Tainted

Condition Severity: Special

   You have been exposed to a drug, allergen, or agent, which is making things a little strange right now.

Effects

• Tainted is usually the result of a weaker poison or drug affecting a creature's system. Each drug or poison has different effects, but they are defined with the following characteristics: Name, Vector, Save, Onset, Frequency, Effect, Fruition, and Cure.

• Name: This is the name of the poison or drug.
• Vector: This is the means by which the poison must be introduced to a subject to cause it to become tainted: contact, ingested, inhaled, injury. Note that vectors are not interchangeable — a injury poison won't harm a target that ingests it, unless the poison also has an ingest vector listed.
• 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 tainted, 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).
• 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. Poisons or drugs which inflict the tainted condition never have a more severe effect on the final tick of the frequency, though more powerful poisons and drugs can.
• 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 afflicted 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). Drugs and poisons which inflict the tainted condition do not typically inflict a fruition effect. If they do, it is usually a non-damaging effect with a limited duration, such as requiring the victim to speak the truth for an hour.
• Cure: This is the required number of successful saving throws to end a poison's effects prior to its frequency expiring. In the case of a drug or poison which inflicts the tainted condition, only a single successful saving throw is necessary to end the poison's effects.

All effects inflicted by a weak poison or drug linger until the afflicted creature takes a full-night's rest (typically 8 hours) after the poison is cured or runs its course, regardless of any successful saving throw(s) made by the afflicted creature. These effects may also be cured separately, if the creature isn't willing to wait.

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:

• If a Neutralize Poison (Spell) or some similar effect is cast on the victim of a tainted condition, the condition immediately ends, as though the victim had successfully made a saving throw against the poison or drug in question.
• Unlike most conditions, restoration spells and similar effects which broadly cure weak status conditions do not work on Tainted creatures, unless they explicitly state they can be used to treat poison. If the spell, ability, or effect can be used to treat poisons, the tainted condition is immediately ended by such a spell, ability, or effect, when applied to the afflicted creature.
• If not otherwise ended, the poison or drug runs its course when the listed frequency expires, inflicting no further effects. As noted above, any effects which have already been inflicted will persist until the afflicted creature takes a full night's rest.

Array

Tainted → Poisoned → Blighted