Poison
Poison This is an all-too-frequent hazard faced by player characters. Bites, stings, deadly potions, drugged wines, and bad food all await characters at the hands of malevolent wizards, evil assassins, hideous monsters, and incompetent innkeepers. Spiders, snakes, centipedes, scorpions, wyverns, and some giant frogs all have poisons deadly to characters. Wise heroes quickly learn to respect and fear such creatures.
The strength of different poisons varies wildly and is frequently overestimated. The bite of the greatly feared black widow spider kills a victim in the United States once every other year. Only about 2% of all rattlesnake bites prove fatal.
At the other extreme, there are natural poisons of intense lethality. Fortunately, such poisons tend to be exotic and rare - the golden arrow-poison frog, the western taipan snake, and the stone fish all produce highly deadly poisons.
Further, the effect of a poison depends on how it is delivered. Most frequently, it must be injected into the bloodstream by bite or sting. Other poisons are effective only if swallowed; assassins favor these for doctoring food. By far the most deadly variety, however, is contact poison, which need only touch the skin.
Poison making is accessed on a variety of levels and through a variety of skills.
- Herbalism: Allows for the collection of ingredients (herbs) and the brewing of Class A, G, and H poisons.
- Brewing: Required to make more intense poisons.
- Venom Handling: Allows for the proper cautions when handling toxins (reducing potential negative effects) of any sort and the development of antidotes (requires herbalism, toxicology, and poison craft to develop antidotes for the same levels of toxins). Requires brewing.
- Toxicology: Allows for the creation of any generic poisons (A-P), given the correct materials.
- Poison Craft: Allows the creation of “unique” poisons. Requires herbalism, toxicology, and brewing.
- Animal Handling: Allows for the collection of poison from live animals in a controlled environment.
- Animal Rending: Allows for collection of raw poison from dead animals in the wild.
Method: The method is the new way in which the poison must normally be used to have full effect. Injected and ingested have no effect on contact. Contact poisons have full effect even if swallowed or injected, since both are forms of contact. Injected or ingested poisons have half their normal effect if administered in the opposite manner, resulting in the save damage being applied if the saving throw is failed and no damage occurring if the saving throw is successful.
Onset: Most poisons require time to work their way through the system to reach the areas they affect. Onset is the time that elapses before the poison's effect is felt. The effect of immediate poisons is felt at the instant the poison is applied.
Strength: The number before the slash lists the hit points of damage suffered if the saving throw is failed. The number after the slash lists the damage taken (if any) if the saving throw is successful. Where "death" is listed, all hit points are immediately lost, killing the victim. Note that in some cases a character may roll a successful saving throw and still die from the hit point loss.
Not all poisons need cause damage. Two other common effects of poison are to paralyze or debilitate a victim.
Paralytic poisons leave the character unable to move for 2d6 hours. His body is limp, making it difficult for others to move him. The character suffers no other ill effects from the poison, but his condition can lead to quite a few problems for his companions.
Debilitating poisons weaken the character for 1d3 days. All of the character's ability scores are reduced by half during this time. All appropriate adjustments to attack rolls, damage, Armor Class, etc., from the lowered ability scores are applied during the course of the illness. In addition, the character moves at one-half his normal movement rate. Finally, the character cannot heal by normal or magical means until the poison is neutralized or the duration of the debilitation is elapsed.
Preserving PoisonsWhen characters slay a foe who uses a poison which is created in its body, such as a giant scorpion or spider, the poison can be extracted by making a successful Animal Rending check. The number of doses depends largely upon the creature the poison came from, but usually around 2d4 doses can be extracted from a medium sized creature and 2d6 from a large creature.
These poisons however are only usable for 2 to 8 days before they became stagnant and lose their effect. A character with poison craft can create a serum to preserve these poisons at a cost of 150 per dose.
Treating Poison VictimsFortunately, there are many ways a character can be treated for poison. Several spells exist that either slow the onset time, enabling the character the chance to get further treatment, or negate the poison entirely.
However, cure spells (including heal) do not negate the progress of a poison, and the neutralize poison spell doesn't recover hit points already lost to the effects of poison. In addition, characters with the herbalism proficiency can take steps to reduce the danger poison presents to player characters.
A character practiced in the art of venom handling can detect poison in a poisoned victim as if by magical means; that is, if the poison has been especially prepared so it is difficult to detect except by magical means, a character with the venom handling proficiency could detect it with a successful proficiency check made at -4.
The time needed to determine the nature of a poison takes the poisons original creation time x 0.05, and the proficiency check is made at the proficiency penalties needed to create the poison with an additional -2.
Once the poisons nature has been determined, a cure can be made taking twice as long as it took to prepare the poison with the same proficiency check as needed to identify the poison.
A character who knows the art of venom handling can prepare a serum for a poison based only on its class, eg: sleep, paralysis, etc. This serum will give the victim of most poisons (costing less that 5,000) a second saving throw. The second saving throw is made at a penalty of the poisons cost/500 , rounding fractions down. Such serums are often made before they are needed, and have a cost of 300. A serum can be made to give a second saving throw for any class of poison at a cost of 1500, known as ‘Universal Antidote’.
Creating New PoisonsIf you want to make your own poison, you must decide its basic capabilities. Use the guide that follows.
- The preparation time is Cost x 0.01 hours (round fractions up).
- The cost of the ingredients is one third of the Total Cost.
- The costs indicated here will produce one batch (1d4 doses/1 vial)
Poisons may be brewed that are more or less powerful than normal. If you wish to brew a less effective poison, decide the bonus to the saving throw vs. poison that the victim receives, up to +7. For each +1 to the save, reduce the brewing time by 10%.
Poison CostsThe following tables and text gives information on poison costs and effects. The costs shown below are used in many aspects of the poison creation process, but one unit roughly equates to one gold piece as used in the costing system in the Players Handbook.
Poison TypesIngested poisons: These are poisonous substances in a liquid or powder form that are only dangerous when swallowed. Normally they are added to food or drink. Occasionally characters use them as missiles and attempt to throw the poison containers into the mouths of monsters (as detailed below). Ingestive poison comes in one-dose containers - about 4 oz. apiece. -This type of poison, in comparison to the others, is relatively inexpensive. Generally, they have a long onset time, and some damage is done even if a saving throw is successful.
Most ingestive powders placed in food or drink leave telltale signs. These signs, no matter how slight, give the targeted creature a chance to detect the poison before he is affected (as detailed below).
Each type of “generic” poison (AAA, C, S, etc.), has three different strengths, for which are given various adjustments on the victims saving throw (See the Ingestive poison table; Appendices #). Most unique poisons (named poisons) have a single, set strength.
Ingestive poisons have different characteristics, making some fairly easy to detect, while others are nearly colorless, odorless, and tasteless. Generally, ingestive poisons of relatively weaker potency are easier to detect.
The chance to detect poisoned food, if actively searching for the poison, is usually twice as great as the chance to accidentally discover poisoned food or drink. The intelligence of the person or creature being poisoned is also a factor in being able to detect the poison, as spelled out in the following paragraph. The more intelligent the creature, the more likely it is to notice and wonder about a slight change in the taste of food.
| Creature's Intelligence | Bonus/Penalty |
|---|---|
| Non- | -40% |
| animal (score of 1) | -30% |
| semi-intelligent (2-4) | -20% |
| low (5-7) | -10% |
| average intelligence (8-10) | 0 |
| very intelligent (11-12) | +5% |
| high intelligence (13-14) | +10% |
| exceptional (15-16) | +15% |
| genius (17-18) | +20% |
| supra-genius (19-20) | +30% |
| Godlike (21+) | +40% |
Any creature that has encountered the same poison before, regardless of intelligence, gains an additional 25% to detect. (Treat all results of 0% or less as no chance to detect, and all results of 100% or more as automatic detection.)
Injected poisons: Also known as blade venom, these poisons are also used to coat weapons such as darts, arrowheads and javelins. Envenomed blunt weapons are not very effective. Injected poison is bought in 4-oz. doses, and comes in three forms; liquid, oil, or as a thick resin-like paste.
Injected poisons are usually water-based, and can be washed off. However, prolonged use of this poison can be dangerous. Each time an envenomed weapon is sheathed or unsheathed and during every round the weapon is used in combat, there is a chance, depending on the wielder's dexterity, that the character could be nicked by his own weapon and affected by his own poison. If a character using blade venom is determined to have nicked himself accidentally, then a normal saving throw vs. poison is required - and accidental poisoning does count as one full usage of the poison (see below).
When a character draws an envenomed weapon, in every round when the weapon is being used, and when a character puts the weapon back in its sheath or scabbard, the DM should roll to see if accidental poisoning occurs. The chance is:
| Dex. Score | Chance of Poisoning |
|---|---|
| 3 or less | 15% |
| 4 | 12% |
| 5-9 | 9% |
| 15-16 | 3% |
| 17-18 | 2% |
| 19+ | 1% |
Each vial of Injected poison is assumed to be about 6 oz., and each vial holds 6 doses and can coat a number of different types of weapons; in some cases, multiple doses are required to completely cover a blade. The table below should be used as a general guide:
| Weapon | Dose |
|---|---|
| Dart | 1 |
| Arrow | 1.5 |
| Dagger | 2 |
| Pole arm | 3 |
| Hand ax | 3 |
| Spear head | 3 |
| Short sword | 6 (1 vial) |
| Scimitar | 6 (1 vial) |
| Broad sword | 9 (1 vial) |
| Long sword | 9 (1 vial) |
| Bastard sword | 12 (2 vials) |
| 2 Hd. sword | 18 (3 vials) |
Any weapon that requires one dose or less to be fully envenomed must be completely covered, or it will provide no poison damage whatsoever. For weapons that require more than one dose to fully coat them (i.e., the broad sword through the 2-handed sword), partial coating does the following:
- If less than half of the blade is covered, the weapon is so ineffectively envenomed that the poison will have no effect.
- If half or more of the blade is coated, but it is not completely covered, the victim of a hit from this weapon gains an additional +4 on his saving throw, and the poison will be used up after just one hit (or evaporated after one full day).
On normal weapons (steel or iron, not magical), injected poison evaporates quickly; on the first day the poison is in use, very little evaporates and it does full damage. After one full day, evaporation loss takes its toll, and the poison does only half damage.
After two full days, the poison and its extra damage are completely gone. Each hit on an opponent by an envenomed weapon has the same effect as one day of evaporation: The first hit does full damage, the second hit half damage, and the third hit no damage. No damage would occur from the poison after partial evaporation and partial usage (such as after one full day and one hit). Partially evaporated or used E, F, G, or S injected poisons would not give half damage (what would be a half-death?), but instead the victim receives a bonus of +4 on his saving throw.
As stated in the Players Handbook (First Edition, page 29), "Poisoned weapons used run the risk of being noticed by others". Normal envenomed weapons have a 10% cumulative chance per round of being noticed.
Contact: This form of poison will effect a creature just by coming in contact with the poison. This is one of the most expensive and dangerous forms. NOTE: This form of poison is easily bypassed by thick gloves. Contact poisons are prepared in one-dose applications (a six oz. vial is considered a single “dose”).
Gas: This form of poison is very dangerous. It will effect EVERYTHING within range. You will have to pay a pretty gold piece for any alchemist to add an oxidizing agent to a poison and it's EXPENSIVE to ask someone to risk their life for that. The normal effect is a sealed vial which when broken will produce a 20' x 20' x 20' cloud of gas. Poison gases are packaged in single dose vials.
Inhalants: These poisons are similar to poison gases. Inhalants are usually powders and can be hurled in vials, expelled in capsule form from a blow tube (range: twenty feet), or dispersed into the air by hand (range: 5 feet. This is a risky proposition and could result in the user having to make as saving throw vs. his own poison). Inhalants are commonly packaged in waxed paper packets, one application per packet, although other arrangements can be made.
Antidotes: Antidotes are available if a sample of the poison is made available. The antidote usually cost 120% of the purchase price of the poison. Antidotes take approximately one week to create, and must be administered within 2 rounds of the poison’s onset to be effective. If no sample of the toxin is available, one can be distilled from a blood sample, but that will take approximately a month and a 1,000 extra gold (by then it's too late anyway).
Creature SizeThe size of a creature to be affected by a poison is a factor. Creatures of size L or greater gain a bonus of +1 for each category beyond M.
| Creature Size | Bonus/Penalty |
|---|---|
| Tiny | -2 |
| Small | -1 |
| Man-sized | 0 |
| Large | +1 |
| Giant | +2 |
| Huge | +3 |
Elves and half-elves can be put to sleep by these poisons. They do not get to roll their resistance to sleep, as these poisons are organic, as opposed to magical and their resistance is mainly against forms of magical sleep.
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