some of you never played online dressup games while sitting in a huge beat up desk chair while being yelled at by your mom when you were kids and it shows. grow up
The
illnesses in the DMG mostly seem to be written as a hazard for the PCs,
or a way to legally screw them over if they fail an ill-timed
Constitution save. However, sickness in real life is more than that, as
exhibited by everyone who’s ever gotten a cold. And as I am currently
sick, I felt ideally suited to write about this.
Sickness comes
in a lot of different forms, and even the exact same condition can have
different symptoms depending on the day. If everything given here
applies to a character, then that character is having a VERY bad time
and should probably just have stayed home and rested and not gone
adventuring. If it’s just one or two things though, that would be
someone who’s slightly sick but “I’m fine it’s not that bad I can still
go and fight”.
You’re not required to select everything listed
under a symptom. They’re all different ways in which something might be expressed, and some are more intense than others.
Everything here is intended to be optional, like if you want
to play as someone who is kind of sick, or have an NPC with a cold, or even as a mild curse on a magic item.
BODY ACHES:everything hurts from the neck down.
You have disadvantage on all Acrobatics and Athletics checks.
Every
hour, make a DC 12 Constitution save. On a failure, if you are wearing
armour or heavy clothing, you gain a level of exhaustion until you take
it off; if you are not wearing armour or heavy clothing, you gain a
level of exhaustion until you put some on. Note that this does not grant
proficiency with any armour, nor remove any armour-related
restrictions.
COUGHING:we all know and hate it.
You have
disadvantage on Stealth checks that require you to be quiet. In an area
of magical silence, or in a noisy environment, for example, this
penalty does not apply.
Whenever you attempt to cast a spell
with a verbal component, make a DC 10 Concentration check. On a failure, you
are unable to properly perform the verbal component due to coughing; the
action taken to cast the spell is wasted, but the spell slot is not
used.
DECREASED IMMUNE SYSTEM:as if being sick wasn’t bad enough, now you’re more likely to get even more sick.
You have disadvantage on Constitution saves against contracting a disease or suffering the poisoned condition.
DISTORTED APPETITE:you need to eat, but it’s hard to eat.
Any
time you attempt to eat or drink something, it has a 25% chance to seem
utterly disgusting to you, and require a DC 12 Wisdom save to actually
eat or drink it.
Unless you succeed on a DC 10 Constitution
save, you can only ingest half the normal amount of food per day;
anything more than that gets brought back up. Note that this does not
change how much food you actually require.
EARS CLOGGED UP:how are ears even connected to the nose and throat, it just seems unfair.
You have disadvantage on Perception checks that rely on hearing.
You take a -2 penalty on any skill checks that require producing or hearing music.
FOGGY BRAIN:it’s hard to think when your head feels like it’s full of cotton.
You have disadvantage on all ability checks to recall information.
You have disadvantage on all ability checks to learn new information.
Your passive Perception is treated as 5 lower than usual.
If
you succeed in your saving throw against an effect that would induce
the charmed or frightened conditions, and which has no effect on a
successful save, you don’t even notice. Unless the caster was very
obvious about directing the spell at you, you have no idea that you were
a target.
GENERAL BLAHS:uuuugghh.
You take a -1 penalty to all skill checks.
You take a -1 penalty to all attack rolls.
You take a -1 penalty to all saving throws.
LETHARGY:you wish you’d stayed in bed, and you probably should have stayed in bed.
Your speed is reduced by 5 feet.
You have disadvantage on saves against effects that would restrain you or render you unconscious.
Whenever
you take a short rest, make a DC 10 Wisdom save. On a failure, you doze
off and are unable to perform any other actions during that short rest,
and can only spend one hit dice to recover.
You have disadvantage on initiative rolls.
RUINED VOICE: after extended bouts of intense coughing, you can barely speak.
You can’t verbally communicate with anyone farther than ten feet from you.
Any Performances checks to sing are both at disadvantage and have a -5 penalty.
Social
checks that would involve speaking are made at disadvantage, due to how your
voice sounds and/or your unfamiliarity at communicating without normal
speech.
Whenever you attempt to cast a spell with a verbal
component, roll a spellcasting ability check, against a DC of 8 + the
spell’s level (cantrips count as zero-level). On a failure, you can’t
get the magic to accept words formed with your wrecked voice, and the
action used to cast the spell is wasted (but the spell slot is not used
up).
Your voice is unrecognizable. You need alternate methods to confirm your
identity. However, if you’re trying to pass yourself off as a different
person to someone who only has your voice to go off of, you
automatically succeed if they have no reason to be suspicious, and you
have advantage on the Deception check otherwise.
STUFFED NOSE:if nothing can get in through your nose, it doesn’t seem right that so much mucus can come out from your nose.
You can’t smell anything. You automatically fail Perception or Investigation checks relying on scent.
You cannot breathe through your nose. If your mouth is covered, you risk suffocating.
Your
voice sounds weird when N comes out as D and M comes out as B and other
sounds are likewise distorted. You have a -2 penalty on verbal
Persuasion, Deception, and Intimidation checks, as people have a hard
time taking you seriously.
TEMPERATURE FLUCTUATIONS:you feel too hot, and then you feel too cold, and then you feel too hot….
You have disadvantages on saves against the effects of extreme heat or cold.
The only way you’ve found to stay comfortable is with an
awkward and constricting array of blankets. You have disadvantage on all
Dexterity-based skill checks and Dexterity saves. If you choose to not
wear the blankets, you instead have disadvantage on attack rolls and on
skill checks that take more than a single action to complete.
WATERY EYES:you legitimately are not crying from pain, but nobody will believe you on that.
You have disadvantage on Perception checks relying on sight.
You have disadvantage on Intimidation checks against someone who can see your eyes.
I recently discovered there’s a 5e homebrew codex made by actual med students here on DMs Guild for implementing Fantasy viruses based on real world diseases like the black plague and other fun things. It costs a few dollars, but it looks really cool and I plan on picking it up at some point
I think a big part of the reason I love cryptids is that they’re literally the only subgenre of conspiracy theories where you can be reasonably assured it isn’t secretly about hating Jews. Like, when people talk about aliens or lizard people or sinister banking cabals, at least 80% of the time when you look up the foundational literature it’s a bunch of Antisemitic rot and “lizard people” is just a codephrase for “Jews”, but there are very few neo-Fascist whackjobs out there claiming that Bigfoot is Jewish.
i only made this blog like a month ago it is wild that there are so many of u already?? like i know it’s not that much in the grand scheme of things but it’s still super cool
so!! it giveaway time
there will be 3 winners- u get one set and one kraken d20 each (the d20s in the last pic are the choices)
1st place gets 1st pick and 2nd gets 2nd, etc
followers only pls! i literally only post dice on this blog so this shouldn’t be a problem if u like dice. which i am assuming u do if u want to own these lmao
this will end on january 1st! both likes and reblogs count. u can reblog more than once but try not to spam your followers probably lol
In linguistics we call this “social gender”, which is basically whether a word has a feminine or masculine connotation. This kind of thing can be hard to intuit, since there are no hard and fast rules. Obvious examples include words like “nurse”, which may be technically gender neutral, but it’s got such a strong feminine connotation that many people will clarify “male nurse”. Less obvious examples are words like “muscles”, which all humans have, but the default interpretation is like, a manly guy with bulging biceps.
Many many words have social gender that’s difficult to notice, either because of the natural struggle to see gender, or because it’s just that subtle. So a corpus analysis like this is exciting because it gives concrete data on words we might not have thought twice about!!
Hey writers, here are some word choices that you can either subvert or reinforce to a subtle-yet-potent effect