Poisons: viability?

[BobTheSkull]

Poisons: are they viable to have up full time?

I very much like the idea of a primary poisoner, but can not for the life of me find a way for it to be viable.

They have shorter duration than temp essence. And the primary effect on most is of dubious usefulness. Further the recipes tend to be a bit estranged and hard to find.

Does anyone have a suggestion for a poison that is pve viable and abundant enough to allow permanent up time?

Nwn poisons are always a bit dumb when considering secondary effects. The timer to effect is simply too long. In PvP the player wipes it with a single heal kit, not to mention PvP is far too short for it to ever take effect. In PvE the fight never lasts long enough for a secondary effects to occur. But that is a mechanical issue and not really the point of discussion here.

Lastly, how do consumable poisons work? I can't figure out how they would work mechanically.

[Kalimere]

I've never found it to be very viable even after they added new poisons and extended the duration. I think its because the DC's arent high enough to the point where by the time you can get higher end poisons or make them yourself, you're still fishing for 1's.

[SayaMustFight]

Really the poisons issue is really a 3.0, 3.5 and pathfinder ruleset issue. It could be useful in 2e but for 3.5 poisons have never really been viable. You would need to rework the system since the dcs are independent of the level of the user if you introduce high dcs they can be abused by low lvls, if you make high dcs prohibitively expensive to low lvls their benefit is too short lived to be worth the cost to higher levels. Pathfinder took the latter approach actually.

Maybe if you could make the dc dependent or get bonuses based on dex or int ability scores or assassin/rogue levels it could find its niche as a viable tactic in something other than the most contrived cases.

[the grim yeeter]

The only really useful poison out there is Eyeblast. Bebelith venom as well, maybe.

[Mattamue]

This thread has a lot of detail on poison and should help you decide if they're viable for your proposes. High level, I would say don't go that deep into herbalism unless you're also interested in the other stuff there.

viewtopic.php?f=37&t=22816

[xanrael]

If you live in the UD Cave Terror is trivial to collect components for and make plus has a noticeable effect. You could probably use it 10-30 without running out. Poisons are icing on the cake and are generally not going to make a character that is weak at PvE strong, but can help make an already strong PC better.

As far as saves go quite a bit depends on how many times the enemy is having to make the save before dying. A PC that hits few times but hard is likely to see them work less per creature than one that hits many times but lightly.

[Cerk Evermoore]

Do a wild dwarf / goblin / Derro str based WM or monk and use poisons on your primary weapon. The biggest detriment to poisons is the fact it is tied to BG & Assassin & Dex. If you've got all the damage str dishes out and can easily poison your blade, there is no shame in fishing for 20s.

[Hazard]

In certain situations I've found poisons to be incredibly scary. Not something I would keep up all the time though. Certainly worth keeping a vial of a few versatile poisons in your inventory to deal with certain builds/monsters.