I currently play a Witch (lvl 6) and having a blast with this class. It's mainly because of the theme and mood of the class - not the mention the patron of insanity - and not mainly the mechanics, though, the Witch has without any doubt several very potent hexes and is after all a caster. That's however not the way I enjoy playing this class. I enjoy combat, but evenmore do I enjoy characterplay.
Having the cauldron hex already it was a no brainer to delve into alchemy, potion and poison creation. It suits the character very well and allows for some interesting non-magic/non-hex actions. I thus grabbed Spell Hex (Beguiling Gift) in order to make sure that those, who I can't poison unnoticed, will eventually take whatever I give to them. Furthermore I intend to take Master Alchemist, speeding the creation of poisions dramatically.
All in all I currently have/intend to take, feat-wise:
1) Spell Hex (Beguiling Gift)
2) Master Alchemist
Now I was wondering whether there are more possibilities to flesh out the effeciency of the poisons without dipping into another class. I don't want to apply the poisons on weapons, i.e. I focus on poisons which are either ingested or inhaled. Sadly, the DC for most poisons is rather low so that they seem strongest at the first few levels decrease in efficieny quite fast.
I was wondering whethere there are any traits, feats, etc. which could be used in order to boost poisons?
I know that the Alchemist's discovery Concentrate Poison is pretty much what I'm looking for, though, I dislike the idea to dip into another class for two levels in order to get that discovery. I think it would fit the character to have levels in Witch and Alchemist, though, I'm usually not a fan of multi-classing. At any rate, this character is not meant to be min/maxed but should be fun and stick to a theme, which is a lunatic who's skilled at creating potions, drugs, poisons and all sorts of psychoreactive liquids and alchemical substances. Of course, it's only fun if the poisons actually work. Therefore, if you have any idea how to make poisons more potent, I'd be glad.
I suppose it's not possible to grab the discovery class ability at any means without taking levels in an Alchemist, eh?
I think even the ways that exist for buffing poison use don't do a good enough job to make it a viable option in all situations.
As you pointed out, poison is the weapon of nobility, those that are rich and otherwise rather weak, to be used against other members of nobility.
In combat when you're fighting some horrible bull-armadillo-elephant hybrid that probably wakes up with king cobras latched onto its ankles, you're gonna want to go with a hex.
So with poison: Get trusted and feed it to your victim until it takes, then get out of town. It's too weak, expensive, and slow to be wasted on powerful opponents. Use the slowness of poisons to your advantage.
You can only take Spell Hex when you get Major Hexes, that is no sooner than level 11th...
Soul Devourer wrote: You can only take Spell Hex when you get Major Hexes, that is no sooner than level 11th... My bad, you're right.
If you want, you could try asking your DM if you could homebrew a new poison that casts baleful polymorph on its ingester Emperor's New Groove style. Then turn all your enemies into monkeys, rabbits and llamas and laugh and laugh and laugh.
If you go 3 levels in rogue (poisoner), you can convert the poisons to different types. The alchemist version of this is each individual pain poison will take an additional hour to work with. The rogue version does not.
Also, daggermark poisoner is an interesting PrC to look into.
As fur spring up poisons, take a look at the Amazing Tools of Manufacture, found in the advanced race guide. They provide a +4 circumstance bonus, and can craft up to 2,000 gp worth of progress in one hours time.
Just remember this:
Multiple Doses of Poison
Unlike other afflictions, multiple doses of the same poison “stack,” meaning that successive doses combine to increase the poison's DC and duration.
Making your initial saving throw against a poison means stacking does not occur—the poison did not affect you and any later doses are treated independently. Likewise, if a poison has been cured or run its course (by you either making the saves or outlasting the poison's duration), stacking does not occur. However, if there is still poison active in you when you are attacked with that type of poison again, and you fail your initial save against the new dose, the doses stack. This has two effects, which last until the poisons run their course.
Increased Duration: Increase the duration of the poison by 1/2 the amount listed in its frequency entry.
Increased DC: Increase the poison's DC by +2.
These increases are cumulative (a third dose adds another 1/2 of the frequency to the duration and +2 to the DC, and so on). When affected by multiple doses of the same poison, you only make one saving throw at this higher DC when required by the frequency, rather than one saving throw against each dose of the poison.
Multiple doses do not alter the Cure condition of the Poison, and meeting that Cure condition ends all doses of the poison.
Applied contact poisons and injury poisons cannot inflict more than one dose of poison per weapon at a time (because the poison on the weapon only lasts for one successful attack before it wears off). Inhaled and ingested poisons can inflict multiple doses at once.
Doses from different poisons (such as an assassin with greenblood oil on his dagger and Medium spider venom on his short sword) do not stack—the effects of each are tracked separately.
If you find a way to make poison for cheap (preferably for free) then you can have some uber-DC poison; useful at all levels.
7heprofessor wrote: Inhaled and ingested poisons can inflict multiple doses at once. ?
In how far's that possible? I don't think it's possible to poison, let's say, the same piece of meat all over again till its drowning in 10 doses of the very same poison. Thus I don't really know how to understand the wording "At Once" - I can't imagine a concrete situation.
Say, would it be actually be possible to apply several doses of the same poison at the same piece of food? In such a case, all doses of the poison would be inflicted at the same time when eaten. But I don't think that's withtin the rules.
If a NPC would eat two pieces of poisoned food, he would of curse suffer from two doses unless he makes the save. However, the DC will only increase when he fails the save for the two doeses and that has to happen first of all.
Dipping into rouge for 3 levels seems worth it; turining a poison into another type is very handy, though, I'd love to avoid multi-classing but I think there isn't much to do about it with Witch as the main-class.
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