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| Raiders of the Lost Ark - Paramount Pictures |
"Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes?"
"Asps. Very dangerous... You go first!"
I was researching snake venom recently (as part of my ongoing effort to make my search history as incriminating as possible) and decided snake venom in Pathfinder needed to be revised. Venomous snake bites in Pathfinder all have the same effect - Constitution damage. In reality, venomous snakes bear neurotoxins that slowly paralyze their prey, hemotoxins that cause tissue decay and uncontrollable bleeding, and mixes of the two, with dendrotoxins and cytotoxins and other heinous crap thrown in for good measure.
Dexterity damage seems like a good choice to simulate neurotoxic paralysis, and Strength damage and Bleed work well for Hemotoxins. A few choice status effects like 'sickened' and 'nauseated' serve to simulate the wide range of other symptoms snake bites can induce, including rashes, dizziness, tunnel vision, soreness, and, of course, nausea.
Snake venom is slower-acting and longer-lasting than what the viper stat block would have you believe. I made the frequency for most snake venoms "1/minute" instead of "1/round", but where many snake venoms may last "for six rounds", my venoms are endless. You gotta make those saves or you will die ...eventually. That means a fight against snakes at the dungeon entrance might still be affecting you deeper in the dungeon.
There are two main types of venomous snake: vipers, which include rattlesnakes, adders, and pit vipers; and elapids, which include cobras, coral snakes, mambas, kraits, and sea snakes. Elapids tend to have neurotoxins, with the more dangerous ones (black mambas, for example) having a sprinkling of other toxins. Water snakes are neurotoxic, but because you are most likely to encounter them while swimming (a Strength-based skill), I made their venom deal Strength damage to heighten the danger. Vipers, on the other hand, usually have hemotoxins. Hemotoxins are slower-acting than neurotoxins (I gave them a frequency of 1/hour instead of 1/minute), so vipers tend to strike and fall back, tracking down their victim later, after they have succumbed to the poison. Fun fact: vipers can track their prey by the smell of the chemicals in their bites. Scarier vipers, like the mojave rattlesnake, also have neurotoxins in their bite.
I've also added a new mechanic to add variable degrees of failure to saves against venom. Now, if you fail your save, you take the venom's effects, but if you fail your save by 5 or more, you take a worse set of effects. For instance, a coral snake's venom deals 1d2 Dex damage, but a failure by 5 or more leaves you paralyzed until your next save.
Enough discussion. Like cardiotoxin, let's get right to the heart of the matter.
The following rules and poisons in gold are available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2015 Jonah Bomgaars and d20 Despot.
Viper Venom (vipers,
rattlesnakes, adders, pit vipers)
Type poison (injury);
Save Fort DC varies by creature
Frequency 1/hour
Effect 1d2 Strength
damage and 1 bleed;
Effect (If Save Fails
by 5 or More) 1d3 Strength damage, 1d2 bleed;
Special those
reduced to 0 Strength by this poison must continue making saves or die
Cure 1 save
Advanced
Rattlesnake Venom
Type poison (injury);
Save Fort DC varies by creature
Frequency 1/hour
Initial Effect
1d2 Strength and Dexterity damage, 1d2 bleed;
Effect (If Save Fails
by 5 or More) 1d3 Strength and Dexterity damage, 1d4 bleed;
Special those
reduced to 0 Strength or Dexterity by this poison must continue making saves or
die
Cure 2
consecutive saves
Cobra Venom
Type poison (injury);
Save Fort DC varies by creature
Frequency 1/minute
Initial Effect
1d2 Dexterity damage, sickened;
Effect (If Save Fails
by 5 or More) 1d3 Dexterity damage, nauseated;
Special those
reduced to 0 Dexterity by this poison must continue making saves or die
Cure 1 save
Advanced Cobra
Venom (king cobras, black mambas)
Type poison (injury);
Save Fort DC varies by creature
Frequency 1/minute
Initial Effect
1d2 Dexterity and Con damage, sickened;
Effect (If Save Fails
by 5 or More) 1d3 Dexterity and Con damage, nauseated;
Special those
reduced to 0 Dexterity by this poison must continue making saves or die
Cure 2
consecutive saves
Coral Snake Venom
Type poison (injury);
Save Fort DC varies by creature
Frequency 1/minute
Initial Effect
1d2 Dexterity damage;
Effect (If Save Fails
by 5 or More) 1d3 Dexterity damage, paralyzed;
Special those
reduced to 0 Dexterity by this poison must continue making saves or die
Cure 1 save
Water Snake Venom
Type poison (injury);
Save Fort DC varies by creature
Frequency 1/minute
Initial Effect
1d2 Strength damage;
Effect (If Save Fails
by 5 or More) 1d3 Strength damage, paralyzed;
Special those
reduced to 0 Strength by this poison must continue making saves or die
Cure 1 save
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| Photo: Tigerhawkvok via Wikimedia |
Failing a save by 5 or more results in a heightened effect until the next save. For example: Jilvain is bitten by a king cobra and fails her save by 7. She takes 1d3 Dex and Con damage and is nauseated. After a minute of this, she rolls another save and fails it by 2. Now she takes 1d2 Dex and Con damage, and is merely sickened.
Conditions imparted by the venom stack with conditions from elsewhere, or from other poisons, but not with multiple doses of the same poison. For example: Having barely recovered from her encounter with the king cobra, Jilvain ventures once more into the Snake Temple. Following the sounds of chanting, she discovers a secret chamber where a snakefolk priest is performing evil rites over a desecrated altar. She moves in to attack, but is struck from both sides by cobras she didn't notice. Cursing her luck, she rolls an 8 against the first cobra's DC 9 venom and takes 1d2 Dexterity damage and becomes sickened. As the second snake strikes, she rolls a 10! But because this is the second dose of the same poison, the DC is 11. She takes another 1d2 Dex damage, but the two sickened conditions don't stack because they are from the same poison. Jilvain will take her blessings where she can. Provided the vipers don't bite her again, increasing the dosage, Jilvain will be rolling DC11 Fort saves every minute to avoid a further 1d2 Dex damage, but if she makes her save, she will have a respite from the poison and lose her sickened condition. Unfortunately, the snakefolk priest won initiative and hits Jilvain with a ray of sickening. This does stack with the sickened condition from the venom, and Jilvain doubles over with nausea. She stumbles out of the Snake Temple, pausing every few steps to vomit.
When an ability score is reduced to 0 by one of these venoms, a subsequent failed save results in death. For example: Jilvain rests against a tree outside the temple, feeling numbness spread from her two bite wounds. Cobras, she knows from her successful Profession (herpetologist) check, have neurotoxic venom. She can feel her Dexterity score draining down to zero with each failed save. If it reaches zero, she knows the neurotoxin will probably paralyze her lungs and she will die. 'At least it wasn't rattlesnakes,' she thinks. If she were dying from hemotoxin, she would see black necrosis spreading from her bite wounds, and eventually her heart would give out as her blood became too thin to clot and her muscle tissue shriveled up and died. Finally, her Dexterity drops to 0. 'Here it comes,' she thinks. 'Gods, why did I blow those feats on metamagic bullcrap? Why didn't I take Great Fortitude?' As her chest tightens and her breathing becomes increasingly shallow she rolls her final save... 19! At death's door, Jilvain shakes off the venom! She is still paralyzed, but now she has a chance to recover. As long as those vipers don't... Jilvain curses to herself as she sees the two cobras slithering toward her through the underbrush, coming to finish her off. As they rear up to strike, Jilvain lashes out with her mind, casting Still Silent burning hands. The snakes hiss and pop satisfyingly as they are roasted to a crisp. 'Yeah! Metamagic, bitches!' Jilvain thinks.
Bleed damage caused by a poison takes place every round, regardless of the frequency of the poison. This bleed damage can be cured normally (with a DC 15 Heal check or magical healing), otherwise it lasts until your next successful save against the poison. No example: Jilvain refuses to go anywhere near snakes ever again.
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I was going to do a similar thing for centipede, scorpion, and spider venoms, but information on those is less readily available (i.e., harder to find on Wikipedia; plus I don't want to see pictures of spiders). From what little I gathered on them, it seems like the venom they have now is fine, but if you want to spice things up, add the sickened condition if you fail your save by 5 or more.
-your hemolytic d20 despot
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