D&D 3E/3.5 Mearls' 3e Drider: A Hint at 4e Status Effects?

[Scholar & Brutalman]

Mike Mearls has been putting up some 3.5e monsters on his blog. One of them is the Drider, which has an interesting mechanic for its paralyzing poison:

Drow Paralysis Poison: Fortitude save DC 18, 1 point of paralysis. Each point is –1 square movement, each 2 points is –1 attacks and AC. If points are greater than Constitution bonus + 2, save at start of turn or be paralyzed for 1 round, save every round. No secondary effects, fades in 5 minutes.

I'm guessing this might be a translation into 3e of a 4th ed status mechanic for paralysis.

 

[FireLance]

No secondary effects, fades in 5 minutes.

"Okay, fight's over. All of you who are paralyzed, take five."

 

[Nifft]

Fortitude save DC 18

Save DC?

No, -- N

 

[Cbas_10]

Drow Paralysis Poison: Fortitude save DC 18, 1 point of paralysis. Each point is –1 square movement, each 2 points is –1 attacks and AC. If points are greater than Constitution bonus + 2, save at start of turn or be paralyzed for 1 round, save every round. No secondary effects, fades in 5 minutes.

Well, it certainly is not faster and easier to handle than the 3.5 drow poison....could be tedious to handle the math of keeping track of points....adjusting movement and attack and AC while keeping aware of poison points vs. Con bonus....making saves every round....

I kinda like it, though. I don't mind the organization and bookkeeping in-game when it comes to that stuff. And, I like more detail to effects like that instead of every poison being either sleep, paralysis, or 1dX Ability damage.

Edit: Well...teaches me to wake up and post before I am really conscious yet... Looking at his blog after I posted, it is unfortunately only his homebrew drider for 3.5....Cool mechanic, though!

 

[Sammael]

It's a 3.5 monster, not 4E.

BTW, his paralysis mechanic requires way too much bookkeeping for my taste.

 

[Nikosandros]

Save DC?

It's a monster for 3.5.

 

[Scholar & Brutalman]

I know it's a monster for 3.5e. Thus my writing things like "Mike Mearls has been putting up some 3.5e monsters on his blog" and "a translation into 3e of a 4th ed status mechanic" in the initial post...

I posted it because it looks like a new mechanic that we haven't seen in 3.5 before, and we know Mearls is one of the designers for 4e.

 

[FireLance]

Well, it certainly is not faster and easier to handle than the 3.5 drow poison....could be tedious to handle the math of keeping track of points....adjusting movement and attack and AC while keeping aware of poison points vs. Con bonus....making saves every round....

The point of this mechanic is probably not simplicity, though. It's to prevent the poison from immediately paralyzing a PC and effectively making the player sit out a fight (whether or not you agree with this philosophy is another matter). As for the adjustments to movement, attacks and AC, this could be a 3.5e way of modeling what will be a condition track (similar to that in Star Wars Saga Edition) in 4e.

 

[Nifft]

D'oh! I read that as porting. Like, moving them from 3.5e (and presumably into 4e).

Back to sleep, -- N

 

[Pinotage]

It's a 3.5 monster, not 4E.

BTW, his paralysis mechanic requires way too much bookkeeping for my taste.

Yes, agreed. It's very clumsy - far too much bookkeeping. While I can imagine a scale for a condition, having one for each condition is just a pain. 3 Points on the fatique scale, 2 points on the paralysis scale, 5 points on the stunned scale - ugh!

I sincerely hope this is just a 3.5e monster and stays that way.

Pinotage