POISONS

Ah, life's little pleasures. How to poison and what to make it cost. There are always evil things, people and cities wherein a player character can find poison. So, if it's available, what does it do and how much should it cost? I have never been a believer in the "Save or Die" poison roll except in extraordinary situations. I have always thought that the world is dangerous enough and that experienced characters would be more likely to shrug off a poisons' effect that starting ones. So, I decided to assign damage values to differing levels of poison and based on that, establish a price range. Killing poison was made particularly expensive.

Now that a system was in place, what about the different possibilities for poison (sleep, paralyzation, gas, water soluable, etc). Each needed a value assigned to it based on what kind of effect on game balance it would have. Hence, those items that tilt power cost more. Those poisons that are innately more effective (a harder saving throw) are also more expensive.

Available Form

• Ingested (Weapon Poison) (at Cost listed)
• Water Soluble (at Cost *2)
• Contact (at Cost *3)
• Gas (at Cost *4)

Notes:

1. Base cost listed is for last damage listed for poison type. Each column backwards is available at a 5% (cumulative) discount from the base price (max discount - 15%).
2. Sleep poison is created with an intended victim level. The base price is calculated as 100 GP times the intended victim level (ie. 5th level = 500 GP). Any victim above the intended level gains a +1 to the save per level of difference.
3. Sleep and Paralysis poisons are tiered regarding duration and Cost. The duration increments as d4+1, d6+1, d8+1, d10+1. The cost is +50% for each increment.

Examples:

1. A base type C poison does 5-30 damage and has a base cost of 1,000 gp for a weapon or ingested form.
2. The same base type C having a saving throw of -1 would be a 3 step improvement and be 30% more expensive at 1,300 gp.
3. The same base type C as a contact poison and no save modifier would be 3 times the cost at 3,000 gp.
4. A Type C 2 steps down from the base doing 4-24 damage would be available at a 10% cost discount.
5. A sleep poison intended for a level 5 being would be base cost of 500 gp with a +2 to the save with a duratiuon of d4+1.
6. The same poison 2 duration steps up to d8+1 would increase the cost 100% up to 1,000 gp, and making the poison an modified save would increase the cost another 20% for a final costy of 1,200 gp.

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