Revision as of 20:19, 22 June 2010

When a character is wounded with a poisoned weapon, breathes in a poisonous gas, eats a poisoned piece of food, or touches a poisoned wall, she must make a fortitude saving throw. Failure indicates that she has been poisoned.

After the failure, the poison waits for a certain period (though some are immediate) before coming into effect. After this period, the character takes the effects of the poison at intervals determined by the poison until they make their fortitude save, have a successful Heal check made on them (with a proper medical kit, otherwise it takes a -6), or die/become comatose, depending on the poison.

Certain poisons have a maximum amount of damage that they can deal, and that is noted in their descriptions.

Most damage from poisons is recovered at the normal rate, but sometimes it is permanent.

Delivery

There are four methods of getting poisoned. Generally applying a poison to an object takes 4 AP and leaves you Open.

Contact Merely touching this type of poison necessitates a saving throw. It can be actively delivered via a weapon. Even if a creature has sufficient damage reduction (or Armor) to avoid taking any damage from the attack, the poison can still affect it. A chest or other object can be smeared with contact poison as part of a trap. Many like to smear a glove with this type of poison to make touch attacks with it.

Ingested If you eat or drink it, you are poisoned. They are generally designed to become invisible and tasteless after being applied to food or drink. One of these can easily be given to a Unconscious or Helpless character.

Inhaled One dose, held in a vial or eggshell, spreads to fill the volume of a 10-foot cube. Each creature within the area must make a saving throw. (Holding one’s breath is ineffective against inhaled poisons; they affect the nasal membranes, tear ducts, and other parts of the body.)

Injury This poison must be delivered through a wound. If a creature has sufficient damage reduction (or Armor) to avoid taking any damage from the attack, the poison does not affect it. If the damage is converted in any way by armor, then the poison is not effective. Though bludgeoning weapons do not create open wounds, they do enough for the purpose of this type of poison.

Table: Poisons

Applying Poison

When applying a Contact or Injury poison, there is always a 5% chance that the character will accidentally poison themselves. Poison Use negates this.

Additionally, rolling a natural 1 on an attack with a poisoned weapon has a 50% chance of poisoning yourself, regardless of feats like Poison Use.

Poison on a Weapon

Weapons take up to one dose of poison at a time. A successful attack, even if it deals no damage due to DR or Armor, removes the poison. Applying more poison costs 4 AP and leaves you open, as above. Theoretically a weapon could be built to hold more poison in some sort of reservoir, but this would cost extra, have a higher craft DC, and would generally have to be custom-made.

Spikes on a shield or armor may be poisoned similarly. Shield bashes are effective for transferring poison as well.

Injury poison applied to unarmed strikes poisons both the attacker and the target on a successful hit, and naturally contact poison poisons the attacker. Either may be applied to gloves, however, which may then be worn while making unarmed attacks.

Poison Creation

If not otherwise mentioned, Poisons can generally be created with a Craft (Alchemy) check equal to their DC or a Survival check equal to their DC + 5.