Even when "underhanded" tactics are eschewed by players, poison and disease still play a large recurring role in many campaigns. Poisonous creatures are frequently encountered, and catching a disease is an ever-present danger when exploring filthy sewers or other unhygienic areas. Some diseases, such as Lycanthropy or Vampirism, have such a major impact on a world that their very presence causes otherwise poor options, like silver weapons, to be seriously considered in order to combat these existential threats.
Both poison and disease function similarly, in terms of game mechanics, in Realm of Runes. The primary differences between the two include accessibility for player use and scale of effect. Diseases typically are a slow-building threat, and many don't even show symptoms until the afflicted has suffered the disease for days, or even longer. Poisons run the gamut between fast-acting with short duration and longer-term, slow acting ones that can be confused for a disease by those that aren't familiar with them.
Poison is the most likely to have a direct impact on most game sessions, since poisonous monsters are more likely to be encountered than diseased ones in most scenarios. Poison, too, needs to be a viable tactic in and out of combat for players to make use of. The Alchemist, in particular, has an entire discipline focused on using and combating such afflictions. As a result, it is critically important to make sure that these options are intuitive to interact with, and effective enough that they are worth expending character or money resources to dabble with, or even specialize in.
EXPOSURE, CONTRACTION & CONTAGION
The first interaction any entity has with a poison or a disease is exposure. All poisons and diseases fall into one (or more) categories of exposure, each of which determines how the affliction can be contracted. When a creature is exposed to an affliction, it must immediately attempt a saving throw against it. Each poison and disease list a save type and DC. This is most frequently a Fortitude save, though some special variants or those that primarily influence a target's mental faculties might require a Will save instead, or allow one to substitute that save if it's better.
If this initial save is successful, the affliction is not contracted and nothing further is required. If this save is a failure, however, the poison or disease is contracted - or will be contracted once its onset period is elapsed. Some combat-oriented poisons have an immediate onset, while many diseases don't begin to manifest until days or even weeks of incubation have passed and characters might have forgotten that they were even exposed. Once the onset period has elapsed, each disease and poison has a frequency at which an afflicted creature must save again and again and again until the affliction is cured or has run its course.
Contact poisons and disease are especially devastating, as simply touching (or being touched by) a source causes exposure to the affliction. These can be especially potent tools, but for most characters even trying to use them risks accidental self-exposure. Ingested poisons and diseases only cause exposure if a creature consumes something tainted. These typically are slower-acting, rather than combat focused, as getting a foe to eat or drink what you want them to in combat is unlikely. Ingested diseases are particularly insidious as they can be spread by intimate contact as well. Inhaled poisons and diseases cause exposure when a creature breathes them in. These tend to be indiscriminate in targeting and able to expose many creatures at once, making them the focus of particularly devastating traps. Injury poisons and disease are the most straight-forward and easiest to use in combat. Taking damage from a poisoned or diseased attack, such as a scorpion's stinger, a mummy's rotted fists, or a weapon coated by alchemical poison, causes immediate exposure.
Diseases, in particular, tend to be the gift that keeps on giving. While not all diseases are contagious, many are. Creatures can be exposed to a contagious disease through interaction with an afflicted creature, even if that creature does not yet present any symptoms. The slow-acting nature of disease and the ability to spread before anyone is even aware of their presence makes contagious diseases useful tools for establishing stakes in a longer-term campaign.
STAGES OF AFFLICTION
Each poison and disease has one or more stages, and some even have unlimited stages. Each stage tends to have worse effects than earlier stages, but even multiple stages with the same effect can make dealing with an affliction more difficult. When a poison or disease is contracted through exposure, it is usually at stage 1 unless that initial saving throw was particularly bad. Once the onset period has elapsed, and with a frequency listed by the affliction in particular, an afflicted creature begins making more saves against the poison or disease. It is with these saves that the bulk of the poison and disease mechanics take effect.
If a creature succeeds at a save against a poison or disease it has contracted, it gains a temporary reprieve from symptoms and its stage is reduced by 1, or by more than one if the save if a critical success. If this reduces the stage to 0 the affliction is immediately cured, though some more insidious or cursed afflictions (like Lycantrhopy and Vampirism) simply prevent the possibility of reducing the stage to 0 by saving throws. Such poisons or diseases must be counteracted differently, often requiring magic or other special circumstances to accomplish.
If a creature fails its save against the affliction, however, it immediately suffers the effects listed for its current stage. This can include damage (frequently poison damage) and debilitating increases to conditions like feeble or dizzy. After suffering the effects, the stage then increases by 1, or by more if the save is a critical failure. This not only makes worse effects more likely on subsequent failed saving throws, but the higher the stage climbs the more successful saves are required in order to reduce the stage down to 0 in order to be cured naturally.
RECURRENCE & TEMPORARY RELIEF
Many poisons and diseases directly inflict debilitating conditions on the afflicted, usually by increasing the value of conditions by one or more each time the effects of a stage is suffered. There are many ways to reduce the value of a condition directly in Realm of Runes, such as through the restoration spell. This condition reduction is only treatment for the symptoms of an affliction, however. If the source of that condition is still present, such as from a lingering disease, these increases recur after 4 hours. Treating symptoms can still be helpful in the short term, such as in order to overcome a pressing threat, but untreated afflictions will continue to plague those that suffer them until they succumb or are cured.
ADDICTION & WITHDRAWAL
Some options in Realm of Runes, including many especially powerful alchemical elixirs like amphetamines and acetaminophen, are addicting. Sometimes even really insidious poisons might be addicting, too. Whenever a creature uses a substance with the addicting trait, it must immediately attempt a Fortitude save as though it has been exposed to an ingested disease. Failure causes the user to contract Withdrawal, a special disease that operates very differently from other diseases.
Withdrawal has increasingly debilitating stages like other diseases, but one never makes saves against it and its stage cannot be reduced to 0. Instead, each day that an afflicted creature refrains from using the addicting substance, it increases its stage by 1. If it persists in not using the substance, the highest stage of Withdrawal is a cure to the disease. Using the substance even once while addicted, however, immediately resets the stage back to 1. As a disease, Withdrawal can be directly counteracted like other diseases, but for most creatures the question of whether to keep using a substance to avoid symptoms or suffer through increasingly debilitating conditions to get over it provides a constant dangerous trade-off to frequent use of addicting substances.
Poison and disease in Realm of Runes are integrated from the ground up in order to work smoothly and effectively, both in and out of player hands. Addiction in particular makes for an interesting balancing drawback that allows some options to be especially potent for their level, letting the amount of "penalization" for using them be determined by the players themselves. Next time we'll take a closer look at an incredibly important tool for ensuring that characters can grow outside of leveling, and to recover from choices made while leveling that turn out to be unhelpful, Study and Retraining.
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