Help me fix poisons

[gr8artist]

We run PF, and I asked one of my players if there were any game mechanics or balance issues she'd like to address before teh campaign starts. She mentioned that she believes that poisons are practically useless. Sure, they can be handy against commoners, but against any notable creature or npc, they're pretty much pointless. Their DC's are too low, the penalties too mild, and the necessary number of saves to cleanse are too few.
We'd like for poisons to have a bit more kick. I'm leaning toward increasing all facets of the poison by a little bit, or increasing the needed number of consecutive saves to clear. Giving poisons a lesser penalty on a successful save would also work.
Suggestions? We'll get into more detail later.

[Tommy2255]

Alchemists can use poisons effectively, but they need to commit to it. Even then it's sub par, but it at least does something, because Celestial Poison discovery makes it actually work against some extra things. Also, they can get the ability to change the delivery method, so Drow Poison switched to inhaled poison can apparently be pretty decent because the DC increases as long as they stay in the cloud of poison. Plus they can apply poisons as a swift action, and even craft the thing in the middle of combat as a move action at high levels (which is kind of dumb, but whatever).

[Rainshine]

The crafting for poisons is absolutely terrible as well. Depending on how much fix work you want to do, let me ask about poisons role in the campaign. Are there characters who want to use them decently, or do they just want an extra edge? You might consider adding something to the Poison Use feature, that allows them to enhance a poison when they use it, adding say 1/2 their level to the DC, or an extra die of damage for every... say five levels? Particularly with the damage dice, though, I'd recommend being a little cautious. Or you could go with just a straight up bonus, so the poison did an extra 1 whatever damage for every four levels.

Personally, I'd rather tie it to the crafting of a poison. When it's crafted, the crafter can add in those bonuses -- maybe link it to his check instead. Better yet, tie it together with a feat, that changes the crafting rules to match that for magic items and allows the crafter to make enhanced versions. Little more bookkeeping for users, but it should allow them more flexibility in what they want. Let them hunt down black market salesmen who have extra strong purple worm poison if they don't want to make their own, but, given the book costs, most users would.