The Gray Plague (5e Disease)

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The Gray Plague

Design Note: This disease uses the dire diseases variant rule and is a greater disease.

Contracting The Gray Plague

Contracted from zombies known as "the gray" and "colored" ones. The gray ones are zombies with gray, stone-like skin, and the colored ones are zombies that glow with magical crystals from the darkest dungeon.

Targets struck by an infected zombie must make a will save DC 10 + the level of their highest spell slot, and gain the plague on failure. Ex. If the highest spell slot a creature has is 5th level, then the DC is 15.

Lesser Diseases

Stage 1: After sleeping while infected, you gain these lesser diseases. If any of these diseases are cured, they will return the next time you sleep. This stage lasts 3 weeks.

1. Gray Mark. Bits of gray stony skin appear in many of your body's creases (between fingers, edge of lips, eye lips, arm pits etc.)
2. Absorb Magical Power. Any time a spell of 3rd level or lower is cast on you there is a 50% chance it fails. This counts for spells that can heal or maybe cure this sickness.
3. Exhaustion of Magic. Each week this effect is active you lose access to your highest spell slot until this sickness is cured. Each subsequent week, when the Exhaustion of Magic triggers again, you lose access to your next highest spell slot. This continues from 9th level all the way down to cantrips.

If you don't have any spell slots remaining, it steals your highest level "magical power". That is any class feature with magical effects. Ex. Storm Aura form the storm Barbarian: Path of the Storm Herald has clearly magical effects so it can be targeted, but neither the barbarian's rage nor the fighter's Second Wind can be targeted themselves.

Once you have no magical features, you gain a level of exhaustion each day until they die.

Stage 2: After having the sickness for 3 weeks you gain the following lesser diseases:

1. Stone Skin: resistance to fire, and nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. and your AC increases by 2, but your move speed is lowered by 10 feet, your Dexterity score decreases by 4. If you can fly, your fly speed is lowered by 30 feet. You sink in deep water and your swim speed is 0 feet.
2. Greater Absorb Magic. There is a 40% chance that spells of 6th level or lower will not effect you, and a 70% chance that spells of 3rd level or higher will not effect you.
3. Magic Drain: You can make a melee attack against grappled targets. If the attacks hits, the target must make a will save vs your spell save DC. If they fail, you can drain the lowest spell slot they have.

Treatment

A 1st-level spell slot can reduce your exhaustion level by 1, or restore 1 1st-level spell slot you have either used, or that this sickness has taken from you. The same is true for 2nd-level spell slot and so on. Restoring spell slots this way cannot give you more spell slots than you would normally be able to have in accordance with your spellcasting class. You can use this power on the same target again to try to drain their next most powerful slot. When you use this treatment on someone, they roll against getting The Gray Plague themselves (see Contracting The Gray Plague).

Spells or effects that cure 1 disease instead "cure 1 lesser disease". Spells that cure all diseases instead "cure all lesser diseases or 1 greater disease".

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