The Plague
one of the Macabre variants
by KingofPain

Class: Any
Tag: PLA

Introduction

The Plague is one of the Macabre variants.

Items

Basically, any items with poison attributes are allowed. Items without any poison attribute (Prismatic is not considered as a poison attribute. See below) are not allowed. New character start up items must be discarded because none of them meet the requirement. The only exception to the rule is throwing weapons.

Exceptional items are not used until after the Anomaly title. However, exceptional throwing weapons are allowed at any time.

Enchantments
All items (blues, rares, sets, uniques, even socketed) must have either Poison Damage, Poison Length Reduction, Poison Resistance, Prevent Monster Heal, or Hit Blinds Target to be considered legal.

Resist all (e.g. Prismatic) does not count because it's just a part of normal immunity, nothing special. You would have to determine if the Poison resist is part of the Prismatic prefix on rare items.

If an entire set bonus is one of the required effects, you may use pieces of the set that provide no individual bonus so that you can enjoy the overall bonus. For example, Iratha's Finery. The Coil, Cuff, and Cord are not legal unless you use the complete set (the bonus of which provides poison resistance). The Collar, however, is legal by itself because it has legal effects.

Socketed Items
These may have Emeralds inserted into them to create legal items once you have gained the title of Mutant. Tal Runes and Jewels with poison damage might also be restricted until this time. -Lem

Skills

Amazon
Amazon's Critical Strike, Penetrate, Pierce, Valkyrie, Multishot, Guided Arrow, Strafe, Jab, Impale, Fend, Poison Javelin, and Plague Javelin are allowed.

While not restricted from use, you may want to think hard before investing in Valkyrie. Your Valkyrie must do Poison damage or else it must be destroyed right away. This can be a fun gambling-like element if you can afford the mana.

Disallowed Skills: Power Strike, Lightning Bolt, Charged Strike, Lightning Strike, Lightning Fury, , Magic Arrows, Fire Arrows tree, Cold arrow tree.

Barbarian
Barbarian's Combat Masteries and Combat Skills are all allowed.

Disallowed Skills: War Cry, Grim Ward and Howl (we want to kill them, not scare them away).

Necromancer
Necromancer may use Amplify Damage, Iron Maiden, Iron Golem, Raise Skeleton Mage, Skeleton Mastery, Golem Mastery, Revive, Poison Dagger, Poison Explosion, Poison Nova.

While not restricted from use, you may want to think hard before investing his Summon skills. Your minions must do Poison damage or else it must be destroyed immediately. (An army of green skeleton mages is a sight to behold.) Revives must be a monster with a poison attack (Zombies, Greater Mummies, adult Maggots, etc.).

To make Iron Golem do poison damage, make him out of a Poison Damage item - and he must be made from such items and no other! And remember, Iron Golems follow you to new games.

Disallowed Skills: Corpse Explosion, Teeth, Bone Spear, Bone Spirit, Terror (we want to kill them, not scare them away)

Paladin
Paladin may use Might, Blessed Aim, Concentration, Thorns, Sacrifice, Zeal, Smite, and Charge.

You may use Conversion only on monsters that have poison attacks.

Disallowed Skills: Holy Fire, Holy Freeze, Holy Shock, Holy Bolt, Vengeance, Fist of Heaven, Blessed Hammer. Sanctuary

Sorceress
She's going to have it tough. No offensive spells are allowed. Cold armors, including Chilling Armor, are allowed. (The ice missile is passive and an automatic response out of your control.)

Skill level is determined by adding up your minimum poison damage from equipped items and dividing it by two. Slvl < (Min Poison Dmg / 2) rounded down. For example, wearing two 2-7 Rings of Blight means you do 4 minimum poison damage. (Skills and Charms are not included in this.) 4/2 is 2, therefore your maximum skill level is 2.

Note that this skill calculation was written in pre-D2X, and individual enchantments weren't doing things like 100 poison damage (i.e. Anthrax) back then. For large number such as that, I'd suggest halving them and dividing by the number of seconds. Anthrax's 100 over 6 seconds would be something like 100/2 = 50/6 = 8.333, rounded down: 8. And use that number. So if that was your only poison damage item, Slvl < (8/2). Maximum slvl would be 4. -Lem

Be careful before allocating skill points - taking item(s) off that violates the Skill Restriction is prohibited unless you replace it with equal or greater min poison dmg. For example, you were using two 2-7 Rings of Blight for maximum slvl of 2. You removed a ring. You'd be down to maximum slvl of 1. Any skills at slvl 2 or greater cannot be used until you get your minimum poison damage up.

Quests

1) Andariel - Normal
Kill Andariel in Normal Difficulty for the title of Mutant.
You may now design and use socketed weapons and shields so long as they have at least 1 emerald (any grade).

2) Andariel - Nightmare
Kill Andariel in Nightmare Difficulty for the title of HellPlague
You may now use the HellPlague Long Sword if you choose. Its poison damage is enough to give a significant boost to your skills. Characters who choose not to use the Hellplague as their weapon, they can still get the bonus as follows.

Find the sword yourself (or in cooperative play). Keep the sword in stash or inventory. Then allocate skills as if you are using Hellplague. The poison damage of your real weapon is not to be included in this calculation.

3) H/H Diablo
Kill Diablo in Hell Difficulty to earn the title of Anomaly.
You may now use Exceptional items so long as they're legal.

In pre-D2X, getting to H/H D didn't take as long as it does now. You might wish to change "Exceptional" to "Elite" for the final quest reward, and use Exceptionals after NM D, not H/H D. -Lem