Infected, Humanoid
- Armor Class
- 9 [10] or better
- Hit Dice
- 2 or higher
- Attacks
- Weapon (1d6)
- Special
- disease, regeneration, invisibility, hold/grab, illusion, charm
- Move
- 9
- HDE/XP
- 2+/30+
Description
Infected are beings parasitized by the spores of an infectious mind.
It has no consciousness of its own but its mental faculties contribute to the collective consciousness of its network, sharing all knowledge telepathically.
Physically, they appear as individuals with the top surface of their body covered with brown mushrooms. This fungal infection causes the destruction of its eyes which is partially compensated by its other senses and the sharing of information through its network; nonetheless, they are more sluggish than before the infection. Due to the toxins produced, the strength of an infected increases and it becomes numb to pain, allowing the infected to sustain more damage before being incapacitated. The collective mind is unaffected by charm, hold, and illusions. As they are blind, infected are not affected by darkness, invisibility, nor blindness.
Becoming infected does not result in death, and infected continue to behave in ways that ensures its individual survival as well as the collective survival. A Cure (Cause) Disease spell can be used to destroy the parasites, but it will leave the infected in a catatonic state until a cure wound spell is used. A Regenerate spell is also needed to restore vision.
Intelligent humanoids (including goblinoids and the like) form the building blocks of the collective mind of the infected. As more get infected, the collective gets smarter and its personality develops. That is to say, a group of philosophers would produce a different network mind that a crew of pirates or a band of orcs.
Because of their ability to use tools, Infected Humanoids are often assigned to work activities unsuited for the other infected. However, infected humanoids are also used to recruit other humanoids, regardless of the chosen mean, and every individual is replaceable.
See Also
Other creatures grouped under Infected: Infected, Giant Ant, Infected, Giant Rhinoceros Beetle, Infected, Owl Bear, Infected, Zombie.
Source note: This creature is converted from The Basic Fantasy Field Guide of Creatures Malevolent and Benign – Omnibus Edition, 1st Edition Release 4, © 2010–2025 Chris Gonnerman, R. Kevin Smoot, James Lemon, Matt Sluis, and Contributors. The Basic Fantasy Field Guide textual material is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International; this page adapts that creature to White Box.