I don't know about SM's system, or systems on the vault, but I changed poison completely.
I prefer the 'acid in your veins' approach, basically there are levels for poisons like there are for traps. (minor, average, strong, deadly) Deadly actually means deadly, unless you do something about it. One of my friends compared that strong poison is like getting knocked down to the ground for three rounds while being attacked by an armada of goblins on level 1.
The poisons have a more active effect, draining health, abilities or whatever by the round instead of the default two stage approach. As an example: Strong Face Melter is a funny poison that makes you blind and silenced while draining health at a pace of "Intelligence score" /round, lasts for int modifier rounds. (Well, there is more to it then that, but I don't remember and don't really want to open that script ever again, and its not directly from intelligence since I have a custom skill called alchemy, but roughly put and rounded~~~)
Might sound overpowered, but there are tonics you can take before combat that greatly nullify poison effects, but might also increase the effects of a different type of poison. (Well, NPCs have their categorized pseudo random poison immunities without tonics, but randomly applied)
Poison effect itself is just there to give your blood bar the colour.
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Oh, and as for balancing it, well... It's based on the scripted skill alchemy that's based on intelligence, wisdom and skill experience. It's hard to really compare since it's much different from the default poison format. Especially considering how all poisons stack, most even with themselves, which creates a whole new dimension for balancing... <>
Most dominant part of the balancing is the increasing rarity of ingredients required for the best poisons. It doesn't make much of a difference if you have a Deadly Death if you need to go all over the map to get the ingredients for just one flask. (Name from the top of my head, im not that bad at naming things!)
Modifié par Xardex, 15 décembre 2011 - 12:44 .