So I'm adding some beasties with ranged attacks, because apparently no beast in DnD seems to have ever evolved a ranged attack.
Right now I'm only some kind of Spitting Cobra-esque critter. Question is, should it do acid or poison damage?
Depends on the CR you are looking for. More PCs and magic protect from poison over acid. You can bump the CR if you have acid over poison. Typically it would be poison on a beast or monstrosity. I would go acid for a construct though.
Poison (plus blindness). "Acid" damage in D&D seems akin to physical damage to structure from highly corrosive substances. While I'd suspect spitting cobra venom feels like it's "burning" the victim's eyes, I also suspect it's not literally melting them.
So I'm adding some beasties with ranged attacks, because apparently no beast in DnD seems to have ever evolved a ranged attack.
Right now I'm only some kind of Spitting Cobra-esque critter. Question is, should it do acid or poison damage?
Yes. More monsters need ranged attacks. Far too many fall into the problem of being slow, melee-only, ground-bound brutes.
At any rate, if it is low CR it should do poison. Dwarves and the like have poison resistance which means it won't be as effective against them. However, it is nice when one of your racial passive defenses is actually useful instead of just sitting there like a lump on your character sheet.