Does a dose of poison spoil a potion?

[JiCi]

I've seen poisoining drinks, but potions aren't safe from being poisoned, as any shady alchemist, merchant or brewer can slip a dose of ingested poison in a potion.

This does beg the question though: does adding a dose of poison in a potion spoil it, or does it mix unnoticed?

[Snowblind]

To my knowledge nothing says that the potion is no longer functional when poison (or anything else) is added, so it should still work fine. The drinker would just have to make a save vs poison as they get the potion's benefits.

[JiCi]

Snowblind wrote:

To my knowledge nothing says that the potion is no longer functional when poison (or anything else) is added, so it should still work fine. The drinker would just have to make a save vs poison as they get the potion's benefits.

Wel, sure, that's part of the poison rules, but I always wondered if adding a poison ruin the potion or not.

[Snowblind]

JiCi wrote:

Snowblind wrote:

To my knowledge nothing says that the potion is no longer functional when poison (or anything else) is added, so it should still work fine. The drinker would just have to make a save vs poison as they get the potion's benefits.

Wel, sure, that's part of the poison rules, but I always wondered if adding a poison ruin the potion or not.

The potion would still work, because nothing in the rules says otherwise.

[wraithstrike]

There are no rules for this interaction because the rules don't cover every possible idea. It falls to the GM. I would let them both work, however the drinker may notice that the potion vial is bigger than a normal vial due to the extra liquid and question it.

[Darksol the Painbringer]

wraithstrike wrote:

There are no rules for this interaction because the rules don't cover every possible idea. It falls to the GM. I would let them both work, however the drinker may notice that the potion vial is bigger than a normal vial due to the extra liquid and question it.

Assuming all potions are made exactly the same, sure, that line of reasoning makes sense.

Realistically speaking, I'd doubt it, because not every potion is made the same exact way, or looks exactly the same. To be fair though, if a player identifies a potion via an Alchemy check (i.e. taste), they would probably also inadvertantly identify the poison (if any) in that potion as well.

[wraithstrike]

I was just speaking of rules. If potions were real adding another chemical would likely ruin them. Of course since magic isn't real I can't verify that. :)

[Snowblind]

wraithstrike wrote:

I was just speaking of rules. If potions were real adding another chemical would likely ruin them. Of course since magic isn't real I can't verify that. :)

Only if the poison and potion react. Most chemicals that can survive going through a person's stomach *don't* react that readily. There will be (quite a few) exceptions, but if you had to put money on any particular example, the winning bet would likely be that the poison and potion don't chemically react to any significant degree.

[Azothath]

Poisons and treated/handled differently than potions.

There is published material showing that potions can be diluted and still be effective to a lesser degree (see We B4 Goblins). So it's a GM's area for custom magic.

Multiple Doses of Poison wrote:

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.

On the other side of things are;

Potion Sponge and drinking potions underwater.
Hybridization Funnel (magic item) for splash weapons.
Infuse Poison (item creation feat).

So I'd take it as a non-stacking application for contact or ingested poison. I'd like to see a skill roll involved (Craft Alchemy, Brew Potion feat with Spellcraft at the craft DC of the poison) or a straight out save for the potion versus the adulteration with poison. In PFS (a simple format) an ingested poison would likely ruin the potion.

The question is volume, do both fit in the same flask and that's a GM question.

There is some handwaving in poison usage particularly as applications may have more targets than the dosage purchased, but that's a different topic.