Applying a poison to a weapon. - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Applying a poison to a weapon.

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
zilfana
Nov 10, 2009 23:37:52
I am in a "Begginers D&D" group in my colleges "Gamer's Guild" and I'm left with a problem. The party and setting isn't really important, but we are in a town of cannibles, but we don't really know that. There is a non-descript "red wine" that has proven to knock out a player when drank, and when splashed in there face. Upon holding the mayor hostage, my character has discovered that the wine is a poison and yada yada. I have also aquirred a bottle of this "red wine." At this point, the game was cut short until next week. Instead of splash anyone in this town in the face with the wine, the rogue that helped me take the mayor hostage, and who discovered that the poison can take effect through contact the hard way, proposed that I poison my sword or even my throwing daggers to provide us a great boon. We are in a 4.0 campaign of course, but I can't find a single rule in the books or online as of how to apply a poison.
#2
Novacat
Nov 10, 2009 23:50:50
It's a Standard Action, per DMG page 51.
#3
zilfana
Nov 11, 2009 0:33:30
Thanks, it figured that I haven't even looked in the DMG to see that. I checked it out, and I do have one question, is there still a %5 chance of poisoning yourself like in a 3.5 ruled i've seen and how would that work.
#4
pluisjen
Nov 11, 2009 1:04:40
No, they removed that. Heroes are competent enough not to poison themselves
#5
jimprofit
Nov 11, 2009 22:12:52 I miss third edition where poison was simple enough to just homebrew off the top of your head and slap a gold price on it.

In 4th, poison is obscure, and often times met with suspicion because it completely shakes the foundation of the game. Fighters are meant to swing their sword a ceartain way, and when you add a foreign poison effect ontop of that it challenges game balance.

I wish they'd just learn their mistake the first time around and made third edition poison more status effecting then "durp! Stat damage!" Noone likes stat damage, even if you're the one dealing the damage. Cause it's a maybe kill, and a maybe penalty inducing... I didn't pay 500 gold for a maybe..

Albeit it's better then D&D where most every poison just killed you on the spot. No saving throw, no explanation. It's poison, you're dead. Sure that's more realistic.. but when you can shoot fireballs and jump across walls and chop off heads. Do you need to be THAT realistic? Hell, even most poisons take a few minutes to really get into your system!

I am a big fan of poisons. Diseases too. I like biological warfare as a whole. I laughed at my new gaming group cause this guy was like;

"I demand Jim Profit's alignment be changed from neutral evil to evil stupid. He's the kind of guy who thinks we should waste time and resources to have bees infest the world. Just because people generally don't like bees and their stings hurt..."

And I thought that was a damn good idea inflicting over 9000 bees on the population lulz!
#6
entropy_judge
Nov 11, 2009 23:41:35 AD&D had poisons that simply did damage. Some were save-or-die, some were save-or-die (and if you saved, you still took damage), some were simply damage ... I don't recall if there were any stat-damaging poisons in AD&D.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zilfana Nov 10, 2009 23:37:52	I am in a "Begginers D&D" group in my colleges "Gamer's Guild" and I'm left with a problem. The party and setting isn't really important, but we are in a town of cannibles, but we don't really know that. There is a non-descript "red wine" that has proven to knock out a player when drank, and when splashed in there face. Upon holding the mayor hostage, my character has discovered that the wine is a poison and yada yada. I have also aquirred a bottle of this "red wine." At this point, the game was cut short until next week. Instead of splash anyone in this town in the face with the wine, the rogue that helped me take the mayor hostage, and who discovered that the poison can take effect through contact the hard way, proposed that I poison my sword or even my throwing daggers to provide us a great boon. We are in a 4.0 campaign of course, but I can't find a single rule in the books or online as of how to apply a poison.
#2 Novacat Nov 10, 2009 23:50:50	It's a Standard Action, per DMG page 51.
#3 zilfana Nov 11, 2009 0:33:30	Thanks, it figured that I haven't even looked in the DMG to see that. I checked it out, and I do have one question, is there still a %5 chance of poisoning yourself like in a 3.5 ruled i've seen and how would that work.
#4 pluisjen Nov 11, 2009 1:04:40	No, they removed that. Heroes are competent enough not to poison themselves
#5 jimprofit Nov 11, 2009 22:12:52	I miss third edition where poison was simple enough to just homebrew off the top of your head and slap a gold price on it. In 4th, poison is obscure, and often times met with suspicion because it completely shakes the foundation of the game. Fighters are meant to swing their sword a ceartain way, and when you add a foreign poison effect ontop of that it challenges game balance. I wish they'd just learn their mistake the first time around and made third edition poison more status effecting then "durp! Stat damage!" Noone likes stat damage, even if you're the one dealing the damage. Cause it's a maybe kill, and a maybe penalty inducing... I didn't pay 500 gold for a maybe.. Albeit it's better then D&D where most every poison just killed you on the spot. No saving throw, no explanation. It's poison, you're dead. Sure that's more realistic.. but when you can shoot fireballs and jump across walls and chop off heads. Do you need to be THAT realistic? Hell, even most poisons take a few minutes to really get into your system! I am a big fan of poisons. Diseases too. I like biological warfare as a whole. I laughed at my new gaming group cause this guy was like; "I demand Jim Profit's alignment be changed from neutral evil to evil stupid. He's the kind of guy who thinks we should waste time and resources to have bees infest the world. Just because people generally don't like bees and their stings hurt..." And I thought that was a damn good idea inflicting over 9000 bees on the population lulz!
#6 entropy_judge Nov 11, 2009 23:41:35	AD&D had poisons that simply did damage. Some were save-or-die, some were save-or-die (and if you saved, you still took damage), some were simply damage ... I don't recall if there were any stat-damaging poisons in AD&D.