Hey, we have an @ss GM, who has no idea about rules, but is good in chemistry.
Today, in lost mines of phandelver, we broke quicksilver, which from liquid transformed into small balls, making it mercury or w/e, evaporated and we had to roll Con saves.
A bit not so traditional question, concerning Divine Health Paladin - is this a disease or poisoning? I am sure he will come up with permanent consequences, as per uj.
Thanks
The only answer you can get online that will actually be anywhere near accurate for you is this: Talk to your DM about it.
That's just how it goes when you have a DM making up stuff not already in the game - they are the only one that knows anything about it.
Another question to ask your GM is how the mercury evaporated. It is famously liquid at room temperature (hence the "quicksilver" name), but its vaporization temperature is ~630K, or about 675 degrees Farenheit.
(Note: Loaded question. There's other ways it could go gaseous, but none of them would be present if you were still able to visually identify it as "quicksilver". For instance, you'd need one hell of an electric current to ionize it, or it would need to instantly form a compound with something. Chemists will be quick to spot the mistake and, if they're as insufferable as half the chemists I know (</sarc>), they'll be quicker to point out where you're wrong. Along the way you'll find out what happened.)
If your DM is going to pull real-world hijinks on you, at least make it consistent with the real world.
(This is being deliberately facetious, since I suspect this falls under the "DM overemphasizing his subjective experience" category, and wholeheartedly agree with Aaron in most cases.)
It sounds like it could just be a flavorful explanation of a trap. I havent done LMoP so i don't know exactly what is normally there.
But if he knows chemistry, could just be him explaining a poison gas trap as a quicksilver trap. Maybe he watched Legend of Korra recently, lol.
Any attempt to permanently damage a character would be an overreach though. It should just be dealing poison damage, and potentially causing poisoned contition temporarily.
In real life mercury poisoning is much worse, but then again so is getting stabbed by a sword. but dnd doesn't really have a listing for it in the poison list.
Oh there is no trap. It was on a table someone managed to smash.
It got mixed with dragon bile and I think something called nightshade... That is all.
And permanent conditions - like for instance in 3e druid had to make a Fly check every round, if he failed so many times they crashed, he had to roll Will save and failed, now he is scared of flying and cant transform into a flying creature - are pretty common there.
Apropos of nothing, I was once informed (by email) that a character of mine had died, between adventures, of radiation sickness.
At least you got a saving throw.
+1 to Aaron's comment.
If your DM is going to keep perma-zapping you with no warning, and you find that no fun, he needs to know that he is destroying his own group. If he continues anyways, start searching for another group and join it. Invite the other players.
Barimen wrote:
ZickZak wrote:
FWIW, poison is an outside substance introduced into the body. A disease is the damage or disorder. For instance, Alcohol is a poison which can cause Alcoholism and liver disease. Asbestos is a poison that can cause Cancer.
Mercury poisoning causes several diseases, including acrodynia (pink disease), Hunter-Russell syndrome, and Minamata disease.
Now, in game terms when you are immune to disease but not immune to poison... Only your DM can tell you. Maybe you have mercury in your system but don't suffer any ill effects because you are immune to the diseases that mercury poisoning causes?
edit: It may seem like I know what I'm talking about. The truth is, I googled it because I was curious.
Well who would have ever thought I will be linking these on D&D forums...
I am still quite unsure, if poison or disease. I assume since it is causing damage right away, it will be considered poison. The following causes will be a disease.