D&D 5E Poison effects

[TheCosmicKid]

Forgive me if this is spelled out somewhere and I'm just missing it, but when a character coats his weapon with, say, serpent venom, does the poison effect only happen the first time he hits, or every time until the poison dries out? DMG p. 257 seems kind of vague. Experience with 3E would lead me to believe that poisons are one-shot effects, but the the way the Assassin on MM p. 343 is worded would lead me to believe the opposite.

 

[NotActuallyTim]

I think Sage Advice has it as one shot wonders, but I don't remember where I saw that.

 

[Illithidbix]

I was looking up the Sage Advice tweets for the other poison thread...
It kinda suggest blade venoms are meant to last for 1 minute and for more than one hit. (http://www.sageadvice.eu/page/2/?s=poison)

@calebrus44 @JeremyECrawford @mikemearlsIs poison applied to a weapon intended to last for the full minute, or until the weapon strikes? Lasts for the full minute. — Rodney Thompson (@wotc_rodney) February 23, 2015 @wotc_rodney Implication: 20Ftr w/ +3 GSword + purple venom = 952d6+544 w/ ASurge, haste, reaction over 10 rds

- But that doesn't appear to be a reply from Crawford or Mearls.

The DMG errata uh, doesn't entirely clarify it but leans towards the opposite. http://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/DMG_Errata.pdf

Poison (p. 257). The description of ingested poison has a new
sentence after the first: “The dose can be delivered in food or a liquid.”

The other three poison types have new descriptions:
Contact. Contact poison can be smeared on an object and remains potent until it is touched or washed off. A creature that touches contact poison with exposed skin suffers its effects.

Inhaled. These poisons are powders or gases that take effect when inhaled. Blowing the powder or releasing the gas subjects creatures in a 5-foot cube to its effect. The resulting cloud dissipates immediately afterward. Holding one’s breath is ineffective against inhaled poisons, as they affect nasal membranes, tear ducts, and other parts of the body.

Injury. Injury poison can be applied to weapons, ammunition, trap components, and other objects that deal piercing or slashing damage and remains potent until delivered through a wound or washed off. A creature that takes piercing or slashing damage from an object coated with the poison is exposed to its effects

I read this as a single hit myself. But I still think it's somewhat ambiguous.

Whilst poison is expensive, I don't believe that it's intended to last for all 20 attacks that even a midlevel fightery type could kick out in a minute.
Similarly, the Dagger of Venom magic item only gives one dose per day. - Which isn't exactly the same but similar enough in intent to my understanding.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

Yeah, that errata sounds like a single hit to me, too. Thanks!

Maybe the MM Assassin just has an arbitrary number of poisoned swords and draws a new one for each attack...

 

[NotActuallyTim]

Yeah, that errata sounds like a single hit to me, too. Thanks!

Maybe the MM Assassin just has an arbitrary number of poisoned swords and draws a new one for each attack...

Either that or they stole/bought the swords the drow use.

 

[CapnZapp]

This is the third thread on the subject.

The hard truth is that there is no clear-cut answer.

If you the DM like your player characters to use poison, and you don't feel that makes their combat abilities too strong, then choose those parts of the rules that say using poison is practical and useful.

If you the DM feels poison is evil, or simply too good, then you interpret the rules to make poison dangerous, clumsy and impractical to use for player characters.

It's that simple. And you won't find the rules choosing sides anytime soon, since WotC wants both groups of DMs to use 5E rules.

Regards

 

[Illithidbix]

I am tempted to start a comprehensive thread on poison.

Which can be summed up as:
"What is poison?" We just don't know.

 

[CapnZapp]

I was looking up the Sage Advice tweets for the other poison thread...
It kinda suggest blade venoms are meant to last for 1 minute and for more than one hit. (http://www.sageadvice.eu/page/2/?s=poison)


- But that doesn't appear to be a reply from Crawford or Mearls.

The DMG errata uh, doesn't entirely clarify it but leans towards the opposite. http://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/DMG_Errata.pdf


I read this as a single hit myself. But I still think it's somewhat ambiguous.

Whilst poison is expensive, I don't believe that it's intended to last for all 20 attacks that even a midlevel fightery type could kick out in a minute.
Similarly, the Dagger of Venom magic item only gives one dose per day. - Which isn't exactly the same but similar enough in intent to my understanding.

You could go a middle-way, modelling poison in your campaign on Basic Poison.

This suggestion says one dose of poison is good for three hits.

You have two basic choices: either coat the dose onto three pieces of ammunition (that can deliver the poison once each) or coat the dose onto a piercing or slashing weapon (and that weapon is now good for three hits).

All assuming you're done within the single minute.

How practical or impractical it is to do the coating is a second question.

You could go from the generous "you can coat one item for free using your object interaction as part of an attack or move action" through the fairly generous "spend one action to coat one weapon or three pieces of ammo". You could add restrictions such as "you need Poison Kit proficiency" or "you need to make a Dexterity (Poison Kit) ability check". You could even add a risk of self-posioning such as "if you fail the check by 5 mor more, you inflict the poison on yourself".

As for the DC, this could range from a fairly generous static value such as DC 10 all the way up to the same DC as for the poison's save DC (making potent poisons more difficult to handle is one way to model how smaller and smaller amounts of spillage can mean you poison yourself).

It's all up to you.

 

[Athinar]

I read it as one hit for a dagger, sword etc... and one hit for each of the 3 arrows or 3 darts, 1 minute drying time

The Assassin in the MM, I play it first hit by the weapon or 3 missiles for the 7d6 poison (Wyvern Poison), does not give the victim the poisoned condition because the effect is instantaneous

the possibility is they use multiple daggers or swords (each covered in poison) and they drop the weapon that hits and grabs a new weapon with fresh poison