Poison

[Voyd211]

So, I'm making a tiefling druid with a giant scorpion companion. Since I kinda killed his Strength score, I was thinking about giving him some kind of ranged weapon... and I also wanted poisoned ones.

Unfortunately, the Additional Resources page doesn't help me much with that. I don't know how I could acquire poisoned weapons (for instance, darts) and it says that none of the poisons in Ultimate Equipment can be bought by anyone other than people with poison use.

However, I do have the giant scorpion. Is it possible to milk venom from his stinger and coat weapons or ammo with that?

[Dragnmoon]

Short Answer - No.

Long Answer - That would be considered "Crafting" which is only allowed by "Alchemists and rogues with the poisoner archetype and the Master Poisoner ability can use Craft (alchemy) to produce poisons", for poison per the FAQ.

The only way you can get poison for your character is to multi-class into one of the allowed classes that can purchase poison or to find poison on a chronicle sheet from a scenario.

[Malag]

If I remember right, a single dip into rogue with archetype Poisoner is enough to gain poison use and buy any of the five types of poison.

[Luke_Parry]

If you *really* wanted poison, though, there is nothing stopping you from taking a one level dip into, say, Rogue (with the poisoner archetype), which, as per the FAQ, would allow you to purchase (and craft) certain poisons...

PFS FAQ wrote:

How do poisons work in Pathfinder Society Organized Play?

Any character with the Poison Use class ability can purchase and use poisons. For now, they are the only classes that have a list of “always available poisons” (those noted below)—no other class may purchase poisons unless they appear on a chronicle sheet. Alchemists, ninja, and poisoner rogues may only purchase the following poisons from the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook:

Giant wasp poison
Large scorpion venom
Medium spider venom
Shadow essence
Small centipede poison

Paladins, per their code of conduct, may not use poisons, but they don’t necessarily view the use of poisons as an evil to be opposed—it’s simply something their code prohibits them from doing themselves.

Alchemists and rogues with the poisoner archetype and the Master Poisoner ability can use Craft (alchemy) to produce poisons (see "How can alchemists craft in Pathfinder Society Organized Play?").

...which, for flavor purposes, you could say were harvested from your AC.

If you were worried about the one level drop in Animal Companion progression, you could always take the 'Boon Companion' feat to offset that :-)

[Victor Zajic]

Poison plus sneak attack is better than just poison.

[Voyd211]

I was thinking of throwing darts at the other guy. I changed the tiefling type, but he still has a decent Dex bonus, and his companion is still venomous (a wasp). While his focus is on NOMNOMNOM, he can still toss little poison points at people if he needs to, and with the restructured stats, it'll do more damage (although it's a tad less likely to hit).

[Doug Miles]

Is poison (crafted or otherwise) even worth it in PFS? It seems like anything with a Fort save low enough to fail against the poison is going to get killed by the other PCs within a round or two anyways. Poison use sounds like a cool concept; can anyone who actually utilizes it give an example where it made a difference?

[Dragnmoon]

Doug Miles wrote:

Is poison (crafted or otherwise) even worth it in PFS? It seems like anything with a Fort save low enough to fail against the poison is going to get killed by the other PCs within a round or two anyways. Poison use sounds like a cool concept; can anyone who actually utilizes it give an example where it made a difference?

The best class for Poison is by far the Alchemist. There are discoveries that allow you to raise the DC, put 2 poisons togehter and other manipulations of poison.

[Jason S]

Doug Miles wrote:

Is poison (crafted or otherwise) even worth it in PFS? It seems like anything with a Fort save low enough to fail against the poison is going to get killed by the other PCs within a round or two anyways. Poison use sounds like a cool concept; can anyone who actually utilizes it give an example where it made a difference?

Agree. In Pathfinder, manufactured poison is too expensive and isn't powerful enough to be worthwhile. In a home game the GM could probably houserule something to make it viable, but PFS doesn't have that option.

[Fromper]

That's what it seems like to me, too. I looked at the poison rules recently while making a ninja. I just don't think it's worth the cost.

[Sesharan]

Manufactured poison is for wimps. Play a Serpentine Sorcerer. Mine currently has a DC 21 poisonous bite (1d4 CON, two saves to cure) which I usually combine with the Pernicious Poison spell (a no-save spell that imposes a -4 to saves against poison) and the actual Poison spell. Oh, and an imp familiar who drops Ill Omen from a wand on my targets to make them roll twice and take the worst. I can't think of any other sorcerer build that uses its first-level bloodline power as much as I do.

Edit: And as far as an example of a time when my poison was actually useful, there are quite a few. Usually it tends to be most useful when there are a lot of enemies, so that the combat takes longer and the poison has time to spread. Once an enemy fails one or two saves, they are rarely able to make any more saves, because the Con damage lowers their Fort save even more. So the more they fail, the harder it is to succeed. And for a specific example...

Fabric of Reality spoilers:

In the first fight, the assassin chose to target me with her death attack. I paid her back with a single dose of poison and a shot of Perniciousness. Over the next several rounds, as the party dealt with her obnoxious minions, she run away and hid in a corner, failing save after save until she died from reaching 0 Con, with barely any normal damage on her. This is with an assassin's bonus to saves against poison, even.