asg

Open Sourcerer, Let's Encrypt

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So there's this item in 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons called Dust of Sneezing and Choking. Its whole schtick is that it seems to be a different item called Dust of Disappearance (which you toss in the air like pocket sand and then it makes you and everyone around you invisible) except that, instead of making people invisible, it makes them sneeze and choke instead. That's a cute idea! Love a little bait-and-switch.

Except.


Here's some of the rules text from the Dust of Sneezing and Choking:

[Y]ou must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or become unable to breathe[...] A creature affected in this way is incapacitated and suffocating. As long as it is conscious, a creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on it on a success.

There are two key points to focus on here:

  • You become "suffocating", which is not a "condition", but is well-defined in the rules (more on that in a sec).
  • You can repeat this save each turn, but not once you fall unconscious.

Hold on to those. They'll be important momentarily.

Here is some of the rules text about Suffocating:

When a creature runs out of breath or is choking, it can survive for a number of rounds equal to its Constitution modifier (minimum of 1 round). At the start of its next turn, it drops to 0 hit points and is dying, and it can't regain hit points or be stabilized until it can breathe again.

Again, pulling out the most salient bit:

  • A choking creature can't regain hit points or be stabilized.

So now we can see the brutal catch-22: an unconscious choking creature can't regain consciousness until it stops choking, but Dust of Sneezing and Choking doesn't let unconscious creatures attempt its save to stop choking.

Once you fall unconscious, you will die. It may be a few rounds before you do, depending on how many death saves you succeed on, but eventually. You. Will. Die.1

There is no general rule giving another way to stop choking. There is no rule saying another player character can attempt to help you stop choking. Healing spells won't help. Using a Healer's Kit won't help. Once a character falls unconscious due to this choking, they're a goner.

It gets worse.

Did you notice that the Dust calls for a Constitution save, and the number of rounds you can remain conscious while choking is also based on your Constitution modifier?

So if you have a high constitution -- say, 18 -- then you not only get 4 attempts to save against the dust, but each of those attempts is made with a +4 (or more, if you're proficient in CON saves) modifier. That's... good? You probably only have a 6% chance of dying overall. So that's, you know, slightly more than the chance of rolling a crit.

If you're a commoner, with a constitution of 10 and a +0 modifier, you only get one chance and you have a 70% chance of failing, and therefore dying.

This one item, this one "uncommon" item that the Dungeon Master's Guide says can probably be purchased for between 50 and 250gp2, and that Xanathar's Guide to Everything says probably can be purchased for 175gp and a single DC 15 Persuasion check3, has a 70% chance of killing each and every one of up to 120 commoners in a single use4. Those that die do so within 30 seconds, on the outside. Little Johnny Fantasy Middle Class can save enough to buy one of these in just three months.

It's ridiculous. It's disgusting. It's a domestic terrorist's dream.


Okay, so that analysis is obviously taken to an extreme.

D&D is a game of collaborative storytelling, and any DM worth their salt would realize that this item is probably not written as intended, and allow players to make some sort of check to help their comrade stop choking. Or say that they can keep making saves against the dust even while unconscious, as their body keeps trying to expel the dust involuntarily. Or use a cute loophole in the death and dying rules to say that, even though you're at 0hp and dying, you're not yet unconscious (because those rules all say "If damage reduces you to 0hp...").

And most DMs aren't interested in telling stories about worlds where school shooters exist. Or if they are, that's something they cover in Session 0 and all the players are on explicitly board with exploring that space.

But I think it's interesting to explore the ramifications of natural-language rules. And it's fascinating to explore a case where a few careless words, all clearly aimed at evoking a particular cute bait-and-switch fantasy, turn a mundane item into an object of mass terror.

Thanks for reading.


  1. There is actually one way out: the Dust of Sneezing and Choking also says "The lesser restoration spell can also end the effect on a creature." So if someone else in your party -- who also isn't affected by the dust -- happens to have that one spell prepped (out of 362 in the Player's Handbook alone), and knows to use it, then you can be saved.

  2. Uncommon items cost between 101 and 500 gp, and consumables cost half that much.

  3. Uncommon items cost 1d6 x 100 gp, and consumable cost half that much, and seeking a specific uncommon item requires a DC 15 check.

  4. There are 120 squares within a distance of 30 from an origin square. There are other ways to measure distance in D&D; this is the most conservative. All other methods result in even more casualties.


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