SRD5:Disease

	This article is about Disease, from 5th edition SRD.
	For other uses of Disease, see Disease (disambiguation).

This material from the 5th edition SRD is published under the OGL

A plague ravages the kingdom, setting the adventurers on a quest to find a cure. An adventurer emerges from an ancient tomb, unopened for centuries, and soon finds herself suffering from a wasting illness. A warlock offends some dark power and contracts a strange affliction that spreads whenever he casts spells.

A simple outbreak might amount to little more than a small drain on party resources, curable by a casting of lesser restoration. A more complicated outbreak can form the basis of one or more adventures as characters search for a cure, stop the spread of the disease, and deal with the consequences.

A disease that does more than infect a few party members is primarily a plot device. The rules help describe the effects of the disease and how it can be cured, but the specifics of how a disease works aren’t bound by a common set of rules. Diseases can affect any creature, and a given illness might or might not pass from one race or kind of creature to another. A plague might affect only constructs or undead, or sweep through a halfling neighborhood but leave other races untouched. What matters is the story you want to tell.

List of Diseases

This section exceeds the text of the SRD

(11 official and unofficial diseases)

Disease	Targets	Incubation	Primary Effects	Secondary Effects	Damage Type	Carriers	Source
Blinding Sickness		Immediate	pain, reduced Wis checks and saves	blindness			SRD5
Bluerot		1-4 hours	boils, Con and Cha loss	fever, tingling extremities, water breathing	necrotic	undead	Ghosts of Saltmarsh
Burrowning Worms		1 turn	Necrotic damage	death and rise as the undead	necrotic	Spawns of Kyuss	Volo's Guide to Monsters
Cackle Fever	Humanoids	1-4 hours	fever, aches, exhaustion	laughter, incapacitation	psychic	Humanoids	SRD5
Filth Fever		Immediate	fever	reduced Str checks, saves, and attack rolls			SRD5
Flesh Rot		Immediate	flesh decay	decreased Cha checks, vulnerable to damage			SRD5
Mindfire		Immediate	fever of the mind	decreased Int checks and saves, confusion			SRD5
Seizure		Immediate	shaking	decreased Dex checks, saves, and attack rolls			SRD5
Sewer Plague	Humanoids	1-4 days	fatigue, cramps, exhaustion			rats, vermin, otyughs	SRD5
Sight Rot	beast, humanoid	1-4 days	reduced vision	blindness			SRD5
Slimy Doom		Immediate	bleeding	decreased Con checks and saves, stunned			SRD5

Sources

• SRD-OGL v5.1

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