Something vile in the vial...

[Ali]

Master of the Secret Vial


When an assassin reaches a certain level, he is often driven to specialize in one field. If he chooses poisons as this field, then he usually forgoes the tremendous financial drain of buying all of his poisons in exchange for making his own. These master-craftsmen, also called known as the ‘Secret Vials’, have truly mastered the art of poison crafting.

Hit Die: d6

Requirements: To become a Secret-Vial, a character must fulfil the following requirements:
Alignment: Any non-good
Skills: Craft (poison) 8 ranks
Special: Poison Use class Feature
Special: Must have crafted a poison and used it successfully.

Class Skills: Bluff, Craft, Gather information, Heal, Hide, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) (Geography) (Local) (Nature), Move Silently, Profession, Search, Survival
Skill Points at each level: 8+ Int modifier.

{table=head]{colsp=6} Master of the Secret Vial
lvl |BAB| Fort| Ref| Will| Special
1 |+0| +2| +2| +0| Improved Poison Use, Brew Poison+1, Vial-lore
2 |+1 |+3| +3| +0| +1d6 sneak attack, Poisonous Talent
3 |+2 |+3 |+3| +1| Brew Poison+2
4 |+3 |+4 |+4 |+1| +2d6 sneak attack
5 |+3 |+4 |+4 |+1| Brew Poison+3
6 |+4 |+5 |+5| +2| +3d6 sneak attack, Poisonous Talent
7 |+5| +5 |+5 |+2| Brew Poison+4
8 |+6/+1| +6 |+6 |+2| +4d6 sneak attack
9 |+6/+1 |+6 |+6 |+3| Brew Poison+5
10 |+7/+2 |+7 |+7| +3| Poison Mastery, +5d6 sneak attack, Poisonous Talent
[/table]


Vial-lore: bonus to heal checks and survival checks involving poisons, this bonus is half of your Secret-Vial level (minimum 1).

Improved Poison Use: When applying poison, the Secret Vial can take a move action instead of a standard action.

Brew Poison: A Secret-Vial is so adept at crafting poison that each craft (poison) check he makes creates double the quantity of a regular check at no extra cost. When making a Craft (poison) check to create a dose of poison, a Secret-Vial adds a +1 competence bonus to the total. This increases by +1 every odd level, for a total of +5 at 9th level.

Poisonous Talent: At 2nd, 6th, and 10th levels, a Secret-Vial can select a special ability from the following list:
Rapid Application: The Secret-Vial can apply poison to his weapon as a swift action.
Relapse: Any creature affected by a poison crafted by this Secret-Vial must roll his secondary fortitude save twice, accepting the lower of the two as their result
Longer Lasting: When a Secret-Vial applies poison to a weapon, it retains its potency longer. The poison does not wear off until the weapon has struck twice, whether at one target or two.
Accelerated Onset: The Secret-Vial's poisons take half as long to force a fortitude save against the secondary damage (5 rounds instead of 10).
Improved Formula: All resist DC's for the poisons crafted by the Secret-Vial increase by half his Secret-Vial level (minimum 1) + his intelligence modifier.

Sneak Attack: As the Rogue ability, stacks with other sneak attacks.

Poisonous Mastery: When a Secret-Vial reaches 10th level, his skill in formulating and using poisons is at its peak. All poisons that the Secret-Vial makes and uses increase the size of their damage die by 1 category (so a poison that deals 1d4 Dex damage will deal 1d6 instead, or 2d6 will become 2d8). This does not affect poison that deals a stated amount of damage, or no damage at all. The price of crafting the poison does not increase, nor does the time required. He also gains immunity from all non-magical poisons.



This is a Prestige Class made mostly by Wraithy, I helped out. What do you all think?

[Wraithy]

Thanks for putting this up for me, I also have no idea how to do tables.
and i hope there aren't many problems with it

[Baron Corm]

personally, i would give a poisonous talent at levels 3, 5, 7, and 9, because Brew Poison seems like a less immediately useful thing to gain than sneak attack, and this way you're getting something really useful at each level, if you know what i mean.

also would make improved formula changed to have the DC's increased by only your Intelligence modifier - he's coming from the assassin class right? intelligence helps with the death attack DC and increases your craft skill as well, so i'm not sure why you want it wisdom. i took out the "increased by half of his Secret Vial level" because i think that's too much.

[Wraithy]

the point of the improved DC is so that the poison gradually gets stronger at a rate so that it is still possible for a secret vial to poison a high progression fortitude possesing opponent with a reasonable chance of success.

i suppose if the increase in DC could be based on the fortitude save of the crafter. the aim of this class feature is that a fighter or barbarian of the same level as the crafter would need to roll above a 10 before applying his fortitude. perhaps not a 10 because a spell caster of the same level still needs more of a chance than a natural 20. this is supposed to even the playing field for poison users who, at high levels, are only Barely effective against wizards/sorcerors with a low CON score. the secret vial also needs to craft all of his poisons weeks in advance, so he has to compete with the daily replenished skills of casting classes.

any help modifying this feature to be fair would be greaty appreciated.

and if anyone has any ideas for new poisonous talents (the current list is very short)

P.S. the use of INT modifier instead of WIS makes perfect sense, can you edit please Ali?

[Captain van der Decken]

{table=head]{colsp=6} Master of the Secret Vial
lvl |BAB| Fort| Ref| Will| Special
1 |+0| +2| +2| +0| Improved Poison Use, Brew Poison+1, Vial-lore
2 |+1 |+3| +3| +0| +1d6 sneak attack, Poisonous Talent
3 |+2 |+3 |+3| +1| Brew Poison+2
4 |+3 |+4 |+4 |+1| +2d6 sneak attack
5 |+3 |+4 |+4 |+1| Brew Poison+3
6 |+4 |+5 |+5| +2| +3d6 sneak attack, Poisonous Talent
7 |+5| +5 |+5 |+2| Brew Poison+4
8 |+6/+1| +6 |+6 |+2| +4d6 sneak attack
9 |+6/+1 |+6 |+6 |+3| Brew Poison+5
10 |+7/+2 |+7 |+7| +3| Poison Mastery, +5d6 sneak attack, Poisonous Talent
[/table]

Hope that helps.

[Darkbane]

For new Poisonous Talents, how about some talents that let the Vial use poison outside of combat more easily? A time delay before the poison takes effect, or a bonus vs. Heal checks to determine cause of death/notice the poison. That way, you can have both behind-the-scenes and battle-ready assasins.

[Ali]

Thanks Captain van der Decken!