Hey, i have always really loved rogues and alchemists- but what i have never tried is using poisons consistently with them. Especially at lower levels poisons are VERY expensive, a minimum of 50gp (25 if crafted) I could play a grippli or vishkanyan but i really wanted a gnome for flavor. My questions are this, 1) is there any cheap way to get poisons? even if they are somewhat weak, 2) is there any way to increase the effectiveness of poisons? feats or spells? i know of the alchemists discovery to combine two poisons to increase its potency. Finally 3) are there any poisons that have an instant sleep affect? i thought it would be a lot of fun to have a gnome with relatively high stealth running around scouting and knocking people out with a blow gun.
1) The cheapest way to get poisons is to have fellow PC or cohort with access to minor creation and ranks in Craft(Alchemy). This will get you access to any plant based poison that will last for 1 hour/caster level.
2) There are two ways to increase the effectiveness of a poison. One is the ways you have mentioned (via rogue and alchemist class abilities) the other is to hit a target with the same poison several times. Every application they fail to resist beyond the first raises the DC by 2 and increases the duration by half.
3) Drow sleep poison is one of the cheapest poisons and has an initial and secondary sleep effect.
oh cool, drow poison is really cheap and has the perfect effect! its just a shame that the DC for it is so low, it would be useless against many enemies in higher levels.
Especially at lower levels poisons are VERY expensive, a minimum of 50gp (25 if crafted)
Poisons are not magic items. They use the normal Craft rules, and so are 1/3rd of the market price to make instead of 1/2.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I love poisons, especially with my archer characters. As for the poison pricing, it is 1/3 since it is crafted. For cheap, or faster crafting of some of the more expensive types, try getting the item, Amazing Tools of Manufacture, from the advanced race guide. It can create, using the keyed to it, craft alchemy, to produce 1 item of up to 2,000 gp in one hour. So Deathblade or dragon bile, I forget which is 1800gp, instead of taking hurs or days to make, will take just 1 hour.
The master alchemist feat will help considerably, regardless of which class for its ability, or item you use, b/ c for one feat you can make multiple poisons and for the exchange of gp instead of sp for progress, which means its 10x faster rate. I know there might be an alchemist discovery or two that mimic this, but for the one feat, you can save those abilities for something else to enhance your poison.
As mentioned, the best delivery system in my mind and in my opinion, many people on these boards, is for archery. They can last longer on each arrow head when in an efficient quiver, and it is once usable for the arrow anyway. If applied to a blade, even with the sticky poison discovery to make it last a few more rounds, it's still not as useful, when you can plunge 4 or 5 arrows into the enemy using a cheap poison like drow and making it have now a DC 19, from 4 arrows. To do the same thing you'd have to be a TWF build to have that many attacks at the same level, and to be able to apply the poison twice with each weapon. That is a lot tougher, and not as effective, if at all.
If however your using poison as a side thing, and not as one of your primary arsenal or even if you did, it's better to then use the poison outside of combat for certain instances. Dragon bile and Deathblade are great, but they have ok DC's and the con and dex loss isn't that substantial unless used in groups via arrow method, or applied to a much weaker enemy, where the one dose will be more effective. If it comes to that, its an expensive solution for just the weak enemy to begin with.
As for the blowgun idea, that works really well with the archer style. You can have the gnome use a longbow, for small creature, instead of a short bow, b/ c the longbow is overall better in every way. Many of the same feats for a blowgun work with a bow, and vice versa. So there really is no downside to just picking it up anyway. If you plan to use multiple doses, the bow is better. If is just one shot, and you want to be a bit exotic with it, the glow gun works fine.
1. Ultimate Equipment has some items that can create poisons. This are not cheap but if you use poison as your primary weapon this could help...
2. Daggermark Poisoner Prestige Class can trade sneak attack dice for DC increase on poisons
3. Daggermark Poisoner Prestige Class can get Venomous Bolt as spell-like ability. Maybe you can convince you GM to work on blowgun bolts too.
4. Eldritch Heritage (Serpent/Envenomed) and Improved Eldritch Heritage (Serpent/Envenomed)can make you a poisonous gnome
