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When do poison effects and multi-round spell effects do damage?

Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2017 11:19 am
by ChrisDDickey
If somebody is poisoned, or within the damaging effects of a multi-round spell such as Blizzard Sphere, when does the damage happen?

So if two people are caught in a blizzard sphere, and one had already acted, and the other had not, they would both take damage when the spell was first cast.
The guy who had not had his action yet, would not take damage before or after his trun, since he had already taken damage that round. If he simply walks out of the AoE, he does not take damage again.
The next round there is one guy in the AoE, and he has not yet had any opportunity to react.

So when does he take damage?
  • At the beginning of the round. Because he had a higher initiative than the caster last round, He has not acted since the spell began. It seems unjust that he gets effected twice just because he had high initiative last round.
  • Before the targets action. Same as above.
  • After the targets action. If he is still in the sphere after he acts, he takes damage. This seems fair and workable.
  • Upon the casters / poisoners action. It might be before or after the target acts, so he might still be effected twice before a single chance to react. Also, if the caster is dead or otherwise out of combat, that could be a problem. I would probably just substitute end of round in that case, in which case why not just start with that condition.
  • End of Round. Assuming the target is still in the AoE at the end of the 2nd or subsequent rounds. Also seems fair and workable.
Comments? Clarification? Rulings?

Re: When do poison effects and multi-round spell effects do damage?

Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2017 3:00 pm
by Mataxes
The same basic question came up in the GM Forum:

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=390

I'm on my way out the door, so I don't have time to answer more than that, but that thread has some discussion.

Re: When do poison effects and multi-round spell effects do damage?

Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2017 3:24 am
by ChrisDDickey
Ah thanks. Actually that was the wrong thread but I managed to find this thread from 3 months ago.
http://www.fasagames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=368
Which terminated with the not 100% definitive comment "There's no perfect solution.".

Sorry I did not do a better search of previous answers before asking the question again.

Mataxes wrote:
Fri Aug 04, 2017 12:51 pm
I see two options, really.

1) Roll your poison effect tests and such on the poisoner's turn. So, if a snake poisoned the adept, the poisoneffect rolls occur on the same initiative as the snake's other attacks. This makes them independent of the victim's actions and means you face some of the same unpredictability you encounter with normal initiative (in terms of possibly getting two turns of damage before the victim can act, etc).

2) Make those tests on the victim's turn. If going this way, I would allow the victim their actions first -- giving them a chance to use talents, down a potion, or do other things that might mitigate or neutralize the poison's effect. Much like ties in initiative, advantage to the PC. This results in a bit more predictability -- the victim always has a chance to act before the next poison roll.

Re: When do poison effects and multi-round spell effects do damage?

Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2019 4:47 pm
by kevsurp
the way i do it is
poison type effect happen at the end of the players turn as they can use their action to try and resist the effect.

now spell like blizzard sphere and such spells happen at the beginning of the round and the effect roll is applied to all effected. so its is possible to get hit twice before u can go again.

but spells like Lightning Cloud only go on the caster turn as it requires the caster action to use.

Re: When do poison effects and multi-round spell effects do damage?

Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 9:12 am
by Belenus
For poison effects I roll the damage when it's the characters turn who is poisoned.
For blizzard sphere I go for the damage when it's the casters turn, after all he is deciding the damage.
And yes, it might be possible that the enemy is hit twice before he can interact but normally he is faster than a caster AND he already had the chance to interrupt him from casting Blizzard at all.