Best Poisons for an Alchemist


Pathfinder Society

Grand Lodge

I've been playing my alchemist much more than my cleric for a bit and now that he's made level 3 I feel like I should get into poison use.

I've been crafting my own acid's and alchemist fires so what are good your favorite poisons that are either splash or injury that an alchemist of at least level 3 can craft?

5/5 5/55/55/5

Even at 1/3rd off, poisons are very expensive for what they do. Anything besides con poison is pretty worthless, and the DC's on those are easy to make on anything you want to use them on.

I wouldn't invest in it unless you really really really really want to be a poisoner.

2/5

I've found that Baneberry to be useful. Fairly easy save (DC15), but does Str, Con, and paralyzes. It's on a 1/minute frequency, unfortunately, but all that means is a chase could suddenly go your way. Additionally, it's ingested or injury, so you can mix it with something for a nasty surprise. But when it goes off, you've got a chance to completely remove the poisoned target.

The downside, of course, is that even with the crafting discount it's 30g per dose. And I realize I'm assuming you're looking for combat-use poison.

For non-combat, Bloodwine is a great choice. DC25, sickened 1d4 hours and up to 18 Wis damage over the course 6 minutes. This should cost you about 34 gold per dose.

These are just my opinions, of course, and you may have different preferences or results.

5/5 5/55/55/5

Is baneberry PFS legal?

Shadow Lodge 4/5 * Venture-Lieutenant, Florida—Jacksonville

There are some discoveries and things out there to let you change poisons

For example Enchanting Courtesan @ 3rd Level gets the ability to change poison types. Make a Carft Alchemy roll vs D.C. Or risk ruining the dose. Concentrate Poison lets you increase the D.C. by combing two doses and so on.

Lots of tricks out there with the feat, class feature, talent or discovery can make poisons nasty.

For Example: Toxilogical Timing means make a craft check to move the timing to something more useful..minutes to rounds for example...

Shadow Lodge 4/5 * Venture-Lieutenant, Florida—Jacksonville

BigNorseWolf wrote:
Is baneberry PFS legal?

Doesn't look to be. Might be on a chronicle sheet somewhere


Allerum wrote:
I've been playing my alchemist much more than my cleric for a bit and now that he's made level 3 I feel like I should get into poison use.

Poison doesn't scale well. The DC's are too low to be generally effective unless you put lots of feats/discoveries/items etc. into them. I suggest either specializing in poison or not bothering.

If you do specialize, make sure to have plans for things immune to poison.

Silver Crusade 2/5

BigNorseWolf wrote:
Is baneberry PFS legal?
additional resources wrote:


Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Guide to the River Kingdoms

Feat: Touvette Defender; Spell: silverlight; Other: focused performance bard alternate class ability

Shadow Lodge 4/5 * Venture-Lieutenant, Florida—Jacksonville

Not to mention the costs are all over the place, you got 1,500 gp poisons with a 13 DC and other that only cost 100 go with the same DC

Shadow Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area North & East

I like poisons that affect things other than stats.
Jackalroot is 600 for a fort (18) or hideous laughter
Rainbow Jellyfish is 400 for a fort (14) or staggered.

If you've got a way to make it something besides Injested, Dreamtime is only 120 for a fort (20) or unconcious (actually, there's several injested poisons that are great with other delivery systems)

If you just want stat damage, Bloodbrain venom is 400 for a fort (17) or 1d6 str, then 1d3 str.

Silver Crusade 5/5

You're an Alchemist? Just get someone to drink your Mutigen.

say a Alchemist/Witch with the spell Beguiling Gift

Or get them to drink two doses of Fortifying Brew (from Advance Class Guide)

Fortifying Brew:
This liquid causes a pleasant warming sensation when consumed. For the next hour, you gain a +2 morale bonus on saving throws against fear. Using more than 1 dose within 24 hours causes you to become nauseated for 1 hour.

No save for the second dose, and nauseated for an hour is ... not a pretty sight.

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