Poisons

A poison is a substance that interferes with the natural functions of a living creature’s body, causing injury or death, typically requiring only a very small amount. The target of a poison may resist with a successful saving throw. Poisons can be delayed or cured with spells such as delay poison and neutralize poison. Poisons have four categories, based on how they reach the target: contact, ingested, inhaled, or injury.

Contact: These poisons are delivered the moment a creature touches the poison with its bare skin. Such poisons can be used as injury poisons. Contact poisons usually have an onset time of 1 minute and a frequency of 1 minute.

Ingested: These poisons are delivered when a creature eats or drinks the poison. Ingested poisons usually have an onset time of 10 minutes and a frequency of 1 minute.

Inhaled: These poisons are delivered the moment a creature enters an area containing such poisons and do not usually have an onset time. For most inhaled poisons, 1 dose fills a volume equal to a 10-foot cube. A creature can attempt to hold its breath while inside the area to avoid inhaling the toxin. A creature holding its breath receives a 50% chance of not having to make a Fortitude save each round. See the rules for holding your breath and suffocation. If a creature is holding its breath and fails the constitution check to continue doing so, rather than suffocating it begins to breathe normally again (and is subject to the effects of the inhaled poison if still in the area).

Injury: These poisons are primarily delivered through the attacks of certain creatures and through weapons coated in the toxin. Injury poisons do not usually have an onset time and have a frequency of 1 round.

Applying Poison One dose of poison smeared on a weapon or some other object affects just a single target. A poisoned weapon or object retains its poison until the weapon scores a hit or the object is touched (unless the poison is wiped off before a target comes incontact with it). Applying poison to a weapon or single piece of ammunition is a standard action. Whenever you apply or ready a poison for use, there is a 5% chance that you expose yourself to the poison and must save against the poison as normal. This does not consume the dose of poison. Whenever you attack with a poisoned weapon, if the attack roll results in a natural 1, you expose yourself to the poison. This poison is consumed when the weapon strikes a creature or is touched by the wielder. If you have the poison use class feature (such as from the assassin prestige class or the alchemist base class), you do not risk accidentally poisoning yourself when applying poison.

Multiple Doses of Poison Unlike other afflictions, multiple doses of the same poison “stack,” meaning that successive doses combine to increase the poison’s DC and duration. Making your initial saving throw against a poison means stacking does not occur—the poison did not affect you and any later doses are treated independently. Likewise, if a poison has been cured or run its course (by you either making the saves or outlasting the poison’s duration), stacking does not occur. However, if there is still poison active in you when you are attacked with that type of poison again, and you fail your initial save against the new dose, the doses stack. This has two effects, which last until the poisons run their course.

Increased Duration: Increase the duration of the poison by 1/2 the amount listed in its frequency entry.

Increased DC: Increase the poison’s DC by +2. These increases are cumulative (a third dose adds another 1/2 of the frequency to the duration and +2 to the DC, and so on). When affected by multiple doses of the same poison, you only make one saving throw at this higher DC when required by the frequency, rather than one saving throw against each dose of the poison. Multiple doses do not alter the Cure condition of the Poison, and meeting that Cure condition ends all doses of the poison. Applied contact poisons and injury poisons cannot inflict more than one dose of poison per weapon at a time (because the poison on the weapon only lasts for one successful attack before it wears off). Inhaled and ingested poisons can inflict multiple doses at once. Doses from different poisons (such as an assassin with greenblood oil on his dagger and Medium spider venom on his short sword) do not stack—the effects of each are tracked separately.

Example: A fighter is facing three Medium spiders (which inject Medium spider venom on a successful bite). Medium spider venom normally has a frequency of 4 rounds and a DC of 14. On the first round, all three spiders bite him and he fails all three saves. The second and third doses each increase the total duration by 2 rounds (half of the 4 round frequency) and the save DC by +2, for a total duration of 8 rounds (4 + 2 + 2) and DC 18 (14 + 2 + 2). Fortunately, Medium spider venom is cured after just one successful save, even though the fighter is battling three doses at once.

Example: This time, the fighter makes two of his initial saves against the spider venom, so he only has one dose active in his body. He fails his save on his turn. On the spiders’s turn, two of them bite him, and he fails both saves, which increases the duration to 8 rounds and the DC to 18, just as if he had failed all three saves in the same round.

Crafting Poison You can make poison with the Craft (alchemy) skill. The DC to make a poison is equal to its Fortitude save DC. Rolling a natural 1 on a Craft skill check while making a poison exposes you to the poison. This does not consume the poison. If you have the poison use class feature, you do not risk accidentally poisoning yourself when applying poison. The sample poisons listed below represent just some of the common poisons available in cities. Of course, most cities have laws against buying, selling, or crafting poison.

Poisons
Poison	Type	Fort DC	Onset	Frequency	Effect	Cure	Price (gp)
Arsenic	ingested	13	10 min.	1/min. for 4 min.	1d2 Constitution	1 save	120
Belladonna	ingested	14	10 min.	1/min. for 6 min.	1d2 Strength, see text	1 save	100
Black adder venom	injury	11	–	1/rd. for 6 rds.	1d2 Constitution	1 save	120
Black lotus extract	contact	20	1 min.	1/rd. for 6 rds.	1d6 Constitution	2 saves	4,500
Bloodroot	injury	12	1 rd.	1/rd. for 4 rds.	1 Constitution and 1 Wisdom	1 save	100
Blue whinnis	injury	14	–	1/rd. for 2 rds	1 Constitution / unconscious 1d3 hrs.	1 save	120
Burnt othur fumes	inhaled	18	–	1/rd. for 6 rds.	1 Constitution drain / 1d3 Constitution	2 saves	2,100
Dark reaver powder	ingested	18	10 min.	1/min. for 6 min.	1d3 Constitution and 1 Strength	2 saves	800
Deathblade	injury	20	–	1/rd. for 6 rds.	1d3 Constitution	2 saves	1,800
Dragon bile	contact	26	–	1/rd. for 6 rds.	1d3 Strength	–	1,500
Drow poison	injury	13	–	1/min. for 2 min.	unconscious 1 min./2d4 hrs.	1 save	75
Giant wasp poison	injury	18	–	1/rd. for 6 rds.	1d2 Dexterity	1 save	210
Greenblood oil	injury	13	–	1/rd. for 4 rds.	1 Constitution	1 save	100
Green prismatic poison	spell	varies	–	1/rd. for 6 rds.	Death/1 Constitution	2 saves	–
Hemlock	ingested	18	10 min.	1/min. for 6 min.	1d6 Dexterity, see text	2 saves	2,500
Id moss	ingested	14	10 min.	1/min. for 6 min.	1d3 Intelligence	1 save	125
Insanity mist	inhaled	15	–	1/rd. for 6 rds.	1d3 Wisdom	1 save	1,500
King’s sleep	ingested	19	1 day	1/day	1 Constitution drain	2 saves	5,000
Large scorpion venom	injury	17	–	1/rd. for 6 rds.	1d2 Strength	1 save	200
Lich dust	ingested	17	10 min.	1/min. for 6 min.	1d3 Strength	2 saves	400
Malyass root paste	contact	16	1 min.	1/min. for 6 min.	1d2 Dexterity	1 save	250
Medium spider venom	injury	14	–	1/rd. for 4 rds.	1d2 Strength	1 save	150
Nightmare vapor	inhaled	20	–	1/rd. for 6 rds.	1 Wisdom and confused 1 round	2 saves	1,800
Nitharit	contact	13	1 min.	1/min. for 6 min.	1d3 Constitution	1 save	650
Oil of taggit	ingested	15	min.	–	unconscious 1d3 hours	1 save	90
Purple worm poison	injury	24	–	1/rd. for 6 rds.	1d3 Strength	2 saves	700
Sassone leaf residue	contact	16	1 min.	1/min. for 6 min.	2d12 hp/1 Constitution	1 save	300
Shadow essence	injury	17	–	1/rd. for 6 rds.	1 Strength drain / 1d2 Strength	1 save	250
Small centipede poison	injury	11	–	1/rd. for 4 rds.	1 Dexterity	1 save	90
Striped toadstool	ingested	11	10 min.	1/min. for 4 min.	1d3 Wisdom and 1 Intelligence	1 save	180
Tears of death	contact	22	1 min.	1/min. for 6 min.	1d6 Constitution and paralyzed 1 min.	–	6,500
Terinav root	contact	16	1 min.	1/min. for 6 min.	1d3 Dexterity	1 save	400
Ungol dust	inhaled	15	–	1/rd. for 4 rds.	1 Charisma drain/1d2 Charisma	1 save	1,000
Violet venom	contact	13	–	1/min. for 6 min.	1d2 Strength and 1d2 Constitution	1 save	800
Wasp Swarm Poison	injury	13	–	1/rd. for 4 rds.	1 Dexterity damage	1 save	–
Wolfsbane	ingested	16	10 min.	1/min. for 6 min.	1d3 Constitution	1 save	500
Wyvern poison	injury	17	–	1/rd. for 6 rds.	1d4 Constitution	2 saves	3,000

How Do Poisons Work?

When you are initially exposed to a poison (whether during your action or someone else’s), you must make a save to avoid being poisoned.

• Success You resist being poisoned. You do not suffer any ill effects and you need not make any further saves.
• Failure You are poisoned and immediately suffer the listed effect. You will need to make further saves to avoid more damage and cure the poison.
• Exception If the poison has an onset period, failing the initial check does NOT cause you to suffer any effects.

If you are exposed to more of the same poison at any point while you are poisoned, you need to make a new initial save at +2 DC.
Success You resist the new dose and carry on as if it never happened (this success does not count toward the requisite “consecutive saves” for curing any poison that is already in your system)

Failure The DC for all subsequent checks are increased by 2 and the duration of the poison is increased by half of the listed value. (eg if you are poisoned with a poison with a DC 11, being exposed again forces you to make a save at DC 13. If you fail this, all your future checks to cure the poison, avoid damage, or resist being poisoned again are at DC 13 – and the duration is increased by half. If you are exposed for a third time, you would need to save at DC 15 against the new dose, etc)

For the onset period, nothing happens (if there is no onset, the next step happens right away!)
At the next frequency interval (your next turn for 1/round poisons, 1 minute later for 1/minute, next day for 1/day) you must make a save on your turn (at any point during your turn – you must still make this save if you choose to delay).
Success You suffer no ill effects and now have a save towards curing the poison.

If the poison requires only one save to cure, you are cured and no longer need to make saves.

Failure You suffer the listed effects again.

Repeat the previous step until you fulfill either score enough consecutive saves to cure the poison or the duration runs out.

Poisons with initial and secondary effects

For poisons without an onset, failing the initial save causes you to suffer the initial effect of the poison. The subsequent saves are made against the secondary effect.

For poisons with an onset, failing the initial save causes you to be poisoned but not suffer any ill effect. Failing the first save after the onset causes you suffer the initial effect of the poison. Any subsequent saves are made against the secondary effect.

Special If you are exposed to multiple doses of a poison with initial and secondary effects, you only suffer the initial effect once. Subsequent exposures cause you to suffer the secondary effect and add duration to secondary effects.