Hezrou Stench re-implementation notes.

Official Stench Rules:
A hezrou’s skin produces a foul-smelling, toxic liquid whenever it fights. Any living creature (except other demons) within 10 feet must succeed on a DC 24 Fortitude save or be nauseated for as long as it remains within the affected area and for 1d4 rounds afterward. Creatures that successfully save are sickened for as long as they remain in the area. A creature that successfully saves cannot be affected again by the same hezrou’s stench for 24 hours. A delay poison or neutralize poison spell removes either condition from one creature. Creatures that have immunity to poison are unaffected, and creatures resistant to poison receive their normal bonus on their saving throws. The save DC is Constitution-based.


I have tried to get the Hezrou Stench in the game to work as closely as possible to these rules. I know it's not perfect, but I think it's pretty good and is the best possible in ToEE as it stands. It should activate for any Hezrou on their first round of combat. It's a spell being cast, but I've made it a free action so the Hezrou should also be able to cast it's first real spell on the first round too. Creatures with poison immunity are not affected by the stench, which is great for Monks and Druids! Dwarves get a +4 bonus to their saving throw, so they're pretty handy too. Neutralise and Delay Poison spells or potions will cure the effects for their stated duration, even if they were cast before meeting a Hezrou. The conditions are applied using a spell object which is placed in the creatures inventory, but are non-lootable and non-droppable.

The sickness condition is pretty accurate and the pop up info will correctly label any creature that has been sickened by the stench. This clears when they leave the area and they are not affected again by the same Hezrou's stench. The rules don't explicitly state whether the sickness should return on re-entering the stench, just that they should not be affected again - but this could mean just not have to take the save with the possibility of nausea. If you have an opinion on this or know for sure, please let me know.

The nausea condition is as near as I could get. The only nausea in the game is implemented for the stinking cloud spell. (although it's flagged as sickened on the pop-up info for some reason)  Unfortunately stinking cloud will only work as an area effect which means applying (and un-applying) it to individuals is not easy. Both I and Cerulean the Blue have spent many, many fruitless hours trying every possible way of using the effect. The best we got was not good enough, as it was easily passed on to any other creature who ran past and got too close. Also, because it was even worse when applied to a spell object and placed in the inventory, it wasn't possible to remove it at will and the effect of that was that it would expire every other round. So, I have implemented a simulated nausea effect which pretty much follows the rules except a single attack is still possible. I could not find any way to disable this, but if anyone has a way I'd be really happy to hear from you. What I've done to minimise the effectiveness this single attack, should someone choose to use it, is reduce the weapon damage of all weapons carried to zero while the user is nauseated. (it's reset once the nausea wears off) I have also reduced strength to 11 so that no strength bonus to damage is recieved. That can consequences for pc's carrying heavy loads, but generally seemed fair after testing. (try carrying a heavy load while nauseated!) The effect will correctly wear off 1-4 rounds after a creature leaves the stench area as per the rules.


I hope that this makes the Guardian Hezrou combat more interesting and enjoyable. I have now coded it to work for up to seven Hezrou at once, so multi Hezrou battles will be pretty interesting and very challenging! Lastly, if anyone does has any feedback, comments or bug reports please let me have em.


Hazelnut.

(with thanks to Cerulean the Blue for his initial work, the timevent idea and general help - thank you)