Poison, I don't want to break this chain...

[Rincewind]

Cutting right to the question.

Most members of my dearest party wear gloves, magical and not magical.

The doorknob is poisoned. What happens when one of them touches the doorknob?

I'm planning NOT to count him as if he contacted poison, but wherever he touches next, he'll spread the poison there. I hope he doesn't drink a potion with his poisoned glove, or gives one of his buddies a hand... ...snicker..

[martyboy74]

Cutting right to the question.

Most members of my dearest party wear gloves, magical and not magical.

The doorknob is poisoned. What happens when one of them touches the doorknob?

I'm planning NOT to count him as if he contacted poison, but wherever he touches next, he'll spread the poison there. I hope he doesn't drink a potion with his poisoned glove, or gives one of his buddies a hand... ...snicker..

What kind of Poison is it? I'm assuming contact, but if it's injury, then things are much different.

[Rincewind]

What kind of Poison is it? I'm assuming contact, but if it's injury, then things are much different.

Why would I, or anyone smear a doorknob with injury poison, pray tell??

[Emperor Tippy]

Why would I, or anyone smear a doorknob with injury poison, pray tell??

cover the doorknob in many, many very small needles.

People have been assassinated in the past by poisons that were on needles embedded in the sealing wax on a letter.

[weenie]

Why would I, or anyone smear a doorknob with injury poison, pray tell??

It could work if the doorknob was sharp enough...

I'd suggest you give the character that opens the door a 20% probability that he'll poison himself with the glove every time he does something with his hands and that the poison remains effective for a max of two hours. Also drop the save DC a bit since the ammount of poison has been reduced.

[asqwasqw]

If it is contact poison, you have to decide whether to have it seep through the glove or hurt the next person he touches. (I say hurt the next person.) This can get kinda confusing, so I will rule it that it loses potenty after 2 touches. So if you touch a cloth, and use the cloth to wipe a lamp, and someone else without gloves picks up the lamp, they will not get poisioned. You also have to decide if it is magical or non-magical poison, and if it is magical, non-magical gloves do nothing.

Edit: Kinda Ninja-ed by 5 ppl!

[Rincewind]

cover the doorknob in many, many very small needles.

People have been assassinated in the past by poisons that were on needles embedded in the sealing wax on a letter.

Well if that was the case, I wouldn't ask the question emphasizing the gloves.

[martyboy74]

One dose of poison smeared on a weapon or some other object affects just a single target. A poisoned weapon or object retains its venom until the weapon scores a hit or the object is touched (unless the poison is wiped off before a target comes in contact with it). Any poison smeared on an object or exposed to the elements in any way remains potent until it is touched or used.

So yes, the poison will spread, but can only be on one object at any time.



As for the comment about the gloves, they could've been part of a set of armour, and thus would've protected him.

[LotharBot]

See what happens next: he does something that would result in the poison rubbing off (like, combat or lots of looting), he touches a party member's skin, he touches an opponent's skin, or he takes a leak.

[Fixer]

This is 100% GM call area.

For me, I would decide if I wanted the poison to be stuck to the knob or not. For ease of bookkeeping, I would vote that if the poison has only one use, it stays on the knob. If it affects everyone that touches the knob, it will be on the person's hand for 1d4 rounds and at a save DC-6 from the original potency for there being less of it. After that it simply gets 'dried off' or something.

[TheOOB]

I would say that gloves give you a circumstance modifier to your fort save to resist the poison, say +2 for cloth gloves, +4 for leather, and +6 for gauntlets. The fact is that the poison can still seep through, but you'll be exposed to much less of the poison so you are less likely to be affected by it.

Contact poison on the door knob wouldn't be a great adventurer deterant, as adventurers always wear gloves, in such a dangerous profession hand protection is a given.

[Cade Shadow]

blah, blah blah, or he takes a leak.

That would be the most embarrassing death EVER!

[Prometheus]

It could always be inhaled poison (if it was recently applied), in which case, it would be inhaled next sneeze, cough, itch etc.

[Tor the Fallen]

If his gloves are permeable (likely) and the poison is water soluble (likely), then the next time his gloves get wet, it's time to make a fort save.

On the other hand, a glove may simply not be wet or sticky enough to pick up a large enough dose of poison (if there was only one dose of poison on the knob), and when it later transfers the poison to another object, and THAT object is handled, nothing happens. Not enough poison.

Entirely a DM area, though.

[Valdyr]

The characters are wearing gloves so that they don't get contact poison onto their skin. If you do some gimmick that ignores that precaution (your gloves aren't waterproof, the doorknob is sharp...) your players might kill you. I like the idea of having the poison stick to their gloves though. It shows them that investing in that bit of protection paid off.

Go for some other type of poison if you really want to pose that challenge to them. I'm just saying from a players perspective, when you go out of your way to try and protect yourself against some badness and your DM inflicts it on your anyway, it's a little disheartening.

[Steelwraith]

If the player doesn't know his gloves are now poisoned, he would be infected sooner or later... he may scratch himself, wipe his brow, or otherwise touch himself. I would roll a random number of turns then tell the player he was poisoned by something on his gloves. If you're feeling generous, allow the player a spot check to notice something on his gloves just before he touches himself.

If the player does suspect something is on his gloves, recommend to him that he should remove them as soon as possible... otherwise the poison may soak through the gloves. If the player ignores the warning, wait a couple of rounds then have him save vs poison with a bonus... he wouldn't be affected by the full strength of the poison by it seeping through his gloves. Ignore this if the gloves were waterproof or offered magical protection.

[Haikiah]

before he touches himself.

Eww.

Decision falls to the DM. Make it SPECIAL poison that LEAPS through gloves.

[Rincewind]

Eww.

Decision falls to the DM. Make it SPECIAL poison that LEAPS through gloves.

Yeah, I'm think of making it a "Black Astral Shadow Leaping Locust Venom Extract"... But I don't think something like that would stay on a doorknob, no sir. This guy will leap out of the doorknob, attack the nearest player, surprise round, everybody rolls initiative, the poison escapes back into his plane of existence...

Which happens to be the "doorknob dimension"... Endless adventures await... Buy the extended poison and doorknob dimension core rule book.

Have a nice day.

[Citizen Joe]

This is EXTREMELY BAD precedent. If you say that the poison can be transfered to the glove (and presumably remain on the knob) then you just gave them free unlimited uses of that poison. I'd cut off the knob and keep using it... In fact, get cheap (poison proof) gloves and sell the envenomed gloves to anyone that needs that poison.

[nerulean]

I'd say the poison can be transferred maybe three times, and if it comes into contact with skin in that time then it does it's poison thing, and if it doesn't then it loses its potency.

Example: the rogue opens the door (poison goes doorknob >> glove, 1 transfer), then scratches his head (poison goes glove >> skin, 2 transfers, roll a fort save please Mr. Rogue.)

Alternatively: the rogue opens the door (poison goes doorknob >> glove, 1 transfer) then picks up a torch (poison goes glove >> torch, 2 transfers) then puts the torch on the table (poison goes torch >> table, 3 transfers, poison wears off.)

At each possible transfer, you rule which of the items the poison stays on so you can't create infinite poisoned items.

[Rincewind]

This is EXTREMELY BAD precedent. If you say that the poison can be transfered to the glove (and presumably remain on the knob) then you just gave them free unlimited uses of that poison. I'd cut off the knob and keep using it... In fact, get cheap (poison proof) gloves and sell the envenomed gloves to anyone that needs that poison.

That's one of the absurdest things I have heard since Oscar Wilde's corpse. Which DM would be that naive? No one. Not me especially, no.
Try something like that in my game, and you'll end up in so much trouble, you'll cry of frustration in real life.
Anyhow, that's what a basic player's mind works, thanks for demonstrating.

[skywalker]

The characters are wearing gloves so that they don't get contact poison onto their skin. If you do some gimmick that ignores that precaution (your gloves aren't waterproof, the doorknob is sharp...) your players might kill you. I like the idea of having the poison stick to their gloves though. It shows them that investing in that bit of protection paid off.

Go for some other type of poison if you really want to pose that challenge to them. I'm just saying from a players perspective, when you go out of your way to try and protect yourself against some badness and your DM inflicts it on your anyway, it's a little disheartening.

Agree.

This is the smartest idea here.