Poison qualifier

kalindra

kalindra

Specialist
In v0.8 the following text was added:
"Some defenses – like Parry and Riposte or other weapon-specific defenses – have changed to specify that they work against any attack with either the “Weapon” qualifier or the “Poison” qualifier (only if the attack is made with the physical delivery). This helps eliminate some exceptions.

The Poison qualifier works a little differently based on how it's being delivered. If it's delivered via a weapon (for example, through use of a weapon coating), the user should announce "# Poison <effect>" and the attack must hit a valid target in the same way that a Weapon qualifier attack needs to. This means it can be physically blocked by a shield or weapon."

This appears to be basically how it works now, except that the verbal is e.g. "8 Poison Weakness" instead of "8 Weakness Poison."

Questions:
Does a Vorpal Coating give a Poison qualifier ("N+5 Poison Normal") along with the other Contact Gels?

(This is related to the previous discussion regarding the Poison Strike ritual: )
Is there now any purpose for Poison Strike? Considering:
--Poison qualifier with physical delivery can be parried/riposted/Weapon Shielded, plus defended with any applicable Poison defenses, making it less likely to land.
--If the purpose is to circumvent NPC immunity to "weapon" qualifier, why not allow it to last ten minutes per crit/back attack, like the Magic Strike ritual (or at least until it connects, as Contact Gels now do)? Although Poison is a qualifier rather than an effect/carrier, the new language implies that physically delivered Poison is still roughly the same as Weapon in terms of immunity/defenses.
--It was suggested in the previous thread that the ritual can be combined with Healing Strike in order to allow a character to heal (because Healing Strike specifically precludes Weapon qualifier attacks from restoring body points). If this is intended, I think it ought to be codified specifically, because it is not intuitively obvious and violates the existing rule in 1.3 that you can't heal from a carrier (p97). If this was not intended, that may need to be specified in the Healing Strike ritual as well.

"If it's delivered via a packet (for example, through a Monster ability or use of a gas globe) the user should announce "Poison <effect>" and the attack need only hit one of the target's personal possessions just like a Spell or Elemental qualifier attack."

To clarify, this means that Gas Globes now have the verbal "Poison Sleep" rather than the 1.3 "Sleep Gas Poison"?

Edit: wow, sorry for the massive wall of text there.
 
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The Poison qualifier, and Poison Strike in specific, presented a few problems, primarily relating to combining the Poison qualifier with certain effects/damage types. ARC is working through several different options for how to resolve these issues.

And yes, "Poison Sleep" would be the correct verbal.
 
I'll add my questions to this thread as well.

1. The Poison Strike ritual lets a wielder change the qualifier of a weapon attack from Weapon to Poison for only one swing, whether or not it resolves as a legal hit, while a contact poison applied to a weapon would be swung until it resolves. A usage of the Poison Strike ritual would change a "5 Normal" attack to a "5 Poison Normal" attack, but would otherwise follow certain defensive rules for Weapon qualifier attacks, such as being blocked by a shield or the ability to Parry it. Is this information all correct?

2. Combining the Poison Strike ritual, Healing Strike ritual, and an Assassinate would allow a character to activate Healing Strike by spending 1 critical attack or back attack to swing with the healing carrier for 10 minutes, and then activate poison strike and swing a "25 Poison Healing" for one hit from behind with a melee weapon, which would heal a living creature. They would then continue to swing for "# Healing" for the rest of the duration of the healing strike, which would not heal living creatures, but still deal no damage to them (as long as they are healed by Healing). Is this accurate, and is this intentional? Additionally,does a Healing Strike/Poison Strike combination heal in this way only if the target's armor is breached or nonexistant? (ARB 1.3 pg 108 "In order for a target to be affected by these weapon poisons, the strike must do body damage to the target.")

While it didn't come up in playtesting, it would be helpful to clarify it for the future.
 
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I can only answer the first question for certain: the call would change from "5 Normal" to "5 Poison Normal", as you assume, but because many defenses only work against Weapon qualifier attacks, they would be unable to use them against the "5 Poison Normal" swing. I unfortunately do not have the rulebook handy, but I believe such invalid defenses include Weapon Shield, Parry, Repost, and Intercept; a Poison Shield will block it. I am unsure of what happens if you hit a shield, but I assume it would also be blocked as normal.

For 2, ARC is currently discussing that scenario (it was brought up earlier in this thread), and will render a ruling on it at some point in future.
 
If you look at the new text added to the 0.8 doc that I quoted above, Parry and other weapon defenses will work against either Weapon or Poison qualifiers, at least in this version of the playtest. We don't know how it'll end up in the final rule set, of course.
 
Specifically, page 4 of 41 in the 0.8 packet:

"Some defenses – like Parry and Riposte or other weapon-specific defenses – have changed to specify that they work against any attack with either the “Weapon” qualifier or the “Poison” qualifier (only if the attack is made with the physical delivery). This helps eliminate some exceptions.

The Poison qualifier works a little differently based on how it's being delivered. If it's delivered via a weapon (for example, through use of a weapon coating), the user should announce "# Poison <effect>" and the attack must hit a valid target in the same way that a Weapon qualifier attack needs to. This means it can be physically blocked by a shield or weapon."
Click to expand...
 
The bad part of posting from one's phone on which the 0.8 change book doesn't load properly. Glad it got cleared up, sorry for the disinformation. :)
 
Just to be clear, the Poison qualifier is presenting problems because, in the live game, it basically uses a unique "poisoned weapon" qualifier, and we do not have a solid decision on if and how to preserve that functionality. That is the source of the v.8 playtest referenced above.
 
What if there was a Poison qualifier and a Toxin qualifier. Toxin would mean "weapon delivered poison" and would allow for both Poison defenses and Weapon defenses. Sort of a short hand.
 
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