Violet Fungi damage?

[Solan]

In the 2nd edition rules, it says nothing more than the Violet Fungi's strike "rots flesh". Is it supposed to rot all flesh and thus one hit is lethal? It never says!

[Mephisto of the FoS]

In the 2nd edition rules, it says nothing more than the Violet Fungi's strike "rots flesh". Is it supposed to rot all flesh and thus one hit is lethal? It never says!

The four leafy tendrils on violet fungi secreted a sort of poison that caused weakening when applied to other creatures. Prior to the Time of Troubles, this poison was said to be capable of rotting flesh.
From https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Violet_fungus

The 1e and 2e monster descriptions say essentially nothing. The closest thing to an official answer that I could come up with was the description of the violet fungus curtain in T1-4. If a save is failed, then the PC loses 1 limb/round to rot, followed by the torso, effectively killing him. Each limb lost leads to a permanent 10% HP loss (which by itself could kill the PC). Cure disease stops the progression, but regenerate is needed to recover lost HP.

When I was scanning my search results, I did come up with some comments in other threads that indicated Gygax intended the violet fungus to be a 'save-or-die' monster.
From https://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/view ... hp?t=78038

2e
Combat: Violet fungi favor rotted animal matter to grow upon. Each fungus has one to four branches with which it flails out if any animal comes within range. The excretion from these branches rots flesh in one round unless a successful saving throw vs. poison is rolled or a cure disease spell is used. The branch length of this fungi depends upon the fungi's size. Violet fungi range from four to seven feet tall, the smallest having one-foot-long branches, the five-foot-tall fungi having two-foot-long branches, and so on. Any sized growth can have up to four branches.

3e
Rot (Ex): A creature struck by a violet fungus’s tentacle must succeed on a DC 15 Fortitude save or the flesh around the point of contact swiftly begins to rot away, exposing raw bone with shocking swiftness. This hideous affliction causes 1d4 points of Strength damage and 1d4 points of Constitution damage. This is a poison effect. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Violet Fungus Venom
Although a violet fungus’s tentacles swiftly grow inert after the mushroom is slain, they can be wielded as Medium-sized whips for 2d6 minutes after being harvested from the creature. These whips inflict rot on anything they touch—including the wielder of the deadly weapon—and both save DCs to resist and effects are identical to the stats presented above.

A DC 25 Craft (alchemy) check and 250 gp worth of reagents can preserve the venom somewhat, although the procedure dilutes it significantly.

Violet Venom: Poison—contact; save Fort DC 13, frequency 1/minute for 6 minutes, effect 1d2 Strength and 1d2 Con damage; cure 1 save; cost 800 gp.

5e
Multiattack: The fungus makes 1d4 Rotting Touch attacks.

Rotting Touch: Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 10 ft., one creature. Hit: 4 (1d8)

[Solan]

Thanks so much for all of the research you did on this! The question of what exactly "rots flesh" means in terms of damage for the Violent Fungi has been haunting me for years!

[alhoon]

It should be no surprise that I much prefer the 5e version, that doesn't simply kill everything.
However, I could see a condition that starts a necrosis dealing 1d6 points of poison damage per round (for 1 minute) or until lesser restoration / strong alcohol is thrown on the wound.