Rules Update: Health Conditions & Effects

Characters that are deaf... can they be affected by
1. Battle Cry?
2. Despair?
3. Insult?
4. Fear?

The last 1 being based on  verbal threats.

1, 2, and 3, no, they would not be affected.  Fear has nothing to do with verbal threats:

With this skill, a character projects chaotic energy at an opponent, causing her to panic. To use this skill, you must point at the intended target and call the skill name. The opponent must run in fear until she is out of sight of the character and cannot face the character again for five minutes.

Ben's fix has been added to First Aid, this will be added to the rulebook shortly.

Quick question about the current poison situation. Currently the healer skill Neutralize Poison read as;

Rank II: Neutralize Poison

2 HP
This ability cures the recipient of a poison that she has been exposed to, but that has not affected her yet.

and the Physician skill reads as;

Rank II: Neutralize Poison

This ability allows a physician to cure a subject of a poison that she has been exposed to but that has not affected her yet. The physician must draw the poison or perform other treatments for a duration of one minute without interruption. If she is disturbed while performing this treatment, the physician must start completely over, and the subject resumes counting the time before she is affected by the poison until the physician is able to start again.

Which is pretty much the same with some added favor.

My question is this...with the added fact that a poison MUST be neutralized before the effect can be healed, are these two skills going to be altered to remove the parts I've conveniently put in bold? At this point is there anything that can help someone who is being effected by poison?

Potion of Lesser Antidote
Potion, 2 PP
This compound will neutralize a rank one or two poison that is afflicting the person who consumes it, so long as it is applied after the poison has been introduced to the person’s body and before the poison inflicts its effect.

Potion of Greater Antidote
Potion, 5 PP
Essences Required: Earth, Water, Fire, Plant
This compound will neutralize all poisons that are afflicting the person who consumes it, so long as it is applied after the poison has been introduced to the person’s body and before the poison inflicts its effect.

Hopefully I'm just missing something or reading these the wrong way, but it looks as though poisons have become the single deadliest compound in all of Travance!

That problem has actually been around for several years now, and is one of the "bugs" that prompted an overhaul of the health system in general.

You can safely assume that the cures will work even after the poison takes effect - since all poisons take immediate effect.  The wording is left over from an older poison system, and we're still hashing out the exact wording on the new poisons and their cures.