I was looking into an assassin-type character and was looking into poisons as a possible focus of the character, but I feel like poisons aren't very threatening. Getting them reliably requires either money or high crafting, both of which become easier as you go up in levels. However, so do enemies Fort saves.
Is using poison a legitimate primary tactic, or is it just a nice thing to tack on?
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Be an Alchemist and take the Poison Conversion discovery. Take skills in craft (poison) skill and craft drow poison. Convert it too inhaled, the Master Alchemist helps. You do this because with inhaled poisons you can add multiple does at one go to raise its DC. From N. Jolly's guide: "There's only one type of poison worth using, and that's inhaled. Why's that? Because multiple doses of it add a +2 to the DC the opponent has to make. So just take your favorite low cost poison (Drow poison, if you please), make a metric ton of it, convert it to inhaled, put it all in a glass bottle, and huck it at someone to watch them make a stupidly high DC."
Take the Celestial Poisons discovery at 8th lvl. Take the Sticky Poison discovery for the enemies that do not breath (undead for you, constructs are still immune). Malignant Poison discovery is a high lvl option.
You can make poisoning work efficiently. Make sure you have a back up option though when you cannot use poisons effectively.
If there was a way to reliably boost the poison DCs, sure. But as it is, there are much that the DC is past 20. Sigh.
Alchemist is the best choice.
What books are allowed?
What races are allowed?
What is the point buy?
Anything on the d20pfsrd is allowed. We normally use 15 point buy.
I thought all poisons added +2 to the DC for multiple doses? Why just inhaled?
alchemist,all those lovely poisons.
look into daggermark poisoner with a condutive knife. You could pick up one of the SLA's from that class that either lower the roll for poison, or the poison speed up sla (or both over a round or two)
be a human with racial hertiage (I forget which race, but one gives you + to craft poisons and higher DC's)
You could use poisoner's jacket.. to save some money on melee poisons--but you cant really raise those DC's.. I guess you could use all 3 uses to combine into one to raise the DC's then use the INTxhit alchemist discovery so you get plenty of uses out of it when in actual melee..
Outside of the inhaling poison, it's hard to not be a melee person. due to costs and how money saving the Intxhit discovery is. I suppose you could get a blink back belt, and throw poisoned knives though.. that would offer a little range and still get tons of poison use out of it.
The only "stackable" poisons are inhaled and ingested. Stackable means you can apply a TON in one dose (say 50stack of drow poison converted to inhaled)
You can't stack injury or contact. You can apply multiple doses over several rounds but they all get their own save. if they get poisoned then ever application after raises the DC to cure and the time they are poisoned.
(though ask your gm how they wanna play it. I always read that bit as if you slashed the guy 8 tmes in a row in one round, even if they saved the first 7, the last slash would have a the high DC. since they still had exposure in that one round) but that ruling on only raising the DC if they failed previous poison rolls was one of those clarfications by someone (forget who) so PFS its set that way.
Oh if your not into bombs (I like them) and pick up sneak attack there is a class effect from guild poisoner that allows you to drop your sneak attack damage to up poison DC. Well you still get a few sneak attack die from the poisoner level anyway.
How were you wanting to use poison? Just in every battle? or to start a fight?
If it's starting.. and your high int could dip 1 lv in assassin--you lose a lot but not gain much at all, for the death attack. The DC probably won't be great at all really unless you work on it too (say Assassin dagger, ability focus, int, but its hard to get it high without any more levels in assassin or master spy). I had a poison centric build that was a mindchemist (as I also used bombs, and wanted the int bonus for various), a dip in assassin (for death attack, and poison use), Eventually I was going to dip into guild poisoner.
The bab hit really rather sucked but it was quite amusing. Death attack had a decent DC for what I was fighting.
If one wanted to drop bombs completely and didn't care for more infusions you could alch(vivisectionist) assassin guild poisoner I guess for the one hit poison love. lose the DC boost from alchemist levels though
The plan was to use the Ninja class, approach the target invisibly and apply the poison along with a sneak attack, or however it need be applied.
Bit harder due to costs then. but then I guess you can either put points into craft alchemy, grab.. (master alchemist i think the feat is named) that feat that halfs craft time (still gonna take forever). Or buy it straight up. Poisoners jacket would help but realistically it's not gonna be enough for a day really. It'll be expensive but doable I suppose.
It'll be a bit harder to not craft super amounts fast but then the inhaled drow poison mini bomb is the best option for you still. I think the ninja's smoke bomb can allow for adding poison? I forget fully..
If you don't havea chest item and have money poisoner's and higher level version might be helpful for applying it along with sneak attack.
If you don't mind losing a bit of ninja levels, Guild Poison will still be useful for poison. particularly for the SLA use (the two that help poison work, there also that one that applies the spell poison to arrows (might work for shuriken. there are ninja tricks for it too). Lastly you'll have a fair bit of sneak attack damage you could turn into DC.
How about a Rogue (Poison Master archetype). Take all the poison related rogue talents. Take the Major Magic talent with Vanishing Trick. Start with a 13 Charisma, get a 15 by level 11 and take the Eldritch Heritage and Improved EH feats for the Fey sorcerer bloodline. Ask your GM if you can use the Sylvan substitution power (Ultimate Magic) for the first level Fey bloodline power. If he does that gives you an animal companion with an effective druid level of Rogue level -5, I think a serpent of some sort would be nice for a poisoner... very thematic. The 9th level bloodline power, which you get with IEH Feat would give you Greater Invisibility for a number of rounds per day equal to your Rogue level -2. That plus your Vanishing Trick from Major Magic would give you a good deal of invisibility to work with. Also pick up the Master Alchemist Feat from APG. Also because you have the Major Magic talent, when you get Advanced Rogue Talents you can pick up a familiar and get another serpent following you around... If you're into that sort of thing. Also, if you can take the Animal Companion, you can get it's INT up to 3 and then start taking Teamwork feats with it.
That sounds like a whole mess of hoops to jump through for stuff I either don't want (familiar, animal companion, magic, bloodlines) or can get as a Ninja (vanishing trick, invisibility, greater invisibility).
Is there a mechanical benefit to all that extra stuff, or was it mainly just thematic?
Vivisectionist Alchemist, if you want to avoid Bombs.
Rogue/Ninja is really not the way to go.
If you are okay with Bombs, there is the Poison and Stink Bombs.
There are even ways to have your Bombs make no sound.
I put that together solely around the idea of putting Invisibility and Greater Invisibility on a Poisoner Rogue. The poisoner is a good deal better at using poisons than a Ninja. It is capable of switching the types of poison (injury to contact to inhaled) just like the Alchemist someone mentioned up-thread. It also gets bonuses to crafting poisons and gets a resistance to poisons similar to Assassins.
As for the animal companion: It's a Flanking buddy. It's not the strongest combatant but it has Share Spell, so you can cast your Vanish on the Animal if it gets into trouble. After you get it's Int to 3 you can both take Outflanked, Precise Strike, and maybe a few other team work feats. So ideally, the combo would let you and your animal companion sneak up on someone while both invisible and then unload on them with multiple flanking attacks and poisons.
I probably wouldn't take the Familiar, but you could... just saying.
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If you have something different in mind you could always go Vishkanya Ninja and use the Eldritch Heritage feats to gain any or all of the following abilities:
PRD wrote: Serpent's Fang (Ex): At 1st level, you can grow fangs as a free action. These fangs are treated as a natural weapon inflicting 1d4 points of damage plus your Strength modifier (1d3 if you are Small) plus poison (Bite—injury; save Fort DC 10 + 1/2 your sorcerer level + your Constitution modifier; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1 Con damage; cure 1 save). At 5th level, these fangs are considered magical for the purpose of overcoming DR and the poison damage increases to 1d2 Con. At 7th level, your poison requires 2 successful saves to cure. At 11th level, your poison damage increases to 1d4 Con. You can use your fangs for a number of rounds per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier.
Serpentfriend (Ex): At 3rd level, you can use speak with animals at will with reptilian animals (including various forms of dinosaurs, lizards, and other cold-blooded creatures), and you gain a viper familiar using your sorcerer level –2 as your effective wizard level.
Snakeskin (Ex): At 9th level, you gain a +1 bonus to natural armor, a +2 racial bonus on saves against poison, and a +2 bonus on Escape Artist checks. At 13th level and 17th level, these bonuses increase by +1.
Den of Vipers (Sp): At 15th level, you may summon a host of writhing serpents. This power acts as creeping doom, but the swarms' poison inflicts Con damage and any creature other than you sharing a space with a swarm is entangled.
So between your natural bite attack and your ninja ki point for an additional attack, 6 times per day on a full attack you can get 3 attacks by level 3 with full BAB without wasting time on TWF. By level 20, with a pair of boots of speed you can get 6 attacks without TWF and 4 of those are at your full BAB.
I would still pick up the Master Alchemist feat and probably this Vishkanya feat:
PRD wrote: Sleep Venom
You can change the nature of your toxic spittle to put your enemies to sleep.
Prerequisite: Vishkanya.
Benefit: As a swift action, you may alter the effects of your venom so the target falls unconscious. This changes the initial and secondary effect of your venom to the following: initial effect staggered for 1d4 rounds; secondary effect unconsciousness for 1 minute. You must make the decision to alter your venom before you apply it to a weapon.
Normal: Vishkanya venom deals Dexterity damage.
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