NeoSeraphi
2012-01-13, 02:13 AM
Poison Revisions
So poisons have...issues. Everyone knows that. At least when PCs use them anyway. Low, non-scaling DCs, sometimes negligible effects, and the least cost-effective items in the whole game. That's why I'm going to mess with stuff right now and make them better!
First of all, seven epic* feats that will make poison better.
*Epic as in Maka Albarn infected by the madness, not epic as in 21st level and higher
Toxic Expertise
With a well-aimed strike, you are able to deliver a toxic blow to a weak spot, and by the time the creature's immune system reaches the wound, it's too late.
Prerequisites: Int 13, Poison Use class feature
Benefit: When making an attack roll with a poisoned weapon or ammunition, you may take a penalty on your attack roll, up to your Base Attack Bonus (maximum penalty of -5). If you use this feat, and your attack hits and deals damage, the DC of the poison you deliver increases by an amount equal to the penalty you took (to a maximum of +5) and the damage the poison deals to a creature's ability scores (if any) increases by an amount equal to the penalty you took (to a maximum of +5).
Toxic Power Attack
With a heavyset blow or a particularly difficult shot, you are able to inflict a gaping wound in your opponent that spreads the toxin inside them like wildfire, causing much more effect than normal.
Prerequisites: Str 13, Poison Use class feature
Benefit: When making an attack roll with a poisoned weapon or ammunition, you may take a penalty to your attack roll, up to your BAB. If you do, and your attack hits and deals damage, the ability damage your poison deals to the creature (if any) increases by +1 per point of BAB penalty you took.
Toxic Conservation
Your experience with poisons has taught you how to use your limited resources wisely.
Prerequisites: Int 13, Poison Use class feature
Benefit: When you apply a dose of poison to your weapon, that weapon stays intoxicated for the next ten successful attacks it is used to make, up to a limit of 24 hours. (24 hours after the toxin is applied to the weapon, all remaining uses of it are consumed) Alternatively, if you apply a dose of poison to ammunition, you may now apply it to 50 pieces of ammunition, rather than one.
Maximize Poison
Prerequisites: Int 15, Poison Use class feature, Toxic Conservation
Benefit: When you make a melee attack roll with a poisoned weapon that has at least four uses of poison left on it, you may declare you are using this feat. If your attack hits and deals damage, the variable ability damage that your poison deals (if any) is treated as if you rolled the maximum result (1d6 Str damage would become 6 Str damage, for example). The benefits of this feat apply to both the initial and secondary damage.
This feat consumes 3 extra uses of the poison. If you miss with the attack you declared, those three uses are lost. (If you hit, you consume four uses of poison total)
Empower Poison
Prerequisites: Int 15, Poison Use class feature, Toxic Conservation
Benefit: When you make a melee attack roll with a poisoned weapon that has at least three uses of poison left on it, you may declare you are using this feat. If your attack hits and deals damage, you may deal 50% extra variable ability damage (if your poison does any). For example, 1d6 Strength damage would become 1d6 + 1/2 1d6 Strength damage. If you use this feat in conjunction with the Maximize Poison feat, you do not maximize the extra damage from this feat. (1d6 Str damage would become 6+ 1/2 1d6 Str damage). The benefits of this feat apply to both the initial and secondary damage.
This feat consumes 2 extra uses of the poison. If you miss with the attack you declared, those two uses are lost. (If you hit, you consume three uses of poison total).
Heighten Poison
Prerequisites: Int 15, Poison Use class feature, Toxic Conservation
Benefit: When you make a melee attack roll with a poisoned weapon that has at least two uses of poison left on it, you may declare you are using this feat. If your attack hits and deals damage, the DC for the saving throw to resist your poison increases by an amount of your choice (up to the number of poison uses you had left on the weapon -1). For example, if you had 10 uses of Barbarian's Curse left when you hit with the poisoned weapon, you could increase the DC up to 34. The benefits of this feat apply to both the initial and secondary save DCs.
This feat consumes 1 extra use of the poison per +1 to the DC. You must decide how many uses to risk before you make your attack roll. If you miss, those uses are lost. (If you hit, you consume those uses of poison, plus the one needed to actually deliver the poison)
Quicken Poison
Prerequisites: Int 17, Poison Use class feature, Toxic Conservation
Benefit: When making a melee attack roll with a poisoned weapon that has at least five uses of poison left on it, you may declare you are using this feat. If you hit and deal damage, the creature must save against or take the secondary effect of the poison immediately (along with the initial effect, each gets its own saving throw).
This feat consumes four extra uses of the poison. If your attack misses, those uses are wasted. (If your attack hits, you lose five uses of the poison total).
Normal: A creature must save against or suffer the secondary effects of a poison 1 minute after it receives the effects of the first.
Now for some new poisons.
{table]Poison Name | Type| Initial Damage | Secondary Damage | Market Price
Gorgon's Venom | Contact DC 19 | Dazed for 1d4 rounds | Permanent Petrification | 3000 gp
Succubus' Kiss | Inhale DC 21 | Fascinated by own appearance for 1 minute | 2d4 negative levels, Fort DC 21 in 24 hours or real level loss | 4500 gp
Toxin of the Undead Lord | Ingest DC 25 | Dominated by first person who speaks the command word for 24 hours | None | 5000 gp
Doppelganger's Mischief | Ingest DC 20 | Permanently affected by baleful polymorph | None | 3500 gp
Wizard's Bane | Injury DC 30 | 1d10 Int Drain |Permanently Feebleminded | 9000 gp
Rogue-B-Gone | Injury DC 24 | 1d10 Dex | 1d10 Dex | 1000
Barbarian's Curse | Injury DC 25 | 1d10 Str | 1d10 Str | 1000
Sickening Toxin | Injury DC 20 | Nausea for 1 minute | None | 1000
Weakening Toxin | Injury DC 20 | Exhaustion until 1 hour of rest| None | 1000
Sensory Depriver | Injury DC 20 | Blindness and deafness, permanent | None | 1000
Toxic Drain | Injury DC 30 | 2d8 hit points every round until you make your save | None | 1000
[/table]
So poisons have...issues. Everyone knows that. At least when PCs use them anyway. Low, non-scaling DCs, sometimes negligible effects, and the least cost-effective items in the whole game. That's why I'm going to mess with stuff right now and make them better!
First of all, seven epic* feats that will make poison better.
*Epic as in Maka Albarn infected by the madness, not epic as in 21st level and higher
Toxic Expertise
With a well-aimed strike, you are able to deliver a toxic blow to a weak spot, and by the time the creature's immune system reaches the wound, it's too late.
Prerequisites: Int 13, Poison Use class feature
Benefit: When making an attack roll with a poisoned weapon or ammunition, you may take a penalty on your attack roll, up to your Base Attack Bonus (maximum penalty of -5). If you use this feat, and your attack hits and deals damage, the DC of the poison you deliver increases by an amount equal to the penalty you took (to a maximum of +5) and the damage the poison deals to a creature's ability scores (if any) increases by an amount equal to the penalty you took (to a maximum of +5).
Toxic Power Attack
With a heavyset blow or a particularly difficult shot, you are able to inflict a gaping wound in your opponent that spreads the toxin inside them like wildfire, causing much more effect than normal.
Prerequisites: Str 13, Poison Use class feature
Benefit: When making an attack roll with a poisoned weapon or ammunition, you may take a penalty to your attack roll, up to your BAB. If you do, and your attack hits and deals damage, the ability damage your poison deals to the creature (if any) increases by +1 per point of BAB penalty you took.
Toxic Conservation
Your experience with poisons has taught you how to use your limited resources wisely.
Prerequisites: Int 13, Poison Use class feature
Benefit: When you apply a dose of poison to your weapon, that weapon stays intoxicated for the next ten successful attacks it is used to make, up to a limit of 24 hours. (24 hours after the toxin is applied to the weapon, all remaining uses of it are consumed) Alternatively, if you apply a dose of poison to ammunition, you may now apply it to 50 pieces of ammunition, rather than one.
Maximize Poison
Prerequisites: Int 15, Poison Use class feature, Toxic Conservation
Benefit: When you make a melee attack roll with a poisoned weapon that has at least four uses of poison left on it, you may declare you are using this feat. If your attack hits and deals damage, the variable ability damage that your poison deals (if any) is treated as if you rolled the maximum result (1d6 Str damage would become 6 Str damage, for example). The benefits of this feat apply to both the initial and secondary damage.
This feat consumes 3 extra uses of the poison. If you miss with the attack you declared, those three uses are lost. (If you hit, you consume four uses of poison total)
Empower Poison
Prerequisites: Int 15, Poison Use class feature, Toxic Conservation
Benefit: When you make a melee attack roll with a poisoned weapon that has at least three uses of poison left on it, you may declare you are using this feat. If your attack hits and deals damage, you may deal 50% extra variable ability damage (if your poison does any). For example, 1d6 Strength damage would become 1d6 + 1/2 1d6 Strength damage. If you use this feat in conjunction with the Maximize Poison feat, you do not maximize the extra damage from this feat. (1d6 Str damage would become 6+ 1/2 1d6 Str damage). The benefits of this feat apply to both the initial and secondary damage.
This feat consumes 2 extra uses of the poison. If you miss with the attack you declared, those two uses are lost. (If you hit, you consume three uses of poison total).
Heighten Poison
Prerequisites: Int 15, Poison Use class feature, Toxic Conservation
Benefit: When you make a melee attack roll with a poisoned weapon that has at least two uses of poison left on it, you may declare you are using this feat. If your attack hits and deals damage, the DC for the saving throw to resist your poison increases by an amount of your choice (up to the number of poison uses you had left on the weapon -1). For example, if you had 10 uses of Barbarian's Curse left when you hit with the poisoned weapon, you could increase the DC up to 34. The benefits of this feat apply to both the initial and secondary save DCs.
This feat consumes 1 extra use of the poison per +1 to the DC. You must decide how many uses to risk before you make your attack roll. If you miss, those uses are lost. (If you hit, you consume those uses of poison, plus the one needed to actually deliver the poison)
Quicken Poison
Prerequisites: Int 17, Poison Use class feature, Toxic Conservation
Benefit: When making a melee attack roll with a poisoned weapon that has at least five uses of poison left on it, you may declare you are using this feat. If you hit and deal damage, the creature must save against or take the secondary effect of the poison immediately (along with the initial effect, each gets its own saving throw).
This feat consumes four extra uses of the poison. If your attack misses, those uses are wasted. (If your attack hits, you lose five uses of the poison total).
Normal: A creature must save against or suffer the secondary effects of a poison 1 minute after it receives the effects of the first.
Now for some new poisons.
{table]Poison Name | Type| Initial Damage | Secondary Damage | Market Price
Gorgon's Venom | Contact DC 19 | Dazed for 1d4 rounds | Permanent Petrification | 3000 gp
Succubus' Kiss | Inhale DC 21 | Fascinated by own appearance for 1 minute | 2d4 negative levels, Fort DC 21 in 24 hours or real level loss | 4500 gp
Toxin of the Undead Lord | Ingest DC 25 | Dominated by first person who speaks the command word for 24 hours | None | 5000 gp
Doppelganger's Mischief | Ingest DC 20 | Permanently affected by baleful polymorph | None | 3500 gp
Wizard's Bane | Injury DC 30 | 1d10 Int Drain |Permanently Feebleminded | 9000 gp
Rogue-B-Gone | Injury DC 24 | 1d10 Dex | 1d10 Dex | 1000
Barbarian's Curse | Injury DC 25 | 1d10 Str | 1d10 Str | 1000
Sickening Toxin | Injury DC 20 | Nausea for 1 minute | None | 1000
Weakening Toxin | Injury DC 20 | Exhaustion until 1 hour of rest| None | 1000
Sensory Depriver | Injury DC 20 | Blindness and deafness, permanent | None | 1000
Toxic Drain | Injury DC 30 | 2d8 hit points every round until you make your save | None | 1000
[/table]