In my opinion, Taint of Corruption should be predicated on their blood. Something like:

Darkspawn Corruption (Ex): A darkspawn's blood is deadly poison to any who comes in contact with it or ingests it. It counts as a poison with the Injury and Ingested vector types and with a DC equal to 10 + Con Modifier of the darkspawn. Initial damage for the Injury vector is 1d6 Wis, secondary damage is 1d6 Wis 1 hour later. Initial damage for the Ingested vector is 1d6 Wis and Con, and 1d6 Wis and Con 1 round later.

Darkspawn often coat their weapons in their own blood, so their first successful attack is often poisoned. Darkspawn are immune to their own poison, as is anyone who has ingested Darkspawn Blood without dying (but not those who have merely suffered the Injury vector). Darkspawn Blood denatures and becomes harmless one week after it has left a Darkspawn's veins.

Any creature slain by Darkspawn Corruption rises as a Darkspawn 1d4 rounds later.


You might also want to change the wording of that trait to be "+4 against Mind Affecting spells and effects."

good idea on that poison, having it as an on hit effect would probably make them alittle too powerful. Right again on the wording couldn't remember the specifics. I was thinking of giving them either DR or Fortification though not sure if that would make them a bit too tough. My guys are level 7 currently if that helps. If they do ingest it without dying should i add the grey wardens trait of being able to sense them, maybe a 60ft like detect magic?

Well, keep in mind it would only be the first blow which would carry the poison and it would be pretty low DC for most Genlocks/Hurlocks (Assuming a Con mod no higher than 3). A level 7 front-liner could pass that quite easily. A level 7 Wizard wouldn't have that hard a time either, but would certainly be in danger; which is roughly where it should be.

Giving them DR should be fine, just be sure to scale it to the difficulty of the opponent. Perhaps base it on Con mod once again. I would say it would be DR/Good.

As far as the Grey Warden trait, I think you should definitely provide the ability to "sense" Darkspawn; a constantly active Detect spell would be about right, with it perhaps becoming more powerful with level (increased from a cone to a sphere, increased radius, etc.)

Also consider that the injury vector could never actually kill the victim. Dropping WIS to zero merely drops the victim into a coma. Dropping CON to zero, however, results in death. Only ingestion could turn someone into a darkspawn, which seems easier to avoid unless the party leaves them for dead once they've dropped to the ground.

Also, making a darkspawn template is definitely something to consider. DnD has a lot of interesting creatures that seem like they would make badass darkspawn. Troglodytes and other lizardfolk, for example.

the only problem with the ingestion thing is that both in the hard cover guide i have for DA:O and in DA 2 there are accounts of injured solders turning into darkspawn after sustaining an injury. I think this has to do more with mixing of blood and open wounds, and the corruption is said to be "A slow death" making me feel it is fatal both ingested and injured.

use the Golaith for quanari

I think it should be stronger than 10+ Con mod of the darkspwan other wise there would be a lot more Greywardens running around. even with the drawbacks of the class

I wouldn't put a DC on it. If you want the players to become graywardens, they become graywardens. If you don't, they don't. In DA, your stats had no effect on whether or not you could survive. It was plot-based.

right but it was suppose to be deadly thats what I was getting at.

See i don't mind the PC's gaining some of the benefits of grey wardens but I am not making it a class option, not to mention as a group my players all have above a 12 con so no one would die from con loss. Taking it further, I know for a fact that if one player gains the Grey Warden stuff they would all exploit it and i would have a whole party running around sensing darkspawn and being immune to the corruption, that's just the kind of thing i don't want as it would just turn them into run of the mill monsters again. I think an option would be that if they do gain the G.W. stuff instead of Immunity give them a +4 bonus to resist the effects. The blood of the darkspawn shouldn't be a poison, at least not in the mechanical sense as there are a lot of ways to either resist or remove it. I am thinking more along the lines of a curse.
Been working on more creatures:

Dark Ogre (Giant)
S: large
HD: Xd12
BaB: Full
Saves: good Fort, poor Ref, poor Will
Str 20, Dex 8, Con 18, Int 6, Wis 10, Cha 6
AC: 20=10+11(Natural)-1(size)
Slam: 1d6+7 crit x2
Feats: Improved Bull rush, Improved Natural attack (gore), Die Hard
Special Attack: Headbutt, Improved Grab, Piledriver
Special Qualities: DR 5/-, Darkspawn traits, Harden
Headbutt: When a Dark Ogre initiates a bull rush it makes a free gore attack against the defender. If the attack is successful it may add the damage to its check for the purposes of determining distance the defender is pushed.
Piledriver: Any time the Dark Ogre confirms a grapple check against an enemy it deals its slam damage to the target.
Harden: The Dark Ogre adds its con mod to its AC. This bonus is a natural armor bonus that stacks with any natural armor bonus the Dark Ogre has.