Usable by all classes. Poisons are applied in three different ways: ingestive, weapon, and contact. Ingestive poison must be eaten; if the victim attempts to spit it out, give a +20% on the saving throw. Weapon poison must be put in an open wound or eaten. Contact poison simply needs to touch the skin; it is also effective if used in the two above ways. The type of poison should be specified; if it is not, assume weapon poison. Poisons do not detect as magical, unless otherwise noted.
All poisons here are one dose. The names of the poisons are simply descriptive, with little reference to the actual monsters. By default, only a single dose of poison can be applied to any weapon at a time. Using only one dose against certain huge monsters may be ineffective; give the monsters large bonuses on saves. Poison on blades remains for one successful hit, for 6 rounds of combat, or for 5 minutes out of combat. Unless otherwise specified, all saving throws to resist the effect of poison are physical saves.
Level 1. This is also known as Mahler poison. The victim must make an initial physical save or take a 1D6 damage surge followed by one hit point per round. The victim gets an additional save every 20 rounds, every 10 rounds if it is larger-than-mansized. Once the victim successfully saves against a dose of poison he suffers no further effect from it.
Level 3. Weapon poison only. The victim must save or die in 2 rounds. A successful save means the victim takes 2D6 damage.
Level 2. Contact poison. The victim falls into severe pain. He suffers a penalty of -20% on all rolls and -4 to his AC. He must save vs. physical in order to cast a spell. The duration is 2D10 rounds. The victim gets an initial saving throw; if he succeeds, the duration is only D4 rounds.
Level 3. Weapon poison only. The victim must save vs. physical or be paralyzed for 1D6 turns. A successful save means the victim is slowed (as per the mage spell) for 1 turn.
Level 1. Contact poison only, but it must hit the face. Treat this as a thrown missile weapon, with a 1" short range and a 2" long range, with no modifiers to hit for armor class type and a -25% modifier for aiming at the face. If hit, the victim must save at -15% or be blinded for D6 hours.
Level 2. This poison is similar to standard poison, but the initial surge is 3D6 and the damage per round is D6. If the victim makes his initial save, he still suffers D6 points of damage.
Level 2. Weapon poison only. If the victim fails a physical save, he falls unconscious for 20-constitution rounds. (Treat unconsciousness as the effect of a mage Sleep spell.) A successful save means that the victim acts at -10% for 2 rounds. The effect on monsters defaults to 5 rounds, with huge monsters being unable to fail their save.
Level 1. This is contact poison, but it must hit the head. Treat this as a thrown missile weapon, with a 1" short range and a 2" long range, with no modifiers to hit for armor class type but a -20% modifier for aiming at the head. The victim must save or fall under the Misdirection spell for D4 turns. A successful save means that the victim is only affected by the Range Loser spell for 1 turn.
Level 1. Weapon poison. The victim loses D6 points of strength. A successful save results in only 1 point of strength lost. The duration of the strength loss is 1D4 turns. Nausea and numbness usually accompany the poison's effects, but not to an extreme level. If the target's strength drops below 0, he must make a constitution system shock roll or die.
Level 1. Ingestive poison only. The victim is blinded for 1D10 rounds; a successful save results in half duration.
Level 1. Ingestive poison. The victim is very sick for 3D10 hours. He is at -10% on rolls. He is nauseated, dizzy, and slow to think. A successful initial saving throw means he avoids the serious effects of the poison.
Last Modified on September 25,1995.
ammulder@princeton.edu