Need help to "rework" poison

[Metroknight]

I use a houserule for poison

I like this a lot. May steal and adjust it a little for my next game. Thank you!

Take what you like, tweak to fit what you need, and enjoy.

[nemolomen]

Hi Everyone,

Having recently begun a campaign in Morgansfort, I've been thinking about the whole save or die poison thing too. I think its just a little too harsh and I'm inclined to modify it with a house rule.

There are some good suggestions in here and I'm thinking sort of along the lines of Dimirag's "Poison+" system above, but not quite so immediate.

Here are my criteria:

Poison should still be very dangerous and therefore scary.
The system should be simple and easy to implement and remember.
I like limiting things to groups of 3.

And my proposed implementation:

1. Any player character's body can handle less than 3 doses of "save or die" poison in their lifetime.

2. The first and second time a character fails to "save vs poison or die" results in a permanent loss of one point of Constitution, or possibly a random ability via 1d6. But I like the idea of using Con because it has the potential to make future save vs poison more likely to fail as well as other potential penalties.

3. Failing a third "save vs poison or die" results in immediate death.

Thoughts, likes, dislikes, etc...?

Thanks in advance,

nemo

[Solomoriah]

The author of the game finds it curious that you are all talking about options instead of "save or die" but none of you are mentioning the alternative in the core rules...



Metro, I like your house rule rather a lot! Wish you'd been around to suggest that when I was writing the core rules!

[Metroknight]

The author of the game finds it curious that you are all talking about options instead of "save or die" but none of you are mentioning the alternative in the core rules...



Metro, I like your house rule rather a lot! Wish you'd been around to suggest that when I was writing the core rules!

I remember this house rule from back in the 80's. It became a staple in my games over the decades and it mimics real life somewhat. Poison can kill you (to much immediate damage) or it just makes you sick (takes you down to almost 0 hp) but you recover over time (natural healing). It also gives a reason to have neutralize poison spells or potions in the game.

Some gets poisoned (gives a new dimension to the assassin class) and now the PCs have to rush get the antidote to save the person.

[nemolomen]

This is why I don't like the optional poison rule on page 152/153:

In a non-combat situation, the option of 1d6 damage for 6 rounds is not an issue. IE: opening a chest when the trap was not discovered. It can be dealt with all at once, for example, as a 6 round encounter focused on the poisoned character.

In a combat situation, however, I anticipate that at least 1 out of 3 times, I'll forget about the poison damage each round.

Should the player remind me, of course they should. Will they forget, possibly. Will they forget on purpose, maybe. In combat, I've already got a lot to think about.

I suspect, in most cases, I'll remember about the poison after combat is over. I'd like to avoid the case where a character made it through an entire 9 round combat when they may have died in the 3rd or 4th round due to the poison and now the outcome of the encounter is suspect. Do I go back and fix it or do I just let it go and hope I get it right next time?

I'd rather have poison dealt with all at once and move on from there. In my post above, at the time of saving throw failure, it's either 2 changes on the character sheet (Con -1 and 1st or 2nd poisoning mark) and move on, or its a dead character and move on.

And yes, for simplicity's sake, "save or die" poison is as quick as it gets. I just think its a "little" harsh.

Maybe, as my experience with GMing the game grows, the optional "save or die" poison rule will become a better option for me.

Or maybe I'm just over analyzing all of this and "save or die" poison is really the way to go.

[Dimirag]

I don't like "poison as damage" rules, I know almost everything work as damage, but, still... that's why I don't suggested it

nemolomen: I actually have a different rule than the one I proposed here in which I use the victim's Hit Die as a roll to know the lapse between poisoning and its effect taking place (a less severe take)

For your idea I would give 3+Con mod saves as a kind of "poison resistance points", -3 con means 0pts, which means you can't even roll a save against poison.

Fail your ST, lose 1pt
Get poisoned while no points available... funeral time

One rule my table use is: a successful save vs a poison lets you take note of that poison, future saves against it receives a +2 bonus for the rest of the day
If the save was a nat 20 you keep the bonus permanently.