How to write up disease and Cure Disease spell

[dofg_mu]

Recently I was thinking about a character concept that included the ability to cure a disease under some circumstances, and was wondering how to write it up, when I realized that I didn't know exactly how to write up diseases.  I have tried searching the forums for a post on this and haven't found anything definitive.  Has anyone got any advice about this?

[Steve Long]

OK, there are two issues here:  how to write up diseases, and then how to cure them.

 

For specific diseases, check out the "Chemical And Biological Weapons" section on pages 214-18 of The HERO System Equipment Guide. For more "generic" examples of diseases, look at various powers in the "Body Control Powers" section of Champions Powers, the Pestilence spell in the "Black Magic" section of The HERO System Grimoire, and similar examples in published books.

 

As for curing disease, the best way to write up an ability like that is shown by the Cure Illness spell on page 88 of the HSG. There are other spells in that section (such as Healing Spell) that might also apply, depending on how the GM has built the disease in question, but Cure Illness -- which uses Transform to stop and then reverse the effects of the sickness -- is your best bet.

 

Anyone else have a suggestion to make, or an example you can point to from a published book?

[Cassandra]

Transformation [Major] [Disease Removed]

[Chris Goodwin]

I usually go with a Dispel or Suppress against disease.  Another option could be Life Support, against the disease, leaving it up to the GM to decide how long the Life Support has to be there for in order to cure the disease.  

 

Note that none of these will heal any damage or revert any other conditions applied by the illness; to do that would be separate Powers, or else up to the character to recover from on their own.