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I'm calling on the community to help me get this right. I want to stat out Hydrogen Sulfide as an inhalation poison.
When found in nature (swamps or near volcanic areas) it can be detected by its smell of rotten eggs.
Hydrogen sulfide is considered a broad-spectrum poison, meaning that it can poison several different systems in the body, although the nervous system is most affected. The toxicity of H2S is comparable with that of hydrogen cyanide. It forms a complex bond with iron in the mitochondrial cytochrome enzymes, thereby blocking oxygen from binding and stopping cellular respiration.
Exposure to lower concentrations can result in eye irritation, a sore throat and cough, nausea, shortness of breath, and fluid in the lungs. These symptoms usually go away in a few weeks. Long-term, low-level exposure may result in fatigue, loss of appetite, headaches, irritability, poor memory, and dizziness. Chronic exposures to low level H2S (around 2 ppm) has been implicated in increased miscarriage and reproductive health issues amongst Russian and Finnish wood pulp workers, but the reports hadn't (as of circa 1995) been replicated. Higher concentrations of 700-800 ppm tend to be fatal.
Help me out in statting it please.
Hydrogen sulfide, inhalation DC ??;
Well, in order to be fatal it has to deal Con damage, which also conforms to the fatigue. The loss of memory would indicate that it also deals Intelligence damage, though if you wanted to simulate disorientation and confusion it would be Wisdom damage instead.
Alternately, it could be one of those poisons with different initial and secondary effects. For example, it could deal Int and/or Wis damage initially (say 1d4 or 1d6 points), and the secondary effect could be "death." If you wanted to make it truly nasty, you could say that even if the character saved vs. death, they would still take anwhere from 1 point of Con damage to 1d6 points of Con damage. But I'm unaware of any precedent for a poison like this, and that might make it too nasty.
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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I'd look to the Cloudkill spell for a precedent:
"This spell generates a bank of fog, similar to a fog cloud, except that its vapors are yellowish green and poisonous. These vapors automatically kill any living creature with 3 or fewer HD (no save). A living creature with 4 to 6 HD is slain unless it succeeds on a Fortitude save (in which case it takes 1d4 points of Constitution damage on your turn each round while in the cloud).
A living creature with 6 or more HD takes 1d4 points of Constitution damage on your turn each round while in the cloud (a successful Fortitude save halves this damage). Holding one’s breath doesn’t help, but creatures immune to poison are unaffected by the spell."
I have no idea what character level you're calibrating your poisonous gas for. I'd just adjust cloudkill accordingly.
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Thanks both for the input!
I'm looking to hit them with this poison when they are level 6-7. I'll explain a bit more the circumstances. They will be entering a swamp in search of an ancient ruined city. This city lies deep within the swamp and is very near some volcanic activity. The city is protected by a tribe of (perhaps mutated) lizardfolk. The lizardfolk have grown immune to the hydrogen sulfide emissions from the swamp but as a result never grow very old (-25% or so).
So I'm looking for something that they can circumvent by going the long route or can chance through. There will be a timer like activation on the eruptions of the gas. If they study it they can try to run the gauntled so to speak.
At levels 6-7 the fortitude saves will be going from +2 to +5 (excluding any constitution mods).
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Hydrogen sulfide, high concentration
Type: Inhalation DC 21
Initial Damage: Death (a successful Fortitude save reduces this to 1d6 Con).
Secondary Damage: 1d4 Con
Hydrogen sulfide, low concentration
Type: Inhalation DC 16
Initial Damage: 1d4 Con
Secondary Damage: 1d4 Con
Holding one’s breath doesn’t help, but creatures immune to poison are unaffected by the gas.
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How does that look?
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I think the low concentration looks good, but the automatic death aspect of the high concentration (while realistic) isn't something I'd implement.
The DC is fairly high, and characters with poor Fort saves are likely screwed. That's a pretty anticlimactic way for a character to die, and I think it's a recipe for unhappy players.
I might lower the DC for the high concentration, and have it inflict Con damage instead of acting as an instant kill.
Perhaps high concentration has a DC of 18 or 19 and deals 1d6 Con/1d6 Con primary and secondary damage on failed saves, half that on successful saves.
The low concentration looks about right at the DC you have, but maybe it only does 1d4/1d4 Con damage, and a successful save means the character takes no damage.
Just my quick impressions.
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I think the low concentration looks good, but the automatic death aspect of the high concentration (while realistic) isn't something I'd implement.
The DC is fairly high, and characters with poor Fort saves are likely screwed. That's a pretty anticlimactic way for a character to die, and I think it's a recipe for unhappy players.
I might lower the DC for the high concentration, and have it inflict Con damage instead of acting as an instant kill.
Perhaps high concentration has a DC of 18 or 19 and deals 1d6 Con/1d6 Con primary and secondary damage on failed saves, half that on successful saves.
The low concentration looks about right at the DC you have, but maybe it only does 1d4/1d4 Con damage, and a successful save means the character takes no damage.
Just my quick impressions.
Perhaps an extra addition for "extra high concentration" that can be done with the now "high concentration". Something the PCs wouldn't get into, but for future reference and if they really screw up the timing of their run.
Then I would indeed put the high concentration DC at 19 and put the extra high concentration at DC 22.
Anyone else have good ideas for this?
I think the low concentration looks good, too, but agree that the high concentration could use fiddling. But not much. Make the initial damage 1d4 Con and the secondary damage death. This is how an iron golem's breath works, I believe (though I'm not sure on the size of the damage die). The issue here is that you first lower the PC's Con, and thus Fortitude, and then they are asked to make a second to save their lives. But I'd allow a Knowledge (nature) or Craft (poisonmaking) check to recognize the gas and its effects. Even if someone was already affected, they'd then have a full minute to retreat and/or cure the poison. At 6th-7th level, I'd say it's fair to expect the cleric to have some options for dealing with this kind of thing. Maybe even drop some clues as they get closer to this challenge. If they fail to prepare accordingly, that's on them!
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Hydrogen sulfide, extreme concentration
Type: Inhalation DC 22
Initial Damage: Death (a successful Fortitude save reduces this to 1d6 Con).
Secondary Damage: 1d6 Con
Hydrogen sulfide, high concentration
Type: Inhalation DC 19
Initial Damage: 1d6 Con
Secondary Damage: 1d6 Con
Hydrogen sulfide, low concentration
Type: Inhalation DC 16
Initial Damage: 1d4 Con
Secondary Damage: 1d4 Con
Holding one’s breath doesn’t help, but creatures immune to poison are unaffected by the gas.