Rules Glossary, Curses, Diseases & Species

Death hangs over you, waiting to snatch you away. Creatures with Truesight see a shadowy figure hovering behind you at all times, its skeletal fingers held out as if ready to embrace you. Other creatures only feel a chill as you pass by, a vague sensation that something about you is wrong.

You make Death Saving Throws with disadvantage unless you have been anointed with holy water in the past hour by a cleric, paladin, or a religious official. Undead prioritize attacking you, when possible. When you are talking to a creature without Truesight you make Persuasion checks with disadvantage and Intimidation checks with advantage.

You are blessed with great intelligence, but it comes to you rarely. When it doesn't, you are hobbled by a weak mind. At the end of every long rest, roll a d20. On a 18 or higher your Intelligence score becomes 30. On any other result, it becomes 4. Your Intelligence score cannot be modified by magic items until this curse is lifted; once it is, your base Intelligence score reverts to normal.

Each morning you awake you are nearly reformed, your abilities never quite the same as they were before. At the end of every long rest, roll 1d6 and consult the table below to identify one of your Ability Scores, then roll a second 1d6 to identify a second Score. Re-roll duplicates. Then roll 1d4; until the end of your next long rest, the first score is increased by that amount and the second is decreased by that amount.

When you wake after your next long rest, you find yourself feeling stiff. Your movement speed is reduced by 5 feet and you subtract 1 from the result of your Dexterity saving throws, after adding your modifiers like normal. This effect worsens at the end of every subsequent long rest, reducing your movement by another 5 feet and subtracting an additional 1 from Dexterity saving throws. When your movement has been reduced by an amount equal to your normal movement speed (unassisted by spells, items, or magical effects), you turn into wood and become petrified.

Before you become petrified, the curse can be lifted by the Remove Curse spell. Once you have become petrified, the effect can only be reversed by the Greater Restoration spell or other sufficiently powerful magic such as an <link /i/almiraj-horn>Almiraj's Horn.</link>

When your movement has been reduced by 15 feet, your gain a +1 to AC. When it has been reduced by 20 feet this bonus increases to +2, and after 25 feet this bonus increases to +3.

The curse of a hag is not something to be trifled with, especially if it was uttered with the hag's dying breath.

A creature cursed by a sea hag suffers a life of unquenchable thirst. Everything they drink turns to saltwater in their mouths, not salted enough that they die from dehydration but enough that they never feel satisfied. This curse affects potions and poisons as well, nullifying their effects.

This item contains a fragment of the soul of its previous owner, a powerful necromancer from long ago that created the item as a safeguard against their death. The mage's soul has one remaining purpose: conquer the mind of whoever wears the item and return to the land of the living.

Whenever a creature touches the item, they feel compelled to put it on. The creature must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw to resist the urge. Once they are wearing it they will refuse to take it off under any circumstances, defending it to the death if necessary. No magical effect forces the item to remain on its victim beyond this compulsion; it can be removed by any other creature if they can overpower its victim's attempts to keep it on, though that creature will feel the same compulsion as soon as they physically interact with the item.

A creature sleeping while wearing the item is troubled by nightmares, though not so badly that they are unable to successfully complete short or long rests. Each night, they dream of battling a mysterious wizard to the death. Whenever they complete a long rest, they must make a Wisdom saving throw. The DC of this save is 10 plus the number of previous times the character has failed the save. On a failure, the mage begins to exert control over their mind and the victim's begins to take on a growing number of the dead wizard's abilities and personality traits, as shown in the table below (the personality of the dead wizard is determined by the GM).

If your class grants you the ability to cast spells, use your normal spellcasting ability when casting these spells (if you have multiple classes like this, choose one). Otherwise, you cast these spells using Intelligence.

After five failures, the mage takes full control over the victim's body, and the victim dies. Over the next seven days, the body slowly morphs into the mage's original form. If the mage is killed before the seven days are up, the body can be used in spells that would bring the curse's victim back to life.

<i>Death is coming, whittling away at you bit by bit. You can stave it off, but you will feel its icy grip eventually.</i>

You cannot regain hit points through Short or Long Rests, and when you regain hit points from other sources you only regain half as many as you normally would (minimum 1). Whenever you finish a Long Rest, you lose 1d4 hit points.

Spore Sickness is contracted by ingesting or inhaling powered Mirror Moss, a rare fungus that camouflages itself with a naturally-occurring illusion. It causes creatures to see hallucinations and eventually go mad.

Creatures that ingest or inhale the fungus must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw or become infected. If infected, the creature is Poisoned for 1 hour with lingering symptoms beginning to appear after 2d4 hours.

The creature begins to see and hear things that aren't there. They have disadvantage on Perception and Insight checks.

One day after the creature is infected or after they take their next long rest, the symptoms grow worse. The hallucinations become more persistent and the creature begins to question what's real and what's fake. They are plagued with nightmares, and the line between dreaming and the waking world begins to blur. The creature must make a Constitution saving throw whenever they finish a long rest, with a DC equal to 12 plus the number of previous failures they have made on this check. On a failure, the creature only gains the benefits of a short rest, not a long one.

After three failed saving throws, the symptoms become overwhelming. The creature experiences the world as a chaotic mix of fact and fiction, unable to make their way in the world. Whenever the creature finishes a long rest, they must roll on the short-term madness table. Whatever effect is chosen lasts until they next finish a long rest. Unless they are cared for, they will likely not survive.

Curing the Disease

Spore Sickness can be cured by the Lesser Restoration spell while it is still in Phase 1, or the Greater Restoration spell once it has progressed to Phase 2. Once it has reached Phase 3, only the Wish spell or other incredibly powerful magic can cure the disease. However, there are other ways that some say can cure the disease at any stage:

• From Whence It Came: Mirror Moss grows on the damp walls of jungle caves, where it hides itself from predators using its illusion magic. There is one creature that is known to thwart these defenses and can live quite happily in these caves, feasting on the normally-invisible Mirror Moss: the <link /creatures/scuttermite>Scuttermite</link>. They are rare but a druid may know where to find them, and an extract from their saliva may be able to counteract the sickness. But beware: Scuttermites aren't dangerous, but they are rarely the only creature that dwells in their caves...
• Unicorn Tears: The healing properties found in <link /magic-items/unicorn-tears>Unicorn Tears</link> are known to have powerful curative properties. There are few diseases that they cannot purge from a creature, if the victim's heart is pure enough. If not, the consequences could be catastrophic...
• Helpful Guardian: Guardian Nagas are well-versed in all manner of protective and healing magic and may be able to reverse the course of the disease. But they are also loathe to leave their domains, so you will need to bring the infected to them for treatment. Unfortunately, they are rarely in a location that is easily reached...
• Cleansing Waters: There are stories of a magical pool that sits at a convergence between the Fey Realm and the Plane of Water, and submersing a creature in this water is said to cure any disease and heal any wound. The location of the pool has been lost for centuries, but recently there have been rumors that someone is claiming to have seen it...

You have been infected with Mindroot Spores and are on the path to becoming a member of the hive mind.

You start at stage 1. At the end of every hour, you must make a DC Wisdom saving throw or progress to the next stage of the disease:

The spell or any effect that would cure a disease will revert you to a previous stage, only curing you if you are at stage 1. Additionally, you are cured if the <link /creatures/mindroot-queen>Mindroot Queen</link> that is the heart of the hive that infected you is killed.

When you finish a Long Rest, your Constitution score is reduced by 1. If it is reduced to 0, you die.

Any creature that starts their turn within 5 feet of an infected creature must make a DC 2 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, they contract the disease as well.

The spell or any effect that would cure a disease will increase your Constitution by 2, up to a max of your original score. If your Constitution reaches your original score, you are cured.