Poisoned Swords

[Trellian]

How long would the poison on someones sword last? How many doses before it becomes to little to have an effect? Any official ruling on this?

 

[Pielorinho]

How long would the poison on someones sword last? How many doses before it becomes to little to have an effect? Any official ruling on this?

Each dose of poison is only good for one successful attack.

As for how long it'll last on the poison, assuming the weapon isn't used in a successful attack and that the poison isn't wiped off, it looks as if it'll last forever.

From the SRD:

One dose of poison smeared on a weapon or some other object affects just a single target. A poisoned weapon or object retains its venom until the weapon scores a hit or the object is touched (unless the poison is wiped off before a target comes in contact with it). Any poison smeared on an object or exposed to the elements in any way-if the vial containing it is left unstoppered, for instance-remains potent until it is touched or used.

Daniel

 

[Trellian]

Thanks a lot! I guess I could have checked with the DMG myself, but sometimes you receive an answer before you can get the book.

 

[Simulacrum]

sounds silly to me, I know someone who studies Biology and he says most (biological) poisons can only be made truly durable under airtight conditions. Most lose much of their power after a few minute on fresh air maybe some hours in *some* liquids.
So for the sake of realism that is crap. There are some poisons that are effective after some days but you can imagine what doses are needed to poison someone with it

 

[Pielorinho]

sounds silly to me, I know someone who studies Biology and he says most (biological) poisons can only be made truly durable under airtight conditions.

Take a look at the obscene prices for a single dose of poison, and the rules in Song & Silence for crafting poisons. Clearly, the poisons listed in the DMG are out of the ordinary; it's plausible that part of the cost involves preserving the poisons in various non-volatile oils and resins that make them sticky and soluble in blood and protect them from oxidation and decay.

Daniel

 

[Simulacrum]

Take a look at the obscene prices for a single dose of poison, and the rules in Song & Silence for crafting poisons. Clearly, the poisons listed in the DMG are out of the ordinary; it's plausible that part of the cost involves preserving the poisons in various non-volatile oils and resins that make them sticky and soluble in blood and protect them from oxidation and decay.

Daniel

yep it must be something like this. I checked that again and he says most (a dose of) poisons decay in under a minute loosing about 50% effectiveness every 30 - 60 seconds.
Most poisons are unbelievably expensive anyway even without major preperation cost calculated in. It's black market thats why its so expensive.

(and remember a dose is just a few drops!)

 

[Pielorinho]

Most poisons are unbelievably expensive anyway even without major preperation cost calculated in. It's black market thats why its so expensive.

(and remember a dose is just a few drops!)

I think black marketness is part of it -- but I also think it's to prevent players from harvesting ten doses of wyvern venom off the tail of the wyvern they just killed and trying to coat their swords with it.

Another thing to consider is that D&D poison is MUCH faster-acting than any real-world poison. For comparison, the black mambo snake possesses (according to what I could find online) the fastest-killing venom of any real creature, killing an average adult in half an hour. Most poison in the real world take much longer to kill their victims; extremely few poisons work within a minute, and none (that I know of) do their entire damage within a minute.

So poisons in D&D act differently from real-world poisons, anyway.

Daniel