Generally, one dose of poison effects one person. But...
Say an evil baker bakes a pie with a dose of poison in it. He then serves the pie as eight slices to eight people.
What happens to the people?
What happens if the baker put 10 doses of poison in the pie?
...Also, what happens when you throw down and shatter a vial of inhaled poison? Doesn't it fill an area? Doesn't that mean a single does might effect multiple people?
Generally, one dose of poison effects one person. But...
Say an evil baker bakes a pie with a dose of poison in it. He then serves the pie as eight slices to eight people.
What happens to the people?
What happens if the baker put 10 doses of poison in the pie?
...Also, what happens when you throw down and shatter a vial of inhaled poison? Doesn't it fill an area? Doesn't that mean a single does might effect multiple people?
1. Each of the eight makes Fort saves versus one dose of poison (maybe with a bonus for dividing up the dosage)
2. Anyone eating the pie makes a Fort save, with +20 to the DC (per the poison rules in the core book for multiple doses).
3. You waste the poison, since the amount of poison in a one-ounce vial probably won't fill much of a volume (unless the poison evaporated into the air). Most inhaled poisons have to be heated or added to some other vapor in order to be effective.
Reality has actually answered this question before:
POISON PEPPERMINTS - BRADFORD
1858 - November 1st, the town of Bradford was this day thrown into a state of
great excitement, by the discovery that several persons had died and a great
number of others were ill from the effects of eating peppermint lozenges,
which had been sold
in the market by a person named
William HARDAKER.
It appeared that HARDAKER had purchased the lozenges from
Joseph NEAL,
a wholesale confectioner in Stone Street. Mr. NEAL in the manufacture of
lozenges was in the habit lf mixing with the sugar a quantity of what is
called 'daft,' in a chemical language it would be called sulphate of lime,
and is popularly known as plaster of paris, or gypsum. Mr. NEAL sent to the
shop of
Mr. HODGSON,
druggist, of Shipley, for some 'daft' but Mr. HODGSON was ill and a young man
in his employ named
William GODDARD,
not knowing where to find the article made enquiry of the master, who
directed him to a cask in one corner of the cellar. The young man went into
the cellar, and by mistake, insteadof supplying the applicant with 12lbs of
'daft', gave him 12lbs of arsenic.
Unfortunately the 12lbs of arsenic was mixed with 40lbs of sugar, and 4lbs
of gum into lozenges. 40lbs of lozenges were sold to HARDAKER, who sold 5lbs
retail in the Bradford market the same night. Each lozenge, it is supposed
would contain 9 and one half grains of arsenic, and as 4and one half grains
are considered to be a poisonous dose, each lozenge was sufficient to poison
two persons. As the lozenge weighed at the rate of 16 to the ounce, there
was sufficient poison distributed in the shape of lozenges by HARDAKER as
would kill nearly 2,000 reckoning 12 ounces to the pound. The consequences
therefore might have been more fearful, as it was however, the poisoning
caused about 200 others to be ill.
HODGSON, GODDARD and NEAL, were taken into custody and committed on a charge
of manslaughter. The prosecution was subsequently withdrawn as against
GODDARD and NEAL, and on HODGSON being tried on the 21st of December, at
York, he was acquitted.
All the best
Carole
Jan in Bronte Country
Co-List Admin Eng-Yorks, Bradford
In short, if a dose sufficient to kill one adult were divided up among a number of individuals, the adults would likely just get very sick while children or others who would be more susceptible would likely die.
Now you know.
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I would break it down into such, personally- If a cake or pie or whatever food you plan on putting it in has so many servings, you would need a proportionate amount of poison. I would say something like 1 dose for every 2 servings, or else suffer a decrease to the DC by -2 for every dose you lack, and every dose added after that works just like combining multiple doses as normal. That's just a quick gut-reaction ruling, though.
Usually I believe that you can use a dose of inhaled poison to fill a 10 foot square, but it does not say whether it lingers in the air (but they do mention that someone can hold their breath to avoid contracting it, and they have a chance every round, hinting that it might yet linger...) or if someone breathes it all up themselves in one breath...
Also, those people that survived in the above excerpt merely passed their fortitude saves against the Arsenic on the second or third roll