Your touch inflicts a magical contagion. The target must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or take 11d8 Necrotic damage and have the Poisoned condition. Also, choose one ability when you cast the spell. While Poisoned, the target has Disadvantage on saving throws made with the chosen ability. The target must repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns until it gets three…

Level 5 Necromancy (Cleric, Druid) Casting Time: Action Range: Touch Components: V, S Duration: 7 days Your touch inflicts a magical contagion. The target must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or take 11d8 Necrotic damage and have the Poisoned condition. Also, choose one ability when you cast the spell. While Poisoned, the target has Disadvantage on saving throws made with the chosen…

The following examples show how magical contagions can work. Feel free to alter the saving throw DCs, effects, and other characteristics of these contagions to suit your campaign.

If a creature infected with a magical contagion spends 3 days recuperating, engaging in no activities that would interrupt a Long Rest, the creature makes a DC 15 Constitution saving throw at the end of the recuperation period. On a successful save, the creature has Advantage on saving throws to fight off the magical contagion for the next 24 hours.

Alchemists, potion brewers, and areas of wild magic are credited with creating the first magical contagions. An outbreak of such a contagion can form the basis of an adventure as characters search for a cure and try to stop the contagion’s spread.

The strength of your Miasmic Plague has increased, granting you the following benefits. Choking Miasma. Constitution saving throws against your Miasmic Plague have Disadvantage. Scurrying Spread. When you expend 1 Focus Point to use your Step of the Wind, until the end of the turn, when you enter a space within 5 feet of any creature of your choice, it must succeed on a Constitution saving throw…

You’ve been gifted with the ability to impart a fleeting taste of the unknowable on others. When you take a Magic action to cast a spell using a spell slot that targets one or more creatures, you can force one target of the original spell to make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save, roll on the Eldritch Effects table, and the target creature suffers that effect for…

Padded furniture has blossomed into mounds of white fungus in this small waiting room. Tiny fungal spores drift throughout this room. Hazard: For each minute a creature spends in this room with any amount of exposed skin, that creature risks contracting fungal rot. Fungal Rot Magical Contagion This fast-acting fungal infection causes tiny spores to take root under the skin and blossom in the…

Magical Contagion Skitter Plague was created by the hag Stonoga Blackstinger, and it spreads through the bites of her grotesque centipedes. A creature bitten by any kind of centipede under Stonoga’s control must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or suffer the following effects 1d4 hours after infection: Fever. The creature gains 1 Exhaustion level that can’t be removed until the…

Magical Contagion Contact with dead oozes from the Underdark mixed with snowmelt and mud has been making people sick. Any Beast or Humanoid that touches mud contaminated by Mudpox must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or become infected, suffering the following effect: Disrupted Digestion. Daily at dawn, the creature must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or vomit up the…

The heaps of slowly decaying bodies hung and stacked here reveal this former bedroom’s current use as a gruesome meat locker. Five dead morlocks are stored here, their flesh decomposing (aging, to the ghoul palate) somewhat slowly in the cool temperature. There’s nothing of interest in here, but the filthy conditions expose any character who searches the room to blueblisters, flesh-eating…

Magical Contagion A Beast, Giant, Humanoid, or Monstrosity that comes into contact with bile lichen spores is at risk of contracting a horrible disease as the lichen takes root on its body and grows into its brain. A creature suffers the following effects 1d4 days after infection: Skinroot. The contagion first appears as a patch of green-yellow lichen no larger than 1 square inch on a random area…

Mutations. Each time you gain a Contamination level, roll 1d6. If the result is equal to or lower than your current Contamination level, you gain a randomly determined mutation by rolling on the Mutations Table. The effects of the mutation remain while you have Contamination levels. Unless otherwise specified, a creature can’t gain the same mutation more than once. If a duplicate result is…

Characters in the world of Drakkenheim may be exposed to eldritch pollutants or arcane radiation emitted by delerium. These hazards cause a new condition called Contamination, which causes otherworldly Mutations that have both detrimental and beneficial effects. What’s Changed? Veterans of the Drakkenheim setting may notice these Contamination rules are slightly different from the original ones…

Rusted iron chains hang from this room’s ceiling, each ending in an oversized manacle. The octagonal eastern end of the room contains a circular pit covered by a rusted iron grate. Torn bolts and scrap metal dangle from the ceiling above the pit. Piles of scrap fill the four alcoves that open off the wide hall that constitutes the room’s west end. Cratonys A chain devil named Cratonys once…

Plagueborn are a rat-like species native to Bubonia, typically coalescing in the pestilent haze that hangs over the province. They are deeply connected to the virulent and deadly plague that afflicts and shapes their society, which persists through cunning, ruthlessness, and the sheer will to live. They are the most adaptable species of Druskenvald, quickly discovering the means to survive even…

Magical Contagion Magical experiments gone awry gave rise to Shaking Plague, which affects Humanoids. A creature suffers the following effects 1d4 days after infection: Fatigue. The creature gains 1 Exhaustion level. While the creature has any Exhaustion levels, finishing a Long Rest doesn’t reduce the creature’s Exhaustion level. Pus Boils. While the creature has any Exhaustion levels, its skin…

Out of the shadows you hear a sloping and squishing sound like someone dragging raw meat across the ground. The first thing you see are two arms reaching out from the darkness, the flesh sagging and drooping. The hands grasp the ground and slowly pull the creature forward revealing a squished pile of flesh resembling a human body without bones, organs, or muscle: simply a bag of skin that drags…

Medium Swarm of Tiny Beasts AC 12 Initiative +2 (12) HP 22 (5d8) Speed 0 ft., Fly 20 ft.

While you have Contamination, you experience the following effects. Contamination Levels. This condition is cumulative. Each time you receive it, you gain one or more levels of Contamination. You undergo a Monstrous Transformation if your Contamination level reaches 6. Contamination Symptoms. A Contaminated creature suffers the symptoms from its current level as well as all lower levels.…

You inflict a creature you can see within range with a magical disease. At the start of each of the target’s turns, it must make a Constitution saving throw. The creature takes 1d12 necrotic damage on a failed saving throw, or half as much on a successful one. If a target succeeds on three of these saves, the spell ends. A lesser restoration spell cast on the target ends this spell early. At…

Accuser devils, or zebubs, serve as Hell’s messengers and spies. Their ability to share what they’ve seen with other creatures makes them especially useful—not only to other devils, but also to mortal conjurers. Some infernal lords unleash them in enormous, horrid swarms upon unsuspecting lands to debase flesh and land alike while collecting secrets the infernal host might later put to use.…

Weapon (Hand Claws), Legendary (Requires Attunement) These pungent weapons are made of leather of dubious origin with clumps of fur still attached. The leather grip fits snugly over the knuckles, with rat teeth and bits of bone sticking out the outward facing side. It gives off an unpleasant odor. You gain a +3 bonus to attack rolls and damage rolls made with these magic weapons. While you are…

Magical Contagion The Rusting manifests as a thin, iron coating that grows over a victim’s body. When exposed to moisture, this iron skin corrodes into a rust-colored plaque. As the Rusting covers the victim, the victim eventually transforms into a type of creature known as a Rusted (see chapter 9). Any creature that is wounded by a Rusted creature or spends 1 hour in an area where the Rusting…

When a Humanoid with any Contamination levels dies, they animate 24 hours later as a haze husk (use the zombie stat block). A creature with six or more class levels or Hit Dice rises as a wight instead. Being raised from the dead reduces a creature’s Contamination level by 1.

Magical contagions threaten Icewind Dale. The characters might encounter the following dire misfortunes.