Poison Levels
Contents |
Intrinsic Details
| Gain Notice: | You are <modifier> poisoned. |
| Lose Notice: | You are cured. or You are wracked by the last of the poison |
| Found on Artifacts: | No. |
| Survive Polymorph: | No. |
| Survive Unpolymorph: | No. |
| Clear on Death: | Yes. |
| Clear on Polymorph: | No. |
| Maximum Duration: | None. |
Intrinsic Purpose
The various poison levels all do a given amount of "ongoing" damage every 2 turns, except for "Deadly" poison which deals damage every turn. When the poison duration expires, it will do "final" damage ("You are wracked by the last of the poison") equal to the ongoing damage of the next higher poison level (as listed below). Note that the "normal" poison level has no <modifier> in its messages.
Gaining the Intrinsic
These intrinsics can be gained from:
- Drinking a Poison Potion, or having one thrown at you. Strength varies with the potion's holy/evil status (see below). Duration is 4d5 turns.
- Breathing poison smoke, as provided by a Poison Vent or the Cloud Kill spell.
- Being struck by a Poison Bolt.
- Eating the corpses of certain species (Green Snake, Scorpion). 50% chance, and Butchery skill will prevent it altogether. As of version 115, duration is only 5d5 rounds. (Formerly 1d100+100 rounds!)
- Divine punishment
- Being attacked by a poisonous monster. Duration and strength depends on the monster (see below).
- Being attacked with a poisoned weapon (or other item). The poison level comes from the potion used to poison it, or "normal" poison for the Poison Item spell. Duration is 3d3 turns. The chance of poisoning is 100% for Deadly poison, 50% for all others.
- Equipping a poisoned item can poison you just as if you were "attacked", especially if the item is not a weapon.
- Eating the corpse of any monster that was poisoned when it died, again just as if you were "attacked" with the corpse. You get the poison level that it was suffering from. Butchery skill will prevent this.
Description Of Poison Levels
| Level | Ongoing Damage | Final Damage | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mildly Poisoned | 1 | 1d3 | Green Snake bite (2d3 turns), evil poison potion (4d5 turns) |
| Poisoned | 1d3 | 2d3 | Green Snake corpse (5d5 turns), Scorpion sting (5d3 turns, 50% chance), normal poison potion (4d5 turns) |
| Strongly Poisoned | 2d3 | 4d3 | Scorpion corpse (5d5 turns), divine punishment (20 turns), holy poison potion (4d5 turns) |
| Harshly Poisoned | 4d3 | 4d6 | Poison Bolt (6 turns), poison smoke (2 turns, 50% chance), Giant Spider bite (5d3 turns, 50% chance) |
| Deadly Poisoned | 4d6 every turn | 8d6 | Green Dragon bite (4d3 turns) |
Accumulating Poison
When a creature which is already poisoned is poisoned again, the doses are combined by these rules:
- If the new poison is weaker, it has no effect.
- A stronger poison replaces the weaker one, with duration somewhat increased by the existing poison. The old (remaining) duration is halved once for each level difference, then added to the duration of the new poison. E.g., if you had 20 turns of Mild poison, and you would have been poisoned for 10 turns with Strong poison, you get Strong poison for 20÷4+10=15 turns.
- Except for Deadly poison, being poisoned again with an equal poison boosts the poison to the next higher level. When this occurs, the old (remaining) and new durations are averaged. Note that a third attack at the same level will then be weaker than the boosted poison, setting a limit to your misery.
- Deadly poison just accumulates duration like other intrinsics, since there is no "next higher level".
Losing the Intrinsic
The Cure Poison spell or a Cure Potion will remove any of the poison intrinsics, with no further damage. Poison Resistance (including the Slow Poison spell) will prevent the ongoing damage, but not the final damage. Polymorphing to another form will temporarily halt the damage, but when you return to your own form, you will still be poisoned.
