Poison Questions I got

[TrueSpade]

I'm sure we've all seen or thought about it at one point. Here are some questions I got on Poison, so I can just dive on in.

First of all, why is poison use "evil"? I understand it hurts people, but so does the adamantine bastard sword you're swinging around.

Secondly, is there a table or method to make your own poison? Or at least strengthen normal poison? Because in an Epic game, I want some Epic poison broski!

Thirdly, can you apply more than one type of poison to a weapon? (Like Dragon Bile AND Black Lotus Extract on the same weapon! )

Fourthly, can a "Holy" weapon be coated with poison? Since its evil, will it shut off the Holy enchantment?

Fifth, and last, can a Lawful Evil person use poison? I understand the evil, but not telling your opponent you got a poison axe might not be following code.

 

[Buugipopuu]

I'm sure we've all seen or thought about it at one point. Here are some questions I got on Poison, so I can just dive on in.

First of all, why is poison use "evil"? I understand it hurts people, but so does the adamantine bastard sword you're swinging around.

Because the book says so. There's no particularly good reason. BoED even has things which are not poison, but work effectively like poison, but aren't evil.

Secondly, is there a table or method to make your own poison? Or at least strengthen normal poison? Because in an Epic game, I want some Epic poison broski!

Not significantly to make a difference at Epic. There's a feat which gets you +2 DC, but that's about it. Poison immunity's so common at Epic that without some means of immunity penetration, even if the damage and DCs were worth it, it's probably still not a great idea. While not strictly RAW, you can extract poison from more powerful monsters, or advanced monsters to get better DCs. Assuming you have the means of subduing them without killing them. There are no rules for market price though. Feats which let you create more powerful poisons by combining or concentrating existing ones wouldn't be too bad.

Thirdly, can you apply more than one type of poison to a weapon? (Like Dragon Bile AND Black Lotus Extract on the same weapon! )

I don't think so, but it's probably not the intent of the rules.

Fourthly, can a "Holy" weapon be coated with poison? Since its evil, will it shut off the Holy enchantment?

No. Poison is evil, but it's not Evil.

Fifth, and last, can a Lawful Evil person use poison? I understand the evil, but not telling your opponent you got a poison axe might not be following code.

Depends on the person, and the laws of the land.

 

[LiL KiNG]

1) Not sure - in our game poison use isn't inherently evil. Only reason I can come up with is that it causes undue suffering - much like why we can't carry hollow point rounds while deployed. Your adamantine bastard sword is a known variable, the poison coating the blade isn't.

2) Not that I know of - I put together a pretty intensive listing of every poison from every book I could find, including going through Monster Manuals finding monster poison that could possibly be 'harvested'. During the course of all of that I only ran across a couple feats (don't remember names) that allowed you to either become immune to one poison each time you took the feat, or to raise the DC of a single poison by 1. Beyond that you may have to homebrew something - we followed the alchemy tools from Elder Scrolls as our guild for homebrewing some special items.

3) I've never seen anything that said you couldn't - so not sure.

4) DM call on this one.

5) Who says poison usage, like slavery, isn't part of the LE character's way of life and therefore acceptable? What may be legal in some regions is not always legal in others - I'm coming from a Forgotten Realms standpoint here though.

 

[frankthedm]

First of all, why is poison use "evil"? I understand it hurts people, but so does the adamantine bastard sword you're swinging around.

Because placing poison on your weapon is a premeditated act to make whoever you strike with the weapon suffer delayed harm and misery.

And using poison you have decided to inflict that delayed harm and misery on the victim regardless of their further actions. Each attack with a poisoned weapon is a statement to cause further pain even if the foe relents, surrenders or becomes a noncombatant.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Thirdly, can you apply more than one type of poison to a weapon? (Like Dragon Bile AND Black Lotus Extract on the same weapon! )

Complete Adventurer p.121 lists Alchemical Weapon Capsule Retainers. You can equip a weapon with a triple retainer that you can trigger to release 3 stores substances at once as a swift action.
On p.122, immidately after the info on Weapon Capsule Retainers, is info about the capsules containing a single dose of an injury poison.

Reading this info leads me to believe that a PC could put up to 3 injury poisons in 3 capsules, triggering all three at the same time on a weapon for an attack.

So, yes. At least in this circumstance.

 

[Ahnehnois]

With regards to poison, I think the real evil is the non-combat uses. Poisoning someone's food and potentially killing them through the course of normal daily life is dishonorable. As to why a blade with poison would be evil, that's less obvious, but I think the notion that the poison carries through after the combat and can kill an opponent who surrenders (or wins) is a distinct level of cruelty.

There's no complete guide to making poisons (official, that I know of).

I can't find a citation, but I don't believe double poisoning your weapons works.

Holy weapons don't explicitly reject poison in the RAW, but it would be a reasonable ruling.

A LG character could conceivably use a poison (although it would take some extreme circumstances). I doubt a LE character would give it much thought; skullduggery is the main form of social advancement in a LE Byzantine society. A LE knight or similar character might have a code that prohibits poison and might follow it, but I'd hardly say it's prohibited in general.

 

[bloodtide]

1.Poison is evil for a very simple reason:so that players don't use it. The default D&D game has the players being heroes, that is good guys. Good guys don't use evil stuff, so they don't use poison.

In the long, long ago before time (0/1E) 'anyone' could use poison. But it caused lots of problems, as poison was a game breaker.(and just FYI old E poisons killed, they did not do weak ability damage). See poison gets around the whole challenge of the game of your meant to fight something and have a hard time doing it. But with poison, one hit and you kill your foe. Worse, you don't even need to do it in battle.

So the simple solution was 'make poison evil and sort of forget about it.


2.nothing 'official'.

3.One 'dose' of poison covers a whole weapon, so no. But you could make a 'custom' double poison...

4.Yes. The weapon would not 'know' it had poison on it. And note the Book of Excelled Deeds has 'good poisons'.

5.A lawful evil person can use poison freely.

 

[Li Shenron]

First of all, why is poison use "evil"? I understand it hurts people, but so does the adamantine bastard sword you're swinging around.

Because a typical poison (with exceptions) kills slowly enough to cause unnecessary suffering.

Because a poison is typically delivered in a cowardly way, e.g. added to someone's food or coating a seemingly harmless object. It's more dishonorable than striking someone from the back.

Because a poison is used to avoid direct confrontation, and commit murder without being identified.

All the above are general considerations based on real-life poisons, and literature references.

Unfortunately, 3ed did a completely wrong job on poisons! They turned poisons into weapon enhancements. As such, it is natural to ask how can a D&D poison be evil, if it does nothing different than just making the target last a couple round less?

 

[Ragmon]

I'm not a pro when it comes to D&D rules but ill add my 2 cents.

1. Rules stats that is eveil for some reason wich is never really explained. Since some poisons don't do not hurt ppl, like putting them to sleep or paralyzing them, or using poisons for good use...so in my opinion it should not be "evil".

2. I do not know of any...try to make stuff up by researching the existing poisons.

3. in my opinion you could only apply more poisons to 1 weapon if it has multiple compartments (like capsules), to discharge when successfully hitting a target.

4. Sure why not.

5. Yes. Why not tell you enemy right to his face that you poisoned them after the poisoned meal they just at at your party, or everyone else who is gonna die from it in the next minute or so, that is what lawful evil villains do.
(example: "You know why your awake...cause I just slit your throat". - from some movie i can't name).

 

[Empirate]

For your convenience, here's a rather good handbook on the issue of poison-making and poison use in D&D 3.5.