Justin D. Jacobson
First Post
(Cross-posted from the Scramble)
The centerpiece of Poisoncraft: Codex Venenorum, Ed. IV is the free-form poison creation system. Scaling poison damage is a simple affair. However, most poisons have a condition component in addition to the damage component, e.g., ongoing 5 poison damage and weakened. Establishing a hierarchy for conditions and evaluating their interconnection is more complicated. Therein, lies one of the more interesting design challenges of the forthcoming Codex.
Conditions cover the full spectrum. Some conditions scale inherently, and some scale poorly or not at all. And sometimes this isn’t obvious. A character who is weakened deals half damage whether their performing a simple stab to the face or unleashing a fusillade of arrows to each enemy in range, whether their dealing 1d6 damage or 20d6. That would seem to scale rather obviously. However, at higher levels of play, characters are able to produce significantly greater effects than merely dealing damage. Thus, weakened becomes less problematic; it does not scale perfectly.
As part of my work, I did a thorough examination of all of the conditions in the PHB. Below is a portion of the work, including some of my thoughts on each. In addition to some insight on the Codex, you might find the analysis useful in your own creations, e.g., a new creature or magic item.
Blinded: This includes a typical parcel of effects, i.e., granting combat advantage and being unable to flank. The Perception penalty should not be overlooked (see, deafened), but it’s less relevant since the condition itself grants combat advantage. Notably, all of your targets have total concealment. Normally, this does not affect close and area attacks. However, it is important to consider that some such powers specifically require that the character be able to see the target—look at virtually all of the close powers of the fighter, ranger, and rogue. This condition can be highly problematic. Definitively paragon tier (the rogue’s blinding barrage daily power being the exception that proves the rule).
Dazed: Another CA/no-flank condition. This one also strips an action from the victim. However, that effect is tempered by access to action points. Similarly, with at least one action available, the victim can still seek refuge or otherwise defend to prevent the multiplicative effect of some, more-onerous conditions. Notably, many heroic-tier powers cause the dazed condition, e.g., cleric’s wrathful thunder, wizard’s chill strike, etc. Heroic tier.
Deafened: Much less onerous than blinded, for obvious reasons. Indeed, the deafness can occasionally be a boon, e.g., vs. a harpy. Still, the penalty to Perception is comically large, to the point where it is supposed to make the character fail in all but the most extreme cases. Failing a Perception check in combat is principally relevant for one reason: using Stealth to gain combat advantage. In essence, the condition grants combat advantage. Still, deafened is relatively easier to deal with. Interestingly, none of the core PHB classes have abilities that cause the deafened condition, but still easy to slot as heroic tier.
Dominated: Not generally applicable to poison since it specifically assumes a third-party actor, i.e., the dominating creature. I could conceive of a poison that, say, made the victim impressionable, which allowed a person to make a Diplomacy or Intimidate check to dominate until the end of the turn or something like that. A little too kludgy for my tastes.
Dying: On the one hand, this seems inherently scalable. Essentially, it deals damage equal to your hit point level. However, it’s still an incredibly damaging, and thus potent, effect in any case. Additionally, more than many of the other conditions, it is far easier for epic-level characters to deal with dying. The Heal check to stabilize is a flat DC15, which is essentially automatic in the epic tier. Also see the life charm in AV.
Helpless: This is a one-trick pony, and its name is coup de grace. The CDG is even more potent than dying. Where the latter provides a clock in the form of death saves, the former opens the possibility to immediate death—difficult to pull of, but still possible. Epic tier.
Immobilized: One of the less impactful conditions, this one doesn’t scale very well. At higher levels, alternate methods of movement, specifically teleportation, are more common. Heroic tier.
Marked: Like dominated, not generally applicable to poison. Again, it’s possible to come up with a way of using it, but….
Petrified: This is an interesting one. In a general sense, it’s not nearly as bad as the other take-no-action conditions as a result of the damage resistance. In other words, the target is unlikely to suffer additional harm of serious consequence. The problem of course arises due to the fact that, in most instances, petrified is a permanent condition. A poison with “petrified (save ends)” is not as detrimental as dying, helpless, or unconscious. However, it’s still obviously more problematic than other conditions that merely limit the actions of the target. I peg this one as epic tier, if on the low end.
Prone: This is an odd one because it’s not a condition so much as a position, like kneeling or standing on tippy-toes. However, like an inverse example of petrified, we can play around with how the condition is used. Consider: “prone (save ends)”. And don’t forget the errata (which clarifies the movement restrictions when prone). In any case, it’s a minimally complicating condition. Heroic tier.
Restrained: Obviously, simply a more dramatic example of immobilized. Paragon tier.
Slowed: Easily one of the least complicating conditions—probably the single least complicating. Quintessentially heroic tier.
Stunned/Surprised: If you didn’t catch the errata, you don’t realize that these two conditions are now identical. Here we have the CA/no-flank combo with a take-no-action effect as well. This is essentially a middle ground between the limiting conditions of heroic tier and the more lethal conditions of epic tier. Thus, paragon tier.
Unconscious: Just another flavor of helpless. “Helpless-plus” if you will. The rogue’s 9th-level knockout power is, again, the exception that proves the rule. Indeed, compare it to the 15th-level garrote grip power. Easily epic tier.
Weakened: The ultimate auto-scaler, weakened is minimally problematic. Along with slowed, quintessentially heroic-tier.
And, in comments, I posted my three additional comments:
EXHAUSTED
* You are slowed.
* You are weakened.
* You can’t flank an enemy.
This condition serves as a good paragon-tier condition extension of both slowed and weakened (and even prone for that matter). This is helpful for the poison creation rules. For example, spider poisons generally cause the weakened condition (Strength damage in 3e). That’s great for a heroic-tier spider poison. When I’m creating a paragon- or epic-tier spider poison, I don’t want it to just cause the weakened condition, which is too weak for those levels.
MUTED
* You can’t speak.
* You take a -5 penalty to skill checks that require the target to hear you, e.g., Diplomacy, Intimidate, etc.
* You can’t use powers that require the target to hear you, e.g., the ranger’s skilled companion power, the warlord’s Combat Leader class feature, etc.
This is an obvious addition to the blinded/deafened set, and I think it might actually have some interesting implications at the game table. Heroic tier.
NAUSEATED
* You are slowed.
* You can’t take standard actions.
* You can’t attack.
* You take a -2 penalty to all defenses.
This is the one I’m most hesitant about. Principally, I created it for thematic reasons. Stunned, weakened, etc. are viable substitutions for a sickening effect, but they don’t work thematically. Additionally, I wanted another solid paragon-tier condition. (Paragon-tier conditions are helpful because they easily serve all three tiers, i.e., potent heroic-tier poisons, average paragon-tier poisons, and weaker epic-tier poisons.)
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I do think there's an awful lot of interesting things you can do with Failed Save, First Failed Save, Second Failed Save, from a poison mechanic standpoint, though.
