Poisons

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Poison

A poison is a substance that interferes with the natural functions of a living creature's body, causing injury or death, typically requiring only a very small amount. The target of a poison may resist with a successful saving throw. Poisons can be delayed or cured with spells such as delay poison and neutralize poison.

Broadly speaking, when someone fails a saving throw against any poison, the poison deals some amount of non-lethal damage, which always ignores the target's defenses, and inflicts a status condition. The most common status condition inflicted by poison is Ability Damage (or ability drain).

Poisons have four categories, based on how they reach the target: contact, ingested, inhaled, or injury.

Contact: These poisons are delivered the moment a creature touches the poison with its bare skin. Such poisons can be used as injury poisons. Contact poisons usually have an onset time of 1 minute and a frequency of 1 minute.

Ingested: These poisons are delivered when a creature eats or drinks the poison. Ingested poisons usually have an onset time of 10 minutes and a frequency of 1 minute.

Inhaled: These poisons are delivered the moment a creature enters an area containing such poisons and do not usually have an onset time. For most inhaled poisons, 1 dose fills a volume equal to a 10-foot cube. A creature can attempt to hold its breath while inside the area to avoid inhaling the toxin. A creature holding its breath receives a 50% chance of not having to make a Fortitude save each round. See the rules for holding your breath and suffocation. If a creature is holding its breath and fails the constitution check to continue doing so, rather than suffocating it begins to breathe normally again (and is subject to the effects of the inhaled poison if still in the area).

Injury: These poisons are primarily delivered through the attacks of certain creatures and through weapons coated in the toxin. Injury poisons do not usually have an onset time and have a frequency of 1 round.

Applying Poison

One dose of poison smeared on a weapon or some other object affects just a single target. A poisoned weapon or object retains its poison until the weapon scores a hit or the object is touched (unless the poison is wiped off before a target comes in contact with it).

Applying poison to a weapon or single piece of ammunition is a standard action. Whenever you apply or ready a poison for use, there is a 5% chance that you expose yourself to the poison and must save against the poison as normal. This does not consume the dose of poison. Whenever you attack with a poisoned weapon, if the attack roll results in a natural 1, you expose yourself to the poison. This poison is consumed when the weapon strikes a creature or is touched by the wielder. If you have the poison use class feature (such as from the assassin prestige class or the alchemist base class), you do not risk accidentally poisoning yourself when applying poison.

Multiple Doses of Poison

The effects of poison cannot be stacked, unless different poisons are used. However, if a poisoned target is afflicted with the same poison an additional time, the non-lethal damage is applied each time the target fails the save. Multiple applications of poison do not raise the save DC of the poison, nor do they increase duration or effects of the status condition inflicted.

Available Poisons

The following poisons are some of the more commonly available poisons which can be purchased. Note that selling and buying poison is nearly always illegal, and therefore poisons are not available in traditional shops. Instead, a poison seller must be sought out, typically via connections with a thieves' guild or some other black market connection.

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Designing New Poisons

Since the above list is not exhaustive, GM's and players may wish to design additional poisons that exist in their campaign. These rules provide a way to determine the characteristics and cost of new poisons.

Poisons have several characteristics, each of which are limited by the potency level of the poison. These characteristics are: damage, status, onset, frequency and save DC.

Damage: Most poisons deal non-lethal damage, the amount of which is based on their potency level (see Table:Potency below).

Status: All poisons inflict a single status condition. Note, when reading the table below, the listed values for Ability Damage and Energy Drain only apply if the poison inflicts that particular status condition.

• Poisons with potency levels between 1 and 12 can inflict any Weak status condition except Bloodied, Concealed, Energy Drain and Nebulous. If one of these poisons inflicts Ability Damage, reference the table to see how much Ability Damage it can deal.
• Poisons with potency levels between 13 and 24 can inflict Moderate or Weak status conditions, except Bloodied, Concealed, Incorporeal, Invisible, Nebulous, Prone and Staggered. If one of these poisons inflicts Ability Damage or Energy Drain, reference the table to see how much Ability Damage it can deal.
• Poisons with potency levels of 25 or higher can inflict any status condition except Bloodied, Concealed, Faded, Incorporeal, Invisible, Nebulous, Phased, Prone, Staggered and Unconscious. If one of these poisons inflicts Ability Damage or Energy Drain, reference the table to see how much Ability Damage it can deal.

Save DC: The save DC of a poison is determined by its potency level (see Table:Potency below). Note that once a creature fails the saving throw to resist the poison, it may not make another save to get rid of the poison until the end of any round after which the poison's effects have triggered. Note that poison effects always trigger at the beginning of a character's turn on the round they trigger. That is, an ingested poison, which has a frequency of 1 minute would trigger at the start of a character's turn 10 rounds after that creature failed its save to resist the poison, and may only be saved against at the end of that round. Assuming it fails the save, it could not attempt another save until another minute had passed and the poison's effects had once again triggered. Similarly, character afflicted with an injury poison suffers the poison's effects at the start of each of the creature's turns, but gets a new saving throw at the end of that creature's turn.

Craft DC: A successful Profession check, using either Profession (Alchemist), Profession (Herbalist) or Profession (Brewer) can be used to create poisons, rather than buying them. Raw materials, equal to half the retail price of the poison, must still be purchased or acquired in order to create the poison. If the poison is not crafted in an appropriate workshop, the DC is increased by 10. Poisons require 8 hours to brew, and a successful result produces a single dose of poison. For every 5 by which a skill check exceeds the required DC, the time to produce the poison is reduced by 1 hour, to a minimum of 1 hour. Poisons are considered alchemical creations for purposes of an Alchemists "Swift Alchemy" and "Instant Alchemy" class features.

Table: Poison Potency

Potency Level	Non-Lethal Damage	Ability Damage	Energy Drain	Save DC	Craft DC	Cost
1	1d8+0	1	-	10	18	40
2	1d8+1	1d2	-	12	20	80
3	1d8+3	1d2	-	13	21	160
4	1d8+4	1d3	-	13	23	240
5	1d8+6	1d3	-	14	25	360
6	1d8+8	1d3+1	-	16	27	480
7	1d8+10	1d3+1	-	16	28	640
8	2d8+7	1d4+1	-	18	32	820
9	2d8+8	1d4+1	-	19	33	1,000
10	2d8+10	1d6	-	19	35	1,220
11	2d8+6	1d6	-	20	37	1,440
12	2d8+7	1d6+1	-	21	39	1,700
13	2d8+9	1d6+1	1	22	40	1,960
14	2d8+10	1d6+2	1	22	42	2,260
15	3d8+8	1d6+2	1d2	23	44	2,560
16	3d8+10	2d6-1	1d2	24	47	2,900
17	3d8+11	2d6-1	1d2	25	48	3,240
18	3d8+12	2d6-1	1d2	26	50	3,620
19	3d8+14	2d6	1d3	27	51	4,000
20	3d8+17	2d6	1d3	28	53	6,000
21	3d8+20	2d6	1d3	29	67	8,000
22	4d8+18	2d6+1	1d3	31	69	12,000
23	4d8+20	2d6+1	1d4	32	71	16,000
24	4d8+23	2d6+1	1d4	33	75	24,000
25	4d8+27	2d6+2	1d4	35	77	32,000
26	4d8+29	2d6+2	1d4	36	79	60,000
27	4d8+32	2d6+2	1d6	37	82	100,000
28	4d8+34	3d6	1d6	39	84	180,000
29	5d8+34	3d6	1d6	40	86	240,000
30	5d8+36	3d6	1d6	41	88	300,000
31	5d8+40	3d6+1	2d4-1	42	91	380,000
32	5d8+44	3d6+1	2d4-1	43	94	460,000
33	5d8+47	3d6+1	2d4-1	44	96	580,000
34	5d8+49	4d6-2	2d4-1	45	99	700,000
35	5d8+52	4d6-2	2d4-1	46	102	870,000
36	6d8+51	4d6-2	2d4-1	47	110	1,040,000
37	6d8+53	4d6-1	2d4	48	118	1,300,000
38	6d8+56	4d6-1	2d4	49	126	1,560,000
39	6d8+60	4d6-1	2d4	50	133	1,950,000
40	6d8+63	4d6	2d4	51	142	2,340,000

Poison Types

Category: The base cost of a poison assumes it is an injury poison. The category of the poison also sets its onset and frequency.

• Onset: The onset of a poison is the time it takes for a successfully poisoned creature to succumb to the effects of the poison. Poison onset is determined by the category of the poison used and cannot be adjusted. The poison's damage and status condition does not trigger on the poisoned creature until the onset occurs.
• Frequency: The frequency of a poison is how often the poison's effects renew or trigger again. A poison's frequency only applies if the victim of the poison has not successfully saved against the poison yet. Poison frequency is determined by the category of poison used and cannot be adjusted.
• Default Duration: A successfully poisoned creature will suffer under the effects of that poison for the listed duration.

Category	Onset	Frequency	Default Duration	Cost Modifier
Contact	1 minute	1 minute	5 minutes	x2
Ingested	10 minutes	1 minute	5 minutes	x0.75
Inhaled	immediate	1 round	5 rounds	x1.5
Injury	immediate	1 round	3 rounds	x1

Calculating Cost Per Dose

While the base cost of a dose is poison is given in the Poison Potency table above, this cost assumes a standard injury poison of the listed potency. This cost can be modified to make the poison into a different category (contact, ingested or inhaled), as well as having a non-standard duration or additional saving throws required to end its effects. Each of these attributes carries with it a cost multiplier. In order to calculate the cost of a dose of poison, you must add together any cost multipliers, and then multiply the result against the base cost for a poison of the chosen potency.

Poison Category: How a poison must be delivered affects its cost. If a poison can be delivered more than one way (for example, a poison which can be used as both an injury and an ingested poison), the cost is always the higher of the available options.

Cost Multiplier:

• Contact: 2
• Ingested: 0.75
• Inhaled: 1.5
• Injury: 1

Adjusted Duration: The duration of a poison can be increased or decreased, but doing so modifies the cost of the poison.

• Each additional Frequency increment (e.g. 1 additional round for an Inhaled or Injury, or 1 additional minute for Contact or Ingested) has a cost multiplier of +0.25.
• Each reduced Frequency increment (e.g. 1 less round for an Inhaled or Injury, or 1 less minute for Contact or Ingested) has a cost multiplier of -0.2. (Note that a poison whose duration is reduced to 0 does nothing, and is no longer considered a poison.)

Save Quantity: The base cost of a poison assumes that a single successful save will end the poison's effects. However, some poisons require more than one save, and in some extreme cases, those saves must be consecutive successes. These changes to the save quantity adjust the base cost of the poison as described below:

• For each additional required save beyond the first, the cost multiplier is +1
• If all of the additional saves must be consecutive, the cost multiplier is +2

Example: Death Adder venom, which has a potency of 6, has a base cost of 480 gp per dose. It is an injury poison, so it's base multiplier is 1. The normal duration for injury poisons is 3 rounds, but Death Adder venom lasts 4 rounds, carrying a cost multiplier of +0.25. Furthermore, it requires two consecutive saves, carrying a cost multiplier of +1 for the second save, and another +2 because the second save must be consecutive. Each of these multipliers is first added together (1 + 0.25 + 1 + 2 = 4.25), and then multiplied against the base cost (480 gp x 4.25 = 2040). Therefore, the total cost of a single dose of Death Adder venom is 2040 gp.

Note that these rules are merely a suggestion for how to create new poisons, and set an appropriate price. The GM is the final arbiter of both availability and price for any new poisons made using these rules.