🧪 Poison & Antidote Rules

In our game, poisons are more than just “extra damage.” They linger, escalate, and can be neutralized with the right tools. This system makes poisons more tactical, more dangerous, and more interactive.

🔻 How Poisons Work in This Game

• Many poisons don’t deal their effects right away. Instead, they have a delayed onset, typically taking effect at the end of your turn or after a short duration (like 1 round or 1 minute).

• On each turn after being poisoned, you'll be asked to make a Constitution saving throw to resist the effects.

• Failing the save means you take poison damage, suffer a condition, or both.

• Once you succeed on a saving throw, the poison’s effect ends—unless it’s a rare or magical toxin.

• Stronger poisons might include additional effects like unconsciousness, paralysis, or even death if left untreated.

🛡️ Antidotes: Your Best Defense

• Antidotes are categorized by rarity: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Very Rare, and Legendary.

• A higher-tier antidote can neutralize any poison of its rarity or lower.

• If an antidote is used before the poison takes effect (during the delay), it can completely stop the poison from doing any damage or causing conditions.

• If the poison has already taken effect, an antidote of matching rarity can still end the ongoing effects.

• Antidotes also give secondary bonuses to help avoid/reduce poison effects.

• Emergency Use: An antidote can be force-fed to an unconscious character as an action (requires a free hand).

💡 Example: You’re hit by a poisoned dagger that has a delayed effect. A teammate gives you a Sunfire Tincture (an Uncommon Antidote) before your next turn—now you’re fine. If they waited too long, and the poison already started dealing damage, the antidote would still help, but the damage already taken sticks.

🧪 Stacking Antidotes, Poisons & Effects

• Duplicate Poisons:
  A creature cannot suffer from multiple copies of the same poison at once.

• Different Poisons:
  A creature can be affected by multiple different poisons simultaneously.

  • Taking a single antidote of the appropriate rarity will cure all poisons it qualifies for.

  • Any poisons above the antidote’s rarity level will remain active.

• Antidote Effects:
  You can benefit from the secondary effects of multiple antidotes at once, as long as they don’t provide the same type of effect.

Example: Drinking both a Sunfire Tincture (+2 to poison saves for 1 hour) and a Thornkiss Counterbrew (resistance to poison damage for 1 minute) grants you both effects during their respective durations.

🎲 Final Notes for Players

• Poisons can be crafted during downtime or bought from alchemists and shady vendors, see Crafting Potions Poisons & Antidotes.

• Antidotes are your safety net—carry them if you're heading into unknown danger.

• You may find or create new poisons as the campaign progresses. Be creative.