Increasing Save DC's for Poisons

[EroGaki]

Hello all. I was looking at some of the poisons listed in the DMG and realized that they aren't very good. Are there any methods of increasing the DC's for poisons?

 

[Jhaelen]

Hello all. I was looking at some of the poisons listed in the DMG and realized that they aren't very good. Are there any methods of increasing the DC's for poisons?

The only one I can think of is the Poison Expert feat from Complete Scoundrel (for a measly +1).

IIRC, Dungeonscape also includes a list of very expensive, more potent poisons.

Apart from that your best bet (assuming you're crafting your own poison) would probably be to hunt advanced poison-using monsters to get the ingredients for more potent poisons.

 

[Kask]

Hello all. I was looking at some of the poisons listed in the DMG and realized that they aren't very good. Are there any methods of increasing the DC's for poisons?

If you are the DM just increase the DC.

 

[Darklone]

Or breed an elite array snake with high CON and with the feat ability focus.

 

[frankthedm]

The thing is a lot of living targets in the D&D game have a very high fort save.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...asters-fort-saves-most-monsters-too-high.html

A toxin with a high enough DC to be practical against bigger brutes, will be unavoidable to a chunk of foes whose size varies depending on the foes the DM uses.

 

[Starbuck_II]

The thing is a lot of living targets in the D&D game have a very high fort save.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...asters-fort-saves-most-monsters-too-high.html

A toxin with a high enough DC to be practical against bigger brutes, will be unavoidable to a chunk of foes whose size varies depending on the foes the DM uses.

How about a feat that changes the type of save?
While weird: (make feat supernatural?) it would help.
Maybe, each time use the poisonm can choose the save. Saves wo'nt be bigger but better chance to affect enemy.

After all, Warriors (warrior as a type not the class) people/monster usually have low Ref or Will (sometimes both).

Or a feat that makes all poison use have a minimum DC similar to spell poison (using Character level instead of caster): DC 13 + 1/2 Level + Wis (I increased DC from 10 to 13 to make more viable)
So a level 10 person with 16 Wis using Large scorpian poison has a + Wis equals DC 21. This is 3 higher than the listed DC: so a small but useful benefit.

 

[irdeggman]

How about a spell that reduces the pertenant ability score?

There are several of those.

Cast the spell first then apply the poison.

 

[azhrei_fje]

<threadjack>
Sorry, this isn't directly related to increasing the DCs of poisons, but it is poison-related.

I put together a web page with information on poisons from the SRD and added a few from the BoVD (I think that's where I got them from?). Follow the link and click on poison-pf.html.

The chart holds information for both 3.5E and PF and uses javascript to toggle between them. It's big advantage is that it will calculate the average creation time for a given poison when you tell it what the Craft (poison) check is for the craftsman.

I needed this because I have a player who wanted to put ranks into making poison and I was a bit leery about it. It turns out that the it takes so long to make poison, that it might not be such a bad thing after all.
</threadjack>

 

[akbearfoot]

I think it's generally a terrible idea to let someone pick which save to target with a poison. And the mechanical aspect of that doesn't really make any sense to me.


Poisons attack a persons internal organs....You can't will away, or bluff yourself into not being hurt by them. Barring special cases like feats or maneuvers specifically let you replace fort saves with other rolls. Make a reflex save or take 4 pts of Wisdom damage, HUH?!

It also makes very little sense from a balance perspective because suddenly the low DCs become extremely difficult because you could always just target the low save. Fighters and brute monsters will often fail low DC will saves, and clerics and druids will often fail low DC reflex saves. Suddenly Dragons start having trouble saving against reflex poisons.

 

[Starbuck_II]

I think it's generally a terrible idea to let someone pick which save to target with a poison. And the mechanical aspect of that doesn't really make any sense to me.


Poisons attack a persons internal organs....You can't will away, or bluff yourself into not being hurt by them. Barring special cases like feats or maneuvers specifically let you replace fort saves with other rolls. Make a reflex save or take 4 pts of Wisdom damage, HUH?!

Dude, this is a hypothetical supernatural feat: it doesn't need to make sense. Any more than bat guano turns into a fireball.

Unless, you can explain how that works.

You can be against having to use a supernatural feat, but the fact that it is supe4rnatural makes sense wth respect to its effect.