A two part question here. Firstly, I've been trying to figure out exactly how this spell works. Anyone know how Spider Sting works? Couldn't find how that poison works exactly.
Secondly, is poison viable in 2E now? I remember it was quite underpowered in PF1.
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I just answered your first question in the other thread. I'll repost it here:
It works like any other poison. See affliction rules starting page 324 in the rule book.
More Specific for Spider Sting:
The target makes a fort save when hit with the poison. Success only deals 1d4 opison damage, failure gets him to Stage 1, dealing immediate 1d4 damage and making him enfeebled for one round. Crit Failure puts him at stage 2, dealing 1d4 poison and makign him enfeebled 2 for 1 round.If poisoned (i.e. in stage 1 or 2) the target makes a new fort save every round*. Success reduces the stage by 1, reaching stage 0 ends the poison. Crit success reduces the stage by 2. The stage increases by 1 on a failure and 2 on a crit failure. In both cases he immediately suffers the effect of the new stage. You can't go higher than stage 2 for the Spider Sting Poison but other afflictions have more stages.
*The rules are a bit wonky on when exactly you make your saves. The affliction rules say after the duration listed in the stage, which would be one round for Spider Sting (i.e. on the next turn of the creature/effect that poisoned you) but the combat rules say you roll at the end of your turn (see page 306).
I'd probably go with end of your turn, since it's easier to remember than doing it on the trigger's turn. This does have some up- and downsides, though. If you're next in Initiative after being poisoned and succeed on the save, you might not suffer any debuff of the poison for the full duration (one round for Spider Sting). On the other hand, if you fail the save, you suffer the damage of the poison twice in rapid succession (once on being poisoned and once at the end of your turn).
So yeah, the affliction rules need some clarification but it's not like they were abundantly clear in PF1 either, so I guess they're going with tradition? ;-)
As for viability, poison is better than it used to be. In most cases dealing HP damage is more useful than PF1's ability damage for players. Many poisons also come with additional debuffs or other effects.
I still wouldn't pay for it, but if you can mix it up for free as an Alchemist or get it from a spell or other non-cost source, I'd say using poison is fine.
Thanks Blave!