About to GM my second session :), setting up some encounters, have this centipede thing with this stat block for his special poison attack. Would anyone be so kinda as to help me understand it for play, I think I do but want to double check.
As I understand it, player would roll a DC(11) (adding fort bonus?)
if poisoned because of failed roll, then would be poisoned for 4 rounds. taking 1d2+ creatures dex bonus?, and then im lost (heck im probably lost from the start :)
Special Attacks
Poison DC(11) frequency 1/rnd for 4 rnds 1d2 Dex cure 1 save
thanks in advance, someone always answers my noob questions you guys rock!
They take 1d2 Dex damage each round until they make a successful Fortitude save, DC 11. Or until 4 rounds have passed. The creature's Dex bonus is irrelevant for determining the effects of the poison.
It is a fort save against DC 11 (so yes, they add their fort bonus to the check). If they fail they take 1d2 dexterity damage a round for 4 rounds or until they make one save.
Just as a further explanation : Dex damage is damage to the character's dexterity statistic, not to hit points. "For every 2 points of damage you take to a single ability, apply a –1 penalty to skills and statistics listed with the relevant ability. If the amount of ability damage you have taken equals or exceeds your ability score, you immediately fall unconscious until the damage is less than your ability score. "
So a character bitten by this centipede might take as much as 8 Dexterity damage. If his dexterity were 8 or less, he'd be unconscious but not killed, and he would lose up to four points of armor class, reflex saves, ranged attack bonus, and so forth. But he wouldn't die, even if he were at only one hit point.
And to further clarify, they get a new save every round. And dexterity damage works like this: for every two dex damage, you get -1 to stuff ruled by dex, like ac and acrobatcs. It heals by one point per day.
Thanks all, very clear to me now. Rogue is going to hate this encounter :)
There's also a blog post that gives a rundown of how poison wo4ks on 5his site.