Dwarf and poison.

[Minigiant]

Dwarves being immune to poison is no worse than Elves being immune to sleep and being charmed.

It's an edge case where they get to have spotlight time.

Pretty much. It is a minor thing that grants major flavor.

If it is ever overpowered then the DM is being too repetitive. C'mon how many times are PCs poisoned?

 

[RangerWickett]

I'm just concerned that it mucks with some D&D lore. I mean, it's not a huge deal, but there have been dwarf kings allegedly killed through poison. Maybe if it was 'immunity to poisons -- however, it is possible for a mage who has a sample of a dwarf's blood to enchant a poison so that it will affect that one specific dwarf.'

That would still let you assassinate dwarf kings, while leaving mainstream poison non-threatening for dwarves.

 

[Votan]

I'm just concerned that it mucks with some D&D lore. I mean, it's not a huge deal, but there have been dwarf kings allegedly killed through poison. Maybe if it was 'immunity to poisons -- however, it is possible for a mage who has a sample of a dwarf's blood to enchant a poison so that it will affect that one specific dwarf.'

That would still let you assassinate dwarf kings, while leaving mainstream poison non-threatening for dwarves.

I generally think that any D&D lore is at risk with changes to the game system. It is not hard to think of what substance actually killed a particular dwarf that was mistaken as poison (disease, magic, acid). Think of the zip line incident recently -- maybe the scorpion sting was the vector for a rare flesh-eating bacterial infection. Humans wouldn't be able to tell the difference and the dwarves might be especially freaked out as they consider scorpions as dangerous as humans consider mosquitos.

 

[Doug McCrae]

It stood out to me as way over powered. Besides does it mean that Dwarves cant get drunk?

They get drunk, but they never fall over.

 

[Brix]

+10 instead of immunity.
Otherwise even the god of poison can not harm a level 1 dwarf.
Thats ridiculous

 

[Doug McCrae]

The way I see it is, it's not really total immunity, it's just effective immunity because it works against everything within the scope of the basic rules. Beings outside the scope of these rules, like Shelob or Ungoliant or the god of poison, would affect dwarves, because the dwarf really has, say resist poison 20 (which is the same as immunity if nothing in the rules does more than 20 poison damage), but it can still be overcome by Shelob's poison 40, or the god of poison's 100.

So it is immunity, until the dwarf comes up against something that would feasibly affect him, at which point you give it a numerical value.

Alternatively, a dwarf's resistance to poison might improve as he levels up. A lvl 1 dwarf won't be facing Shelob, he'll be facing rattlesnakes and such. A level 1 dwarf is immune to rattlesnake venom. A level 10 dwarf is immune to Shelob's sting. A level 30 dwarf is immune to the god of poison. The DM only has to worry about it if a lvl 1 dwarf takes on Shelob.

 

[The Red King]

I'm not fond of any PC that starts out at level 1 with "immunity" to anything. For those type of characters it just makes certain story elements impossible. What do dwarves do - drink rattlesnake venom for breakfast and wash down dinner with freshly milked spider venom?

They have poison ivy for breakfast, poison oak for lunch, and pufferfish for dinner.

This is basically off-topic, but venom almost universally needs to be introduced to the bloodstream to have its intended effect. So, while I don't know why you would, you could actually drink rattlesnake venom for breakfast and wash it down with freshly milked spider venom (though you'd need to milk a lot of spiders to get enough to go with your cheerios)! No poison immunity required.

Don't interrupt our magical lang storys with your real world logic!

Its funny, when Eberron first came out I remember a lot of people complaining about the long list of Warforged immunities even though they came with pretty noticeable disadvantages both in and out of combat.

Because they were world-specific, and therefore the out-of-combat penalties would always exist, I was fine with them.

But all dwarves getting immunity to poison? Seems like too much. Specifically because theyre still flesh and blood creatures that have been around for centuries. You would think some of their enemies would have found a poison that works on them by now.

It is only one form of damage. And do you really think they wont come up with a magical poison that "over rides all forma of poison immunity"?

 

[Fifth Element]

+10 instead of immunity.
Otherwise even the god of poison can not harm a level 1 dwarf.
Thats ridiculous

Yes, and the god of sleep cannot harm a level 1 elf. Ridiculous.

Except by, you know, poking the elf/dwarf with its little finger, because a god's finger poke would take out any level 1 character.

Also, I reject the OP's assertion that traps "usually" involve some kind of poison.

 

[Chris_Nightwing]

I suggest that poisons be classified in some way, either by their source/type (natural, magical, demonic..) or by how deadly they are (irritation, toxin, deadly..).

In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think it would be better to use the auto-success mechanic for skill checks. Dwarves automatically save against poisons with a DC equal to or less than their Constitution.

 

[Savage Wombat]

I remember Monte pointing out that making Fire Giants (etc.) immune to fire damage guaranteed that someone would come along and make "well this fire is super-hot and damages fire creatures" spells and effects. Especially with undead and cold damage.

So someone eventually is going to invent "super-poison" that works against dwarves.

Oh, and doesn't this mean that dwarves will use poison more? Since they can't accidentally poison themselves?