Clarification on "Poisoner's twist" feat

[ShredderIV]

The Poisoner's twist feat in the APG (page 186 for reference) reads as such for it's requirements:

"Your last action was a successful melee Strike that dealt damage against a target that is afflicted by a poison, and you know which poison."

The question comes up if you hit an enemy with a poisoned weapon and inflict poison on a strike, can you then right afterwards use the skill to deal more damage for free?

I'm getting 2 interpretations:

1. The "is" in the second part means yes, as you made a successful melee strike against an enemy that (now) IS poisoned, you can deal the extra damage right after.

2. The tense means it has to be a strike where, at the time of the strike, the enemy IS poisoned, meaning you would have to make a strike AFTER the enemy was inflicted with poison to get the effect.

I lean towards the latter, as RAI feels closer to that, but RAW it seems it can be interpreted either way.

[Themetricsystem]

The way I read it is that:

If after your last Action the opponent is poisoned - The benefit applies.

The check occurs after the previous strike has been completely resolved so if you Poison them with that Strike it applies just as well as if you hit with a non-Poisoned Weapon but they are already afflicted by some known Poison then you can use the Poisoner's Twist Action.

[ShredderIV]

Themetricsystem wrote:

The way I read it is that:

If after your last Action the opponent is poisoned - The benefit applies.

The check occurs after the previous strike has been completely resolved so if you Poison them with that Strike it applies just as well as if you hit with a non-Poisoned Weapon but they are already afflicted by some known Poison then you can use the Poisoner's Twist Action.

See I read it the opposite way. That the check for "poison" occurs when the strike is started, not when it's resolved.

Also technically, you could say the "strike" resolves before the enemy would make a save against the poison DC. Therefore it wouldn't apply.

[shroudb]

It's kinda impossible to talk about "rai" in these forums since apart from the writers themselves, everyone else seems to find their own intention in the rules...

For me, it's simple:
It's one of those feats, and there are plenty of them, *intended* to follow up with free, weak, damage without an attack after a successful specific attack.

Like the barbarian thrash, the rogue twist the knife, and etc.

In that vein, for a character that's based on poisoning stuff, I think it's intended to be able to be used after a hit poisons a target. Simple and follows precedence.

[theservantsllcleanitup]

I think it's not worded great, but the detail that stands out to me is that it says your last action WAS a strike against a target that IS poisoned.

The strike is past tense, the poison is present tense. That indicates to me that the requirement is checking for the target's poisoned status at the time that poisoner's twist is used, rather than when the strike was made.

[ShredderIV]

shroudb wrote:

It's kinda impossible to talk about "rai" in these forums since apart from the writers themselves, everyone else seems to find their own intention in the rules...

For me, it's simple:
It's one of those feats, and there are plenty of them, *intended* to follow up with free, weak, damage without an attack after a successful specific attack.

Like the barbarian thrash, the rogue twist the knife, and etc.

In that vein, for a character that's based on poisoning stuff, I think it's intended to be able to be used after a hit poisons a target. Simple and follows precedence.

Understandable to a degree, but is 2d6 really "weak" damage? At level 4? Thats basically a free hit (minus stat bonuses).

I guess the requirements are fairly hefty. I feel like I'd have to see how it feels in actual play to make a further judgement on it.