Poisoned

Condition Severity: Special

   You have become poisoned by some powerful drug, allergen, or agent. Such things can have wildly different effects, harming body, mind, or soul.

Effects

• Creatures which fail a saving throw against an attack or an effect which inflicts poison become poisoned.

Poisons have the following characteristics, which detail how they affect a creature which fails a saving throw against them: Name, Vector, Save, Onset, Frequency, Effect, and Cure.

• Name: This is the name of the poison.
• Vector: This is the means by which the poison must be introduced to a subject to cause it to become poisoned: contact, ingested, inhaled, injury. Note that vectors are not interchangeable — a injury poison won't harm a target that ingests it, nor will a contact poison harm a target that inhales it, etc. It is possible for some poisons to have multiple vectors, however.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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".
• Effect: This is what the poison does to an afflicted 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. Some inflict petrification, while others may simply make the victim more compliant to commands. Some powerful poisons may also have an additional effect if the final "tick" of the frequency occurs and the afflicted creature fails to achieve the requisite number of successful saving throws. This final effect is usually some permanent disability, or death.
• Cure: This is the required number of successful saving throws to end a poison's effects prior to its frequency expiring. The simplest poisons require only a single successful saving throw to end their effects, but others require multiple successful saves. Still others require that multiple successful saves be made in succession. 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 effects, even if it isn't cured by that successful save alone.

All effects inflicted by the poison linger after the poison is cured or runs its course, regardless of any successful saving throws made by the afflicted creature. These effects must be cured separately.

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:

• Poison usually cannot be ended prematurely by spells, abilities, or effects. Instead, most such abilities simply grant the afflicted 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 efficacy), but they also cannot inflict the poison's effects on the creature if they fail the bonus saving throw. Bonus saving throws which are successful count against the number of saving throws needed to end the poison prematurely.
• If not ended by achieving the listed number of successful saving throws, the poison ends when the listed frequency expires.

Array

Poisoned → Poisoned → Poisoned