Drow Rogue (and others) with Poison Attacks

[IsawaBrian]

I'm working on learning the system and trying to judge difficulty. Mostly, I'm starting to get the hang of it but I'm not 100% sure about some things. The current issue I have is the Drow Rogue ranged attack:

Ranged [one-action] hand crossbow +10 (range increment 60 feet, reload 1), Damage 1d6 piercing plus lethargy poison

In the items list, they have the following:

Items hand crossbow (10 bolts), lethargy poison (2; Pathfinder Core Rulebook 552),

Does this mean that every bolt is poisoned, and the lethargy poison doses are just for the shortsword? The bolts aren't listed as being poison bolts, though; does the rogue have to poison each of the bolts in turn?

The former seems to be RAW, unless I've misunderstood the rules-- which is why I'm here.

Flipping it the other way around, if I was making a Drow Rogue PC from scratch, unless they have a feat I'm missing, I don't think they could do that-- at least, I can't find a poison bolt like in 1e, where they were 25g per bolt, or 3.5, where drow poison bolts were 100g per bolt.

I guess the question comes down to-- is this a case of a specific rule overriding the general mechanics for poisoning a bolt, and hence presuming that they have poison bolts that they use freely; have I missed a feat or mechanic somewhere; or do they only get the two shots and/or have to coat them, too?

[breithauptclan]

IsawaBrian wrote:

Ranged [one-action] hand crossbow +10 (range increment 60 feet, reload 1), Damage 1d6 piercing plus lethargy poison

In the items list, they have the following:

Items hand crossbow (10 bolts), lethargy poison (2; Pathfinder Core Rulebook 552),

Does this mean that every bolt is poisoned, and the lethargy poison doses are just for the shortsword? The bolts aren't listed as being poison bolts, though; does the rogue have to poison each of the bolts in turn?

The former seems to be RAW, unless I've misunderstood the rules-- which is why I'm here.

I guess the question comes down to-- is this a case of a specific rule overriding the general mechanics for poisoning a bolt, and hence presuming that they have poison bolts that they use freely;

I believe that this is the correct interpretation. The Monsters just get to do all of their actions and attacks.

Think of it this way: to the monsters, the party is the big boss fight at the end. They are going to throw everything they have into this.

[breithauptclan]

Oh, and there are some feats that let you create poisons for free. Such as Drow Shootist.

[IsawaBrian]

breithauptclan wrote:

Oh, and there are some feats that let you create poisons for free. Such as Drow Shootist.

Ahah! Thank you so much! (for both replies)

[Aw3som3-117]

It's also worth noting that a lot of creatures, humanoid or other, could never be built as a PC. Let's take "plus grab", as an example. Similar abilities for martial characters (auto confirm combat maneuvers) don't come until much later, like the Barbarian's 10th level Knockback feat (and shoving isn't even as good as grabbing), but many creatures in the bestiary get this at early levels. A certain Owlbear from Agents of Edgewatch comes to mind.

That being said, it's still worth double checking these things when you're not sure. Let's take "plus grab" as an example once again. Many people inadvertently run this as the attack coming with a free grab for no action economy use, and only realize that it's supposed to cost an action when they come across "plus improved grab" on a high-level creature's attack.