The dragon needs to fail the save in the first place for any DC increases to take place. Extra doses after the first failed save increases the DC by two per dose.
The dragon needs to fail the save in the first place for any DC increases to take place. Extra doses after the first failed save increases the DC by two per dose.
Getting hit with two doses at once adds to the initial save as well. See the alchemist's concentrate poison discovery.
Yeah, doing it that way seems to work fine I think. Though it does raise the question of whether the duration until the poison is ruined resets when you combine the poisons again. You do have a limited window of opportunity though so scry and fry works well as always. True strike is probably a good idea too just to make sure you don't miss and possibly waste the poison.
Yeah, doing it that way seems to work fine I think.
It's just an example anyway.
The take-home lesson is:
1) Know your enemy's weaknesses
2) Know the ruleset and find a way to exploit those weaknesses.
3) Know the tempo. Exploit its weakness before it can learn and exploit yours.
4) Clean up after the party is over, not during it. It doesn't matter if your barbarian is nauseated, stunned, paralyzed, and at 2/3 hit points if the monster is actually dead.
Whether we're talking Dex poison against a creature with low Dexterity or a save-or-suck against a creature's weakest save, you can often -- usually -- find a plan that lets you hit it with overwhelming force in a way that the party should kill it before it can recover.
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That's only 4,000 gp. Throw in a gnomish inventor who can make some sort of a pressure sprayer -- think of a flamethrower, or the gadget I use to put Weed'B'Gone on my lawn -- and pay him 4,000 for his trouble and we're still looking at only 8,000 gp.
It might sort of make sense - but it certainly not the rules.
The rules say specifically -
Applied contact poisons and injury poisons cannot inflict more than one dose of poison per weapon at a time
There's no exception for pressure sprayers.
I think that's where we get into issues where a GM's appreciation for a clever solution to a problem may trump a GM's slavish adherence to the rulebook. I mean, "dump a barrel of poison on a dragon" is vastly more amusing than 'sit there rolling dice for 45 minutes" and just because there's no rules for "poison vats" doesn't mean that "we shoved the BBEG into a vat of poison" shouldn't apply more than one dose at once. I don't know about you, but when I GM I have way more fun listening to the PCs hatch elaborate plans than I do rolling dice for monsters.
The rulebook can't, and shouldn't be expected to, predict every single thing that could conceivably come up in your game. That's the benefit of a human GM.
Okay, one final thing though: you've never been surprised by combat? People ambushing you? I've been ambushed by Invisible Stalkers several times, or we just rolled crap initiative and enemies got the jump on us. Okay, there are ways to up your initiative, but you can't be prepared for invisible enemies all the time. In one case three rounds went by before we managed to Glitterdust all the Stalkers. We had no idea they were there and no way of knowing it. They were guarding a thing and they attacked as soon as we disturbed that thing. We had no indication anything was out of the ordinary, so we didn't have any short-term buffs up.
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See Invisibility is a 10mins/level spell. It's not hard to have that up when adventuring in a location where you are likely to have hostile targets. You can certainly be jumped in town or whatever, but even then it's not hard to deal with invisible creatures, especially ones that have to melee with you. Whatever damage you might take won't be enough to warrant a healbot unless it is truly prodigious damage.
Surprise attacks happen, the same as damage. The answer is the same: have a plan to prevent further damage.
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Okay, one final thing though: you've never been surprised by combat? People ambushing you?
Not often.
Long-term spells are a thing. High Perception scores are a thing. Improved initiative is a thing, as is a greensting scorpion familiar. And for that matter, see invisible is a very cheap application of permanency, so after 10th level there's no reason not to have it up all the time. Literally.
You can't be prepared for invisible enemies all the time.
Shrug. If you're in the red zone, you should be prepared for everything all the time. But, okay, let's pretend that someone we don't know about sicced some invisible stalkers on us while we're in the green zone.
What would you do? You have, literally, all the time in the world to think about this question right now, and you can go buy whatever equipment you need during the next session that you hit town.
Some years ago, I found a nice capacity and preparation checklist on-line somewhere, and I apologize to the original author that I can't credit her. But this is the kind of thing that your character can sit at home, in the privacy of her own training hall, and say "am I prepared for this?"
The idea answer, of course, is "yes." To everything. Because anything you can't handle is something that can kill you. But conversely, if you've got plans for everything on this list, you're going to be pretty good against most things that the game master can throw at you....
Levels 1-3
Do I have a way to contribute both in combat and out of combat?
Can I deal bludgeoning, slashing, piercing damage?
Can I deal with ranged combat?
Do I have a way to see in the dark?
Do I have a way to heal myself out of combat (or have someone else heal me)?
Do I have a simple way to deal with invisible creatures?
Do I have a simple "emergency button"?
Can I deal with a swarm?
Do I have an emergency way to affect incorporeal creatures?
Do I have a way to contribute to a fight when non-lethal force is required?
Can I deal with being woken up in the middle of the night?Levels 4-6
Do I have an emergency way to fly?
Do I have a reliable way to deal with invisible creatures?
Do I have a way to overcome the various material DR types?
Can I deal with supernatural darkness?
Do I have a plan for when/if I die?
Can I reliably affect incorporeal creatures?
Can I contribute to a fight if the enemy is immune to magic?
Do I have a solution for ability damage?
Do I have a way to get out of a grapple/pin/swallow whole?Levels 7-9
Do I have a reliable way to fly?
Do I have a more solid "emergency button"?
Do I have a plan for creatures with Spell Resistance?
Can I deal with more complex DR combinations (cold iron AND good)?
Can I contribute to a fight if the enemy is immune to [primary character focus] (e.g. mind-affecting for most witches)?
Do I have a solution for ability drain?
Do I have a way to defeat concealment/displacement/blur?
Can I deal with more serious status effects like paralyze, panicked, dominate, exhaustion?Levels 10-12
Can I deal with negative levels?
Do I have a plan for creatures with strong Spell Resistance?
See Invisibility is a 10mins/level spell. It's not hard to have that up when adventuring in a location where you are likely to have hostile targets. You can certainly be jumped in town or whatever, but even then it's not hard to deal with invisible creatures, especially ones that have to melee with you. Whatever damage you might take won't be enough to warrant a healbot unless it is truly prodigious damage.
Surprise attacks happen, the same as damage. The answer is the same: have a plan to prevent further damage.
When a See Invisible is up, it can indeed be a life-saver. I was in a group you encountered a flying invisible wizard and while my cleric had Invisibility Purge, I had only about 9-10 minutes duration and we were in a lengthy dungeon crawl and so I just didn't know when I should use it. The group got rocked and almost killed
Another group who had a White Haired Witch had about 90 minutes for her See Invisibility so when they encountered the wizard, she did this to him.
Some years ago, I found a nice capacity and preparation checklist on-line somewhere, and I apologize to the original author that I can't credit her.Googled it.
Thanks!
A short addendum that needs to eb noted is that even if you prepare for all the feasible scenarios you can't be prepared for everything.
That's fine.
That's when you learn to adapt on the fly and try out things you haven't done before. Get unconventional, look for new ways to use old spells.