Pathogen - Sapient Viruses

[insertnamehere]

Sickness. Disease. Illness. Those are some of the words used to describe one of the most primal fears shared by the majority of life within the Great Wheel, to see themselves go from being full of life only to collapse and rot from within. This is why a Pathogen is universally reviled by those who live in the Wheel, except by only the most zealous of devotees to Nurgle. For a Pathogen isn't just a sickness of the body but also of the mind because these thinking microbes are known to supersede the consciousness of an unfortunate host and unlike Daemonhosts or Symbiotes there is no debate on whether the original creature is still there or not. Its gone and the body is then used as a means of propagating the Pathogen to eventually spread to more hosts as its instincts demand. 

No one is sure where, when, or how Pathogens came into being. This is something that not even they themselves know for certain either, for if a Pathogen wasn't created by one of its own kind then they just "woke up" one day seemingly at random, much to the misfortune of the poor berk who was acting as its host at the time. Whatever the process may be for the latter case, it most certainly is not a natural occurrence of mutation or adaptation for obvious reasons. Besides the the obvious differences, Pathogens are capable of infecting not just biological life but artificial and even immaterial "life" as well. There is only one group of people that are completely immune to a Pathogens attempts to wipe away the mind and control the body and those people are the Exalted. Its unsure why that is whether its protection from the gods, to much raw power for the Pathogen to handle, or that the Exalted have an immune system that is just as bad ass as they are. Who knows?

To be a Pathogen is to be something completely separate but at the same time deeply tied to the people of the Wheel. Whether a pathogen chooses to understand and try to integrate into whatever society it finds itself in motivated by the vestigial memories of its host or choosing to keep itself divorced from those petty feelings using the Wheels inhabitants as disposable tools to further propagate itself, Pathogens are deeply reliant on others in order to ensure its survival which is the Pathogens greatest strength and its greatest weakness.

Static Powers

The Sickness: If you so choose, opponents that suffer at least 1 wound from your unarmed attacks must roll a Constitution save (TN 15) or suffer the Diseased condition. While they are Diseased, you gain a static bonus equal to your Contagion on all social rolls against the Diseased target as you subtly influence their subconscious. These effects last your Contagion in hours but if the target fails with at least one check the duration turns into days. Additionally, you can infect people in more mundane ways (i.e. spitting in their food) which also requires a Constitution save (TN 15) to resist. When you contaminate something in this way it stays contaminated up to your Contagion in minutes and you will always know when someone is infected.

Carriers: Even for one such as you, there will be those who will be asymptomatic to you making it impossible to overwrite their minds. However, that does not mean you can't influence them in minor ways at the subconscious level. Gain free dots in the Followers background equal to half your Contagion (rounded up). You don’t require Background dots to maintain these free dots.

Lytic Infection: Select a non-exalt under the effects of your Sickness power and whose level is equal to or less than yours. As a Full Action, expend Germs equal to its level to roll a contested Willpower test to put them under your will. Failure means you were unable to control the creature, wasting the action and resource, and The Sickness power effects end for that creature. Success means they’re under your thrall, which last indefinitely, and the target gains your The Sickness power but otherwise keeps its statistics and will follow your commands to the spirit and letter. However, your maximum Germs is reduced by the amount spent and the Diseased condition for the creature becomes permanent. This lasts until the creature dies or you relinquish control as a Free Action, which results in the Diseased condition and Pathogen powers being removed and the creature returning to its senses in 1 round with no memory of its time being controlled. You cannot use this power if your current Germs max is 0.

Sensitive Conditions: As a microscopic organism, you require near pristine environmental conditions to survive and are especially sensitive to changes in temperature. Anytime you suffer E damage, you lose 1 Germs. Additionally, if you find yourself unprotected in conditions of extreme cold or heat, you will be unable to replenish your Germs pool.

Power State: Contagion
A microscopic organisms first and foremost concern is the propagation and continuation of itself. You are no different. Your Contagion level measures how infectious and virulent a Pathogen is.

Resource Stat: Germs: Your Germs is equal to your Contagion + Intelligence + Constitution. You replenish Germs equal to your Contagion every hour.

Tell: As a Pathogen spends Germs, its host body becomes more visibly sick. Symptoms change depending on the type of Pathogen but on average the first few levels result in minor symptoms such as a pale or gaunt appearance, noticeable runny nose, or a constant cough. At higher levels possible symptoms can include flash sweats, rashes, blood hemorrhaging, or bile pooling in the hosts mouth.

* Invasive Medicine: The Healing Surge Action heals additional Hit Points equal to you Contagion and you can choose to roll Willpower instead of Constitution when resisting diseases

** Airborne Transmission: As a Half Action, you can spend 1 Germs to make a target within Contagion x 4m roll a Constitution test (TN 15) or suffer the effects of the Sickness power. Alternatively, if you spend 2 Germs, you can attempt to infect multiple targets within a radius equal to half your Contagion centered around you, rounded up. This power doesn’t affect targets that have sealed environment protection.

*** Infestation: Spend Germs to “terraform” a section of your environment in a radius centered around you equal to your Contagion in meters, which takes 1 hour. This visibly alters the surrounding environment as it becomes covered in mucus, bile, or other materials appropriate for the Pathogen. While in this radius, you no longer suffer the effects of Sensitive Conditions and creatures who enter must roll against the Sickness power once per minute in Narrative time or once per round in Structured time until they fail or leave the radius, unless they have sealed environment protection. This radius lasts for a day per Germs spent. Additionally, any creatures under your control through the Lytic Infection power are able to ignore the healing preventing effects of the Diseased condition while in the infested environment.

**** Germ Warfare: The Sickness power can now affect targets that are normally immune to disease. For targets that already aren’t immune, the TN for resisting is increased by 5 and the duration is one tier higher (hours becomes days and days becomes weeks).

***** Endemic: You're so contagious and virulent that there will always be someone that has a piece of you inside them. Some poor berk will become infected with you and eventually succumb within a month (you can burn a Hero Point to have it reduced to a day), allowing you to overlay its personality and effectively come back to life; you gain the new body's race, size, and racial power, but retain your own characteristics, skills, feats, and abilities.

Pathogen Assets

Black Rage Strain
You and creatures under the effects of Lytic Infection gain the Frenzy feat. You can spend 1 Germs to have the targets infected by the Sickness power gain a static penalty to Dodge and Parry tests equal to your Contagion for one Scene.

Borg Strain
You and creatures under the effects of Lytic Infection do not need to breathe, drink, eat, are immune to the effects of a vacuum, and extremes of cold. You can spend 1 Germs to infect a non-primitive piece of technology to give it a static bonus equal to your Contagion for any rolls that require its use or bypassing any securities for one Scene.

F.E.V Strain
You and creatures under the effects of Lytic Infection are immune to disease and radiation, though that doesn't prevent Lytic Infection from making the Diseased condition from the Sickness power permanent. The Invasive Medicine power is now used for poisons, harmful drugs, and the like (such as the Toxic property). You can spend 1 Germs to have targets infected by the Sickness power gain a static penalty to tests to resist poisons, drugs, and other biohazards equal to your Contagion for one Scene.

Flood Strain
Instead of the normal effects of Lytic Infection, you twist and contort the body of an infected creature into a form to your liking using the Spirit Creation rules under the Other spirit type, with its level equal to the amount of Germs spent to create it. Its size can be up to the size of the original creature, you cannot spend BP on spells unless you or the creature being transformed knows the spell, and it keeps any equipment it had before transforming instead of Inheritance. If you end the effects of Lytic Infection, instead of turning back to normal the creature will turn into a puddle of chunky goo effectively killing it.

Genestealer Strain
Choose a race besides your own. You gain that races racial power and you can buy that race's racial feats as if you were that race. This does not count as the Mixed Heritage feat. You can spend 1 Germs to have targets infected by the Sickness power gain a static penalty to Social Attacks and Refute tests equal to your Contagion for one Scene.

Necromorph Strain
Gain the Undead trait. The Lytic Infection power can now only be used to turn corpse's into lesser necromorph's by touching dead bodies of mortals and expending Germs equal to the creatures level, bypassing the contested Willpower test. It gains the Undead and Mindless traits, a natural weapon (1k1 I or R, Brawling), and it gains dots in brawl equal to half your level (rounded up). Unfortunately, the process leaves its body extremely mangled to the point where there is no disguising its undead nature and it cannot perform anything outside of the simplest tasks. If you end the effects of Lytic Infection, instead of turning back to normal the necromorph will become inert but you can reanimate it again at a later time with the same Germs cost.

Nemesis Strain
You and creatures under the effects of Lytic Infection gain the Expert Tracker feat. You can spend 1 Germs to gain a static bonus to Perception and Stealth tests against targets infected by the Sickness power equal to your Contagion for one Scene.

Technocyte Strain
You and creatures under the effects of Lytic Infection gain Aura equal to your Contagion. You can spend 1 Germs to have the targets infected by the Sickness power gain a static penalty to Focus Power and Arcana tests equal to your Contagion for one Scene.

Optional Rules - Spreading Contagion
It's possible, even likely, that Pathogen players will at some point want to make more of their kind. This is certainly a powerful option, and like all very powerful options, there are some restrictions in place.

• Only sapient creatures can become Pathogens (i.e. playable races). You cannot turn a 3 headed fire breathing monster into a Pathogen
  
• Exalts are immune to the mindwiping and bodily control effects of Pathogens. This includes Paragons.
  
• The genetic material must flow directly from the Pathogen to the host. It can't, for example, be packaged and sold. Nor even placed in a cup.
  
• Infection requires a significant expenditure of biological material, transferring a portion of the pathogen into another. The progenitor permanently loses a point of Contagion in order to create the neonatal Pathogen. Pathogens of Contagion 1 are simply too weak to transfer the infection to another.
  
• The neonate becomes a Pathogen at Contagion 1. The progenitor gains them as an Ally. Usually. Newly created Pathogens are independent of your control and in no way forced to obey you like those under Lytic Infection.

[insertnamehere]

Changed the Genestealer asset to gain the racial power of the selected race. Also added the double mixed heritage clause but clarified you dont gain racial powers from the second

[Amanojyaku]

First: Seeing a lot of unnecessary tags. Don't use the preview tab, it screws things up.

Apr 3, 2022 13:23:44 GMT -6 insertnamehere said:

The Sickness: Your unarmed and natural attacks have the Toxic property. However, instead of the usual effects of Toxic the target gains the Diseased condition if they fail the Constitution roll. Additionally, you can infect people in more mundane ways (i.e. spitting in their food) which also require a Con test to resist. You will always know when someone is infected. You gain a static bonus equal to your Contagion on attack and social attack rolls against an infected target to represent the subtle influence you have over them. This effect lasts your Contagion in hours but if the target fails with at least two checks the duration turns into days.

There is kludge here. "Toxic but not Toxic" is awkward, suggest removing that name and just making this an inherent quality of the indicated attacks. Note that most if not all natural weapons have the Brawling quality, so just putting this on your unarmed strike will automatically add it to any natural weapon as well as anything from the Unarmed group. TN for "mundane ways" needs to actually be mentioned, even if just to indicate that it's the same as the attack version. Effect duration should be mentioned with the effect it actually applies to (is it the Diseased condition or the bonus to attacks that lasts for hours?).

Lytic Infection: As a Full Action, select an infected target whose level is equal to or less than your Contagion and spend Germs equal to the targets level to roll a contested Willpower test to put them under your will. Success means they’re under your thrall, which last indefinitely, but your Germs pool max is reduced by the amount spent until the creature dies or you relinquish control, which results in the body going inert, but you must maintain a minimum pool of Germs equal to your Contagion.
Do the following changes to the creatures stats:

• Gain all your powers, abilities, and assets of a Pathogen at rank 1 (except for Carriers)
  
• Receive Germs pool equal to creatures level + 1. If it already has a Resource pool, then replace it with this
• Replace its Mental Characteristic and Skill dot values with your own
  
• Replace its Social Characteristic and Skill dot values with your own

Failure means you were unable to control the creature and waste the action and resource. Exalts are immune to this power

Suggest cribbing from Wake the Dead for wording that cost. You're getting an extra body on the field; I'd also recommend cherry picking which powers are available to your thralls. No reason they should get sick with you and suddenly gain a pack of Followers, for instance. The final list item, regarding failure, should be explained along with success. Same with exalts being immune, you should check that at the knee before getting people excited over potentially brainslaving the Dragonblood.

Also, "infected" is not inherent to lexicon. While from context I can assume this to mean "somebody you have made Diseased," one can't expect common sense from players.

Sensitive Conditions: As a microscopic organism, you require near pristine environmental conditions to survive and are especially sensitive to changes in temperature. Anytime you suffer wounds from E damage, you lose 1 Germs. Additionally, if you find yourself unprotected in conditions of extreme cold or heat, you will be unable to replenish your Germs pool.

Cold inhibits microbial growth; heat tends to exacerbate it. I'll suggest only extreme cold should prevent you from recovering Germs, the bit about E damage is fitting as it tends to go from "flourishing" to "burnt dead" rather suddenly.

**** Germ Warfare: The Sickness power can now affect targets that are normally immune to disease. For targets that already aren’t immune, the TN for resisting is now 20 and the duration is one tier higher (hours becomes days and days becomes weeks).

Warning: This can be dangerous. Discussions abound on the matter of no selling immunity.

With that said, I say it's fine, seeing as the Diseased condition seems to be Very Important to this exalt.

***** Body Hop: Select a humanoid target that you control through the Lytic Infection power within 10m. Over the course of 5 rounds and so long as you maintain concentration, you can transfer your essence into the new host body. You gain the new body's race, size, and racial power, but retain your own characteristics, skills, feats, and abilities. If you previously bought any racial feats that don’t match the new hosts race, you can refund the experience but you must spend it on racial feats of the new host.

So, just to make sure I'm reading this correctly, this is five rounds and Concentration rules (can these even be applied outside of magic?) to just reroll as That Guy Over There? As in, unlike a Meister your current host doesn't have to die first?

F.E.V Strain
+1 to Size per Contagion level and the Static Defense bonus for Healing Surge is now +10. You are also immune to disease and radiation, and the Invasive Medicine power is now used for poisons, harmful drugs, and the like (such as the Toxic property). Every time you increase in size you must acquire new armor/clothes because they wont fit your new frame.

"Increase your Size by your Contagion." "Your equipment does not change size to match." Much easier phrasing.

Genestealer Strain
Choose a race besides your own. Gain the Mixed Heritage feat for that chosen race as well as their Racial Power. If the race selected was Human or if the player race is Human, you can acquire the Mixed Heritage feat a second time but you do not gain any racial powers from it. Lastly, select a creature you can see under the effects of your Sickness power and spend 1 Germs to put them under the effects of the Charm Person spell for one Scene.

No. Mixed Heritage is more than enough on its own, especially as you're giving an autocast spell on the side. There's also kludge here; drop "gain Mixed Heritage" and copypaste it instead. Then you can get rid of the entire second sentence.

[insertnamehere]

Fixed the wording for

• The Sickness
• Lytic Infection
  
• F.E.V Strain

Cold inhibits microbial growth; heat tends to exacerbate it. I'll suggest only extreme cold should prevent you from recovering Germs, the bit about E damage is fitting as it tends to go from "flourishing" to "burnt dead" rather suddenly.

Keeping that one as is because finding yourself in extreme cold isnt that common by itself. So adding places with extreme heat (i.e. deserts) makes it more of a detriment.
That and if you selected the Borg strain, it would effectively make you unable to losing Germs from the environment because the Machine trait makes you immune to the effects of extreme cold.

So, just to make sure I'm reading this correctly, this is five rounds and Concentration rules (can these even be applied outside of magic?) to just reroll as That Guy Over There? As in, unlike a Meister your current host doesn't have to die first?

Yes, I made it so that you can indeed body hop essentially whenever you want. The Concentration subtype is used in a lot of actions outside of magic, such as Dodge or Full Defense, and with the 5 round timer this makes you way more vulnerable. My main idea for Body Hop would be that its something that you would only do in a controlled environment and only do it if you are in a really bad spot in any other scenario. Also added that your old body will perish and become unusable just to keep things simpler.

[insertnamehere]

• Had the static bonus only affect Social rolls and clarified how long contaminating something through The Sickness power lasts. So that means you cant piss in the water supply and take over the whole town.
• Instead of gain a dot per Contagion, Carriers now gives free dots in Followers equal to half your Contagion and doesnt require background dots to maintain.
• Removed a whole lot of bloat from Lytic Infection. Now you just control the infected NPC instead of rewriting their stat blocks. Also made it so your infection of someone ends if you fail to take control of them.
  
• Infestation now allows controlled thralls through Lytic Infection to heal themselves that the Diseased condition would normally prevent
• Body Hop has been renamed to Endemic and is now more of a passive ability that occurs at death (its basically the Meister's rank 5 ability)
• Genestealer Strain has been changed to increase social bonus provided by The Sickness power instead of the Charm Person spell
  

[insertnamehere]

Did some changes to the assets. Made them more consistent and complimentary to the Pathogens signature ability, the Sickness power. Since the Flood and Necromorph strains completely alter how the Lytic Infection power works, they don't get a additional benefit to the Sickness power and have been left as is.