This is part of my conversion of the Temple of Elemental Evil.
Giant Snake
Might: 2
Will: 2
Health: 5
Nature (Snake): 4
Nature Descriptors: Slithering, Coiling, Poisoning
Dispositions: Kill 6, Flee 4, All others Nature + Nature roll
Fight Weapons: Coiled strike (as spear plus poison, see below)
Flee Weapons: Slithering speed (+1d on attack)
Special: Poison. After the conflict, any character who lost a stone from an attack inflicted by the snake’s bite must make an Ob 3 Heath test. Suggested twist: delirium, character immobilized for the rest of the phase; or suggested condition: sick.
Damn, what is it with “giant” animals in this place?
Poison is a really interesting effect in TB. We’ve had to work at wrapping our heads around it, since testing to resist poison must obey the Twist or Condition rule of every roll. Thus failing the roll and losing dispo and gaining a condition is too much.
It has to work like this: Suggested twist: delirium, character immobilized for the rest of the phase; or suggested condition: sick. Note that you need the clear failure result twist in addition to the (“better”) possibility of giving them a condition if they fail the roll but you want the character to pass the test.
Also, you might not want to trigger effects like this on successful conflict actions. That’s a very powerful, very frequent occurrence. Better to trigger the effect as part of a compromise or something similar.
Yeah, you’re right poison definitely feels like it should be something that affects a character after the conflict is over. After the adrenaline rush of fighting off a giant beast is faded, that’s when you realize the terrible creature’s venom is in your veins. Changing it now. Let me know what you think.
Cool. We had a paralyzing creature in our game tonight: Health test vs creature’s Nature. If failed, you’re paralyzed or given the exhausted condition and not paralyzed.
My players fought this last night. It was a long conflict as the snake’s attacks ended up being vs. tests most of the time (because it was using a spear weapon it’s attack was vs. against attack and defend), and the players used defend several times. Net result, the snake was killed outright, but everyone got bit during the fight. They all failed their heath tests. I dropped two of them on the floor imobilized and seeing images of their respective gods and left the lone halfling standing (but sick) to watch over his party. His goal is to get them all through this alive. We’ll see how that goes.