Immunity to Disease

A Templar has complete immunity to all forms of organic disease. This immunity includes diseases from rat, otyugh, and neo-otyugh bites, as well as nonlethal but disabling maladies like measles and earaches. A Templar never catches a cold or suffers from tooth decay, and is unaffected by parasitic monsters such as green slime, violet fungi, gas spores, phycomids, and rot grubs. His wounds never become infected. The process occurs instantly, automatically, and painlessly; the Templar isn't even aware of exposure to a disease.

A Templar's disease resistance is divinely given and can't be transferred to another character. A magical blood transfusion, for instance, would not grant disease immunity to the recipient. Nor are a paladin's progeny automatically immune to diseases, unless they become Templars themselves.

A Templar experiences the normal consequences of the following:

• Physical trauma. All wounds inflict normal damage. A Templar is as susceptible to concussions, broken limbs, and exhaustion as any other character, and also suffers the normal effects of extreme temperature, such as sunburn, heatstroke, and frostbite.
• Poison. A Templar is vulnerable to nearly all types of ingested, injected, and inhaled toxins. These include irritants (acids, mercury), organic toxins (poison mushrooms, snake venom, crystal ooze), nerve poisons (belladonna, arsenic), and poisonous gases (vapors that stop the heart or inhibit breathing). The Templar can become intoxicated by drinking too much alcohol, and may experience allergic reactions to pollen, dust, or other substances, but does not suffer fro​m virus-based or bacteria-based toxins, such as the saliva of a rabid dog or bat.
• Curses and magical diseases. Lycanthropy, mummy rot, and similar afflictions are curses and not diseases. A Templar suffers the normal effects.
• Effects of aging. A Templar ages at the normal human rate. Age brings the ability penalties and also the normal debilitation associated with aging. For instance, even though the Templar's teeth resist bacterial decay, they may still fall out as a result of enamel erosion. A Templar whose body wears out dies, at the same age as a normal human.
• Psychological disorders. A Templar is as prone as anyone else to hallucinations, nightmares, memory loss, insanity, and similar mental and emotional disorders, providing the disorder isn't a consequence of a disease (such as a fever-induced delirium).

Note that Templars are immune to the Cause Disease spell. Very powerful diseases, like mummy rot, may override the Templar's natural immunity, but can be cured by the Templar's Cure Disease ability.