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D&D 5E DMG Preview: POISONS!
- Thread starter Morrus
- Start date
toasterferret
Explorer
I read it a blog page that was analyzing the poison rules. I cant seem to find it either, so I must be wrong.
dwayne
Adventurer
I would as a rule of thumb say a small dagger, bolts and arrows only one dose. medium weapons 2 if fully coated only one if hasty large weapons 4 fully coated 2 hasty huge 8 fully 4 hasty, ect..
1 full round per size to fully coat a weapon, 1 action to hasty coat a weapon.
1 full round per size to fully coat a weapon, 1 action to hasty coat a weapon.
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Agglomérante
First Post
It's unreasonable to only get one dose from a purple worm! It should be tied to the size of the creature.
JoeCrow
Explorer
So, I've been looking at the poisons list, [even split them out into a crude Excel file to compare stuff] and I've gotta say these prices are kinda extreme. Yeah, they're pretty effective against ordinary folks, but so what? Who's gonna spend 150 gold to poison a peasant? Who's gonna spend 200 gold to maybe knock a guy out for an hour? The heavy hitters [Wyvern, purple worm, and midnight tears] cost about as much as a suit of plate armor, for one dose. Who's gonna drop that kind of cash to MAYBE kill one dude? You could buy a suit of plate armor and drop it on him, and do almost as much damage. And then you could clean off the armor and use it again!
The only one that really looks like a good investment is the Pale Tincture, and that one's a doozy! DC 16 save, SEVEN saves to end, and no healing the damage until the effect's ended? Ouch. And for 200 gold! Now that's worth the investment.
So, I'm probably gonna adjust the prices some in my campaigns. Dunno quite how, yet.
The only one that really looks like a good investment is the Pale Tincture, and that one's a doozy! DC 16 save, SEVEN saves to end, and no healing the damage until the effect's ended? Ouch. And for 200 gold! Now that's worth the investment.
So, I'm probably gonna adjust the prices some in my campaigns. Dunno quite how, yet.
Well, purple worm venom is so deadly that it's not the sort of thing you'd normally use against people - that would be overkill. It's nearly instantly fatal to 99.9% of typical humanoids - maybe a level 10 barbarian could survive it, but even he'd feel the sting. No, purple worm venom is the stuff you dip a few arrows into to "unfairly" bring down big game, like a mammoth, T Rex, or maybe even a youngish dragon. There's probably no shortage of foppish princes out there willing to drop a few thousand gp just so they can say they slew a great beast.
Also, peasants are not the only low level humanoids. How many nobles really have more than a few class levels?
And plate mail is a bit harder to sneak into someone's lunch.
Also, peasants are not the only low level humanoids. How many nobles really have more than a few class levels?
And plate mail is a bit harder to sneak into someone's lunch.
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JoeCrow
Explorer
Well, the stock Noble in the MM has 2d8 HD, with 9 HP, and a Con of 11. But the Knight's got 8d8+16 HD, with 52 HP and a Con of 14. Archmage has 18d8+18 HD, with 99 HP, and a Con of 12. There's your scale of regular folks you might want to poison.
Now, the three top end poisons are Midnight Tears (DC 17, 9d6 at midnight, ingested, 1500 gp), Purple Worm (DC 19, 12d6, injury, 2000 gp), and Wyvern (DC 15, 7d6, injury, 1200 gp). You might want to add Pale Tincture (DC 16, 1d6 every 24 hours, no healing until you make 7 successful saves, ingested, 250 gp), just based on effectiveness. The rest of your mid-range DCs and prices are mostly Poisoned and Unconscious/Blind/Paralyzed or something, which, you know, nice in the right spot, but very much "conditional effects for a fight" rather than "fight enders".
Looking at the range of injury poisons, you've got two low end ones: one that does 3d6/DC 11, and one that does Poisoned & Unconscious if you roll low/DC 13, and the two big ones (Wyvern and Purple Worm). For ingested poisons, you've got your high end (Midnight Tears and Pale Tincture) and your low end (Assassin's Blood-1d12/DC 10/150 gp), and a couple of effect-based ones (one "truth serum", one "poisoned for a few hours"). You've got a couple of contact poisons (both just effect-based, poisoned and paralyzed or unconscious, DC 13), and a few inhaled poisons (two effect based - one knockout, one blinded, and then one damage based 3d6 and then 1d6 per turn until save, DC 13).
So, I dunno. I might tweak the pricing a bit, but I might just leave it alone. The crew I'm running right now aren't really the poisoning types, so it's not a major issue.
As far as the world at large, Pale Tincture is really the winner for your basic assassin for hire, trying to take out somebody important. The rest of them, I can see as occasional trap components, but they're really kinda expensive for fight add-ons. I suppose that might be the point, though, pricing them out of the game for most party foes.
Now, the three top end poisons are Midnight Tears (DC 17, 9d6 at midnight, ingested, 1500 gp), Purple Worm (DC 19, 12d6, injury, 2000 gp), and Wyvern (DC 15, 7d6, injury, 1200 gp). You might want to add Pale Tincture (DC 16, 1d6 every 24 hours, no healing until you make 7 successful saves, ingested, 250 gp), just based on effectiveness. The rest of your mid-range DCs and prices are mostly Poisoned and Unconscious/Blind/Paralyzed or something, which, you know, nice in the right spot, but very much "conditional effects for a fight" rather than "fight enders".
Looking at the range of injury poisons, you've got two low end ones: one that does 3d6/DC 11, and one that does Poisoned & Unconscious if you roll low/DC 13, and the two big ones (Wyvern and Purple Worm). For ingested poisons, you've got your high end (Midnight Tears and Pale Tincture) and your low end (Assassin's Blood-1d12/DC 10/150 gp), and a couple of effect-based ones (one "truth serum", one "poisoned for a few hours"). You've got a couple of contact poisons (both just effect-based, poisoned and paralyzed or unconscious, DC 13), and a few inhaled poisons (two effect based - one knockout, one blinded, and then one damage based 3d6 and then 1d6 per turn until save, DC 13).
So, I dunno. I might tweak the pricing a bit, but I might just leave it alone. The crew I'm running right now aren't really the poisoning types, so it's not a major issue.
As far as the world at large, Pale Tincture is really the winner for your basic assassin for hire, trying to take out somebody important. The rest of them, I can see as occasional trap components, but they're really kinda expensive for fight add-ons. I suppose that might be the point, though, pricing them out of the game for most party foes.
dwayne
Adventurer
If harvesting from a creature I see that but applying to a weapon no as only so much an be on it and would depend on how big the weapon is.
MechaPilot
Explorer
I think you'd be able to just do it. The way I see it, the rule that says the creature you want to harvest from must be K.O.'d or incapacitated is intended to apply to creatures hostile to the PC. If a venomous creature is a pet or is enchanted so that it isn't hostile, I don't see any reason for the K.O./incapacitation restrictions.
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