Blighted
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Condition Severity: Strong
You have been severely poisoned, and will likely die, or worse.
Effects
- Blighted is usually the result of a very powerful poison or drug affecting the creature's system. Poisons are typically written in the following format:
- Poisons have the following characteristics, which detail how they affect a creature which fails a saving throw against them: Name, Vector, Intensity, Save, Onset, Frequency, Effect, Fruition, and Cure.
- Name: This is the name of the poison. ("Umbral Blight" in the above example.)
- Vector: This is the means by which the poison must be introduced to a subject to cause it to become blighted: contact, ingested, inhaled, injury. Note that vectors are not interchangeable — an injury poison won't harm a target that ingests it, unless the poison also has an ingest vector listed.
- Intensity: The intensity of a poison states whether the poison inflicts tainted, poisoned, or blighted, which determines how easily the effects of the poison are cured.
- Onset: While many poisons have an immediate onset, inflicting their effects as soon as the first saving throw is failed, some poisons take longer to cause an effect. In most cases, creatures won't know they are poisoned until effects begin to manifest.
- Save: This is the saving throw type (Fort, Refl, Will) and DC for the poison. The save DC typically remains unchanged, regardless of whether it is the initial poisoning attack or effect, or one of the saves made to resist its continuing effects.
- Frequency: After a creature has been poisoned, they must make additional saves periodically, as described by the frequency, or suffer additional effects. The frequency also lists the total number of times the poison will attempt to inflict its effects before it has run its course. For example, "1/round for 6 rounds" means a character must make a new save every round for the next 6 rounds (in addition to the save they already failed to become poisoned in the first place). Some particularly powerful poisons may have a frequency like "1/round until cured".
- Cure: This is the required number of successful saving throws to end a poison's effects prior to its frequency expiring. Poisons and drugs which inflict the blighted status condition usually require two or more successful saving throws, and they must also usually be made consecutively. Saving throws may only be made each time the frequency "ticks", unless an additional saving throw is granted by some spell or effect, such as Neutralize Poison (Spell). If the saving throw is successful, the poison does not inflict its effect for that tick, even if it isn't cured by that successful save alone.
- Effect: This is what the poison does to a blighted creature when the onset first occurs, and each interval of its frequency. The most common poisons inflict a combination of ability damage (or ability drain) and Non-Lethal Damage, though poison effects can vary wildly. Note that non-lethal damage from poison, though physical damage, cannot be mitigated with DR, unless the DR explicitly states it can be used to mitigate non-lethal damage (such as the Endurance (Feat)).
- Fruition: This is the effect inflicted if the poison's final tick of its frequency is able to complete without the poison being successfully ended by sufficient saving throws. Note that a poison's fruition can occur even if the blighted creature succeeds on the saving throw for that final tick, unless by making that save, the poison is cured (i.e. the requisite number of saves is achieved with this saving throw's success). For drugs and poisons which inflict the blighted condition, a very common fruition is death. However, other effects are possible, such as petrification, forcing the victim to speak the truth for the next hour, or even making them compliant with commands.
Ended By
If the ability, trap, or effect description includes specific directions for how the condition is ended, then that is the primary means of ending this condition. In many cases, it is the only way to end the condition. If nothing is specifically listed for ending the condition, then the following methods can be used to end it, instead:
- Poisons which have the blighted intensity cannot be ended prematurely by spells, abilities, or effects. Instead, such abilities simply grant the blighted creature a bonus saving throw. Bonus saving throws against poison (such as those granted by Neutralize Poison (Spell)) do not count against the poison's frequency (i.e. they don't shorten the time remaining on the poison's frequency), but they also cannot inflict the poison's effects on the creature if the creature fails the bonus saving throw. Bonus saving throws which are successful count against the number of saving throws needed to end the poison prematurely.
- Unlike most conditions, restoration spells and similar effects which broadly cure strong status conditions do not work on Blighted creatures, unless they explicitly state they can be used to treat poison. If the spell, ability, or effect can be used to treat poisons, it typically behaves like Neutralize Poison (Spell).
- If not ended by achieving the listed number of successful saving throws, the poison ends when the listed frequency expires, inflicting its effects each interval of its frequency until that time. If the poison has a "fruition" effect, that also occurs when the poison's frequency expires, after which, no other effects are inflicted.
- Any hit point damage (including non-lethal damage) caused by the effects or fruition of a poison with the blighted intensity cannot be cured until the poison is cured first.
- All effects (including fruition effects) that are inflicted by a poison or drug with a blighted intensity linger even after the poison is cured or has run its course, regardless of any successful saving throws made by the poisoned creature. These effects may not be cured until after the creature has been cured of the poison which caused them, and then taken a full-night's rest. Upon waking, these lingering conditions may be cured separately.