Wolfy wrote: > I am converting some old monsters and a number of them have > poison. What are peoples' impressions of the effects of > poison in the SRD? I haven't playtested it out, but ability > score damage and the one minute "lag-time" seems rather > strange. Not that there is a lag-time, but that it is always > a constant 1 minute. There is one poison that causes > immediate death and that was on the cloak of poisonousness.
Poison is ten times the danger in 3E than it ever was in previous editions. The instant ability score damage coupled with the hanging spectre of further damage 10 rounds later make it extremely dangerous. And although most battles don't go beyond 5-7 rounds of combat, poison still soaks up more of the party's resources. Everyone carries potions of neutralize poison and the cleric always memorizes that spell (along with lesser restoration or something more powerful). Poison is now an actual threat, and even those who make their initial save have to ponder a few seconds as to whether to drink their antitoxin, beg for neutralize poison, or take their chances. It's very elegant, in my opinion. As to whether poison is dangerous enough, a lot of that depends on the levels of your game. High-level warriors have very little to fear from poison, as their high Fort saves coupled with a good Con pretty much negates their effects. Other classes always have a great deal to fear from poisons, though, since their Fort saves aren't normally so high. If you expect characters to reach 20th level in your world, I'd add a number of unique poisons that make warrior-types tremble. They'd be very expensive, hard to find, and extremely dangerous to handle--but they'd also be hard to save against. A 20th-level fighter with an 18 Con has an adjusted base Fort save of +16 (plus any magical items, antitoxin, etc. can get you up to +26 pretty easy). Setting DCs as high as 30 would put the fear back into poison; setting a secondary DC to 35 for the round-after effects would definitely scare high-level characters. Good Gaming! Jim Butler, President Bastion Press http://www.bastionpress.com _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
