Poison and 30 point buy/die roll
- Thread starter BiggusGeekus
- Start date
green slime
First Post
Hej DWARF!
Your take sounds very interesting! Would you mind sharing? Got a document hidden away somewhere I can snitch?
Your take sounds very interesting! Would you mind sharing? Got a document hidden away somewhere I can snitch?
Storminator
First Post
green slime said:
Forget that!
DWARF, expand your house rules, write a section on how to work it into my game, make a up a couple of feats, flesh out a skill, write PrC, and SELL this to me!
PS
Vaxalon
First Post
1> Most poisons do not kill.
Yes, you heard me. Most poisons do not kill. Most poisons, when used on a human, merely debilitate or incapacitate. People who die of rattlesnake bite do so because they died of exposure when they couldn't get out.
It takes a buttload of arsenic or strychnine to kill someone, and usually it takes days if not weeks to deliver a fatal dose.
In this respect, the system is accurate.
2> Most poisons act slowly.
A minute later, in fact, is lightning fast. The versimilitude is lacking, but it's almost too slow to matter in most combats.
Personally, I think it works good the way it is, though some poisons ought to be more flexible than the "one minute later" model.
Alcohol, for example, needs to work differently.
Yes, you heard me. Most poisons do not kill. Most poisons, when used on a human, merely debilitate or incapacitate. People who die of rattlesnake bite do so because they died of exposure when they couldn't get out.
It takes a buttload of arsenic or strychnine to kill someone, and usually it takes days if not weeks to deliver a fatal dose.
In this respect, the system is accurate.
2> Most poisons act slowly.
A minute later, in fact, is lightning fast. The versimilitude is lacking, but it's almost too slow to matter in most combats.
Personally, I think it works good the way it is, though some poisons ought to be more flexible than the "one minute later" model.
Alcohol, for example, needs to work differently.
AFAIK, Vaxalon is right re: lethality of poisons.
However, for a canny assassin, Con poison may weaken a target sufficiently that his sneak attack takes them out. Typically, a successful sneak attack will do an equivalent of 2.5 pts of damage per total rogue/assassin level (it's a *very* crude measure, factoring in base weapon damage, magic boosts, Str and the like. Even that, it's about +/- 5 points or so).
Thus, if a Con poison can take a sorceror or wizard to 10 Con (probably a dead cert), a rogue or bard to 9 (highly likely), a cleric, druid or monk to 7 (unlikely); a paladin, fighter, ranger to 5 (highly unlikely) or a barbarian to 3 (almost impossible) then on average, one dead body.
When poison gets *nasty* is when you have multiple attacks. A bow-wielding assassin with Manyshot who get a surprise round and wins initiative, can potentially have seven sneak attacks (assumes Rapid Shot), all of which are poisoned. Sure, it's expensive, but given the amount of stuff you can get from killing high level NPCs, it's a bargain.
However, for a canny assassin, Con poison may weaken a target sufficiently that his sneak attack takes them out. Typically, a successful sneak attack will do an equivalent of 2.5 pts of damage per total rogue/assassin level (it's a *very* crude measure, factoring in base weapon damage, magic boosts, Str and the like. Even that, it's about +/- 5 points or so).
Thus, if a Con poison can take a sorceror or wizard to 10 Con (probably a dead cert), a rogue or bard to 9 (highly likely), a cleric, druid or monk to 7 (unlikely); a paladin, fighter, ranger to 5 (highly unlikely) or a barbarian to 3 (almost impossible) then on average, one dead body.
When poison gets *nasty* is when you have multiple attacks. A bow-wielding assassin with Manyshot who get a surprise round and wins initiative, can potentially have seven sneak attacks (assumes Rapid Shot), all of which are poisoned. Sure, it's expensive, but given the amount of stuff you can get from killing high level NPCs, it's a bargain.
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