Template:Withstanding Poisons/Environmental Damage
Withstanding Poisons/Environmental Damage (Resistance)
Although the bodies of the Chosen are supernaturally resilient, they are not completely immune to the dangers of poison and epic overindulgence. For mortals, most toxins of any severity mean certain death unless they can find immediate medical treatment from a skilled herbalist or alchemist.
(Damage/Interval, Toxicity, Tolerance/Interval, Penalty)
In Exalted, poisons have a number of statistics. First, they have a Damage value separated from a time interval by a slash. The initial value in this pair indicates the maximum damage a single dose of the poison can inflict, while the second value indicates the interval at which the poison inflicts one damage die. In combat time, an interval of one second means that damage is applied every tick. An interval of "action" indicates the poison inflicts damage every five seconds of narrative time or the beginning of every tick that a character acts on during combat time. Therefore, a poison with 5L/1 hour would inflict one die of lethal damage when it first entered a character's system and an additional one die every hour until damage had been rolled five times. (See Damage.)
Multiple doses of the same poison stack their Damage ratings, effectively prolonging the duration rather than increasing the damage suffered at every interval. The countdown is always made at an interval from the current damage, so two doses of a 5L poison would become 10L and would need to roll damage 10 times from receiving the second dose in order for the poison to fully run its course. Poison damage cannot be soaked, but it may be fought at each damage interval with a reflexive (Stamina + Resistance) roll at a difficulty determined by the listed Toxicity rating of the poison (or the number of doses the character has consumed, if higher). Mortals add two to the Toxicity of all poisons unless the Toxicity is marked with an "M" tag. Willpower cannot be spent on this roll for an automatic success.
If this roll succeeds, the damage type is reduced by one level, so aggravated becomes lethal, lethal becomes bashing, and bashing toxins inflict no damage. With double the number of successes required, the damage type decreases two categories. Some extremely deadly venoms have an "L" tag beside their Toxicity, indicating that they normally inflict levels of damage rather than dice. With such toxins, a successful Resistance roll first removes this tag, while double successes drop the damage type one category. The next poison statistic is its Tolerance, which indicates how many doses of the substance a character can safely have in her system before she starts risking damage. This statistic is attached to a time interval indicating how long it takes for the character's body to purge itself of each dose.
If the intervals of damage and dose reduction sync, the dose fades before the Resistance roll. A dash in place of the interval indicates the drug runs its course until it inflicts all damage, and then, it is completely flushed out of the system. The last statistic is the poison’s Penalty, which indicates the internal penalty imposed as a result of pain, hallucination or some other effect as long as the character has more doses of the drug in his system than the substance's Tolerance rating allows. (The penalty equals the number of doses taken, if greater than the usual penalty.) Penalties from poisons do not apply to Resistance rolls against them. If a player successfully makes the Resistance roll for an interval, the Penalty is halved, rounded down. Although not technically a statistic of the poison, each toxin has an associated Resources cost to obtain a dose.
Putting all this together, alcohol has the following traits: (2B/1 hour, 3M, Stamina + Resistance/1 hour, -1). For the purposes of these rules, a dose of alcohol is one drink, which translates roughly to a large beer, a glass of grape wine, several glasses of rice wine or a shot of harder liquor. Because alcohol has a Tolerance equal to the drinker’s Stamina, a character with Stamina 2, Resistance 1 could safely hold three drinks in her body without noticeable effect. Each dose fades after an hour, so as long as she doesn’t drink more than a glass per hour, she’ll be fine. If she unwisely imbibes a row of eight shots in quick succession, this is five doses above her tolerance, changing the statistics of the alcohol within her to (10B/1 hour, 5M, Stamina + Resistance/1 hour, -5). Her player immediately rolls (Stamina + Resistance) at difficulty 5. (If she fails, the character suffers one die of unsoakable bashing damage.) After an hour, her body purges one dose, reducing the statistics to (8B/1 hour, 4M, Stamina + Resistance/hour, -4); another failed resistance roll would result in another die of bashing damage. This repeats each hour until her body finally purges the last excess drink. She is then sober but still at her limit until another three hours cleanses the remaining drinks from her body.
Some rare poisons do not inflict conventional damage, but instead cause some other deleterious effect on a failed Resistance roll. Some inflict no form of damage at all, but still have a Damage statistic to help determine how long they last. Many recreational drugs fall into this category.