I quite enjoy the changes to spike. Folding carved spikes in with a few other abilities helps me better parse the list of spike alterations, and having the option to use an actually decent poison ability is rather novel in 5e as far as I am aware. Even if it is a little too powerful, it’s filling a niche that is neglected enough that I don’t really mind. Poison is also rather notorious in 5e for being underpowered, with way too many monsters immune to poison damage and the poisoned condition, so allowing it to be powerful allows the times when it does work to shine and makes up a bit for the many times it just won’t work.