rushlight
Roll for Initiative!
I originally posted this in the Rules forum, but it probably should have gone here... Anyway here goes.
I was wondering how others deal with the Poison rules in the DMG. I don't particularly like the fact that every poison in the known universe lasts exactly 1 minute. (Or at least, that's how the rules make it appear...) Under the current system, poison is rarely relevent in combat, as most combats last fewer than 10 rounds. Therefore, the only thing poison really does is deal it's initial damage, so it's more like a regular attack and less like an ongoing problem.
Here's the way we deal with it, but I was interested in getting other's opinions on alternate methods as well as how you think this works.
1) Find the Increment and Max damage of the poison. The Max damage is the maximum amount of damage that can be done by the poison. Small Centipede poison for example is 2/2 Dex (1d2 initial and 1d2 secondary), or Insanity Mist is 4/12 Wis (1d4 initial and 2d12 secondary). The increment is the number of the dice rolled to find the damage. Small Centipede would be 1/1 (the first 1 from the 1d2 intial, and the second 1 from the 1d2 secondary), or Insanity Mist would be 1/2 (from the 1d4 initial and the 2d12 secondary).
2) Roll Fort save every round once the poison is active. For every failed save, you lose the increment from the relevent stat. So if you were infected with Small Centipede poison, and you failed your roll you'd lose 1 Dex (the first increment). On the next round, if you failed again, you'd lose the increment again, and so on until the Max for the initial damage is taken. Once the max from the initial is taken, move on to the initial from the Secondary. If for example, you were infected with Insanity Mist and you failed all of your first 4 saving throws, you would have taken 4 points of Wis damage. On your 5th roll, you would lose 2 Wis points, the secondary increment. Since you've taken all the initial damage, you would continue taking the secondary damage until all of that damage had been taken. Once all damage is taken, the poison has run it's course. Passed saving throws mean nothing occurs, and could stop the poison altogether.
3) Of course, it's possible to save out before taking all the damage from a poison. If you pass two consecutive saves in a row, then you have proven resistant to that poison, and take no further damage from that poison at all. Of course you could get re-poisoned...
4) Last, posions that have specific effects (like Paralysed or Unconscious) simply causes those effects. Poisons that have an effect of '0' means that after the initial saving throw, either one minute passes before the next saving throw (if the '0' is initial damage) or that the poison has no further effects (if the '0' is secondary damage).
So, you can see that these rules can be a tad cumbersome, but once you get the flow it brings back the feel of poison. It becomes an ongoing effect that is important every round. Anyone have a better plan that keeps the ongoing feel of poison?
I was wondering how others deal with the Poison rules in the DMG. I don't particularly like the fact that every poison in the known universe lasts exactly 1 minute. (Or at least, that's how the rules make it appear...) Under the current system, poison is rarely relevent in combat, as most combats last fewer than 10 rounds. Therefore, the only thing poison really does is deal it's initial damage, so it's more like a regular attack and less like an ongoing problem.
Here's the way we deal with it, but I was interested in getting other's opinions on alternate methods as well as how you think this works.
1) Find the Increment and Max damage of the poison. The Max damage is the maximum amount of damage that can be done by the poison. Small Centipede poison for example is 2/2 Dex (1d2 initial and 1d2 secondary), or Insanity Mist is 4/12 Wis (1d4 initial and 2d12 secondary). The increment is the number of the dice rolled to find the damage. Small Centipede would be 1/1 (the first 1 from the 1d2 intial, and the second 1 from the 1d2 secondary), or Insanity Mist would be 1/2 (from the 1d4 initial and the 2d12 secondary).
2) Roll Fort save every round once the poison is active. For every failed save, you lose the increment from the relevent stat. So if you were infected with Small Centipede poison, and you failed your roll you'd lose 1 Dex (the first increment). On the next round, if you failed again, you'd lose the increment again, and so on until the Max for the initial damage is taken. Once the max from the initial is taken, move on to the initial from the Secondary. If for example, you were infected with Insanity Mist and you failed all of your first 4 saving throws, you would have taken 4 points of Wis damage. On your 5th roll, you would lose 2 Wis points, the secondary increment. Since you've taken all the initial damage, you would continue taking the secondary damage until all of that damage had been taken. Once all damage is taken, the poison has run it's course. Passed saving throws mean nothing occurs, and could stop the poison altogether.
3) Of course, it's possible to save out before taking all the damage from a poison. If you pass two consecutive saves in a row, then you have proven resistant to that poison, and take no further damage from that poison at all. Of course you could get re-poisoned...
4) Last, posions that have specific effects (like Paralysed or Unconscious) simply causes those effects. Poisons that have an effect of '0' means that after the initial saving throw, either one minute passes before the next saving throw (if the '0' is initial damage) or that the poison has no further effects (if the '0' is secondary damage).
So, you can see that these rules can be a tad cumbersome, but once you get the flow it brings back the feel of poison. It becomes an ongoing effect that is important every round. Anyone have a better plan that keeps the ongoing feel of poison?
