Help me craft poison

[Glomb175]

My rogue wants to craft poison, he found out that nearby is a wyvern that he wants too harvest for venom, which will require a nature check to extract it safely, also he'll need to kill it carefully, not burning/exploding etc that may damage the venom.

Aside from the venom, what other ingredients should he search for, where should they be, and how should they be extracted, also any inventive thoughts on affects.

Thoughts below

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[Cap'n Kobold]

Depends on what sort of poison you want to allow your player access to. The simplest option would probably be allowing them to harvest from the Wyvern Xgp worth of materials that could be used to offset the usual material cost of making poison with an alchemist's kit. Let them make an appropriate check: Int (Nature) or (Survival) to see how much they get, and let them turn it into standard poison using Alchemist's kit.

If you want something a bit more potent, decide what effects the poison should have and assign it a price, then use the same skills/kit to create that instead.
Bear in mind that a blade venom derived from an animal poison probably won't be as potent since it isn't injected from an actual sac. The poison will need to be treated to turn it into a much stickier substance that will adhere to a weapon, and much less of it will enter a wound.

 

[CydKnight]

I try not to get too crazy with harvesting creature poisons. If it is already Poison when harvested, then there is no crafting necessary. If they can make the successful check to harvest the poison and they have something reasonable to contain it, then you have the Poison. I typically allow 3 uses per vial for dipping weapons or using to poison things like food, drink, etc.

The Poisoner's Kit lets you add your Proficiency Bonus when crafting or using poisons. With this kit you can craft basic poisons under the 5E Crafting Rules/Guidelines. There is a list of different poisons with descriptions in the DM's Guide but my interpretation of this is that you could not use it to craft poisons unique to specific creatures (Carrion Crawler, Wyvern, Purple Wyrm, etc.)

In my current campaign I would also not allow Drow's Poison unless the character is a Drow or has something reasonable in it's background that makes it possible. Otherwise, they will have to stumble upon some Drow Poison and make a check to reverse engineer it (perhaps with disadvantage for unfamiliarity), or they will have to learn it from a Drow Assassin proficient in crafting this type of poison.

Craftable Poison's in my campaigns like Assassin's Blood can be crafted if the ingredients are readily available or already in possession. What those ingredients are and whether they are readily obtainable is going to largely be up to the DM. You may also want to limit the number of Poisons a character can craft at certain levels. Maybe start them off with knowing how to craft 2 then allow them to progress 1 per level or something like that.

 

[Glomb175]

I try not to get too crazy with harvesting creature poisons. If it is already Poison when harvested, then there is no crafting necessary. If they can make the successful check to harvest the poison and they have something reasonable to contain it, then you have the Poison. I typically allow 3 uses per vial for dipping weapons or using to poison things like food, drink, etc.

The Poisoner's Kit lets you add your Proficiency Bonus when crafting or using poisons. With this kit you can craft basic poisons under the 5E Crafting Rules/Guidelines. There is a list of different poisons with descriptions in the DM's Guide but my interpretation of this is that you could not use it to craft poisons unique to specific creatures (Carrion Crawler, Wyvern, Purple Wyrm, etc.)

In my current campaign I would also not allow Drow's Poison unless the character is a Drow or has something reasonable in it's background that makes it possible. Otherwise, they will have to stumble upon some Drow Poison and make a check to reverse engineer it (perhaps with disadvantage for unfamiliarity), or they will have to learn it from a Drow Assassin proficient in crafting this type of poison.

Craftable Poison's in my campaigns like Assassin's Blood can be crafted if the ingredients are readily available or already in possession. What those ingredients are and whether they are readily obtainable is going to largely be up to the DM. You may also want to limit the number of Poisons a character can craft at certain levels. Maybe start them off with knowing how to craft 2 then allow them to progress 1 per level or something like that.

For example, what are the ingredients you'd require to create assassins blood which you have mentioned?

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[Cap'n Kobold]

For example, what are the ingredients you'd require to create assassins blood which you have mentioned?

Assassins?

 

[CydKnight]

For example, what are the ingredients you'd require to create assassins blood which you have mentioned?

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I apologize but I don't have any hard and fast guidelines for obtaining components required to craft poisons. In my campaigns, the name given to certain "ingredients" is not important so much as whether those ingredients are available either by purchase or harvesting in nature. As such I don't spend the time coming up with those names along with the guidelines for obtaining them. I will typically determine the availability of the given ingredients with difficulty based on the value set in the Poison Table (DMG 257) with some consideration given to the environment and the character's knowledge of such ingredients. In some cases it may be easier to simply purchase certain poisons rather than crafting them.

 

[LordEntrails]

I keep it simple, like those above. Maybe a DC 14 nature check to harvest poison from a creature. No need to use alchemy if the poison strength is the same or weaker than the creatures poison (I know, not realistic, but simple). 1d3 doses is a good amount, since most creatures have a recharge or limited use (i.e. their body has to make more).

But you can also find several different netbooks on poisons if you want to get elaborate.

 

[Quickleaf]

My rogue wants to craft poison, he found out that nearby is a wyvern that he wants too harvest for venom, which will require a nature check to extract it safely, also he'll need to kill it carefully, not burning/exploding etc that may damage the venom.

Aside from the venom, what other ingredients should he search for, where should they be, and how should they be extracted, also any inventive thoughts on affects.

Thoughts below

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The rules for harvesting & crafting poisons are on DMG page 258, along with several poisons.

Some have obvious sources: carrion crawlers, serpents, purple worms, wyverns, etc.

Others, like drow poison, require a bit of knowledge about older editions of D&D and some research.

And some, like burnt othur fumes, are completely made up and their creative origins are ambiguous. What is an "othur"? Who knows? I have *my* answer, but it's going to be different at each DM's table.