Afflictions for wizards

[hcobb]

Other than madness (which unlike cancer and the common cold they don't have a cure for), what other ailments afflict wizards in particular?

[stefanj]

Something which would effect their manual dexterity would hamper spell casting even if their minds were intact.


A disease which makes them prone to fatigue, or ability to recover from fatigue, would certainly be a problem.

[hcobb]

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?

[Shostak]

Hypomanaia caused by parasitization by the Flying Mana Leech.

[DeadParrot]

A bacteriological version of the FML mentioned above. When first infected, the wizard would notice no difference as the number of bacteria is too small. Each time the wizard successfully casts a spell, the bacteria steal enough energy to divide once. At some point, there are enough bacteria that they steal all of the energy the wizard tries to put into a spell.

Up to the GM to determine how many generations of bacteria are needed to dampen spell attempts. Might be days, or even months if the wizard doesn't cast that many spells, before the wizard notices the drain.

Cure might involve rare materials or simply starving the bacteria by the wizard abstaining from magic use for some number of days or months. Maybe putting the wizard in a suit of full iron plate to prevent magic.

For more mundane problems:
Bad vision would prevent precise targeting of spells.
Loss of hearing might interfere with spells that have a spoken component.
Developing an allergy to silver.
What do you do with a drunken Wizard?

[Bill_in_IN]

Originally Posted by DeadParrot

A bacteriological version of the FML mentioned above. When first infected, the wizard would notice no difference as the number of bacteria is too small. Each time the wizard successfully casts a spell, the bacteria steal enough energy to divide once. At some point, there are enough bacteria that they steal all of the energy the wizard tries to put into a spell.

Up to the GM to determine how many generations of bacteria are needed to dampen spell attempts. Might be days, or even months if the wizard doesn't cast that many spells, before the wizard notices the drain.

Cure might involve rare materials or simply starving the bacteria by the wizard abstaining from magic use for some number of days or months. Maybe putting the wizard in a suit of full iron plate to prevent magic.

For more mundane problems:
Bad vision would prevent precise targeting of spells.
Loss of hearing might interfere with spells that have a spoken component.
Developing an allergy to silver.
What do you do with a drunken Wizard?

Oddly enough, in real life, my son has an allergy to Nickel. We had to stop buying him jeans because the buttons were all Nickel plated. If he rubbed the end of a pencil on his cheek while thinking and doing homework, his cheek would break out in red splotches.

[Shostak]

Don't forget the mage addiction problem.

[Anaraxes]

The ever-popular anti-magic drug.

Corruption from using dark magic, assuming that's sufficiently different from madness.

What GURPS calls "Weirdness Magnet" - strange stuff happens to wizards, not necessarily directly harmful. Things aren't where you left them; random animals talk to you; you become all sparkly, or nearby houseplants die. Normal people and for that matter a lot of wizards find this annoying (along with GMs that have to keep coming up with effects), so they'll react poorly and try to avoid you, if for no other reason that they're afraid it might be catching.

[JohnPaulB]

Spoonerism: (“Look out, he has a Swasterd Bord!”)

You frequently switch syllables in interesting ways. Roll 3/IQ savings roll or miscommunicate an important conversation.

Most social efforts will be at least -1. However, Courtly Graces may be at +1 if the word-mangling seems witty.
A wizard with Spoonerism is at -4 DX to cast any spell that requires speech.

In a less than completely serious game, an even greater risk than failure might be Typo Spells (which create a whole new type of spell with any new benefits or disaster involved. See The Fantasy Trip Companion, p. 61, or thefantasytrip.game/news/2018/august/220k-stretch-goal-fifteen-hours.

[David Bofinger]

Psychological impracticality. Most wizards contract this during their training, and it makes most talents cost twice as much. A wizard with a more severe case might have to pay triple, lose the ability to converse sensibly about non-magical matters, develop a tendency to see mundane things as being magical, forget how doorknobs work, etc. In Stage Five of the disease the victim becomes a prootwaddle.