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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CTD" data-source="post: 412165" data-attributes="member: 7402">An important point not to miss is that this is a game. The function of time to make poison, and the small dose made, is more about the game than reality.Reality says I can go to my broom closet, mix up a few chemicals, and have a nice inhalation poison in mere minutes! Why can't I do this in game? I can make potions of cure light in one day, a dose of poison should be about the same right?Consider that a dose of poison and a potion of cure light are vastly different items. The potion heals relatively minor damage. The poison can kill you, even at high levels.In the hands of an NPC there is easy control for this: The NPC gets as much poison as the DM determines he needs to challenge the players effectively. So the factor of time is essentially moot.In the hands of a PC there is great danger in this. Party completes an adventure and the poison maker spends a month making poisons. When he's done he has about 30 doses of a contact poison that peels off CON damage over the space of a minute. This is not an unusual function for poisons in 3E.The problem lies in that this character can now use this poison (or the rest of his party by proxy) to deliver mortal wounds to enemies. Sure there is a save and a DC, but when it fails, that 15th level wizard with a 10 CON is in for some serious  trouble after he looses 2d6 (or more) of it.The time to make poison is a balance against the great effect it can have on the game. Too much of it in the hands of players can render a great many opponents impotent to challenge the players significantly. Which leads to inflation, suddenly all the enemies are resistant to poison, or all have the knowledge to prep spells for it.Yes, you can roleplay the negative effects on reputation that poison use gets. You could even have the party chased by the law; but that's a roleplay solution to a mechanical problem, which is bad to introduce into the core rules (roleplay problems and solutions are better found in the individual games IMO).Lots of pretty words eh? Summation: Poison can really r0xx0r your b0xx0rs! That's why it takes so long to make!</blockquote>

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