Tranquilizer Dart (3.5e Equipment)

The price and weight in the table above is for a bundle of 10 tranquilizer darts.

Tranquilizer darts are projectiles that dispense a payload of numbing agent upon impact with their target. Tranquilizer darts deal no actual damage on impact, but cause numbing and unconsciousness. When fired, tranquilizer darts are treated as darts (thrown, or from blowpipes and the like), bolts (from crossbows) or arrows (from bows), but 'damage' should only be rolled to check if the dart pierces a creature's damage reduction. When a tranquilizer dart does enough effective damage to bypass damage reduction, the target must make an initial DC 13 Fortitude save or become numbed at the start of its next turn, followed by a secondary Fortitude save vs unconsciousness two rounds later. A creature that makes the initial save will only be numbed if they fail the secondary save. Creatures must continue to make subsequent Fortitude saves against numbing or unconsciousness every minute after the initial save until 10 minutes have passed.

If a creature is hit by a new tranquilizer dart while under the effect of a previous dart, the new dart restarts the saving process, but instead the DC heightens by +2 for every subsequent dart affecting the target (maximum +12). Numbing and unconsciousness caused by tranquilizer darts last 10 minutes. Regardless of the number of darts fired, only one Fortitude save may be provoked per round.

Sedating a creature is precarious however, and too great a dose can be harmful. A creature rendered unconscious by tranquilizer darts must continue to make Fortitude saves every minute for as long as it remains so. If it fails 3 subsequent saves while unconscious, the creature becomes comatose and must seek out magical restoration. Using neutralize poison on a creature affected by multiple tranquilizers will lower the save DC of any subsequent saves back to 13, and restoration or stronger similar spells will remove the tranquilization effect entirely.

The effectiveness of a tranquilizer dart depends on the size and mass of its target. Creatures incur a -2 penalty to saves against a tranquilizer dart for every size category below Medium, and a +2 bonus for every size category above Medium. Living creatures immune to poison are not immune to tranquilizer darts, but do get a +4 bonus to any Fortitude saves to defend against them. Creatures without a metabolism of any kind cannot be tranquilized.