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[highmax28]

The Aasimar cop's player sounds like a dick.

She is, but I think its because she wanted to be mafia but has gone too far to change it

[scriver]

I guess she's just a crooked cop

[SOLDIER First]

I-is there a joke I’m missing

[Sirus]

I'm considering making a Pathfinder character that uses a blowgun and poison-tipped darts in combat. She'll be picking up plenty of ranks in Craft (Alchemy) so she should be able to extract and prepare her own poisons (rather than pay some fairly exorbitant prices for each dose) and dipping darts in poison runs no risk of exposing the user to the stuff. Multiple doses of poison stack as well, so it'd be a great way for her to contribute to boss battles once she runs out of spells.

The problem is, the rules for poison seem a little iffy. It says that poisons delivered via an injury (say, from a monster attack or a weapon coated in the stuff) have no onset periods and start taking effect almost at once. However, in the great big poison chart provided afterwards it seems as though each individual kind of poison has its own method of delivery and only some of them include injuries. The other methods can take anywhere from several minutes to several hours to begin affecting the target. Does this mean that only poisons delivered via injury can be applied to weapons? If not, if any poison can be applied to a weapon, does the regular method of delivery take precedence over the injury rules or the other way around?

[NullForceOmega]

That's generally a DM question, if it were my table only poisons delivered by wound would be applicable, owing to the fact that poisons of a different type would probably have specific chemical activation methods.

[GiglameshDespair]

I imagine only poisons applicable through injury can be applied to weapons and have an effect.

Unless you convince someone to lick your sword or something.

[Draignean]

I imagine only poisons applicable through injury can be applied to weapons and have an effect.

Unless you convince someone to lick your sword or something.

Don't forget contact poisons. If it's poisonous when it touches you gently, it's probably poisonous when it gets stabbed into you.

[Sirus]

I imagine only poisons applicable through injury can be applied to weapons and have an effect.

Unless you convince someone to lick your sword or something.

I mean, nothing in the rules mention that only certain poisons can be used. Hell, the "Applying Poisons" section only mentions using the stuff on weapons and says nothing about, say, setting traps or poisoning food.

[smjjames]

Maybe poison regarding food and traps are in the food and traps sections? I'd go with nullforceomega and say ask your DM.

[Tawa]

Dunno if it's in the core rulebook, but I know there's more detailed poison rules in Ultimate Equipment.

Contact and injury poisons are the only ones that work on weapons. Ingested ones have to be, well, ingested, and injury poisons have to enter an open wound; it doesn't work the other way around. This is true to real life, I should add. Snake venoms are sometimes used in medicine with no ill effects because they have to go directly into the bloodstream to be deadly.

[GiglameshDespair]

Poisons have four categories, based on how they reach the target: contact, ingested, inhaled, or injury.

Contact: These poisons are delivered the moment a creature touches the poison with its bare skin. Such poisons can be used as injury poisons. Contact poisons usually have an onset time of 1 minute and a frequency of 1 minute.

Ingested: These poisons are delivered when a creature eats or drinks the poison. Ingested poisons usually have an onset time of 10 minutes and a frequency of 1 minute.

Inhaled: These poisons are delivered the moment a creature enters an area containing such poisons and do not usually have an onset time. For most inhaled poisons, 1 dose fills a volume equal to a 10-foot cube. A creature can attempt to hold its breath while inside the area to avoid inhaling the toxin. A creature holding its breath receives a 50% chance of not having to make a Fortitude save each round. See the rules for holding your breath and suffocation. If a creature is holding its breath and fails the constitution check to continue doing so, rather than suffocating it begins to breathe normally again (and is subject to the effects of the inhaled poison if still in the area).

Injury: These poisons are primarily delivered through the attacks of certain creatures and through weapons coated in the toxin. Injury poisons do not usually have an onset time and have a frequency of 1 round.

So you have four categories of poisons.

Contact: These poisons are delivered the moment a creature touches the poison with its bare skin. Such poisons can be used as injury poisons. Contact poisons usually have an onset time of 1 minute and a frequency of 1 minute.

Contact and injury poisons can be applied to weapons and will influct poisoning on a successful hit. Inhalation and ingested will not because it doesn't say they can and explicitly does for the other kinds.

One dose of poison smeared on a weapon or some other object affects just a single target. A poisoned weapon or object retains its poison until the weapon scores a hit or the object is touched (unless the poison is wiped off before a target comes in contact with it).

So applying a contact poison to an object affects the first person to touch it unless it gets wiped off, which I assume covers your traps.

[Sirus]

Aaaaand I just asked my DM. Dangit.

Well. It's an answer at least.

[smjjames]

Maybe you can put spells on the darts???

I suppose theres other things you can do with the darts besides have them be poison tipped. Also, your character is an alchemist, theres loads of stuff you should be able to do besides apply poison to darts, which seems like a very limited application of the alchemy ability.

What specifically did your DM say no to though?

[Sirus]

Basically what Tawa and Giglamesh said: contact and injury potions only.

My character is actually a witch, not an alchemist, but witches can get quite a lot done with potion crafting and the like. I think there's even a hex that can turn a spell/hex into a potion, which could be useful.

[smjjames]

Not sure how contact wouldn't at least work with darts. You'd have to do an armor penetration (or equivalent) roll, sure in the case of armor and clothes, but still....

I'm sure you can still use the darts as a delivery system for other stuff. Darts that explode/break and spill their contents on impact maybe?