School of Pestilence

Foment Plague and Rot

Wizards of the School of Pestilence study supernatural disease, poison, decay, and bodily corruption as branches of arcane science. To them, pestilence is not merely a force of uncontrolled destruction, but a precise tool that can weaken enemies, unravel vitality, and expose the frailty of living flesh.

These wizards are often feared as plague-mages, rot scholars, corpse alchemists, or blight researchers. Some pursue this tradition to create magical contagions, poison their rivals, or spread ruin through enemy ranks. Others study pestilence for more practical or protective reasons, seeking cures, immunities, battlefield control, or ways to spare their communities from sickness.

Practitioners of this tradition often include apothecaries, physicians, poisoners, mortuary scholars, battlefield medics, and arcane researchers who believe that disease and decay are not curses from the gods, but forces that can be understood, shaped, and weaponized through magic.

Blight Weaver

2nd-level School of Pestilence feature

Your study of plague, venom, rot, and magical decay has altered your body and your spellcasting.

You have resistance to necrotic damage and poison damage. You are also immune to disease, including magical disease.

In addition, damage from your wizard spells and wizard features ignores resistance to necrotic damage and poison damage. Whenever you cast a wizard spell or use a wizard feature that deals necrotic or poison damage, you can change that damage to the other type.

Pestilent Grimoire

2nd-level School of Pestilence feature

Your arcane research has taught you to bind plague, poison, insects, and decay into formulae of spellcraft. Beginning when you choose this arcane tradition at 2nd level, the spells in the Pestilent Grimoire table count as wizard spells for you.

When you reach a wizard level shown in the table, you add the listed spells to your spellbook if they are not there already. These spells do not count against the two wizard spells you add to your spellbook whenever you gain a wizard level. You always have these spells prepare, and they use your Intelligence as your spellcasting ability.

Pestilent Grimoire Spells

Wizard Level	Spells
2nd	detect poison and disease, ray of sickness
3rd	protection from poison, ray of enfeeblement
5th	stinking cloud, vampiric touch
7th	blight, giant insect
9th	contagion, insect plague

Plague Mantle

6th-level School of Pestilence feature

As an action, you can expend a use of this feature to manifest a 5-foot aura of withering plague around yourself or one willing creature you touch. The aura lasts for 1 minute. It ends early if you dismiss it, no action required, if you use this feature again, or if you are incapacitated.

Each creature of your choice that starts its turn within the aura must succeed on a Constitution saving throw against your wizard spell save DC or gain 1 level of exhaustion. This feature can’t increase a creature’s exhaustion level higher than a level equal to your Intelligence modifier, with a minimum of 1 exhaustion level. For example, if you have an Intelligence score of 16, this feature can’t increase a creature’s exhaustion level higher than 3.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to half your proficiency bonus, rounded up, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

The plague spread by this feature manifests with a specific symptom. Choose it from the Plague Symptoms table or determine it randomly.

Plague Symptoms

d6	While infected, a creature…
1	Is drained of all color, appearing in monochromatic grays.
2	Sheds metallic, rust-hued flakes and creaks while moving.
3	Secretes foul-smelling mucus.
4	Is surrounded by a cloud of buzzing insects.
5	Sprouts fungi or other foliage from its flesh.
6	Is covered in glowing pustules.

Virulent Burst

10th-level School of Pestilence feature

Starting at 10th level, when a hostile creature you can see within 60 feet of you is reduced to 0 hit points, you can use your reaction to cause plague to burst from that creature. Pestilence spreads in a 10-foot-radius sphere centered on the creature. If the creature had at least 1 level of exhaustion, the radius increases to 20 feet.

Each creature of your choice in that area must make a Constitution saving throw against your wizard spell save DC. On a failed save, a creature suffers one of the following effects of your choice:

Putrid Shock. The creature is incapacitated until the end of its next turn. While incapacitated in this way, its speed is 0.

Toxic Infection. The creature takes 3d6 necrotic or poison damage, your choice.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier, minimum of once. You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Vermin Form

14th-level School of Pestilence feature

Starting at 14th level, you can dissolve your body into a crawling swarm of plague-bearing vermin.

As a bonus action, you transform into a Medium swarm of Tiny pests, such as rats, cockroaches, flies, maggots, or biting insects. This transformation lasts for 10 minutes. While transformed, you retain your personality, memories, ability to speak, and general humanoid shape, though your body is made of countless vermin. Your equipment does not transform, and you can continue wearing, carrying, and using it. You can also cast wizard spells and provide verbal, somatic, and material components as normal.

While in Vermin Form, your game statistics remain the same, except you gain the following benefits:

Swarm Body. You are immune to the grappled, paralyzed, prone, and restrained conditions.

Vermin Resilience. You have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.

Crawling Mass. You can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing. You can enter and occupy another creature’s space, and another creature can enter and occupy your space. You also gain a climbing speed equal to your walking speed, and you can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.

Plague Bites. When you enter a hostile creature’s space for the first time on a turn, or when a hostile creature enters your space for the first time on a turn or ends its turn there, that creature takes damage equal to your Intelligence modifier. The damage is necrotic, piercing, or poison; you choose the damage type each time the damage is dealt. A creature can take this damage only once per turn.

The transformation ends early if you dismiss it as a bonus action, if you are incapacitated, or if you die.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest, unless you expend a spell slot of 5th level or higher to use it again.