About Assassin Poisons
Brewing the Poisons
Poisons require reagents, which you, as an assassin, know how to gather, and where to buy. In game terms, they are indistinguishable from normal alchemical components. You can purchase ready poisons, made by other assassins, in certain black markets.
The following costs are market values for ready-made poison. Cost to create yourself is half the listed value.
- Rank 1 poison: 10 cp
- Rank 2 poison: 50 cp
- Rank 3 poison: 3 sp
- Rank 4 poison: 2 gp
- Rank 5 poison: 10 gp
Poisons come in tiny vials. They are easily concealed; once found, their purpose is quite obvious.
Applying Poisons
Applying a single poison to a single weapon is a standard action. For this reason, assassins usually prepare poisons in advance of combat, and sometimes even keep backup weapons with different poisons on them for when they need to switch poisons rapidly.
Once poisoned, a weapon inflicts the effect of its poison each time it hits a target.
Once applied, a poison remains potent for 1 minute. Any round spent sheathed does not count against the duration; it is exposure to air that lowers poison potency.
For extreme environments:
- 1 round spent immersed in water or in a fire counts as 3 rounds of duration.
- 1 round spent in a vacuum counts as 0 rounds of duration.
Poison Resistance
Assassin poisons are "poisons" in the sense that they are applied to a weapon, and then applied to a victim by cutting them with said weapon (though the technical term for that is "venom", but whatever). That does not mean that all poison resistance applies to all assassin poisons.
Targets with poison resistance resist damage from your poisons only if it is explicitly called "poison damage". They may resist non-damage effects, but only if the poison also inflicts poison damage. A poison that inflicts another kind of damage, such as arcane, or no damage at all besides its debilitating effect, cannot be resisted with poison resistance.
The same goes for poison immunity.
However, as a special case, the poison resistance of the Assassin class does confer resistance to Assassin poisons.
List of Poisons
Rank 1
- Magekiller Poison: On next spell cast, subject suffers medium arcane damage (per stack
) and has a 30% chance (per stack) to lose the spell. All stacks removed upon trigger.
- Searing Poison: Light ongoing poison damage for 3 rounds; stacks and refreshes.
- Slowing Poison: Subject suffers -20% haste and movement (Fort ends, max one save/rd).
Rank 2
- Hallucinogenic Poison: Light (SP) ongoing psychic damage for 3 rounds. For each stack, subject suffers 25% confusion chance (meaning he chooses his actions and targets randomly, chance is rolled each round).
- Shadow Poison: Medium (SP) ongoing shadow damage for 3 rounds.
- Wound Poison: Ongoing poison damage for 3 rounds. Damage based on stacks (light/medium/heavy), duration refreshed with each new stack. For each stack, target suffers 25% penalty to incoming healing.
Rank 3
- Enervating Poison: Inflicts 2 negative levels (total for both: -10% penalty to all rolls, damage, and max hp).