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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 9550732" data-attributes="member: 6877472">It seems strange to us, but you have to remember, a lot of concepts we take for granted now hadn't been worked out yet, and Gary was only human (even if he came off as a tyrannical curmudgeon at times in his writing).Imagine if the Assassin as a class existed today.  You'd expect some things to be different, and one thing that I would expect would be an optional rule for "Poison Mastery".<gygax>It may occur to some Dungeon Masters that, being a master of the silent, lethal arts, an Assassin, of all classes, should be adept at the brewing and application of toxic substances to leave nothing to chance when attempting to dispatch their victims.Of course, monstrous venoms, as are often encountered in the field, tend to be quite lethal, and the impact upon the campaign as a whole if employed against foes, is far from inconsiderable!  Thus, one should assume that poison is only employed in controlled circumstances- certainly, when attempting assassinations, it should naturally be assumed that poisons are employed.  But in the heat of melee, the idea of coating a blade with a noxious substance without accidentally poisoning oneself or one's allies is almost a certainty!All that having been said, if the Dungeon Master wishes to allow poison creation and use into their campaigns, here are some suggestions:Firstly, the character should be no less than the ninth level of experience, lest the Dungeon Master completely lose control of the campaign!  It should be stressed that this undertaking is not only a tedious and exacting affair, but must also be done under the strictest of secrecy- creating and selling poisons, let alone using them, is a criminal act in any Lawful society, and even one's allies cannot be fully trusted!  Recall that the Assassin is an evil character, and would not trust anyone with such a secret!I can only further stress that you should not offer this option to the player outright- let them come to you, and then you can decide if you wish to allow such activities to occur in game.  Following are the suggested costs, time required, and rules for using poison during adventuring- these may seem to be harsh to some, but you can be assured that much research went into these rules to ensure their accuracy to real-world practices, and to further prevent a party of Assassins from slaying every opponent in the Monster Manual!</gygax></blockquote>

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