Poisons for GOOD!

[Zappo]

So your jungle tribesman (who happens to be a paladin) cannot use poison on his blowgun darts when he hunts monkeys, like the rest of his tribe? If he can, why not to defend his tribe, or the shrine to his deity? If those, then why not for self defense, or anyplace else where he could kill something (i.e. just about any adventure).

"Poison = evil" is just as silly as the "stealing = evil" bit.

Huh? Which part of

Originally posted by Zappo
I don't agree with the concept of poisons being automatically evil. They are just yet another way to kill someone, albeit a sneaky and painful way. Not a paladin's tool, but neither intrinsically Evil.

wasn't clear?

The average paladin doesn't like poison not because it's evil or chaotic, but because it goes against his code of honor. It's sneaky. There are many types of paladins, mind ya, but the standard paladin doesn't like killing people in such an insidious way, and certain deities fixated with honor and whatnot could even explicitly forbid it.

BTW, why do all debates on what would a character do end up as alignment debates? They are characters, they act according to a personality, not according to an alignment. The alignment is just a consequence of that. It's only there to determine whether you blow up or not upon hearing a Holy Word.

Bah, let's get back to helping Felix.

Among magical items, you have the Dagger of Venom. I can't remember what kind of poison it injects, but I think most DMs would allow variant daggers of venom that do different poisons. You might even get away with a weapon of venom that isn't a dagger, though I personally would make it substantially more costly.

Then, there are the gehennan morguth (sp?) iron weapons. They are -1 to hit but poison everyone they strike.

As for mundane methods to deliver any poison of choice, besides normally poisoning a weapon I can't think of any. Maybe you could use a glove of storing, or the quick draw feat, to get a different poisoned weapon in your hand according to need.

 

[Gez]

I strongly disagree, it is perfectly honorable, and even polite, to kill with poison. Read Tschai, by Jack Vance, and especially the part where Adam Reith, while among the golden yaos, got a contract on his head for assassination by the 12 Strikes Method. The poisoner assassin is a perfect gentleman.

Originally posted by John Crichton:
And as for the arguement (which has been used on me many times) of "well, I'm just going to kill him anyway it doesn't matter how" I say that's bunk. Intent to kill is different than an intent to maim, cause unneccessary pain, cause extra pain, or torture then kill. These are examples of gratuitous and cruel acts rather then just killing. Most goodly PC's only kill things that are evil or things that are trying to kill them. These are either acts of self-defense or defense of some kind. If PC's go about indiscriminately killing things, that is still wrong and is considered evil when I DM.

Duh ?
Intent to kill -- It is there anyway, whether by sword or by fireball.
Pain -- It is there anyway, whether by sword or by fireball.

In fact, using a poisoned dart with a strong anesthesic (which, like any medic knows, means a poison -- anesthesician is one of the hardest job in medecine) is probably going to be less painful than being slowly hacked into tiny mashed roasted bits by the combined efforts of the fighter's blade, the cleric's hammer, and the wizard's fiery spells.

 

[Felix]

Zappo:
I'm sorry I didn't specify this clearly, but my character is a Forsaker, so magical weapons are out. I imagine the ghennan morguth iron weapons are magical as well? Or perhaps they're just a special material. Anyways, I'll be going for mundane stuff.

Gez:
Ah! Blowguns! Yes, excellent... Has anyone read Conan Doyle's The Sign of Four? I could be just like that little islander! Poison darts for everyone!


How would you deliver an inhaled poison? Throw a small bag at them? Treat it as a grenade attack? Kinda like tanglefoot bags, perhaps.

 

[John Crichton]

I strongly disagree, it is perfectly honorable, and even polite, to kill with poison. Read Tschai, by Jack Vance, and especially the part where Adam Reith, while among the golden yaos, got a contract on his head for assassination by the 12 Strikes Method. The poisoner assassin is a perfect gentleman.

There are of course exceptions to the rule.

Duh ?
Intent to kill -- It is there anyway, whether by sword or by fireball.
Pain -- It is there anyway, whether by sword or by fireball.

In fact, using a poisoned dart with a strong anesthesic (which, like any medic knows, means a poison -- anesthesician is one of the hardest job in medecine) is probably going to be less painful than being slowly hacked into tiny mashed roasted bits by the combined efforts of the fighter's blade, the cleric's hammer, and the wizard's fiery spells.

I'm not going to get all that into it as Felix has already said he didn't want this to turn into that kind of post. The only thing I have in response is that I said maim, cause unneccessary pain and cause extra pain which is what poison does. Yes it hurts getting stabbed but there is a difference between that and paralyzed or the like then getting stabbed.

I digress. I should probably stay out of this thread because the original poster doesn't want the good/evil thing discussed here. I'd be more than happy to continue it in another thread.