Hey!
So, if you look at the list of poisons for sale, you'll see a price for Giant Wasp, a few sizes of scorpions and spiders, and a host of other poisonous creatures....
...but no snakes! I find this a bit odd: vipers are a pretty common choice when it comes to naming poisonous creatures. I'm trying to figure out the prices for the various snake poisons. Here they are:
Snake, Venomous: Bite—injury; save Fort DC 13; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d2 Con; cure 1 save.
Snake, Cobra (Emperor): Bite—injury; save Fort DC 17; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d3 Con; cure 2 consecutive saves.
Snake, Sea (Giant): Bite—injury; save Fort DC 19; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d2 Dex and 1d2 Con; cure 2 consecutive saves.
Snake, Swarm (Venomous): Swarm-injury; save Fort DC 15; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d2 Con damage; cure 2 consecutive saves.
Snake, Viper: Bite—injury; save Fort DC 9; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d2 Con damage; cure 1 save.
The question is, what kind of prices should be attached here?
The Emperor Cobra poison is VERY similar to Wyvern Poison - the only difference is 1d3 Con instead of 1d4. Wyvern poison costs 3,000gp a dose.
Since it all does Con damage, I'm thinking they should be a little on the pricey side but I could use some help with making some guidelines.
Thanks!
First off, I love poisons. They are terribly worthless most of the time however. My suggestion, is to make a table of current poisons, then fit in these ones. Since they are injury poisons, I take the table of poisons, delete all non injury/contact(which can be used as injury) poisons from it. Next, I look at onset time, and take any out that take minutes before taking effect.
Next, lets sort by DC. The snake venoms in high to low order laid out like poison are is:
Snake, Cobra (Emperor) injury 17 — 1/round for 6 rounds 1d3 Con 2 saves
Snake, Swarm (Venomous) injury 15 — 1/round for 6 rounds 1d2 Con damage 2 saves
Snake, Venomous injury 13 — 1/round for 6 rounds 1d2 Con 1 save
Snake, Viper injury 9 — 1/round for 6 rounds 1d2 Con damage 1 save
That gives us a pretty good idea of their relative power, but even more important (IMO) is whether they are a 2 save or 1 save poison. Lets mix them in the poison table by saves.
We have 3 snake poisons that have 2 saves and 3 published poisons with 2 saves. Lets Compare:
Purple worm poison Injury 24 — 1/rd. for 6 rds. 1d3 Str 2 saves 700
Deathblade Injury 20 — 1/rd. for 6 rds. 1d3 Con 2 saves 1800
Snake, Sea (Giant) injury 19 — 1/round for 6 rounds 1d2 Dex and 1d2 Con 2 saves
Wyvern poison Injury 17 — 1/rd. for 6 rds. 1d4 Con 2 saves 3000
Snake, Cobra (Emperor) injury 17 — 1/round for 6 rounds 1d3 Con 2 saves
Snake, Swarm (Venomous) injury 15 — 1/round for 6 rounds 1d2 Con damage 2 saves
That is DC highest down. Oddly enough, even though deathblade has 4 less DC than purple worm poison, it costs 250% more, because purple worm poison does Str, while deathblade does Con. Giant sea snake is the best of the snake poisons. Same freq/duration as deathblade, and nearly the same con damage, with some dex to boot. I'd price it near deathblade, probably 2000gp a dose.
Next up, Emperor cobra venom. Exact same as deathblade, but 3 less DC. Probably call it 1500gp.
Last of the "good" venoms, venomous snake swarm. 1d2 instead of d3, and a further 2 lower DC. I put it around 1300gp.
As a side note, I do a sanity check with (price divided by DC)*100. Shows which poisons are most cost effective for being likely to succeed. Deathblade sits at 1.11. With the proposed prices I have, Giant Sea Snake is .95, Emperor Cobra is 1.13 and Swarm is 1.15. In general the lower the DC is, the cheaper the poison is and the higher this ratio ends up being.
We only have 2 poisons to go. Venomous and Viper.
Venomous is almost the exact same as Black adder, with 2 higher DC. Really it is the same as 2 doses of black adder adding to the effect. So lets price it about there, 250gp. A little bit more, since you can double up on venomous to up the DC still.
Last is viper. DC 9. Weakest poison around. Call it 100gp a dose.
Holy Crow!
I go away for an evening.. expecting to come back to some suggestions and a lot of math only to find someone has pretty much done it for me!
That was amazing.. thanks!
Glad to help. Like I said... I love poisons. I just wish they actually were useful on anything ever. (By that I mean, by the time you can afford them, the things you are fighting usually can easily resist them)