Contagion: Typhoid Mary, The Spell
Spell Level: 5
School: Necromancy
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Duration: 7 days
Components: V, S
Your touch inflicts disease. Make a melee spell attack against a creature within your reach. On a hit, you afflict the creature with a disease of your choice from any of the ones described below.
At the end of each of the target’s turns, it must make a Constitution saving throw. After failing three of these saving throws, the disease’s effects last for the duration, and the creature stops making these saves. After succeeding on three of these saving throws, the creature recovers from the disease, and the spell ends.
Since this spell induces a natural disease in its target, any effect that removes a disease or otherwise ameliorates a disease’s effects apply to it.
Blinding Sickness. Pain grips the creature’s mind, and its eyes turn milky white. The creature has disadvantage on Wisdom checks and Wisdom saving throws and is blinded.
Filth Fever. A raging fever sweeps through the creature’s body. The creature has disadvantage on Strength checks, Strength saving throws, and attack rolls that use Strength.
Flesh Rot. The creature’s flesh decays. The creature has disadvantage on Charisma checks and vulnerability to all damage.
Mindfire. The creature’s mind becomes feverish. The creature has disadvantage on Intelligence checks and Intelligence saving throws, and the creature behaves as if under the effects of the confusion spell during combat.
Seizure. The creature is overcome with shaking. The creature has disadvantage on Dexterity checks, Dexterity saving throws, and attack rolls that use Dexterity.
Slimy Doom. The creature begins to bleed uncontrollably. The creature has disadvantage on Constitution checks and Constitution saving throws. In addition, whenever the creature takes damage, it is stunned until the end of its next turn.
Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
Who is Contagion for? Is it for DMs to spread diseases to the players? If so, what party going against a villain with 5th level slots doesn’t have a myriad of solutions to each and every one of these potential problems? Is it for players? If so, when is a 5th level slot for poison touch attack that may do nothing else good?
Contagion is a hit or do nothing effect in the first place; if you miss the one attack Contagion offers, this spell does nothing. If you do it, the creature starts making death-like saving throws, three successes ending the poison, three failures develops the poison into a disease.
Before we even get into the relative power of the diseases, that’s at minimum three rounds of just the poison condition for a 5th level slot, and that’s atrocious. That rate isn’t something you’re basically ever going to want when 4th level slots provide far heftier save or dies that completely and utterly decimate encounter balance. Poisoning something is fine and dandy, but absolutely not worth this slot.
There are six diseases following the minimum three saves; Blinding Sickness, Filth Fever, Flesh Rot, Mindfire, Seizure, and Slimy Doom. Each one imposes disadvantage on a different saving throw, which is a whatever feature, but each also comes with a fairly unique effect. Of note, Flesh Rot, Mindfire, and Slimy Doom all can be debilitating if you get there. Flesh Rot makes the creature vulnerable to all damage, Slimy Doom stuns the creature whenever it's damaged, and Mindfire confuses the target for 7 days, which normally just results in the target wasting most of their turns.
Here’s the problem: each of these, at minimum, needs four rounds to meaningfully take effect. Combat encounters in D&D just don’t typically last that long, and if they do, you almost certainly want to be spending your 5th level slot on something that has an impact faster than this. Contagion is conceptually interesting, and some of the disease effects are completely debilitating, but in practice it just never comes to fruition in a way that you’ll be happy with.
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