Do you guys pay attention to poison and potion onset times?

[R_J_K75]

A dungeon I ran a while back has a fun similar surprise with cockatrice eggs.

Cockatrices are always fun. Have the PCs come across a bunch of petrified adventurers and most likely the players will immediately think Medusae. Sometimes it's so easy to lead the players astray.

 

[Mannahnin]

Cockatrices are always fun. Have the PCs come across a bunch of petrified adventurers and most likely the players will immediately think Medusae. Sometimes it's so easy to lead the players astray.

That dungeon has both, in different areas, so guess and double-guess!

 

[R_J_K75]

That dungeon has both, in different areas, so guess and double-guess!

Which dungeon is it?

 

[Mannahnin]

Which dungeon is it?

Dyson's Delve.

 

[Lanefan]

I use onset times for poisons but not in any formal way, and potions always take effect in the same round (but maybe not the same segment) they are consumed.

One thing to note about poison in 1e: the Slow Poison spell, as written, could and would take effect even if the victim was already dead from the poison provided the death occurred less than 10 minutes (one turn) ago per level of the casting Cleric. (I suspect this one might qualify under the "Obscure Rules Often Ignored" heading...)

What this often meant in practice was that even though someone might die from poison during a combat a Slow Poison --> Neutralize Poison sequence applied relatively soon afterward would fix it.

 

[Piperken]

So anyway, those of you who still play older editions or OSR games, do you care use onset time? Do you find it fun, or just unnecessary bookkeeping? Is it even used in modern OSR games? (I swear, I can barely find anything on poisons in WWN in the first place)

While I am not actively playing in OSR/older edition space; it'd seem that onset times for poisons would be quite helpful to know and keep track of in the case of a investigative/mystery situation. :3

 

[JEB]

Kinda funny that D&D went from a single (and not clearly explained) save-or-die poison in OD&D, to a proliferation of fiddly poison types in AD&D, back to just a single poisoned condition (plus poison damage type) in 5e. History may not repeat, but it certainly rhymes.

 

[el-remmen]

My group used speed factors from 1989 to 2000 when we switched to 3e. But then again we also used weapon type vs. armor type.

 

[Mannahnin]

Kinda funny that D&D went from a single (and not clearly explained) save-or-die poison in OD&D, to a proliferation of fiddly poison types in AD&D, back to just a single poisoned condition (plus poison damage type) in 5e. History may not repeat, but it certainly rhymes.

As a fun little bit of trivia, the text of the original 1974 rules actually implies that some poisons may do damage rather than just kill outright. See the explanatory text on saving throws on pages 20-21 of Men & Magic, which references "poison scoring one-half of the total possible hit damage". The OD&D monster rules just didn't happen to include any monsters whose poison did HP damage.

 

[rgard]

Don't forget this....