In the vein of 1d20 spells from a cursed spellbook, here's
1d20 wizardly afflictions
| Art by Perplexing Ruins |
- Localised portent. The patient's viscera rearranges into meaningful forms. Small objects nearby may transform into birds or comets.
- Mano-a-manomania. An uncontrollable obsession with magical duels. Treatable with high dosage antimagic.
- Sympathetic polymorph. The patient reflexively takes on the forms they magically impose on others.
- Partial possession. Intermittently under the control of imps or quasi-elemental spirits. Contagious.
- Cetaceanthropy. Transmitted by bite (usually a disease of krill). The patient swims amok on the night of the full moon.
- Antimitosis. Sometimes called 'void disease'. Incurable reverse aging accompanied by disintegration of bodily tissues.
- Clone narcissism. Obsession with the perfection of one's own form, growing in a vat.
- St Belthin's Fever. Infection occurs during thunderstorms. Symptoms include glowing eyes, shivers, electrical discharge.
- Intestinal bookworms. Ubiquitous parasitic reminder about proper hand hygiene while reading mouldering tomes.
- Persistent featherweight. A lingering spell reduces the patient's mass. Prolonged affliction causes brittle bones and muscle atrophy.
- Psychic papercut. Stinging pain in the mind brought on by telepathically reading recklessly fast.
- Orb-gazer's wrist. Strain caused by the weight of an overheavy head resting chin-on-upturned-palm.
- Oak gall stones. A solstice-time disease, thought to be caused by mishandling of galls during preparation of magical inks.
- Chronic hubris. Pathological egotism characterised by challenges offered against the gods. However, see also early onset apotheosis for differential diagnosis.
- Transitive curse. A tomb-hex heritable from mentors, yes-men, and ideological allies.
- Wand splinter. Burrows deeper to get away from any tweezers not made of meteorite iron.
- Petridermis. Overuse of protective spells leads to gradual stoneification of the patient's skin. Very bad for the pores.
- Prophetic bones. Generally benign. Affected bones have a telltale ache on planes where the concept of weather does not exist.
- Component magnetism. A lingering magnetic attraction to moss, sulfur, dried spiders, guano, and so on. Brought on by reckless overreliance on telekinesis.
- Early onset apotheosis. A traumatic rupture in the godhead leads to total or partial deification.
I had been thinking about Discworld's magical afflictions (like 'planets'), and that made me wonder what sort of bedevilments the Thirty Wicked Wizards would suffer from.
For more build-your-own wizardly fever-dream content, check out my zine, Wiki Articles Are Wizards [citation needed].