Format

Whether appearing in a spell, as an item, or within a creature's stat block, afflictions appear in the following format. Affliction Example To see how a disease works, let's look at severe radiation sickness. --- Severe Radiation Sickness (disease) Exposure to severe radiation causes fatigue and nausea. You can't reduce your sickened condition while affected by severe radiation sickness; Saving Throw DC 22 Fortitude; Onset 4 hours; Stage 1 2d6 poison damage and sickened 1 (1 hour); Stage 2 2d6 poison damage and sickened 2 (1 hour); Stage 3 2d8 poison damage and sickened 3 (1 hour) --- If something like a leaky reactor exposed you to severe radiation sickness, you would attempt an initial Fortitude save against the listed DC of 22. If you fail, you advance to stage 1. Because of the onset time, nothing happens for 4 hours, but once this time passes, you take 2d6 poison damage and become sickened 1. As noted, you're unable to reduce the sickened condition. The interval of stage 1 is 1 hour (as shown in parentheses), so you attempt a new save after 1 hour passes. If you succeed, you reduce the stage by 1, recovering from the disease. If you fail again, the stage increases by 1 to stage 2, and you take 2d6 poison damage and become sickened 2. If your initial save against the radiation sickness was a critical failure, after the onset time, you would advance directly to stage 2. After the 4-hour onset time, you would take 2d6 poison damage and become sickened 2. Succeeding at your second save would reduce the stage by 1 to stage 1, and you'd take another 2d6 poison damage. Failing the second save would increase by 1 again to stage 3. If you reach stage 3 of the disease, either by failing while at stage 2 or critically failing while at stage 1, you'd take 2d8 poison damage and be sickened 3. If you failed or critically failed your saving throw while at stage 3, you would repeat the effects of stage 3. Since the disease has no maximum duration, you probably should seek magical or medical aid to help you recover—and find a way to fix that reactor!