D&D 5E Assassin Variant: Poisoner, not Infiltrator

[Stormonu]

If you don't already have them, "poisons that work on specific normally-immune targets" might be a good addition to the list. Like anti-vampire poison that only poisons vampires, but ignores their native poison immunity.

I believe that anti-vampire poison would be called "holy water"

A mixture of wolvesbane/belladonna would be something similar for a werewolf and I'm sure something could be thought up for a Construct.

However, unless you want to get into the weeds of a specific counter for each individual thing it might be easier to make a generic talent or ability that accounts for have the "right tool at the right time for the job" (i.e., X times per Y rest), and for those who this isn't their schtick, make 'em pay gold per use as equipment.

 

[ECMO3]

One of my players is frustrated with the Assassin subclass. The "Assassinate" ability is powerful when it works, but it hasn't been very reliable for his character. He doesn't care much for the sneaky spymaster stuff like acting and wearing disguises either, but he does enjoy potions and alchemy. His character recently joined a faction The Iron Cauldron (an underground group of apothecaries, poisoners, and drug dealers who specialize in illegal substances), and he asked about ways to incorporate that into his subclass instead of the "assume a false identity" stuff.

This is what I came up with on the fly; I'm sure it needs to be balanced and reworked a bit....and that's what I'm posting it here for.

What do you think?

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Variant Assassin: Poisoner

POISONER (replaces ASSASSINATE)
You learn the Poison Spray cantrip at 3rd Level. The Save DC for this and all other class features is (8 + your Intelligence modifier + your proficiency bonus).

VENOMED STRIKE (replaces ASSASSINATE)
Starting at 3rd level, your Sneak Attacks deal +1d6 points of poison damage, and the target must make a Constitution save or gain the Poisoned condition for 1 minute. The creature can repeat its save throw at the end of each of its turns, negating the Poisoned condition on a success. This poison damage increases to +2d6 at 5th level, +3d6 at 11th level, and +4d6 at 17th level.

INCREASED POTENCY (replaces INFILTRATION EXPERTISE)
At 9th level, living creatures no longer have immunity or resistance to Poison damage against poisons that you apply yourself, and Antitoxin no longer provides any benefit. (Non-living creatures, such as Constructs and Undead, remain unaffected.)

TRANQUILIZER DART (replaces IMPOSTER)
Beginning at 13th level, when you poison a living creature with your sneak attack ability, you can use your Reaction to cast Hold Monster on that creature. (Casting the spell in this manner does not require Concentration.) Once you use this ability, you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest.

DEADLY TOXIN (replaces DEATH STRIKE)
At 17th level, a living creature Poisoned by your Sneak Attack automatically takes 20 (6d6) points of Poison damage at the start of its turn.

I like most of it, I do think venomous strike is too powerful.

I would make the poisoned conditiion of venomous strike a 1-round effect at 3rd level and cap the damage at +1d6. Upping the damage is a huge boost to your sneak attack. Alternatively you could keep it as is but make it consumabe PB times per long rest.

Increased potency is going to get messy. So Devils aren't immune? Elementals aren't immune? I think a better option would be to give disadvantage on saves against being poisoned and vulnerability to anyone that is not immune. This ups the damage on everyone you can damage..

 

[Quickleaf]

One of my players is frustrated with the Assassin subclass. The "Assassinate" ability is powerful when it works, but it hasn't been very reliable for his character. He doesn't care much for the sneaky spymaster stuff like acting and wearing disguises either, but he does enjoy potions and alchemy. His character recently joined a faction The Iron Cauldron (an underground group of apothecaries, poisoners, and drug dealers who specialize in illegal substances), and he asked about ways to incorporate that into his subclass instead of the "assume a false identity" stuff.

This is what I came up with on the fly; I'm sure it needs to be balanced and reworked a bit....and that's what I'm posting it here for.

What do you think?

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Variant Assassin: Poisoner

POISONER (replaces ASSASSINATE)
You learn the Poison Spray cantrip at 3rd Level. The Save DC for this and all other class features is (8 + your Intelligence modifier + your proficiency bonus).

If your player is happy with this, go for it. I see it as a significant downgrade in power and flavor, but if it's reinforcing their fantasy and they're happy then it's fine.

VENOMED STRIKE (replaces ASSASSINATE)
Starting at 3rd level, your Sneak Attacks deal +1d6 points of poison damage, and the target must make a Constitution save or gain the Poisoned condition for 1 minute. The creature can repeat its save throw at the end of each of its turns, negating the Poisoned condition on a success. This poison damage increases to +2d6 at 5th level, +3d6 at 11th level, and +4d6 at 17th level.

You need to define what the Difficulty of the CON save is.

It's a bit overpowered, but not broken, and it matches the flavor. However, this will increase handling time at the table because (a) the Rogue almost always has Sneak Attack or at least it's supposed to, (b) every Rogue attack now involves a Con save and tracking the Poisoned condition, and (c) this is an ongoing save the GM needs to remember.

If Sneak Attack were less of a "happening every round" ability and more limited, you wouldn't have as much of increased handling time. But I'd be very wary of this implementation, because I personally prefer streamlining 5e's combat as much as possible. YMMV depending on your group's style though.

Also, if their build involves two-weapon fighting or getting Action Surge, haste, or Extra Attack -- that's when this feature could start to get a little overpowered.

INCREASED POTENCY (replaces INFILTRATION EXPERTISE)
At 9th level, living creatures no longer have immunity or resistance to Poison damage against poisons that you apply yourself, and Antitoxin no longer provides any benefit. (Non-living creatures, such as Constructs and Undead, remain unaffected.)

This one gets a yellow flag from me. I would advise rewriting. I get the reason for doing this – his shtick is poison, so many monsters have poison resistance/immunity. But... I think that's the tradeoff. Also, making a devil or whatever susceptible to poison devalues the narrative established about what that monster is like and how its society functions (or fails to function). Instead, I would lean into there being a CHOICE where the assassin can PREPARE a specific formula for a poison that bypasses a specific type of creature's poison resistance/immunity, and I'd crib the time/gold cost from Infiltration Expertise. That would minimize the mechanical/narrative fallout while also reinforcing what I think your player wants - the methodical poisoner/schemer who has prepared the very poison they need for this foe.

TRANQUILIZER DART (replaces IMPOSTER)
Beginning at 13th level, when you poison a living creature with your sneak attack ability, you can use your Reaction to cast Hold Monster on that creature. (Casting the spell in this manner does not require Concentration.) Once you use this ability, you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest.

Uff. Balance wise you're fine. However, this one is compounding increased handling time of Venomed Strike with another saving throw. If your group goes in for this "chained series of complex maneuvers and tracking multiple conditions across multiple foes round after round", then my objection probably isn't relevant for you. Personally, I would look at the drow poison which has a "fail by 5+ and unconscious" clause IIRC, and instead go with something like "fail by 5+ and paralyzed while poisoned in this way." That at least consolidates this power into the saving throw made against Venomed Strike & avoids having to reference the Hold Monster spell (less cross-referencing = faster play).

DEADLY TOXIN (replaces DEATH STRIKE)
At 17th level, a living creature Poisoned by your Sneak Attack automatically takes 20 (6d6) points of Poison damage at the start of its turn.

This one requires a bit of numbers comparison.

Death Strike: A 17th level rogue with a rapier does 41 (1d8+5+9d6) when Sneak Attacking a Surprised creature. The damage is doubled to 82. How often do they get to Surprise? Let's say they get this twice a session, on average looking at the long run. That means Death Strike is contributing an additional 41+41 = +82 damage.

What about Deadly Toxin? Sneak Attack triggers most rounds. If we assume two combats, say, of 3 rounds each, that's 6 rounds of combat. Just an estimate matching the "twice a session" guess for Death Strike. Monster saves are usually pretty abysmal, so most of the time a monster will fail its Con save - let's say 2/3 times it fails. Something like this for each combat...

Combat #1 = + 60 damage
Round 1: Monster A fails save, gets Poisoned
Round 2: Monster A takes 20 (6d6) poison damage, fails save again. Monster B fails save, gets Poisoned
Round 3: Monster A takes 20 (6d6) poison damage, succeeds save. Monster B takes 20 (6d6) poison damage, fails save.

Combat #2 = +40 damage
Round 1: Monster A fails save, gets Poisoned
Round 2: Monster A takes 20 (6d6) poison damage, fails save again. Monster B succeeds save.
Round 3: Monster A takes 20 (6d6) poison damage, succeeds save. Monster C fails save.

So you've added approximately +100 damage with Deadly Toxin compared to +82 with Death Strike. Even though poison is more often resisted, you have a feature that works around that (Increased Potency). AND - this is the big one - you've made it MUCH easier to deal this damage (Sneak Attack is far easier to get than Surprise).

I would look for a way to further restrain how often this power can be used – either conditional trigger limitation like Death Strike or limited #/day – to rein it in. Right now it is overpowered (not in terms of finite per instance damage, but in terms of that damage compounding due to how frequently this triggers).

EDIT: One feature that I don't see here yet is how this subclass interacts with existing poisons in the game – Assassin's Blood, Serpent's Venom, anything harvested from a monster, etc. I think there's room for an interesting feature there that slightly enhances such poisons in this PC's hands, that would really play to the fantasy they're aiming for. Something like "apply poison as a bonus action at 3rd level" & "save DC of applied poisons equals your save DC for Venomed Strike."

 

[LordEntrails]

No save and no duration for Deadly Toxin? So all they do is hit the Tarrasque once and run away and it dies eventually?

 

[Quickleaf]

No save and no duration for Deadly Toxin? So all they do is hit the Tarrasque once and run away and it dies eventually?

Not quite. The way it's written, Deadly Toxin works on a creature that's poisoned by 3rd level Envenomed Strike. And that feature says:

"Starting at 3rd level, your Sneak Attacks deal +1d6 points of poison damage, and the target must make a Constitution save or gain the Poisoned condition for 1 minute. The creature can repeat its save throw at the end of each of its turns, negating the Poisoned condition on a success. This poison damage increases to +2d6 at 5th level, +3d6 at 11th level, and +4d6 at 17th level."

So once the creature is no longer poisoned (i.e. succeeds its save that round), it stops taking Deadly Toxin damage.

 

[LordEntrails]

Not quite. The way it's written, Deadly Toxin works on a creature that's poisoned by 3rd level Envenomed Strike

IMO, it should say Envenomed Strike, not Sneak Attack. But I see how what you are saying is how it should be interpreted.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Just a mention, have look looked at the Darkweaver subclass in Solasta?

 

[NotAYakk]

I like the idea of stealing from the Alchemist. If I may?

Rogue Subclass: Chemist

POISONER
You gain proficiency with Poisoner's Kit. If you already have proficiency with the Poisoner's Kit, instead gain proficiency with another tool of your choice. When you make a proficiency check with a Poisoner's Kit, you add twice your proficiency bonus.

You are adept at using poison. When you deal poison damage, you add your dexterity bonus to the damage you deal, and when a trap or a weapon attack hits a creature, the save DC is increased by your intelligence bonus.

Poisons you create this way have a save DC of 8 + your proficiency bonus.

During a long rest, you can use your poisoner's kit make a number of toxin doses equal to your intelligence bonus plus your proficiency bonus (min 1). These doses last until you next take a long rest. Your initial toxins can be any of the following:

1. Black Venom. One dose of this poison can be applied to a piercing weapon, and can be stretched to 5 pieces of ammunition. When you hit a creature with a sneak attack with this weapon, the weapon deals 1d8 extra poison damage (increasing to 2d8 at level 5, 3d8 at level 11 and 4d8 at level 17). If the poison damage die lands on an 8, the creature must make a constitution save or suffer the poisoned condition for 24 hours and the poison wears off the weapon. While poisoned this way, they are vulnerable to poison damage.

Poison on ammunition is expended after a single use. Poison on weapons lasts until you roll an 8 on the poison damage die.

Black Venom can be used in needle traps. Setting up a needle trap requires 10 minutes, and the trap cannot be moved. Creatures who enter a 10' x 10' region adjacent to the trap are attacked by a flurry of needles (dex save or 1 point of piercing plus the above poison damage).

2. Toxic Puff. One dose of this powdery poison can be expended as an action to create a 10' x 10' region adjacent to you that lasts 1 minute (if there is significant wind or airflow it only lasts until the end of your next turn). Creatures who breathe and start their turn in this region or enter it for the first time on their turn must make a constitution saving throw or take 1d12 acid damage. This damage increases to 2d12 at level 5, 3d12 at level 11 and 4d12 at level 17.

If any damage die lands on a 12, the creature must make an additional constitution saving throw or become poisoned for 24 hours. While poisoned this way they are vulnerable to acid damage.

A creature who is aware of this toxin can attempt to hold their breath as a reaction, making a dexterity save against your poisoner's save DC.

Toxic Puff can be used as a trap on a lock. A failed attempt to pick the lock, or use of magic to unlock the lock, sets off the Toxic Puff.

3. Cleansing Cream. This cream can be spread on a slashing weapon. When you hit a creature with this weapon, it deals an extra 1d4 poison damage (increasing to 2d4 at level 5, 3d4 at level 11 and 4d4 at level 17). Each time it deals 4 poison damage, the poison damage the weapon deals is reduced by 1 (min 0). On a critical hit, the cream deals an additional 2d4 acid damage (increasing to 4d4 at level 5, 6d4 at level 11 and 8d4 at level 17).

Cleansing Cream can also be used to treat the poisoned condition. As an action the Chemist can use the Creme to deal 1d4 poison damage to a willing target and grant them a new saving throw against the poisoned condition with a bonus equal to the Chemists Poisoner's Kit bonus.

Only one toxin or poison can be applied to a given weapon at a time. Applying a toxin to a weapon or set of ammunition can be done as a bonus action.

ALCHEMICAL EXPERTISE
At 9th level, you can modify your concoctions on the fly. When you deal poison damage, you can choose to make half of the damage be acid; and when you deal acid damage, you can choose to make half of the damage poison.

In addition, you gain the ability to use your poisoner's kit as a healers kit and an alchemists kit. You gain the ability to learn ritual spells as alchemical formulas, and can cast these spells using your poisoner's kit. Ritual spells you cast this way are limited to 1/2 of your level. When you gain this feature, you learn 5 alchemical rituals, and you gain a new alchemical ritual each time you gain a level in this class.

It is possible to learn new alchemical formulas this way as you adventure. If you have a scroll or other recording of a magical ritual, you can consume the recording over a long rest and generate a new alchemical formula that produces the same ritual effect.

ADVANCED TOXINS
Beginning at 13th level, you learn additional toxins:

1. Paralyzing Toxin. When applied to a piercing weapon or ammunition, the next creature hit by the weapon or ammunition must make a constitution saving throw or become paralyzed. They can repeat this saving throw at the end of each of their turns, or as a legendary action.

2. Persuasion Oil. Creatures exposed to this oily fluid must make a wisdom saving throw or be charmed by every creature they see for the next minute; roll the first time they see each creature. Persuasion Oil can be added to drink or food, or sprayed into a 10' by 10' cloud adjacent to the user. When a creature subject to Persuasion Oil is damaged by a creature they are charmed by, they make make a new saving throw with advantage against the charm effect.

3. Void Dust. Creatures exposed to this dust must make a charisma saving throw or become lethagic and apathetic. They gain disadvantage on all attacks and saving throws and their speed is halved for the next minute. While in this state, if given an order by someone who has them charmed, they must make an intelligence saving throw or follow the order. They have advantage on this saving throw if the order is immediately dangerous to them, and may repeat the saving throw each time they take damage and every 24 hours after the order was initially given. If they pass the saving throw, the effects of void dust end.

Void Dust may be applied to the surface of an object as a contact poison (constitution saving throw to resist from a brief touch), or blown directly into someone's face (dexterity saving throw to avoid), or applied to a weapon (wears off after 1 use).

TOXIC MASTERPIECE
At 17th level, you can combine two of the doses of toxin you produce in a day into a masterpiece. Any damage either does is doubled, and you can apply both as part of the same action.

The application method for the combined toxin can be either of the application methods.

In addition, during each short rest you can create up to your intelligence bonus toxins, but you cannot have more than your intelligence bonus plus your proficiency bonus toxins active at any one time.


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I tried to reduce save-spam. Each dose of toxin results in 1 saving throw typically.

Black Venom forces a save vs poisoned condition on an 8 on the damage die. This becomes increasingly likely as you gain levels. This also causes the poison to wear off -- the PC can reapply it as a bonus action.

I like having abilities with non-combat application. Alchemical Expertise starts that off, and Advanced Toxins have some powerful non-combat utility.

The 17th level one is aimed at breaking the restrictions you had -- two toxins in one, and double the damage -- rather than being a boatload of damage.

 

[CleverNickName]

@NotAYakk - The Chemist is a pretty solid concept, and blends elements of the alchemist with the assassin subclass (trading the Infusions for Toxins, sort of, and replacing multiple sets of tools with just one.) There are a few minor tweaks I would make, but the overall concept is pretty solid:

• Poisoner: Dexterity bonus to damage for a toxin doesn't feel right to me. I'd prefer it be Proficiency Bonus instead, or maybe Intelligence. Rogues are already adding their Dexterity bonus to every damage roll, after all, so this would likely get ignored. And I get why you would want to "reduce save spam," but you've eliminated all save throws against poison for the first ten levels of the subclass. I don't think it's broken, per se, I'd just prefer something in the middle. If it were mine, I'd just reflavor various cantrips (like Poison Spray) and call it good.
• Toxic Masterpiece: maybe I'm misunderstanding this, so correct me if I'm wrong. But: doubling the amount of damage a Toxin can do on a hit, and applying two Toxins as part of the same action...am I misreading that, or does this allow a character to deal quadruple toxin damage on a single attack? and then double it again on a critical hit? without a save throw? Like, Black Venom + Cleansing Cream on a longbow has the potential to deal over a hundred points of bonus damage, without a save. And this damage is on top of the sneak attack damage the target is already taking. I get that this is a 17th level "capstone" ability but hoo boy. That's a lot. Being able to one-shot-kill a beholder (or whatever) from 300 feet while bypassing its Legendary Resistance...that's not something I want at my table, even at high level play.

Apart from the guaranteed extra damage (and really, it's just the amount of it...I don't mind it as a concept), I like the idea of swapping acid for poison damage...very evocative of the Chemist vibe. And I like the rudimentary "healing" that you can do with the Cleansing Cream ability--being able to remove a bad status condition is valuable.

 

[CleverNickName]

If your player is happy with this, go for it. I see it as a significant downgrade in power and flavor, but if it's reinforcing their fantasy and they're happy then it's fine.

You need to define what the Difficulty of the CON save is.

So far so good; the player is having a lot of fun with it. He's spending his downtime modifying and expanding his SeCrEt LaB in the basement of his favorite tavern (he's friends with the owner), and he's looking forward to getting up to all sorts of No Good at the next cider festival.

The Con save DC is in the first passage, under "Poisoner." DC = 8 + Prof Bonus + Int modifier....I use the same save DC that is used for spellcasting.

It's a bit overpowered, but not broken, and it matches the flavor. However, this will increase handling time at the table because (a) the Rogue almost always has Sneak Attack or at least it's supposed to, (b) every Rogue attack now involves a Con save and tracking the Poisoned condition, and (c) this is an ongoing save the GM needs to remember.

Yep, that's true. And it would definitely be tedious for tabletop play.

But we play on Roll20, so it's not nearly as much of a hassle as it sounds. The player chooses his target and clicks "attack." A macro checks the selected target, and reports damage if the attack hits. Then the macro rolls a Con save for the selected target, and then rolls the additional damage if the save fails. Super fast and easy.

So you've added approximately +100 damage with Deadly Toxin compared to +82 with Death Strike. Even though poison is more often resisted, you have a feature that works around that (Increased Potency). AND - this is the big one - you've made it MUCH easier to deal this damage (Sneak Attack is far easier to get than Surprise).

This was the reason for the change. The player was frustrated with the assassin's namesake ability, and how incredibly rare it is for him. We've been playing every Friday night for most of the year, and he's gotten to use this ability exactly ONCE. And he missed the attack roll. He's clearly not having a good time, and so I tried to lean into his Alchemist Background and his Starting Faction a bit to reflavor it. "After all," I thought, "why shouldn't an assassin specialize in poison?"

Here's some notes on the character's custom background. I'm not sure where he found it, I think it came from GM Binder or maybe DM's Guild? Anyway, I looked it over and gave it the thumbs-up:

Spoiler: The Alchemist Background

ALCHEMIST
You are an alchemist of some renown, having established yourself in the field after a lengthy apprenticeship to a well-established master. Forgoing the mercantile side of the profession, you’ve spent years tinkering, experimenting, and improving upon alchemical concoctions and received instruction directly from a master of the craft. You may not have the mercantile success that comes with the Guild, but that has allowed the freedom to experiment and explore new theories of your own.

Skill Proficiencies: Medicine, Nature
Tool Proficiencies: Alchemist Supplies, plus your choice of either the Poisoner's Kit or the Herbalist’s Kit
Equipment: A set of alchemist’s supplies, a poisoner's kit or an herbalist’s kit, one vial of acid, a set of common clothes, and a belt pouch containing ten empty vials.

ALCHEMICAL SPECIALIZATION
Alchemists live in large cities where they can develop and enhance their craft, but it is not unusual to find them even in the smallest of villages. Often eccentric and obsessed with a particular field of study, most alchemists choose a specialty to master:

1d8 Specialization
1 Snake oils and “miracle” cures
2 Deadly toxins
3 Restorative elixirs
4 Explosives and inflammables
5 Glues, solvents, and similar agents
6 Acids, bases, and caustics
7 Cosmetic aids and alterations
8 Hangover cures and minor remedies

Your choice of specialization may give you Advantage on skill checks made to use, produce, or identify related substances, at the DM’s discretion.

FEATURE: LABORATORY EXPERT
As an alchemist, you’ve been exposed to a wide range of chemicals, and you have learned to work safely and efficiently with materials. You never risk accidental exposure or contamination when examining, using, or identifying unknown liquids, powders, potions, poisons, or other chemical substances.

FEATURE: LONG LIFE
Your knowledge of bodily functions, toxicology, and medicine has served you well. Your natural lifespan extends by 20 years or by +10%, whichever is greater.

SUGGESTED CHARACTERISTICS
Choose your Personality Trait, Ideal, Bond, and Flaw from those available to the Sage background, on page 138 of the Player’s Handbook. Alchemists are academics like any other, but tend to focus more on chemicals and compounds than on books and scrolls.

And all player characters (and certain NPCs) in my campaign start the game as members of a Faction of their choice. This gives them a "starting point" in the bustling port town, gives them some friends, a residence that they can claim as their "home base," a handful of starting gear, and a minor ability bonus or feature that's roughly on par with a starting feat.

Spoiler: Starting Faction - The Iron Cauldron

You’ve chosen my favorite Underground Faction! The Iron Cauldron is an underground group of alchemists, artificers, chemists, apothecaries, and brewers. This clandestine group seeks to undermine and embarrass the religious institutions (both the Temple of Dawn and the Enclave of the Old Faith), who they believe hold an unfair monopoly on medicine, healing magic, and alcohol. Your organization supplies these to everyone, regardless of their religious affiliation or Guild status…you aren’t overly concerned with profits or guild status; you care more about getting people the goods they need, at a cost that they can afford, without judgment.

YOUR COVER AND CONTACT
Have you ever wondered why Nadia has won the Threshold Brewing Festival for the last eight years running? Well, she can thank her husband Marciano, who happens to be a long-time member of The Iron Cauldron. Nadia has no idea that this organization operates out of her establishment, and would likely be heartbroken if she found out her husband was “fixing” the Ale Festival in her favor.

Boon: You gain the following at 1st level.

• Ability Score Increase: your Dexterity or Intelligence increases by 1, to a max of 20.
• Alchemist: You gain proficiency with Alchemist Supplies. If you are already proficient, you gain Proficiency with one other set of tools of your choice.
• Pharmaceutical Specialist: choose Healing or Poison. Your choice gives you the ability to add healing medicines (or toxins) to the items you create. See the sidebar for more info.

PHARMACEUTICAL SPECIALIST​

If you choose Healing, all beneficial items that you create will also cure X hit points when used, where X is your proficiency bonus. This healing is applied even if the item doesn’t normally heal damage (such as antitoxin).​

​

If you choose Poison, all harmful items that you create also deal X points of poison damage, where X is your proficiency bonus. This damage is applied even if the item doesn’t normally deal damage.​

• Potion Crafting: if you know the formula for a particular potion* and you have all the ingredients, you can brew potions in your Downtime. This feature works as described on pages 128-130 of Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, except the crafting time for each potion* is always 1 workweek (all other costs and restrictions still apply)
• Starting Equipment: You start the game with a set of Alchemist’s Supplies, your choice of an Herbalism Kit or a Poisoner Kit, and a thick leather book of Alchemical Formulae. You also start the game with three different potions* of your choice from Tables A and B, and your Formula Book contains the recipe for each.
• Faction: you are affiliated with The Black Vials, and have Renown 1 for this faction. See Chapter 4 for more information.

Residence: Your contact has set you up with a room at Chaos, the busiest and most popular tavern in town in the House District. Here you enjoy a Comfortable lifestyle, provided you are able to keep your operations a secret. You are posing as a traveling salesman, and you have arranged for a shipment of “perfume” to be moved in the next few weeks.

Working: Maintaining your Comfortable lifestyle doesn’t require you to spend any money, but it does require you to maintain your secret identity and protect your contact. If you fail to do so, you will lose your free lodgings and the money will dry up immediately. (That will be the least of your problems, but it needs to be said.)

Downtime Activities: When your character is between adventures, you can spend your spare time doing any of the following activities: Brewing Healing Potions, Carousing, Crafting Items, Crafting Magic Items (potions* only), Gambling, Recuperating, Sowing Rumors, Training, and Working.