Base Price for Venom?


Rules Questions


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I have a Ranger PC in my game that is very keen on crafting poison.

I have allowed him to gather raw materials to use for crafting from the bodies of Venomous animals the party has fought.

I have used Table 12-4 Character Wealth by Level and Table 12-5 Treasure Values per Encounter as a guide to how much raw materials are harvested.

The Ranger has encountered a Venomous Snake (Bestiary page 255) with the special ability: Poison(Ex) Bite -- injury; save Fort DC 13; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d2 Con; cure 1 save. The monster entry does not list a cost for its venom. (Black Adder Venom is close but not exactly the same. And other creatures have poisons that differ from those listed. Pseudodragon, Phase Spider, and Ettercap all come to mind.)

I am looking at Table 16-1 Sample Poisons (Pathfinder Core Rulebook page 559) and there is not a listed cost for every monster in the Bestiary. And I've also found the Costs to be random and lacking in any explanation.

Does anyone have know of a guide for setting the cost of poisons not listed on Table 16-1?


As you have mentioned, a good place to start is on page 557-560 of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, in which they list most of the poisons you'll encounter, and from there you can build off those examples. The names might change but the effects stay the same, say, if you brewed up something via the Craft (Alchemy) skill to create a poison and set the Craft DC 11 for Black Adder Venom, which is also the Fort DC to resist the poison in the first place.

Ah, Snake Poison, best way to deal with this is the crafter must make a Survival check against the DC of the venom they wish to harvest. Success means the substance will retain it's potency for a day. Failure means the harvest fails and the poison is wasted, and failing by 5 means the character has poisoned themselves.

If the Player made a DC 15 Survival check against the DC 13 of the Snake's poison attack, that's 2 days the poison will remain viable. Popping the venom into a container enchanted with Gentle Repose could extend this indefinitely. Next up comes a Craft (Alchemy) DC to render the poison into a form that can safely be applied to a weapon, somewhat jelly-fying the venom to stick to the weapon and not run off, again against the DC of the Venom's Saving throw. Since the Character has gone through all the troubles of finding the actual materials, all I would slug him with is making sure he has the right materials on hand, ie the crafting tools, to do this.

Now if the PC wanted to not go out hunting for materials, I'd slug them, depending upon the local laws, the amount of the animals/creatures/plants/materials that can produce the poison in the region and so on and such like, going from 1/3rd the Cost listed on Table 16-2 for a Chaotic/Evil/Wilderness region to full market cost for the reagents in an extremely Lawful/Good/Urbane region.

I recall there was a Dungeon(or Dragon) Magazine that put a very good article into the harvest of creature organs and rare materials players could encounter in their adventures, how to preserve said materials and what uses they could be put towards. Also there was a Poison Crafting Guide in which they discussed how players/npcs could craft their own poisons and came up with a Poisoner's Kit, having rules much like the Disguise and Healer's Kit. I'll try to dig up the issue, it's a favourite of mine given as most of my characters end up with Survival skills at one stage or another in their careers.


.......... and I completely forgot to put in the damn formula for determining the cost of poisons harvested from monsters with their own DC saves and effects. FFFFFF. Sorry, I'll try to dig something up. Apologies.


Dragon 317 (March 2004) has the article "Using Power Components", harvesting materials for magic items and spells from dead monsters.
Dragon 349 (November 2006) has the article "Poison Making Guide" and the Complete Adventure also contains information on crafting poison.

I have double checked each of these articles and none of them offer any guide to pricing alternative poisons not listed in the table.

HalfOrcHeavyMetal wrote:
As you have mentioned, a good place to start is on page 557-560 of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, in which they list most of the poisons you'll encounter, and from there you can build off those examples.

I've put in some more time trying to understand the pricing. The problem is no two poisons on that list differ by only one attribute. Except for Giant Wasp Poison and Large Scorpion Venom: a change from 1d2 Dex to 1d2 Str changes the price from 210gp to 200gp. I have not had much luck guessing at a formula for determining the cost of alternative poisons.

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