Poison Is OP

Poisons are OP, aka 'Re-Fanging New-School Poison'

Designed to work with Ten Foot Polemic’s death and dying rules. Poison, however, is mentioned only briefly in those rules, and there is no generic poison ‘death and dying’ table to roll on… which sort of makes sense, given the specificity of most poison. I’ve tried to make each poison feel a little unique, while still keeping them simple to run.

As a place to start, I’ve adapted the classic D&D poisons as they appear in 5e. The damages are calculated for 5e-like games, with their inflated hit points, so you may need to adjust for more OSR-type games.

But 5e poisons, in a 5e context, aren't super dangerous. And worst of all, they don't feel poison-y. This should fix that, where even weak poison is a potential pain in the ass.

Notes on terminology: - The 'poisoned' condition is from 5e. It just means you have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks (this includes skill checks, initiative rolls- basically any d20 roll that isn't an attack roll or a saving throw)

- I refer to 'poison tokens' but Ten Foot Polemic uses the term 'death dice' 'bleed points' and so on interchangeably. They're all the same thing.

- Death Tables: Some poisons have specialized tables. Use these instead of the generic tables. At some point I plan to write a generic poison table, but for now I mostly just use the 'bleeding,' or 'necrotizing' if I'm feeling fancy.


POISON 

Basic Poison

Injury

1d4 poison damage, plus DC 11 save or gain that many poisoned bleed tokens. When you have more than 4 poisoned bleed tokens, you are poisoned.

by Matthew Stewart

Assassin’s Blood

Ingested, no initial save, OR Injury, DC 10 Save

Gain 1d4 generic poison tokens. At the end of each of your turns, as long as you have any poison tokens, make a DC 10 save. Gain 1d4 poison bleed tokens on a failure, or remove one poison token on a success. As long as you have any of these poison tokens, you cannot benefit from magical healing.

Death Table

1-10, vomiting, ‘poisoned’ condition, 1 poisoned pain token

11-15, bleeding sores, coughing blood, 1d4 poisoned trauma dice

16-20, organ failure begins, bleeding from all orifices, incapacitated, all ability scored halved until recovery (min 1d6 days)

21+ organs shut down, death in 1d4 rounds

Burnt Uther Fumes
Inhaled, DC 13 Save
Take 2d6 damage, and also gain that many poisoned bleed tokens and one poisoned pain token. At the start of that creature’s turn, they make another save, reducing those bleed tokens by 1d6 on a success or adding one pain token on a failure.

Crawler Mucus

Contact, DC 13 Save

1d10 poisoned pain tokens, or 1 token on a successful save. Targets may have a maximum of 10 of these tokens. The target is paralyzed if they fail their test against pain, which they must test for whether or not they ‘tempt fate.’ If they fail this test, they are paralyzed for as long as any poisoned pain tokens remain. At the end of each of their turns, they make another save, removing one token on a success.

Drow Poison
Injury
1d4 poison sleep tokens, the target is poisoned for as long as they have these tokens. At the end of each of their turns, roll all their sleep tokens- if the total exceeds their current hit points, they fall unconscious until they have no more poison sleep tokens, or are damaged or shook awake. Remove one sleep token every minute if there are more than 4, or one every 10 minutes if there are less than 4. Note: this poison is specifically designed to work on elves, so it bypasses their normal sleep resistance. It's not actually true sleep at all, being a kind of psychic paralysis, locking the mind of the creature away in horrifying dreams. Creatures that are immune to sleep AND cannot dream may be immune to this poison.

Essence of Ether – works as written

By Konstantin Vavilov

Malice – works as written

Midnight Tears – works as written
Death Table

1-5, uncontrollable weeping, 1 pain token

10-15, 4 poisoned bleed tokens, permanent blindness unless cured by magic

16-20 unconscious, 1d4 trauma tokens

20+ Death

Oil of Taggit – works as written

Pale Tincture – works as written

Purple Worm Venom

Injury, DC 19

9d6 poison damage, and for each 6 rolled gain a poisoned bleed token, for each double rolled gain a poisoned pain token.

Death Table:

1-15, Gain 1 poisoned trauma token

16-20, Gain 1d4 poisoned trauma tokens

21+ Gain 2d4 poisoned trauma tokens

Serpent Venom

Injury, DC 11

2d6 poison damage. Gain that many poisoned bleed tokens on a failed save, or on a successful save gain one for any 6’s rolled for that poison damage.

Death Table:

1-15, Gain 1 poisoned trauma token

16-20 severe cardiac arrest, death in 1d4 rounds

20+ brain shuts down, death

by Carne Griffiths

Torpor

Ingested, no initial save

Gain 2d4 poison tokens, and 1d4 poisoned pain tokens. As long as you have poison, make a DC 15 save every round, removing a token on a success and gaining a pain token on a failure. You must also make a pain test at the end of every round, becoming incapacitated on a failure.

Truth Serum

Ingested, no initial save

Gain 2d4 poison tokens. As long as you have these tokens you are poisoned, and you must make a DC 15 saving throw to knowingly speak a lie. In addition, you have disadvantage on deception checks. Remove on poison token every 10 minutes.

Wyvern Poison
7d6 poison damage, plus DC 15 save or also gain that many poisoned bleed tokens. For each turn you take bleed damage from this poison, gain 1 poisoned pain point.

Unique Treasures

For use when you have to roll up one of those pesky 'Art Items' in a treasure hoard. Treasure is part of the adventure, so it's always a pet peeve of mine when a published book says 'gold earrings' or something for treasure. Even a boring description would be better than nothing!

Prices are given in SP, but use whatever increment equals 1 experience point in your game. Or don't, because honestly keeping the difference is a pretty good way to split high-power from more gritty-feeling games.

I really should be crediting the artist on some of these, but I've been working on this post so long and in such a piecemeal fashion that I've totally lost track. If you know any of them, tell me!

1. Angular Raven Mask - 1,000 sp 

Carved of Pure Obsidian, magicked to be as strong as steel. Can be used as a regular helm, and the beak can be used to attack in a grapple (or very close combat- knife vs. knife for example) for 1d6 damage (no bonus for Str or Dex, as this is not exactly an optimized weapon)

2. Armillary Ring - 100-250 sp 
Marked with xodiac symbols, as well as planets. With it, one can calculate astronomical events- for example, knowing which day of the year it is, one could determine when the sun or moon would rise and set, what stars might hold sway, and so on. This being a small device, it should not be so relied upon as a proper full sized instrument. Intricate, magical versions of this, where the rings fold out and out again to form a impossibly-large sphere, could be worth up to ten times as much (depending on the DM's needs when you roll this)

3. Opalsidian Blade- 500 sp
Surprisingly sharp and durable. Hits vs. ghosts and spirits, but also breaks on a natural 1.

4. Nine-barreled Gun - 500 sp

Extraordinarily impractical in most situations but, like, SO dope. With it, attack rolls can be made against up to nine targets in a 15-ft square area, however all attacks are made with disadvantage. When fired, the wielder must make a DC 15 Con saving throw or break their shoulder from the recoil. As stated, rather impractical, but worth a considerable amount to a collector.

5. Tea Party Weapons - 1,000 sp

Created by a warrior culture deeply invested in ritual and ceremony. Even meals must be accompanied by a weapon, therefore these ceremonial weapons provide recourse without impinging the honour of either warrior or guest. We'll say the thing that coincidentally looks like a grenade is a potion or a very large tea pot...

6. Nymph Earrings - 100 sp

These tiny elementals chew through rock, secreting minerals like gold and silver, along with precious stones, to make their shells. In earring form, the insect is still alive, tricked into clamping down on an adamantium loop which it cannot bite through. It tenaciously hangs on, while accompanying it's host through interminable dinner parties, dungeon crawls, etc.

5. Moss Agate Garden - 200 sp

this naturally-occurring slice of rock seems to contain a miniature painted scene. Magical versions might be portals to tiny pocket dimensions, which are worth up to ten times as much. Because this is not a crafted magic item, the stone provides no natural way to access the inner world, but a simple teleport or dimension door spell will suffice.

6. Scarab Teacup & Saucer - 150 sp (1,500 for the whole set!)

Used traditionally for the 'last supper' for noble prisoners before they were executed, these designs took on a macabre popularity among the dwellers of the ancient city (insert ruined civilization as appropriate). Players should be awarded only when these fragile items are safely escorted out of the dungeon.