Just something I was musing over, but say you have a character that can't roll a fort save to save thier soul.
They have been poisoned by a strength poison that clicks off 1d4 str for 6 rounds, and they fail BADLY all 6 rounds, and as the DM I wipe thier strength out to let's say -8. Or heck even -14 which is equal to thier normal strength of 14.
And yet they are JUST unconsious? I mean the way I read it, the ONLY lethal poison is con damage, but I've always seen Str and Dex poisons as neurotoxins, which IRL can kill. If the person is so weak they couldn't even breath, they could theorectially die from suffocation right? But RAW and taken to the extreme they could go -50 Str and still be alive.
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Indeed. Paizo uses a LOT of poisons, but they've been downscaled in lethality. Although not being able to move makes you pretty vulnerable.
Interestingly, Paizo's great like of ability damage has stealthily introduced wounds that hinder, as opposed to HP damage that doesn't hinder you until you're down.
Yes, they are "just" unconscious. Any poison that would make somebody so weak they can't even breathe is doing con damage, not strength or dex damage. With str0 you are effectively paralyzed. You can be fully paralyzed and still be alive.
If making things more deadly is your goal, keep in mind the monster can still coup-de-grace him. If the monster is dead, then maybe a invisible rogue is hiding nearby who will sneak up and coup-de-grace the paralyzed foe after the fight. It's going to take him a long time to get better without magical help, so you've got plenty of time to send in the invisible minions. Even with magical help, likely it will take until the next morning to fix enough ability damage to get him above 0 str.
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Then some no-brain peasant comes along, fails his healcheck by a country-mile and assumes you're dead.
/The Premature Funeral
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Unconscious for 2+ days? Starvation and thirst rules kick in...
@Drejk : you're totally right :)
Well then I guess until the party's druid gets to prepare spells the next day, the rest of the party will just have to cope with a very stiff...bard. But at least the only girl that games with our group won't have her 2nd character killed in this campaign.