To make things more realistic I propose implementing a disease system.
First of all newbies will be immune to them for a certain amount of time.
There would be three ways to cure a disease:
By using magic.
By drinking special potions.
By asking priests at temples to heal you.
A player could catch a disease after getting bitten/hit by a monster.
Here is a list of proposed diseases:
Kikiripox (Kikiris)-Reduces the Musical Instrument skill.
Gobble Bane (Gobbles)-Reduces Mana by 30%.
Mud Fever (Riverlings)-Reduces the Ranged,Find Traps and Set Traps skills.
Cryosis (Arragmas)-Reduces the Strenth stat and makes you weaker to Blue Way magic.
Suclum (Rats)-Reduces the Empathy skill and the Charisma stat.
Zeagan Plague (Consumers)-Reduces all armor related skills and the Endurance stat.
The diseases won't be transformed from one player to another. (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WoW#Corrupted_Blood_plague_incident)
There would be a set possibility to catch a disease every time you get hit by a monster.