Venom Attacks/ Damage Reduction

[Zul-Daire]

So you get bit by a venomous snake but the bite damage does not exceed the DR.

:?: Is there still a poison save to be made or do you think it should be taken at face value and rule that that is just the benefit of wearing armor :?:

In an early session several months ago this situation came up and I quickly ruled, to keep the game going, that the venom dripped onto the players skin and had him roll a fort save. No one argued and said it made sense until we could research it more later.

I cannot remember if the player made his save but he did live.

This was a liberty and more of a story device I guess due to the fact that the snakes venom is probably delivered by injury or ingestion but probably not contact.

I think it happend in a in another session with a venom coated dagger as well. I think I ruled the tip of the dagger barely bypasses the armor ( Yes I realise there are rules for Bypassing armor) and the blade barely breaks the skin but not enough to do damage but enough for the poison to take effect.

Of course more and more situations like this are likely to arise and these descriptions will seem more and more contrived. Perhaps that is the benefit of armor.

But a warrior wearing norhing but a Breastplate/ Steel cap (and a pair of quality boots) could still get bit by a snake or get stung by a scorpion but the dmg will not exceed the DR.

So how have other groups resolved this or is there a rule I am missing somewhere in the Core Book?

 

[argo]

If a special attack or ability is triggered as a result of succesfully hitting and dealing damage (such as an injury poision), then that effect does not activate if DR brings the damage dealt to 0.

You can find this rule, as it relates to injury poision, on p 232 of the Conan rulebook.

This is a very good reason for assasin-types to use finesse attacks. Slip a poisioned steletto in between two plates of your armor and finish you with one hit.

 

[spydacarnage]

If you use the optional rule that any hit reduced to 0 by armour still deals 1hp, the poison would technically work.

However, this may break the spirit of the above optional rule as I'm not sure whether the 1pt of damage comes the fact that even the most armoured person has bare skin to hit, somewhere, or if it is because of minor bruising damage...

 

[Sutek]

Where is this optional rule? I've seen it mentioned a couple of times here in the boards, but I've yet to spot it in the book.

As Argo said, an Injury toxin wouldn't take but the other types would.

 

[spydacarnage]

No ideas where it is - I'm just going from what I've read here (hence I don't know the background reasoning of the rule, only the game effects)

 

[Sutek]

Yeah, the game effects can be interesting since many things rely on doing damage, but DR of Armor mitigates damage taking effect. I'd be leery of that as an "optional rule" if I were you.

I proposed the notion of weapon AP dealing Non-lethal damage everyblow, regardless of whether or not DR was penetrated, but that is also a proposal and not an actual rule.

 

[Evilschemer]

I would say that no damage = no getting through armor. The point of wearing leather boots in the desert is so if the snake bites you, it doesn't get your ankle.

I would ALSO say that a snake's bite is a finesse attack and could bypass armor, hit an exposed spot like the character's face or chink in the armor, do damage, and inject venom.

 

[argo]

No ideas where it is - I'm just going from what I've read here (hence I don't know the background reasoning of the rule, only the game effects)

Ah, youngins. Sit down me boy and I'll spin you a yarn of the heady days when this board was young and all the world seemed new.

Conan was a wild and untamed ruleset in those days. Everywhere you looked bandit typos and rouge copy/paste errors wreaked havoc upon the brave gamers who dared to venture into unknown lands. The very landsape itself was treacherous and littered with pitfalls for budding young ruleslawyers. Why even I myself was caught unawares on a couple of occasions. This was a time before the law of the Rulesmasters and their agent Errata was laid upon the land and many great battles were fought and many passages bitterly contested. Chief among these was the bloody and drawn out struggle at the infamous Feinter's Bulff and many of us still carry the scars of that fight.

Another, albiet lesser, engagement was fought in the Basin Of Zero Damage, the lowest elevation in our fair land. It was a long siege between armored Aquilonian knights and an unlikely alliance of drooling Picts and Grandmothers wielding mighty handbags. Severall times the tide of battle seemed to turn in favor of one side or the other until at last a cease fire was declared. By the power of almighty Bob it was declared that DR can reduce the damage delt by a successful hit to 0.

But many rebels refused to lay down their arms and so in an effort to keep the peace Bob did set aside two reservations dedicated to the two surviving tribes of the Variant Rule. The moderate tribe of the Rule of 1 Point Subdual and the more savage tribe of the Rule of 1 Point True. Bob afixed his seal of blessing upon them and there has been an uneasy peace ever since.

This is the way it was, in the heady days before the return of Atlantis.

 

[argo]

Oh, and the fact that the Rule of 1 Point True allows injury poision to work was (and is) one of the chief arguments against using that rule.

Just so you know :wink:

 

[Sutek]

I say we hack off the heads of both tribes and stick any willing to join us can help us forge a new tribe for the future...

...the DR block damage Horde shall rise strong and ferocious...

...and determined to follow the rule book relentlessly.

It say DR stops damage. It takes damage to incur Injury Poisons, but not contact, Ingested or Inhaled...

...take that, those of the banished tribes...

:lol:

 

[Zul-Daire]

Wow thanks for al the responses.

I guess the best thing is to follow the book and utilize finesse attacks.