Poison based character

[Smorgonoffz]

As stated by the topic title i'd like to make a poison base char,i've read the arsenic and old lace handbook and found some very interesting ideas.
The only problem was that some of the builds had too many classes for my tastes (4/5), isn't there a way to make a playable char?.
The char could be a range/scout who uses posion to paralyze the prey, a rogue who' stealthy and sneaky etc.

Any idea is welcome.

[aleucard]

Factotum does this beautifully even (and in some ways, especially) if you do absolutely nothing else even for a dip, not to mention all the other twisted **** you can get up to with that class. Assassin is somewhat iconic for this, though they're more for actually using the stuff rather than manufacturing it.

In general, though, poison in 3.5 is MUCH less useful than you'd think. Few of the ones with high-enough DC are cost-effective, and unless if you talk to your DM about fudging WBL a bit or (even better) allowing you to use a WBL-independent method of generating significant amounts of cash (or abusing the ever-loving Hell out of the Factotum's access to Creation/Fabricate), you're going to be throwing a LOT of your cash that would be better spent on more permanent benefits down the rat hole. If your DM won't raise Hell over you being able to snap WBL over your knee if you don't spend the excess exclusively on your poisons, though, then it's much more useful. Would still probably work best if you look into making an enchantment or something that perma-doses things with your favorite flavor, which probably means Artificer (which is almost as complicated as Wizard and Cleric combined if you want to do it properly).

[Renen]

Well losts on builds there are well optimised. You can reduce nymber of classes in a build but you absolutely need a class that will stop you from poisoning yourself every time you use it.

[TSED]

Well losts on builds there are well optimised. You can reduce nymber of classes in a build but you absolutely need a class that will stop you from poisoning yourself every time you use it.

Or a race. Or a feat. Those are both easy to do, really.

[Juntao112]

Well losts on builds there are well optimised. You can reduce nymber of classes in a build but you absolutely need a class that will stop you from poisoning yourself every time you use it.

Alternatively, embrace poisoning yourself. (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1086201)

[Diovid]

If I'd try something like this I'd probably use some combination of the Black Dog prc (Dragonmarked), the Poisonmaster prc (Dark Sun) and the Poisoner prc (Assassin variant from Dragon Magazine #312). It would be a lot weaker than an Artificer or spellcaster doing the same but it would be flavorful.

[Piggy Knowles]

If you play a ranged character, then poisoning becomes a lot easier; you can just poison all your arrows in advance, and you don't need to worry about reapplying poison constantly. In fact, a ranged character can exist without poison use, as long as they have a decent Fortitude save.

Basically, you only are at risk for poisoning yourself in the following circumstances:

1. When applying poison to a weapon (5% chance), and
2. When you roll a natural one on an attack with a poisoned weapon, and then fail a subsequent DC 15 Reflex save.

So, a ranged character can chug some antitoxin and poison all his arrows each morning. If he is unlucky and poisons himself during this, the antitoxin and a decent Fort save should protect you. The natural 1 issue isn't really too bad, because it requires you to completely screw up three separate rolls - you have to first roll a natural 1, and then fail a fairly easy Reflex save, and THEN fail a Fortitude save for the poison itself.

Basically, any ranged character with decent saves and the Hidden Talent feat or other reliable way of obtaining a lot of poison can become an excellent poison user. For example, take the Heavy Weapons Elf (http://community.wizards.com/content/forum-topic/3546396), which specializes in getting off an awful lot of ranged attacks, and now imagine each of those attacks also forcing a Fortitude save versus poison. Even a fairly weak poison can be fatal in those circumstances. You can easily drop Improved Precise Shot (which has some overlap with Woodland Archer) or one of the Martial Study feats to fit in Hidden Talent (Psionic Minor Creation), and just go to town.