disease thing isn't about making anything more complicated or challenging than they need to be, I was simply giving the player a hook that required them to get enough money to be cured, but also to heighten the tension and give the PC more of a sense of urgency initially.
I don't think there are any diseases that target particular races in D&D by default. When all else fails, make one up. Use a disease as a template and just come up with your own plague. Then, you can reference it in future campaigns and adventures as part of your persistant world.
Yeah I think jsut customizing something into the game would be the way to go. Scale Rot if he's a dragonborne? Playing a barb go for what hurts most....Minus to constitution so he's less tanky. Maybe if you wanna be mean disadvantage on CON checks/saves to weaken him more?
Can you give me a reference to this Scale Rot? Or is that just something made up? It sounds like it would work in a similar way to Sight Rot (bleeding under the scales and claws, -1 to CON and exhaustion? Any hit causes a bleeding debuff?)
Be aware that as a barbarian adding on exhaustion is going to give them a lot of grief as when they come out of a rage they suffer 1pt of exhaustion as well so it's going to take its toll. Bleeding debuff would also negate his damage resistance while in rage so that's a double whammy. I'll leave it up to you how you wanna handle that but that's going to _really_ weaken his character which is maybe what you want but if I had to deal with that as a PC for more than a couple sessions I'd get pretty annoyed that I'm being so heavily nerfed. it's less of a problem at higher level so again comes back to where you're planning to start them off.
Sudden Scary Scale Shedding Syndrome ... or SSSSS. I mean, it attacks the character's vanity, what Dragonborn would want to be seen scale-less? So good motive to quest outside civilization in order to retain one's social standing inside civilization.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Nothing so complicated, I'm just looking for a rather commonplace disease that must be cured with either Heal or Lesser Restoration. The idea is to motivate them to collect enough money to pay for a healer in town to help them, and also to add a bit of tension to the party since I've made every PC destitute and be in debt in some way (bounty on them, pay back debt for losing an item that belongs to another, etc.), and so they have to work out who deserves the money most.
I saw a YT video a while back when I was new to DMing and one suggestion really suck with me. I can't remember the exact words anymore, but the idea was essentially: When implementing any idea in a campaign, it must meet one of the following but better when it meets both. Is it necessary? Is it fun? If the answer to both is no, then don't do it.
Maybe to riff on Erriku's suggestion, it might be more heroic motivation for the PCs to be provincial hometown heroes, who are not afflicted but who's home is being afflicted by some disease. Clerics from a more cosmopolitan area could render aid ... for a price, so the heroes are questing so that may pay for aid to kin.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Nothing so complicated, I'm just looking for a rather commonplace disease that must be cured with either Heal or Lesser Restoration. The idea is to motivate them to collect enough money to pay for a healer in town to help them, and also to add a bit of tension to the party since I've made every PC destitute and be in debt in some way (bounty on them, pay back debt for losing an item that belongs to another, etc.), and so they have to work out who deserves the money most.
Just in case you didn't think of it, a level 1 paladin can lay on hands and cure a disease like that. So if there's a pally in the party, the issue will be trivial.
And if there's not, they could end up owing a favor to a paladin.
The party are anti-heroes, at least initially, scoundrels and selfish bastards to say the least. This is the reason I'm creating tension within the party, to make them help each other and work together so the mission is completed. I didn't make their characters, but NONE of them are Good aligned at the start, they are all after selfish ends. The only reason they are together is because they were put into a team of expendables. Classic rags-riches story I hope. But they could all end up killing each other, sooo.
Nothing so complicated, I'm just looking for a rather commonplace disease that must be cured with either Heal or Lesser Restoration. The idea is to motivate them to collect enough money to pay for a healer in town to help them, and also to add a bit of tension to the party since I've made every PC destitute and be in debt in some way (bounty on them, pay back debt for losing an item that belongs to another, etc.), and so they have to work out who deserves the money most.
Just in case you didn't think of it, a level 1 paladin can lay on hands and cure a disease like that. So if there's a pally in the party, the issue will be trivial.
And if there's not, they could end up owing a favor to a paladin.
No Pally in the party (Barb, Rogue, Druid, and Ranger), but there will be characters in the town they're heading to that will do it for a price, as I mentioned earlier.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Pretty simple problem to have:
I had a player begin with a potentially life threatening disease that needs to be cured or managed and I'm looking for ideas for any Dragonborn diseases or a disease that would effect a Barbarian player. I was thinking about going with Sight Rot, one of the sample diseases mentioned in the DM Guidebook since a potentially blind Barbarian would lead to a lot of problems, but I wanted to check the forums and my fellow DM's if they've heard of any illnesses that impact Dragonborn in particular or just any advice regarding giving a player such a bane at the start of a campaign.
Don't worry, the disease thing isn't about making anything more complicated or challenging than they need to be, I was simply giving the player a hook that required them to get enough money to be cured, but also to heighten the tension and give the PC more of a sense of urgency initially.
I don't think there are any diseases that target particular races in D&D by default. When all else fails, make one up. Use a disease as a template and just come up with your own plague. Then, you can reference it in future campaigns and adventures as part of your persistant world.
Yeah I think jsut customizing something into the game would be the way to go. Scale Rot if he's a dragonborne? Playing a barb go for what hurts most....Minus to constitution so he's less tanky. Maybe if you wanna be mean disadvantage on CON checks/saves to weaken him more?
Can you give me a reference to this Scale Rot? Or is that just something made up? It sounds like it would work in a similar way to Sight Rot (bleeding under the scales and claws, -1 to CON and exhaustion? Any hit causes a bleeding debuff?)
Yeah I just made it up...
Be aware that as a barbarian adding on exhaustion is going to give them a lot of grief as when they come out of a rage they suffer 1pt of exhaustion as well so it's going to take its toll. Bleeding debuff would also negate his damage resistance while in rage so that's a double whammy. I'll leave it up to you how you wanna handle that but that's going to _really_ weaken his character which is maybe what you want but if I had to deal with that as a PC for more than a couple sessions I'd get pretty annoyed that I'm being so heavily nerfed. it's less of a problem at higher level so again comes back to where you're planning to start them off.
Sudden Scary Scale Shedding Syndrome ... or SSSSS. I mean, it attacks the character's vanity, what Dragonborn would want to be seen scale-less? So good motive to quest outside civilization in order to retain one's social standing inside civilization.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
The wildmount adventure Frozen Sick features an illness named:
It presents some interesting conditions that can't be circumvented in standard ways.
Nothing so complicated, I'm just looking for a rather commonplace disease that must be cured with either Heal or Lesser Restoration. The idea is to motivate them to collect enough money to pay for a healer in town to help them, and also to add a bit of tension to the party since I've made every PC destitute and be in debt in some way (bounty on them, pay back debt for losing an item that belongs to another, etc.), and so they have to work out who deserves the money most.
I saw a YT video a while back when I was new to DMing and one suggestion really suck with me. I can't remember the exact words anymore, but the idea was essentially: When implementing any idea in a campaign, it must meet one of the following but better when it meets both. Is it necessary? Is it fun? If the answer to both is no, then don't do it.
DM mostly, Player occasionally | Session 0 form | He/Him/They/Them
EXTENDED SIGNATURE!
Doctor/Published Scholar/Science and Healthcare Advocate/Critter/Trekkie/Gandalf with a Glock
Try DDB free: Free Rules (2024), premade PCs, adventures, one shots, encounters, SC, homebrew, more
Answers: physical books, purchases, and subbing.
Check out my life-changing
Maybe to riff on Erriku's suggestion, it might be more heroic motivation for the PCs to be provincial hometown heroes, who are not afflicted but who's home is being afflicted by some disease. Clerics from a more cosmopolitan area could render aid ... for a price, so the heroes are questing so that may pay for aid to kin.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Hello MidnightPlat,
I like that. That sounds like a great campaign story.
DM mostly, Player occasionally | Session 0 form | He/Him/They/Them
EXTENDED SIGNATURE!
Doctor/Published Scholar/Science and Healthcare Advocate/Critter/Trekkie/Gandalf with a Glock
Try DDB free: Free Rules (2024), premade PCs, adventures, one shots, encounters, SC, homebrew, more
Answers: physical books, purchases, and subbing.
Check out my life-changing
Just in case you didn't think of it, a level 1 paladin can lay on hands and cure a disease like that. So if there's a pally in the party, the issue will be trivial.
And if there's not, they could end up owing a favor to a paladin.
The party are anti-heroes, at least initially, scoundrels and selfish bastards to say the least. This is the reason I'm creating tension within the party, to make them help each other and work together so the mission is completed. I didn't make their characters, but NONE of them are Good aligned at the start, they are all after selfish ends. The only reason they are together is because they were put into a team of expendables. Classic rags-riches story I hope. But they could all end up killing each other, sooo.
No Pally in the party (Barb, Rogue, Druid, and Ranger), but there will be characters in the town they're heading to that will do it for a price, as I mentioned earlier.