VsD/Poisons


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The intent of this page is to detail a small selection of poisons with effects suitable for use by heroic player characters.

In that regard, most vsD (and honestly RM/MERP) poisons are much too powerful to be balanced other than "quest items" where only a very few doses are available. They may be realistic, but that doesn't make them useful and playable.

This page is intentionally not linked to. The link is given to any character with the Assassin background option.

(Note: Detecting, preventing, and healing poisons is much more common knowledge. Herbalists, healers, and king's advisors all need to know how to protect from or counteract poison. The focus here is on creating, purchasing, preparing and using poison)

Rules
While the GM is free to ask for a Nature roll to identify or prepare poison, the general rule is to require only one roll. That one roll is to apply the poison (to "bring it into play").


 * Success: You successfully apply the poison (smuggle it into some meat, smear it onto a blade or a number of arrow tips, etc). Contact or injury poisons remain active for one hour. Ingested or inhaled poisons remain active effectively indefinitely.
 * Partial Success: You waste some of it. Contact or injury poisons remain active for the next minute. Ingested or inhaled poisons have their Difficulty reduced by 20 (= the victim gains +20 to its Save Roll).
 * Failure: The dose is wasted
 * Catastrophic Failure: You accidentally poison yourself. Suffer the full effects of the entire dose.

Most poisons only affect living creatures with natural biologies

Poison Herbarium
These entries are sorted on level, since the level determines the Save Roll Difficulty, if any.

Level 1
Zaganzar: a marshy root ground into a black slimy paste. No Save Roll.
 * If applied on a piercing weapon, each dose is enough for seven applications, and each hit delivers +2 damage.
 * If applied to a short or shorter weapon, each dose is enough for four applications, and each hit delivers +3 damage.
 * If applied to a long or longer weapon, each dose is enough for two applications, and each hit delivers +5 damage.

Level 2
Silmaana: a weedy stalk ground into a silvery powder. Toughness Save to avoid scarring and to suffer half damage.
 * Each dose delivers +4d10 damage and causes scarring of the hit location