NPC Class: The Plague Doctor

There was an NPC in my campaign called the Plague Doctor. He had his own special NPC character class. Here it is:

The Plague Doctor sort of knows what he’s doing. He might be able to keep someone alive if they have enough hit points to waste on dangerous treatments. Honestly, The Plague Doctor isn’t that concerned about keeping people. He likes making money and experimenting on people.

Basic Stuff:

So it’s not surprising that the Plague Doctor can’t be any of the good alignments. He’s selfish. The Plague doctor uses the same saves and experience table as a magic user. He gets 1d4 hit points per level just like a magic user. He starts with spells just like a magic user. He’s not very good at magic though. In fact his prime requisite is charisma.

Abilities:

The Plague Doctor cannot caste spells. The Plague Doctor can only create scrolls using the same rules as magic users. When the Plague Doctor reads a scroll he always lights incense. This has no effect on the spell but the Plague Doctor doesn’t really know what he’s doing so he won’t read a scroll without the incense. Your Plague Doctor might have some other quirk for reading scrolls, but there is always a quirk.

The Plague Doctors primary skill is bleeding patients. At level 1 the Plague Doctor can attempt to cure disease by bleeding. The Plague Doctor cuts the victim for 1d4 damage. The chance for him to cure a disease is:

The Damage Dealt * 5%

The Plague doctor can make as many cuts as he deems necessary before rolling to cure someone but only gets one roll.

At Level 3 the Plague Doctor gets the ability to alleviate (not remove curses) through bleeding. The Plague Doctor makes a cut dealing 1d6 damage and halts the disease for as many days as hit points lost. Making additional incisions will not increase the length that the curse is alleviated.

At Level 5 the Plague Doctor gets the ability to perform blood transfusions. The Plague Doctor finds a donor and slowly drains their blood dealing 1d6 damage to their constitution. The donor’s constitution recovers by one per day. The Plague Doctor can lower the damage dealt by his blood lettings by 1d6 points if he performs a blood transfusion.

Cursed victims can become addicted to blood transfusions. Every time a curse victim gets a blood transfusion they must save vs. spells. If they fail they will require a blood transfusion every day or lose 1d4 constitution points. This loss is permanent.

At level 7 the Plague Doctor gets the ability to develop plagues. The Plague Doctor can create a Plague that he is immune to that will cause a Plague with a mortality rate of:

5 * Plague Doctor’s Level

The Plague will affect:

d100 * Plague Doctors Level

The Plague Doctor’s most important ability is Inveigle. Inveigle allows the Plague Doctor to worm his way into patronage relationships. Any time A Plague Doctor treats a patient and his charisma + damage dealt by his procedure is higher than the patient’s wisdom + Patient’s level, he Inveigles the patient to support him gaining 100 gold * Plague Doctor’s level per month. In exchange the Plague Doctor provides useless draughts and tinctures.

How Does a Plague Work?

First you roll to see how many people are affected by the plague. Then you roll to see how long the plague lasts. A plague lasts 2d4 days. At the end of the 2d4 days you roll against the mortality rate of the plague (d100). If you roll over the mortality rate the plague is over. If you roll under the mortality rate the plague has spread and you roll again to see how many people are affected. The length of the plague stays the same.  Either way the amount of people die at the end of the life cycle of the plague as determined by the mortality rate.

Example:

The Plague Doctor wants to start a plague because he wants to charge people money to cure the disease. He is level 8; that means his plague has a mortality rate of 40%. The dungeon master rolls d100 to see how many people are affected and gets 67. Sixty-seven people come down with the plague (The Plague Doctor poisoned the well or something).

Then the dungeon master rolls 2d4 to see how long the plagues life cycle is and gets a 5. The plague does kills or goes away in 5 days. At the end of 5 days the plague kills 40% of 67 people or 27 people.

Then the dungeon master rolls against the mortality rate and gets a 23. OH NO!!!!!!! Practice good hygiene people. The plague spreads this time to 34 people. After five days 14 of those people die and we check to see if the plague has spread; this time the dungeon master rolls a 73 and the plague fizzles out. WASH YOUR HANDS EVERYBODY!

How Does The Plague Doctor get Experience?

The Plague Doctor gets experience for every point of damage and every point of constitution loss he causes:

Points * level of victim / Level of Plague Doctor

He also gets experience for every patron he obtains:

100xp * level of patron

After Reading All This the Spellcasting Ability Seems kind of Out of Place, are There any New Spells that are Something the Plague Doctor Would Use?

Level 2: Blood Talisman

This spell transforms a victim’s blood into a talisman that will allow the Plague Doctor to communicate with him. Any one holding the Talisman within 10’ of the person whose blood the talisman was made of can communicate telepathically with the Plague Doctor

Level 2: Soma

This spell will put people who the Plague Doctor has taken blood from to sleep. It will affect all donors within a 15’ radius that is placed up to 20’ away from the Plague Doctor. No saving throw. People affected by this spell will not wake up during bleedings or while ‘donating’ blood.