Best way to apply poison to dhampir bite?

[Greywander]

The dhampir seems like a good basis for a spider-themed character. Not only do they get the ability to spiderclimb, they also get a bite attack. What are some different ways you could safely add a poison effect to your bite?

[Amnestic]

Poisoner feat (Tasha's) lets you poison a weapon as a bonus action instead of an action. I believe Fast Hands (Thief Rogue 3) would also let you do the same, though it's a little anti-synergy since your bite doesn't get sneak attack dice.

It's a little clunky on how this works, but since unarmed strikes can use any body part (including teeth, presumably) you could 'Vampiric Bite' (Con-based) and 'Unarmed Strike Bite' (Dex-based) as a monk. Go green dragon monk and you can poisonbite with your unarmed strikes (so bonus action attacks/FoB). As a DM I'd be fine with letting Vampiric Bite key off of dex for a monk, but RAW it doesn't work that way.

[Greywander]

RAW the bite is a weapon, not an unarmed strike. Doesn't really make sense, but it is what it is.

RAW I think applying poison like a normal weapon should work, it just feels like a lot of DMs might rule that putting poison on your teeth would poison yourself. That said, a lot of injected venoms aren't harmful if eaten, as your stomach acid will destroy them, but that's something that usually gets brushed aside in fiction.

[RogueJK]

As a DM I'd be fine with letting Vampiric Bite key off of dex for a monk, but RAW it doesn't work that way.

Yeah, RAW the Dhampir's Vampiric Bite must use CON, even for a Dhampir Monk.

Monk's Martial Arts gives you the option to you substitute DEX in place of STR on an unarmed strike or monk weapon. But while the Dhampir's bite qualifies as a Monk Weapon since it's a simple melee weapon, the Dhampir's bite doesn't use STR in the first place, so you can't substitute in DEX.

But as a DM, I'd also lean towards allowing a Dhampir Monk to utilize DEX. A Lizardfolk or Longtooth Shifter Monk can already do the same with their racial STR-based Bites.


RAW the bite is a weapon, not an unarmed strike.

Right, but what he's saying is that you could conceivably use your teeth to deliver a standard Unarmed Strike, instead of your hand/foot/leg/elbow/head/shoulder/whatever.

It'd still do bludgeoning damage, and still be 1+STR (or Martial Arts dice on a Monk), but you could technically claim it to be a "bite" for flavor reasons (though not specifically utilizing the racial Vampiric Bite simple melee weapon).

[Amnestic]

RAW the bite is a weapon, not an unarmed strike. Doesn't really make sense, but it is what it is

Right, that's what I'm saying. I'm separating "Vampiric Bite" (the racial weapon) from an unarmed strike (which you fluff as a bite), and dragonmonk lets you deal poison damage with your unarmed strikes.

So your action could be, for example:

Attack (Vampiric Bite, Con based piercing)
Extra Attack (Vampiric Bite, Con based piercing)
Flurry of Blows Attack (Unarmed Strike fluffed as a bite, dex based poison)
Flurry of Blows Attack (Unarmed Strike fluffed as a bite, dex based poison)

Certainly would be worth checking with your DM ahead of time if you'd risk poisoning yourself if you applied poison to your teeth. An alternative, if the DM was open to it, would be Elemental Weapon giving you a poison option - it doesn't as standard (Acid's the closest, I guess?) but it's not going to be gamebreaking to give it a poison option.

[RogueJK]

The Gift of the Chromatic Dragon feat would also allow you to infuse your Dhampir Bite with +1d4 Poison damage for 1 minute once per day.

Not a ton of damage, and not usable very often, but it's an option.

[da newt]

Date a Grung?

[Anymage]

Attack (Vampiric Bite, Con based piercing)
Extra Attack (Vampiric Bite, Con based piercing)
Flurry of Blows Attack (Unarmed Strike fluffed as a bite, dex based poison)
Flurry of Blows Attack (Unarmed Strike fluffed as a bite, dex based poison)

If you're going this way, just letting the dragon monk do all the heavy lifting and declare all your unarmed strikes to be poison damage fluffed as bites. If you go this way I'd be inclined to refluff stunning strikes to be paralytic venom too.

There are ways to reduce the impact of any poison that you might apply to your own body. Depending on level, this can range from chugging an antitoxin to the party's daily Heroes' Feast. However, the process of applying poison takes at least a bonus action and many of the builds that could sell this fantasy are bonus action dependent already. So even if you're immune to poison, slathering poison all over your teeth is going to be hard to pull off just as a matter of action economy.