Elemental attacks in the world of Dice Mob refer to primary methods, other than force trauma, for causing physical harm to a character. There is also a sense of the early elements of air, earth, fire, and water which are present in many medieval RPGs, and we have some sense of those in Dice Mob as well, but these are somewhat different than those though related.

These elemental attacks are much more related to the defenses they are attacking, except that instead of grouping them together we separate them out into the actual attacks being performed even though some pairs of them are similar enough that they are defended using a single number of dice.

For the purposes of Dice Mob, there are poison attacks, disease attacks, burning attacks, acid attacks, freezing attacks, and electrical attacks. We'll go through each of them individually and discuss them further.

Attacks using acid follow the rules listed above for shape, size, and distance by subjecting an opponent to a caustic substance which gradually but painfully eats through flesh, fur, scales, exoskeleton, and most other substances.

In addition to the damage caused by the attack, anyone struck by at least one point of acid damage takes a number of dice each round thereafter equal to the amount of damage they took the previous round. This continues each round until the defender beats all dice OR the acid is washed off OR the skill degree of the attacker is reached.

Equipment with acid on it will be destroyed in two to twelve additional rounds by the acid unless it is washed off or unless it is somehow impervious to acid.

Attacks using burning follow the rules listed above for shape, size, and distance by subjecting an opponent to temperatures in the hundreds of degrees celsius.

Additionally anyone struck by at least one point of burning damage will have the following two cases occur. First, they will continue to take one die of damage for a length of time equal to the skill degree of the attacker. Second, ignitable equipment will combust causing three dice of damage per round to the character and anyone touching them until some non-combat action is used to put it out. Equipment which catches fire will be destroyed after two to five additional rounds of burning, per the GMs judgment. Even magical equipment can potentially catch fire if it is of a material which is considered flammable, per the GM.

This can be used to counteract the residual affects of a freezing attack. This is a milder use of this power and no damage is taken from the affects of this “attack”. A defensive action must be available for the use of this skill in this way. No dice roll is required; the residual effect of the freezing attack is simply nullified.

Diseases and illnesses come in many different varieties from mythical diseases like vampirism, lycanthropy, and zombiism to real diseases like cancer, leprosy, and influenza. Some are contagious. Some aren't. Some are deadly. Some will only make a character miserable for a while before their body ultimately creates antibodies and fights it off. Some are caused by abnormally formed cells or ill-working organs and others are the result of tiny organisms invading a host.

Skill attacks using disease follow the General Rules for Skills and Magic for shape, size, and distance.

For Dice Mob we're only going to handle three different types of diseases, but we're going to handle them in as consistent and simple a way as possible. All of these only occur if a character has taken at least one point of disease damage. It should be noted that diseases generally roll much fewer dice than poisons, i.e. a few dice vs a dozen or more dice. Diseases are harder to catch and kill much slower.

The day following a successful attack from this disease, all proficient skills are performed as if non-proficient and all non-proficient skills can't be performed as all. (If a skill can only be performed as proficient, it can't be performed at all.) This lasts for three days or until cured.

The day following a successful attack from this disease, the character loses one hit point. (This is different than taking damage.) They continue to lose one hit point per day until they reach zero hit points at which point they fall into a coma until they are cured. After being cured, the character gains hit points at a rate of one per day of rest. They can't restore hit points by magical means. It should be noted that if a character has already taken damage, they could fall unconscious before they are reduced to zero hit points and fall into the coma.

This works similarly to the Deadly disease variant except that instead of falling to a coma at zero hit points they are transformed into whatever the disease does, changing them into a lycanthrope, zombie, vampire, or whatever the GM has designed it to do.

Freezing attacks follow the General Rules for Skills and Magic in regards to shape, size, and distance to create rays of cold, freezing touch, and even ice storms. Freezing causes damage by subjecting the character to temperatures well below zero degrees celsius.

In addition to the initial damage cause from being struck by freezing temperatures, anyone struck by at least one point of freezing damage loses one die of initiative for one round per skill degree of the attacker or until warmth counteracts the effect. Consecutive successful freezing attacks continue to remove an initiative die at a rate of one per successful attack.

After being reduced to zero initiative dice, further freezing attacks remove the defensive player's actions in the same order as if they were entangled, which is to say non-combat action, combat action, defensive action, and passive action.

This can be used to counteract the residual affects of a burning attack. This is a milder use of this power and no damage is taken from the affects of this “attack”. A defensive action must be available for the use of this skill in this way. No dice roll is required; the residual effect of the burning attack is simply nullified.

Attacks using electricity follow the rules listed above for shape, size, and distance to electrocute an opponent.

Additionally the electricity can arc from any person struck to an ally or opponent within one meter with a dice attack equal to the successful dice striking the previous defender. If more than one ally or opponent is within a meter, the one it arcs to will be chosen at random via a die roll. The electricity will continue to arc until a defender successfully saves against all attack dice, including arcing back to a person already struck or even the initially attacking person if they are close enough, though it won't arc back to the person who had just previously been struck.

On Earth there are many different types of poisons. Animal poisons are usually injected and can cause anything from pain and irritation to rotting flesh, organ damage, anaphylactic shock, and even death. Plants and fungi can be irritating and painful to the touch, like poison ivy, poison oak, and stinging nettle, or even more harmful and even deadly if swallowed, like hemlock, nightshade, oleander, blackcap mushrooms, and poinsettia. Chemicals like arsenic, chlorine, strychnine, and many others created by man as well as naturally existing have a variety of effects from nausea to death, often based on how much is breathed or consumed. And then, of course, humans have weaponized any and all of these types of poisons to coat their weapons or contaminate the ventilation systems or water supplies of rival companies, factions, or cities.

There is no way to really cover each and every one of these in a specific way without making for an incredibly complicated game, so we'll create simple rules for poison and let the GM increase or decrease the number of attack dice to represent how deadly the poison is considered, going as high as twenty dice or more for some ultra-venomous snakes or consumed plants, or more reasonable numbers like three to eight dice for less deadly animals, plants, or chemicals that a character's immune system might normally be able to fight off.

Attacks using poison follow the general rules for shape, size, and range and generally come in two varieties: ones that require a person be struck first and those for which a character would merely have to breathe or consume to receive the effects.

For breathable or consumable poisons, the poison attack would be handled by itself as an attack vs Poison or Disease. All successes would cause damage and residual effects would be handled as described below.

For poisons requiring that a person be struck, at least one point of force damage, usually piercing damage, would have to occur first. Then the character would roll a second set of defense dice against the poison. A viper might, for example, only roll four attack dice against piercing because their bite hurts but isn't necessarily deadly except to tiny creatures, but if any of those dice are successful, they might then roll thirteen attack dice against poison or disease to represent how deadly the GM thinks the poison actually is.

Additionally anyone affected by at least one point of poison damage is considered poisoned. A poisoned character automatically rolls at the beginning of each turn against an equal amount of dice to the amount of damage they took the previous round. This continues each round until the defender beats all attacking dice or they are cured, either magically or medicinally. If multiple poison attacks are successful, later rounds are defended against individually.

Example: John the Barbarian is hit with a poison bolt. His poison defense is three. The attacker has five dice. The rolls are 5, 3, 6, 1, 1 vs 6, 6, 2, which is 6 vs 6, 5 vs 6, 3 vs 2, and two 1’s that aren’t defended. John takes 3 points of damage. The next round John has to defend against three dice, the ones he couldn’t defend against the first round. If he is attacked by another poison bolt and defends against all but the two he can’t defend against AS WELL AS a second defense roll against the residual poison from the first attack. If that attack is successful as well, the third round likely could include defending three times, once against the attack, once against the residual poison from round one, and once against the residual poison from round two.