Minor versions of Cure Disease and Neutralize Poison
by Anarion_ElendiliSo, one thing that harshes my mellow about running a BECMI campaign is that most poisons are pretty much one failed roll = you are dead.
Neutralize Poison is a 4th tier (tier used here to separate from character levels) clerical spell, which means the Cleric needs to be 8th level. Once you get there, sure, then the poison becomes something you can deal with IF you have Neutralize Poison prepared.
Cure Disease is a 3th tier clerical spell, but since diseases generally kill you slower than poison, there is usually more time to get to the town and find healing there or for the cleric to rest and cure you in the morning. Well, the Green Slime kills you quicker than that, but at least you can try and kill the Green Slime first.
Anyway, while perusing through the potions, I spotted an Antidote Potion, with four tiers of potency. My thought was to adapt this to Neutralize Poison as well:
1st tier: Neutralize Weak Poison (3HD or less), reversed^ might give minor penalties for the duration
2nd tier: Neutralize Minor Poison (7HD or less), reversed might do damage and give major penalties for the duration
3rd tier: Neutralize Major Poison (15HD or less), reversed might do lots of damage and incapacitate for the duration
4th tier: Neutralize (All) Poison (all), reversed kills
(^ = if the reversed spell, Poison, is used.)
This would give a low level cleric some chance to help with the poisons that they might run into at low levels. I was also thinking of a Slow Poison, which would be a level lower than Neutralize, and delay the effects of the poison like 2h per caster level. In fact, I think I would just fold that into the Neutralize Poison, if trying to use it to a higher tier poison:
1 tier higher: Delays the poison 2h per caster level, and gives a new Saving Throw at +2.
2 tiers higher: Delays the poison 10 min per caster level, and gives a new Saving throw at -4.
3 tiers higher: Delays the poison 1 min per caster level, no new saving throw.
As for Cure Disease, I was thinking something like:
1st tier: Cure Minor Disease (flu, minor fever, infection, etc)
2nd tier: Cure Major Disease (magical like mummy rot, or serious, pneumonia, leprosy, tetanus, etc)
3rd tier: Cure Disease (all, including lycantrophy, plague, rabies, etc)
Thoughts?
Alright, how about this...
For Poisons:
Minor Delay Poison (1st level): Suspends the effect of the poison for 2 turns per caster level. At the end of the duration, make a new saving throw.
Moderate Delay Poison (2nd level): Suspends the effect of the poison for 1 hour per caster level. At the end of the duration, make a new saving throw at +4.
Major Delay Poison (3rd level): Suspends the effect of the poison for 3 hours per caster level. At the end of the duration, make a new saving throw at +8.
Neutralize Poison (4th level): Like before, cures any poison instantly.
I might also allow a Healing skill roll to give a bonus to the Poison Saving Throw.
For Diseases:
Panacea (1st level): With normal diseases, after a day, get another saving throw, and if successful, recover from the disease. Can be recast afterwards, but in the case of some faster acting diseases, it might be too late. With magical, fast acting diseases, you get one extra saving throw to recover, when the timer has counted down.
Greater Panacea (2nd level): With normal diseases, after an hour, get another saving throw at +4. Can be recast afterwards. With magical, fast acting diseases, you get one extra saving throw at +4 to recover, when the timer has counted down.
Cure Disease (3rd level): Cures magical diseases and ones even without a saving throw.
The idea behind the Panacea and Greater Panacea is that you can't just bring ten 2nd level clerics and spam Panacea until it works. Instead, one cleric casts the spell, and then checks up the following day if the person healed or not.