Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
5E: Pick Your Poison
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="slobster" data-source="post: 5913491" data-attributes="member: 6693711"><p>I like your idea, though I don't share your aversion to ongoing damage. Not all poison needs to deal ongoing damage, not even most. But I wouldn't mind seeing ongoing poison damage as often as you see, say, ongoing fire or cold damage.</p><p></p><p>Also having poison as a "flavor" of damage a la cold, fire, acid etc. does not mean that you can't have poisons that put someone to sleep or paralyze them. It just means that you have a standardized way of dealing with potentially lethal poisons that doesn't have the bookkeeping problems that ability damage does, or the swinginess (spellcheck tells me that isn't a word) of death effects.</p><p></p><p>So a poison could be:</p><p>Deathroot (+6 vs Con)</p><p>3d6 poison damage</p><p></p><p>Or it could be:</p><p>Fugu (+10 vs Con)</p><p>target is paralyzed for 2d4 rounds</p><p></p><p>Or it could be:</p><p>Black Lotus (+10 vs Con)</p><p>Ongoing 3d6 poison damage (save ends)</p><p></p><p>With poisons like this, you could hand them out with treasure like potions and other consumables. They wouldn't generally be available in shops, but certain underground contacts could get them for you, and certain character themes would increase your access to such dubious merchants. You could also include some info in the MM on how to harvest certain poisons from certain monsters, to sell or to use. I think a chance of self-poisoning for untrained would-be poisoners might be fun, but I'd need to playtest it to be sure.</p><p></p><p>Thus they could be available from first level, like scrolls and other consumables are handled in 3.X. They are rare enough that you don't pop them in every encounter, but you get to use them at least every session. You might run into the problem of high level characters stocking up on poisons, though, and with the flatter math I don't know if you could have level-based obsolescence as monsters and characters outgrow the poison DCs. . . </p><p></p><p>Just a thought.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="slobster, post: 5913491, member: 6693711"] I like your idea, though I don't share your aversion to ongoing damage. Not all poison needs to deal ongoing damage, not even most. But I wouldn't mind seeing ongoing poison damage as often as you see, say, ongoing fire or cold damage. Also having poison as a "flavor" of damage a la cold, fire, acid etc. does not mean that you can't have poisons that put someone to sleep or paralyze them. It just means that you have a standardized way of dealing with potentially lethal poisons that doesn't have the bookkeeping problems that ability damage does, or the swinginess (spellcheck tells me that isn't a word) of death effects. So a poison could be: Deathroot (+6 vs Con) 3d6 poison damage Or it could be: Fugu (+10 vs Con) target is paralyzed for 2d4 rounds Or it could be: Black Lotus (+10 vs Con) Ongoing 3d6 poison damage (save ends) With poisons like this, you could hand them out with treasure like potions and other consumables. They wouldn't generally be available in shops, but certain underground contacts could get them for you, and certain character themes would increase your access to such dubious merchants. You could also include some info in the MM on how to harvest certain poisons from certain monsters, to sell or to use. I think a chance of self-poisoning for untrained would-be poisoners might be fun, but I'd need to playtest it to be sure. Thus they could be available from first level, like scrolls and other consumables are handled in 3.X. They are rare enough that you don't pop them in every encounter, but you get to use them at least every session. You might run into the problem of high level characters stocking up on poisons, though, and with the flatter math I don't know if you could have level-based obsolescence as monsters and characters outgrow the poison DCs. . . Just a thought. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
5E: Pick Your Poison
Top