Poisons

[Steveman]

So, it seems the people in the Pickup Game crew that I play with most have dubbed me the "Poison Gym DM", because I use poisons in my games. A lot - like more than all the other game masters combined. And with more variety in effects than any of the other D&D-style DM's use. So, I thought I'd compile the poisons I've used in my recent games, and share them with you all.

Sorry if the formatting feels too "modern", but that's what makes it easiest for me to reference on my netbook while playing at the table.

Poisons.pdf

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[MedievalMan]

Looks good. I like simpler formatting myself. Just give me the information and to heck with your fancy type-set.

[SmootRK]

Some really great ideas in there.

I would perhaps do things differently than the 1/2 HP thing... maybe something like a CON threshold (meaning elderly and/or kids would be more susceptible, or those with sub-par overall health (less than 11 or something like that).

I would also have liked to see the 'optional Poison rule' (mentioned in the core rules) of incremental damage over time combined with this. Poisons in the real world don't generally kill in just a few moments (with a few exceptions), but instead cause damage over time.

That all said, I love the names and some of the secondary type effects you have come up with.

[Joe the Rat]

damaging poisons, debilitating poisons, getting drunk... it's all good.

[Dimirag]

Nice, a good and simply variety of poisons. Thanks!
The "under 1/2 HP" rule its similar to one of the "next" ideas for poison and other special effects...

[Steveman]

Dimirag, The "under half" thing is one of the few things I took from D&D4, since I actually liked the Bloodied condition.

Smoot, I wanted poisons to be effective against any player character given they are caught in a bad moment.

Edit: Except for very rare circumstances, I refuse to take a player's character away from them off of a single saving throw. So you will not be seeing any save vs. poison or die effects in nay poisons I make. However, I also do not commonly tell my players this either.

[Dimirag]

I totally forgot about the "bloodied" rule.
The good thing about using Con against poison is that affect everybody's at the same rate.
The bad thing is that it can only be used against PC as monsters lack Att Nº.
The good thing of using HP is that everyone has HP!!!

Other mechanisms (that I've thought but never considered) are:
1-Poison vs Level/HD: This makes that higher level characters or stronger creatures suffers less effects against poisons.
2-Poison vs Hit Point value: A poison's effect apply according to a "HP threshold": Equal or above that value means reduced effects, lower than the value means full or extra effects.

I too don't use save or INSTANTLY die effects, but a successful ST means that the Poison works at a lesser degree (so a high level fighter won't be walking feet-naked on an angry vipers field ignoring most of the poisonous bites...)

[Steveman]

So, my players went to the apothecary's shop today, where they can purchase various poultices, salves and bandages (required if they want to have any natural healing in the wild). The old sage there said that he had recently come across a potion that was used as payment for him setting a bone and he was looking to sell it. The questioned what kind of potion it is, and the apothecary said he didn't know (he's a nice guy, willing to take an unidentified potion as payment just on word from a repeat customer). Inspection and a series of intelligence checks later they think it might be a magical Antidote (potion of Neutralize Poison without that name) and drop 350 gold to get it immediately.

What I didn't tell my players that if they had asked how much he wanted for it, he would have asked for only about 125 gold.