airwalkrr
Adventurer
In the interest of making poison a little less all-or-nothing affairs in which only the initial effect usually matters, I came up with a house rule that requires you to save against poison every round but still has the same average damage as the poisons in existence as they are now.
First, to determine how much damage poison deals per round, use the number of damage dice the poison normally uses. Combine both initial and secondary damage for this purpose. Thus, wyvern poison, which deals 2d6 Con initial damage and 2d6 Con secondary damage, deals a total of 4 dice of damage, so the poison deals 4 Con per round on a failed save. Second, to determine the duration of the poison, use what was previously the damage die as a duration die instead. In the previous example, one would roll 1d6 to determine the duration of the poison. A roll of '2' would indicate that the poison remains in the victim's blood stream for 2 rounds, meaning the victim would need to make 2 saving throws over 2 rounds and that each failure would cause 4 points of Con damage. The only poisons that have a delayed result are those that have no initial effect already such as oil of taggit or bloodroot; these work normally.
This house rule makes poison a bit more exciting. On one hand, poison is not as powerful initially. But on the other hand, if a character does not receive aid quickly, it could end up being worse than the current rules set in which most battles are over before one minute and secondary effects are never felt. Parties with characters skilled in Heal or capable of casting delay poison, neutralize poison, and the like will typically feel even fewer effects from poison whereas those without might find themselves needing to carry around potions of such spells because poison is something that they cannot wait until the end of a battle to deal with.
First, to determine how much damage poison deals per round, use the number of damage dice the poison normally uses. Combine both initial and secondary damage for this purpose. Thus, wyvern poison, which deals 2d6 Con initial damage and 2d6 Con secondary damage, deals a total of 4 dice of damage, so the poison deals 4 Con per round on a failed save. Second, to determine the duration of the poison, use what was previously the damage die as a duration die instead. In the previous example, one would roll 1d6 to determine the duration of the poison. A roll of '2' would indicate that the poison remains in the victim's blood stream for 2 rounds, meaning the victim would need to make 2 saving throws over 2 rounds and that each failure would cause 4 points of Con damage. The only poisons that have a delayed result are those that have no initial effect already such as oil of taggit or bloodroot; these work normally.
This house rule makes poison a bit more exciting. On one hand, poison is not as powerful initially. But on the other hand, if a character does not receive aid quickly, it could end up being worse than the current rules set in which most battles are over before one minute and secondary effects are never felt. Parties with characters skilled in Heal or capable of casting delay poison, neutralize poison, and the like will typically feel even fewer effects from poison whereas those without might find themselves needing to carry around potions of such spells because poison is something that they cannot wait until the end of a battle to deal with.
