CloudKill still has insta-death?

[knightgf]

Maybe im missing missing. But im pretty sure that, a while ago, cloudkill was changed so that the instant-death effect was no longer a effect that the spell gives. I was so used to cloudkill not having that, then all of a sudden, when I run Haunted Library with a full party, I failed a save on cloudkill and I died instantly. On a side note, the whole party wiped as well.

Is this a bug? Is the insta-kill effect still on cloudkill? And if so, how exactly does it work?

[SolarDawning]

Maybe im missing missing. But im pretty sure that, a while ago, cloudkill was changed so that the instant-death effect was no longer a effect that the spell gives. I was so used to cloudkill not having that, then all of a sudden, when I run Haunted Library with a full party, I failed a save on cloudkill and I died instantly. On a side note, the whole party wiped as well.

Is this a bug? Is the insta-kill effect still on cloudkill? And if so, how exactly does it work?

It was not changed, it's not a bug, Cloudkill is working properly.

Here's how the spell works:

If you are immune to poison, cloudkill never does anything to you. You are immune.

If you are level 6 or under, and not immune to poison, you make a fortitude save every few seconds while inside of Cloudkill. Failure equals death.

If you are above level 6, and not immune to poison, you are immune to Cloudkill's instant-death effect. Instead, Cloudkill deals 1d4 Constitution damage every few seconds to you while you are inside the effect.

If you are not immune to poison, in addition to the above effects (insta death or con damage), Cloudkill also deals 2d6 acid damage to you every few seconds. If you are immune to poison, this does not affect you.

[LunaCee]

Where did the wipe occur? Because that last room with the boss and final tome has some actual dedicated instant kills being tossed around. And most groups I see doing this quest are level 7+ because of it being an 8th level quest and the fact that the arcane skeletons are CR 9 on normal.

[knightgf]

It was not changed, it's not a bug, Cloudkill is working properly.

Here's how the spell works:

If you are immune to poison, cloudkill never does anything to you. You are immune.

If you are level 6 or under, and not immune to poison, you make a fortitude save every few seconds while inside of Cloudkill. Failure equals death.

If you are above level 6, and not immune to poison, you are immune to Cloudkill's instant-death effect. Instead, Cloudkill deals 1d4 Constitution damage every few seconds to you while you are inside the effect.

If you are not immune to poison, in addition to the above effects (insta death or con damage), Cloudkill also deals 2d6 acid damage to you every few seconds. If you are immune to poison, this does not affect you.

Ahh. I see now. I was not aware that cloudkill's instant death effect did not affect creatures with 6 or more HD. Im telling ya man, the descriptions this game has are REALLY bad. Its almost like you need a translator to understand some things in this game. Thanks for the clarifications.

[sirgog]

It was not changed, it's not a bug, Cloudkill is working properly.

Here's how the spell works:

If you are immune to poison, cloudkill never does anything to you. You are immune.

If you are level 6 or under, and not immune to poison, you make a fortitude save every few seconds while inside of Cloudkill. Failure equals death.

If you are above level 6, and not immune to poison, you are immune to Cloudkill's instant-death effect. Instead, Cloudkill deals 1d4 Constitution damage every few seconds to you while you are inside the effect.

If you are not immune to poison, in addition to the above effects (insta death or con damage), Cloudkill also deals 2d6 acid damage to you every few seconds. If you are immune to poison, this does not affect you.

Edited for Solar's corrections to level numbers:

I thought if you were very low level (~1-3) then you die, no save, in CK (assuming no immunity to poison). 4-6 or so, it's save or die, and 9+ it's save or take stat damage.

I could be wrong.

[SolarDawning]

I thought if you were very low level (~1-5) then you die, no save, in CK (assuming no immunity to poison). 6-8 or so, it's save or die, and 9+ it's save or take stat damage.

I could be wrong.

Player's Handbook says

This spell generates a bank of fog, similar to a fog cloud, except that its vapors are yellowish green and poisonous. These vapors automatically kill any living creature with 3 or fewer HD (no save). A living creature with 4 to 6 HD is slain unless it succeeds on a Fortitude save (in which case it takes 1d4 points of Constitution damage on your turn each round while in the cloud).

A living creature with 6 or more HD takes 1d4 points of Constitution damage on your turn each round while in the cloud (a successful Fortitude save halves this damage). Holding one’s breath doesn’t help, but creatures immune to poison are unaffected by the spell.

I can tell you for sure that you're safe from the insta-death above level 6. I've run Haunted Library and other cloudkill-filled instances with no poison immunity on level 7/8 characters with no problem aside from the constitution damage. The spell appears to work as described in the 3.5 PHB, aside from the acid damage that DDO added in.

[Glenalth]

Maybe im missing missing. But im pretty sure that, a while ago, cloudkill was changed so that the instant-death effect was no longer a effect that the spell gives. I was so used to cloudkill not having that, then all of a sudden, when I run Haunted Library with a full party, I failed a save on cloudkill and I died instantly. On a side note, the whole party wiped as well.

Is this a bug? Is the insta-kill effect still on cloudkill? And if so, how exactly does it work?

The death part they changed a while back is that 0 Con only stuns instead of kills.