OOTS #1165 - The Discussion Thread

[Paleomancer]

I don't think familicide cares. After all, the black dragon and the Draketooths probably had barely any blood in common with each other. We can say "blood", but the magic clearly targets family relations (bloodlines) more than, say, DNA or the physical blood itself.

Grey Wolf

Now you've got me wondering whether viruses count as sufficiently "alive" for the purpose of Familicide. In the modern biological sense, "life" as we know it depends on having a metabolism, hence why viruses are not considered "alive." Moreover, if viruses (and viroids, infectious strands of loose DNA or RNA that plague plants) are like prions (neural proteins) in being rogue cellular processes that never were functional cells, they may never have been alive. Would even an epic death effect have any effect at all on a virus? Since like an undead being, it isn't really "alive"? I suppose the biggest unknown is whether the spell targets anything "related," such as undead relatives or flesh golems containing tissue from relatives. I do get you are being delibrately facetious for the fun of it, but it is a genuinely interesting point.

Say... Isn't the Order infected with Sphinx Pox? Future plot point or throwaway joke about D&D disease conditions?