Plague Doctor

"What better laboratory than the blood-soaked battlefield?"

- The Ancestor

The Plague Doctor is one of the playable Characters in Darkest Dungeon.

Combat Skills
"A doctor, researcher and alchemist who prefers to hang back, eating away at her foes with stacking damage-over-time abilities like toxic clouds & plague-filled grenades. She is equally effective in a support role, blinding and confusing foes while enhancing a party's survival with damage-increasing tonics, and remedies for bleed and blight effects."

- Guild

Note: New Plague Doctors will always come with the Plague Grenade skill.

(All buffs and debuffs last for 3 rounds unless otherwise specified.)

Camping Skills
"The Plague Doctor makes use of experimental remedies and risky healing practices to cure her companions' ailments, and restore their vigor. Eager to prove the effectiveness of her latest untested concoction, she will inject herself - blindly faithful in its beneficial results."

- Survivalist

Tactical Analysis
The Plague Doctor is a support backliner who brings with her very potent Stuns with powerful Blights and frontline Bleeds. She can effectively hit every position from the backline using skills such as Noxious Blast, Plague Grenade, and Incision. Her main strength comes from her already mentioned potent Stuns that can neutralize the enemy’s backline and her powerful Blights can eat through the HP bar of bosses that have multiple actions per turn.

However, that does not mean her Blights are not useful in normal fights. Her Plague Grenade skill hits both backliners and deals 4+ blight damage with every tick/turn. Noxious Blast only hits one enemy and cannot hit the backline, but the Blight is more potent and even inflicts an accuracy debuff onto the enemy which can help neuter the enemy frontliners’ ability to deal damage. If the Plague Doctor should come across a particularly Blight-resilient enemy, she can use her dagger to forcibly make an Incision in the enemy, dealing decent damage as well as bleed.

Her Blinding Gas ability hits the enemy back row and can effectively shut them down. She also has Disorienting Blast, which shuffles and stuns enemies and is also a very effective skill for shutting down enemy backliners or shuffling them up front so that the damage-dealers can hit them.

A lot of Plague Doctor's skills overlap, such as Incision and Noxious Blast both targeting the frontine — although their damage output are almost the same. You should tailor your use of skills to the enemies you will face in the given area. Overall, her best skill set is either Noxious Blast or Incision, depending on what kind of damage over time the enemies are more vulnerable to, Plague Grenade, which lets her deal Blight damage more efficiently, and finish off any back line enemy, in case they couldn't die to your dedicated damage dealer heroes; Blinding Gas, where you can deny a turn (and possibly 2 if you have both of her stun Trinkets) and for the fourth ability, you can choose between Battlefield Medicine, Emboldening Vapours, and Disorientating Blast, depending on what you will need for the situation. Battlefield Medicine can take out a hero out of Death's door and cure both Plague Doctor and the selected hero's Blight and/or Bleed. Emboldening Vapours is a slower-paced abillity compared to her entire skill set, but it buffs a hero with speed and damage. This is extremely useful for boss fights, where you want to kill the boss as soon as you can, before he wipes out your party. And last but not least, Disorientating Blast allows to clean corpses and stun enemies. Bring this if the enemies lack damage over time.

Trinkets that can increase stun chance is the most appreciated thing for her, as well as speed which is excellent. Her best Trinket, Blasphemous Vial, increases her accuracy ranged skills, stun skill chance, and blight skill chance at the cost of stress; this gives her almost everything she needs.You can get creative with her second trinket; you can put extra stun skill chance, speed, bleed or blight skill chance, dodge, or an ancestor's map.

Speed Quirks are amazing on her, since she will have an even easier time outspeeding the backline enemies to instantly stun them. Quickdraw, Early Riser, Luminous, On Guard, and Quick Reflexes are an instant lock. Accuracy Quirks also come in nicely for the Plague Doctor, since backline enemies usually have high dodge.

All of her Camping Skills are great; Experimental Vapours allows her to somewhat work as a main healer with damage prevention (dodge or prot team comps) Leeches saves you money and a week in the sanitarium, treating with any disease. The Cure spends less points and allows the Plague Doctor to cure herself from any disease she would get. Self Medicate stress heals her a bit, and gives her extra accuracy for future fights with enemies that have high dodge, such as the Brigand Pounder boss fight.

Plague Doctor can syngergize pretty well with anyone who benefits from her stunning the backline. Dedicated damage dealers who can quickly kill the back line like Hellion, Abomination, Crusader, Grave Robber can completely nullify any of the backline enemies. These are just examples; there are many more Heroes that can quickly kill the enemies sitting in the back.

With her high base dodge, she can also work well in Dodge team compositions, such as Antiquarian, Jester, and Man-at-Arms. You can stack -acc with Plague Doctor's Noxious Blast and Antiquarian's Flashpowder, making it even harder for the debuffed enemy to hit anyone in your party.

She also has a good synergy with the Occultist and Flagellant, where they can both heal without worrying about their downsides (Flagellant suffering a high chance bleed on himself, and Occultist at the early levels making the selected hero bleed).

Equipment
"The Plague Doctor wears only light cloth - intent on remaining as far from melee combat as possible. From a distance she lobs toxic sachets that can blind, disorient, and eat away at her foes."

- Blacksmith

Each Hero has Trinkets unique to them that only they can equip. The Plague Doctor has eight; 3 common, 2 Crimson Court and 1 uncommon, rare and very rare. In the base game, her trinkets are herbs, vials, and a censer. The Crimson Court DLC adds a subject notes and dissection tools.


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District Bonus
The Crimson Court DLC adds Districts to the Hamlet, some of which confer passive buffs to heroes.


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Customization
As for every hero, the Plague Doctor has four different colour palettes to choose from: black, white, green and red.

Barks
Battle =

Landing a Critical Hit

 * Look how they wither and die!
 * One more cadaver for the cart.
 * Become as dust!
 * Excise the tumor!
 * I'll keep this bit for later!
 * Bones break and flesh tears!

On Death's Door
Fearful =
 * All flesh fails, in the fullness of time.

Becoming Fearful

 * I am no stranger to death, but how can one bear these horrors!
 * I have seen much pain. And yet the thought chills me.
 * Blood in my eyes… blood in my throat… blood…
 * ...pulse quickens… humours churn… body reacts…
 * So this is the death-bed fear, is it?

Stressing Party

 * The bell tolls for us!
 * The body stands, but the mind buckles.
 * My research fails us here. We must away!

Switching Position to the Back

 * Death reaches for me!
 * No... I am not prepared!
 * Their corruption is overwhelming!

Passing Turn

 * I... I am afraid!
 * N-no! I must consult my notes…
 * So c-c-cold… can't focus!

Camping Stress

 * I don't want to die down here...
 * Death lingers at the door...
 * If I die, leave my body here to feed the maggots.

Getting Hit by Enemy

 * I cannot die... Please! I have yet to prove myself!
 * This should not be possible! My recipe must be incorrect!

Enemy Missed Self

 * What?! But I warded against you!
 * Dammit! My repelling tonic isn't working!

Party Member Attack Misses

 * Death and dying feels so different on the receiving end...
 * You failed. And now death comes for us all.

Party Member Getting Hit

 * Death is coming. The all-devourer, the all-destroyer...
 * Here I am, death! CONSUME ME!

Party Member Missed by Enemy

 * I saw greatness in my future... Now I see shadow!
 * If we die, donate my body to the university.

Refusing to Move

 * The black breath... It goes in once, then nevermore...
 * The physiology of terror has gripped me. I cannot.

Refusing to Perform Camping Skills
Paranoid =
 * Unpack my supplies here? With creatures about!?
 * No. My chemicals will attract the enemy.
 * There's no time for that! They are nearly here!

Becoming Paranoid

 * I see how you all conspire to end me!
 * This has all been a decoy to steal my formulas! Deny it!
 * You will not have my secrets! NO YOU SHALL NOT!
 * I hear the miasma... it whispers of suffering!
 * Stop breathing on me! I'll catch cold!

Stressing Party

 * The very air carries death upon it!
 * Even if we survive, more will follow!
 * Death has caught our scent. There is no escape.

Switching Position to the Back

 * You'll not have my formulae! They are MINE! MIIIIIINE!
 * My secrets are my own! Stay back!
 * They know I can wield plague and corruption! They hate me!

Passing Turn

 * Toxic conspiracies — I smell betrayal!
 * I must protect my formulae from prying eyes!
 * I demand a second opinion!

Random Action

 * I diagnose you all with treachery!
 * Do not doubt that I can smell your corruption.
 * Vile turpitude! I defy you!

Camping Stress

 * You're sick — all of you, sick!
 * Injuries can be treated. Emotional trauma however…
 * How many times must I remind you to WASH YOUR HANDS?

Attacking Party Member

 * You want my secrets! You would take them off my corpse!
 * You fear my knowledge. You cannot understand it!

Refusing to Retreat

 * Oh yes. And in our haste, we would simply abandon the loot.
 * And you'll come collect the loot later, I bet. Ha!

Getting Hit by Enemy

 * They can't be real! A hallucination!
 * I am weak... They have poison breath! Can you smell it?

Enemy Missed Self

 * I am attracting them somehow! My vapors must be off!
 * Foul creature! It knows my power!

Party Member Attack Misses

 * Your deception has been found out. Traitor!
 * Your trickery stands out like a rotting wound!

Party Member Getting Hit

 * That one is diseased! I see all the signs!
 * Smell that? ALMOND! THEY ARE POISONOUS!

Party Member Missed by Enemy

 * How could they have missed? It defies all sense...
 * I am no fool. You have paid them to spare you. Deny it!

Refusing to Move

 * Detestable urchin! I'll not fall prey to your… guile!
 * I'd rather keep you where I can see you…

Refusing to Use Item

 * ...Did you wash that?
 * Ew, no. It may have... germs.

Refusing to Get Healed

 * I know medicine… I recognize a knife in the back!
 * Get away from me! Have you not trained at all?
 * Thank you, but may I recommend a career as a butcher?

Refusing to Get Buffed

 * I have studied medicine enough… I see you are but a knife in the back!
 * Does that have any proven medicinal effect?
 * There is no science in that! Shamanism, perhaps!

Refusing to Perform Camping Skills

 * Absolutely not. These formulae are too valuable.
 * They would try to copy my work. I cannot risk that.
 * No... no, I must save my supplies. For later...

Refusing to be Target of Camping Skills

 * This is not medicine. It's another of your fandangos.
 * I've no patience for your... nostrums.

Refusing to Eat while Camping
Masochistic =
 * What, pray tell, is in this... "food?"
 * (sniff) Oh god! Smells of decomposing navel!

Becoming Masochistic

 * I can survive endless blight! Cast it upon me!
 * Injury is the source of infection... sweet infection.
 * Finally... the doctor becomes the patient!
 * Ah... my wounds fester... I must have MORE!
 * Cut me again, villain. My humours seed the night air!

Stressing Party

 * Blood and bone! We are all blood and bone!
 * These scars and wounds merely temper my flesh!
 * Do thy worst! You will not find me lacking!

Switching Position to the Front

 * I've seen a lifetime of horrors — come on then!
 * What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger!
 * One more dance with death!

Random Action

 * Knowledge requires risk... and pain!
 * Nothing ventured, nothing gained!
 * I will go to any lengths to prove my theories!

Camping Stress

 * Hah! I don't even want the wounds to heal.
 * Must save these scabs for later.... ouch! ....ow!
 * ...and two drops of blood... Aye, that smarts!

Marking Self

 * Injure me! I can heal any wound!
 * Stand forth! Test the strength of my physic!

Damaging Self

 * When one is a healer, one is nearly immortal!
 * A scratch worries me not! Life and death are my playthings!

Refusing to Retreat

 * Every wound is the genesis of a new world.
 * No. I am testing my new pain-relieving tonic.

Getting Hit by Enemy

 * Yes... feed my blood to the crawling things!
 * Fools. If my blood were to somehow penetrate your flesh...

Enemy Missed Self

 * No... Kill me! Save me from myself!
 * This death could be quick. A luxury in these times.

Party Member Getting Hit

 * Work your evil on me, villain! I crave the knowledge of it!
 * No, me, me! I need wounds to feed my experiments!

Refusing to Move

 * There is a foul breeze where I stand. I must learn its nature.
 * No. I must keep these wounds out of the light. So they... improve.

Refusing to Use Item

 * I can heal myself, thank you.
 * Stop! I am testing a theory!

Refusing to Get Healed

 * Leave me — the pain fuels my focus.
 * Stay back. I am cultivating this wound... for science.
 * The body's natural healing will suffice today.

Refusing to Get Buffed

 * You're no more qualified than I.
 * The body and mind can o'ercome all. Watch.
 * I put my trust exclusively in the corporeal.

Refusing to Perform Camping Skills

 * ...I prescribe two parts placebo, one part hardship.
 * Sometimes blood is just as useful outside as in.
 * Preventing injury is not my area of study.

Refusing to be Target of Camping Skills

 * No thank you. I am training my immunity.
 * I prefer a good bleeding.

Refusing to Eat while Camping
Abusive =
 * I would rather expire slowly than eat this.
 * No. Fasting sharpens the instincts.

Becoming Abusive

 * You are all mewling babes. I will show you strength!
 * Silence! Or I'll expose you all to corrosive humours!
 * Your wake bears the linger of rotting flesh...
 * You halfwits are interrupting my concentration!
 * Uneducated brutes! The ignorance! The idiocy!

Stressing Party

 * Your wounds aid my studies immensely!
 * Hmmm... deformed at birth or merely hideous?
 * Gah! Your rank odors suggest a fungating wound!

Random Action

 * Medicine marks a new age, ignorant barbarians!
 * Yes, pray for salvation! Meanwhile, I will WORK for it!
 * You rely overmuch on luck. I prefer truth!

Camping Stress

 * Cross me and you'll wake up sick.
 * I marvel at some people's ignorance. For shame.
 * Conversation? No. …Vivisection? Very possibly...

Attacking Party Member

 * You are fouling my aim! Brute! Idiot!
 * You have more value as a cadaver for my experiments.

Party Member Attack Hits

 * Butcher! Absolutely no precision at all.
 * You make a better patient than a surgeon...

Party Member Attack Misses

 * No, NO! Where is your passion? Where is your focus?!
 * I can see your potential! And yet you spurn it!?

Party Member Getting Hit

 * …You would be worth more to me as a cadaver.
 * So many useful organs... all wasted on you.

Refusing to Move

 * Stop pestering me! Or I shall poison your grog!
 * You share my air too willingly. It is your loss, fool...

Refusing to Perform Camping Skills

 * Ha! My tonics are not for such weaklings as these!
 * In my professional opinion, nothing can be done for such sorry patients!
 * Why bother? You are all little more than meat.

Refusing to be Target of Camping Skills
Selfish =
 * You are unschooled, yes? Then I must decline.
 * I'll not risk sullying my physique with your bumbling efforts!

Becoming Selfish

 * If anyone gets out alive, it will be me!
 * Perhaps the party would make a donation to my research?
 * Surely you find my experiments to be of great value...
 * My fees just increased. Don't question me — I am a doctor!
 * Save the physic first! Else who will maintain your vigor?

Stressing Party

 * I won't end up a plaything for amateur physicians!
 * Don't touch the bodies until I've inspected them!
 * I claim their bodies... for science!

Switching Position to the Front

 * Let me through, I'm a doctor!
 * Step aside! Let a professional demonstrate!
 * I must make a record of their death! For science!

Switching Position to the Back

 * I won't be the one who ends up on the pile!
 * Shield me while I concoct another batch!
 * I must update my notes!

Passing Turn

 * Keep back — I'm quarantined!
 * It's my life! I'll decide how to spend it!
 * That would compromise my experiment!

Random Action

 * I must be allowed to continue my researches!
 * Nonsense! I shall not deviate from standard practice!
 * Not now! My work here is almost done!

Camping Stress

 * I bear the brunt of our troubles, and should be rewarded accordingly.
 * That's a nasty cough. Let me collect the spittle.
 * Urinate in this flask. No, you're fine — I just need it.

Getting Hit by Enemy

 * Dammit! My vials are broken! That will cost extra!
 * This was my favorite smock. Now you shall perish.

Party Member Attack Hits

 * Don't damage the brain! I need a sample!
 * Don't cut it up! I need it whole for my experiments!

Party Member Attack Misses

 * Gods. Move over. Let me show you how a professional does it.
 * You lack expertise, clearly. I can train you, for a fee...

Refusing to Perform Camping Skills
Hopeless =
 * No. My supplies are not unlimited.
 * Mmmmm... treatment is unnecessary. Carry on.
 * (sigh) My time is too valuable for these trivialities!

Becoming Hopeless

 * Sorrow and toil… sorrow and toil.
 * Those fools will never respect my work...
 * So cold inside. Like a morgue.
 * I have nothing... I offer little more than a corpse.
 * These tests are fruitless! I verge on failure!

Stressing Party

 * How has it come to this?
 * It seems that true evil can indeed defy the intellect.
 * All my training, yet still I am incompetent...

Switching Position to the Front

 * I'm just another body for the pile.
 * There is no avoiding the coming death.
 * Finally... my turn to meet the Reaper.

Switching Position to the Back

 * Leave me to wither...
 * Death's cold embrace entraps my soul.
 * I withdraw, as an owl from the dawn.

Passing Turn

 * We're all infested with rotteness, anyway.
 * I see disembodied eyes... floating in arsenic...
 * And so my organs, too, shall adorn a university shelf...

Random Action

 * All my study, all for naught.
 * My work is a shambles! I have nothing to live for!
 * I'd rather die than face my peers in disgrace...

Camping Stress

 * Why press on? Let us wait here for sickness and death.
 * I have spilled my latest batch of plague. We're doomed.
 * Nonsense! There is no Light and no God! Just death!

Marking Self

 * If I must die, I am taking you all with me!
 * Approach! Approach, and know the Reaper as I have!

Damaging Self

 * There is only one proper, true way to test death...
 * And I shall be judged by all those who died under my knife...

Refusing to Retreat

 * (laughs softly) I'll not deny my body its final rest.
 * We have failed. But our bodies will feed so, so many...

Refusing to Use Item

 * There is no cure for the broken spirit...
 * I am too far gone... You waste your materials.

Refusing to Get Healed

 * My wounds are my own.
 * The cortex has already failed. Why spare the corpus?
 * There is no saving me. The wound already festers.

Refusing to Get Buffed

 * Your efforts are a bandage applied to a tumor.
 * No technique exists that can defy death.
 * No. If I die, it is the way of elan vital.

Refusing to Perform Camping Skills

 * My instincts are dulled... it is this blasted gloom.
 * ... Perhaps you should seek a second opinion.
 * No. "Auribus teneo lupum," as they say.

Refusing to be Target of Camping Skills

 * You would make a poor battlefield physician...
 * Save your arts... This patient is too far gone.

Refusing to Eat while Camping
Irrational =
 * I cannot eat while my research suffers...
 * Seems both my appetite and confidence have atrophied...

Becoming Irrational

 * Burst those boils! Leech those wounds!
 * Where did that scalpel go... Eh, I will find it later.
 * There are shapes cavorting in the mist. Look there!
 * My feet smell of gangrene! YOU — smell these!
 * Eureka! Bubonic plague and lavender TOGETHER!

Stressing Party

 * One heart, two lungs, two hands!
 * Is plague evil? Or evil plague? Evil? PLAGUE??
 * 1, 2, 3, 4, the human heart shall beat no more...

Switching Position

 * Coughing, choking, prodding, poking...
 * 5, 6, 7, 8, store the bodies in a crate...
 * Medice — cura te ipsum!

Passing Turn

 * Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posie...
 * No mortal can flee the black wind...
 * Here is the colour of death: light inverted.
 * 9, 10, 11, 12, in mind and body, I must delve...

Random Action

 * Ignorant professors - you will respect my studies, I swear it!
 * Pain is the kindling; death, fire.
 * Viscera painted on the cottage floor...

Camping Stress

 * The plague is not death, it is life.
 * Have you ever smelled a cadaver? (sigh) Exquisite.
 * If I could find my scalpel, I'd improve your face.

Marking Self

 * 17, 18, 19, 20, splatter the ground with blood aplenty!
 * We shall all know death. You sooner than others.

Attacking Party Member

 * The age of plague begins!
 * Fester and die, dear creature!

Damaging Self

 * I prescribe death.
 * Heather and lilac and juniper and lavender...

Refusing to Retreat

 * Coat thyself in this ointment. It will restore your courage!
 * Craven fool! Do you not see that death is a beginning?

Getting Hit by Enemy

 * The lob-lolly is dead! The lob-lolly is DEAD! (moan)
 * The blood is black... Scorched by sickness...

Enemy Missed Self

 * Split the skin. Break the ribs. Remove the lung.
 * A rare specimen indeed. Drain it and seal it in wax.

Party Member Attack Hits

 * Quickly! Staunch the bleeding! And get me leeches!
 * Excuse me — where is the apothecary? I've run out of mold.

Party Member Attack Misses

 * Two... yes two... two drops amaranth... NO, THREE!
 * Tiny creatures... infinitesimally small... Too small to see!

Party Member Getting Hit

 * Scrape out that wound and save it in this jar for me.
 * I smell gangrene about you. Like expensive perfume.

Party Member Missed by Enemy

 * Bones are like stone... MADE of stone... Shatter like stone!
 * Pop the skull. Drain the fluid. Find release...

Refusing to Move

 * Wounds heal slowly... Corruption moves quickly...
 * What is the speed of nature? Is there a fixed rate?

Refusing to Use Item

 * CAREFUL! I have been running an experiment here!
 * The black plague runs even this far. I can smell it.

Refusing to Get Healed

 * One germ helping another? Hah!
 * Tiny animals under glass... Smaller than sand...
 * Healing IS the disease, I tell you!

Refusing to Get Buffed

 * You, assist me? Ridiculous!
 * Approach any closer and I'll trepan you.
 * No. I am testing my pain threshold this day.

Refusing to Perform Camping Skills

 * I dub it "yersinia pestis." Yes. A fine name.
 * I cannot. I am too far behind on my note-taking.
 * I approach thee, fingers smeared with aconite...

Refusing to be Target of Camping Skills

 * (incoherent muttering)
 * 13, 14, 15, 16, excise the heart, the liver, the spleen...

Refusing to Eat while Camping
Stalwart =
 * Nine, ten, eleven, twelve! Crack the ribs, then dig and delve!
 * Death floats on the wind... nests in my hand.

Becoming Stalwart

 * The prospect of death does not frighten me!
 * Even the will benefits from the immune response!

Reducing Own Stress
Courageous =
 * I have truly mastered life and death.
 * The corpus responds! Wounds heal — scars fade!

Becoming Courageous

 * We can survive illness or injury!
 * Do not underestimate the body. It is virile.

Reducing Party Stress
Focused =
 * You see? No physic alive can match my arts!
 * Despair not! I will vaccinate you against the plague of evil!

Becoming Focused

 * Ill fortune will not deter me from my goal!
 * Armor is no defense against plague.

Buffing a Party Member
Powerful =
 * Yes... I see my tonic is finally taking effect.
 * And now you see the power of my ministrations. Go forth.

Becoming Powerful

 * A special mixture for my many enemies!
 * I will heal this afflicted land.

Buffing Party
Vigorous =
 * Yes... My special batch is taking effect. (chuckle)
 * Such power... It has infected us all.

Becoming Vigorous

 * Ah... my tonics are taking effect.
 * Even steel cannot pierce a healthy immune system!

Self Healing
Final Boss (Spoiler) =
 * Another victory for the lymphatic glands.
 * No one may kill that which defies death.

"Not me! I am a learned scholar!"

- The Plague Doctor

Trivia

 * The Plague Doctor's predetermined name is Paracelsus, taken from the Swiss physician of the same name who is credited as the founder of toxicology.
 * While most characters have seven trinkets, The Crusader, Highwayman, Plague Doctor, and Vestal all have the most at eight.
 * The plague doctors of popular culture (those of the time of the bubonic plague) were not officials and many were completely unqualified. Those who took up the iconic garb were mostly young, inexperienced outcasts from the world of medicine at the time. These individuals were known to create and sell radical, bizarre, and quackish remedies based on personal theories.