Poison again :)

[steverimmer]

I was thinking that poison crafting should be a skill that can be accessed by druids as they are currently the only class which can't at the moment.  The reason?  Well in nature poisons are substances that are used by many animals and plants for attack and defence and as a druid is a follower and upholder of nature it is only reasonable that they should be able to craft the substances as well.  Not only this of course but there are a lot of druid spells that are poison based and it seems odd that they can cast poison but not craft it.
  I know that in Layonarain society poison is generally regarded with suspicion...a method of killing that only the evil and most depraved would use.  However a druid's first call is really to nature and that should override the rules of society.  Besides it seems to make more sense to me that a druid would poison his or her weapons as this is the norm in nature, rather than use fire/cold/acid/electricity which are not used by creatures in the natural world, even though they do represent elemental forces.
  Anyway the problem is not so much that a druid can't craft poison but that the tool required to do so is a mace and this requires the martial feat which of course druids cannot take.  Thus making them the only class in the game that can't access this craft...which seems odd because apart from the perverted wicked rogues that skulk about the land, they are the most reasonable class to use it.
  So my request is that a new tool should be made so that druids can craft poison if they so wish.
  Thanks

[Talan Va'lash]

steverimmer - 12/4/2005  10:47 AM

 rather than use fire/cold/acid/electricity which are not used by creatures in the natural world, even though they do represent elemental forces.

They're not used by RL creatures of the natural world (barring like, electric eels) but they sure are used by natural creatures in Layonara.

-TV

[Varnart]

Mace doesn't require martial weapon proficiency, it requires SIMPLE weapon proficiency. That aside, though, I agree that druids should be able to craft and use poison. And also, slightly off topic, I think chaotic good characters should be able to use poison as well, and lawful neutrals too. I know it seems a little odd, but for example, my drow wizard is LN, but he wouldn't be against the use of poison for getting use to accept this kind of things in drow society. And chaotic goods have the chaotic part, that should allow them to use poison as well.

[steverimmer]

Yeah your right about the mace not being in the martial feat...I assumed martial included all the simple weapons too but I was wrong   Mind you it still makes no difference Druids still cannot use a mace

[steverimmer]

Just wondered if there were any further thoughts on this? (hint hint )

[Stranzini]

I think the argument about the druids using poison makes a lot of sense, its a natural product.

I dont buy the argument about chaotic good characters using it though. My character is chaotic good, and I think the "good" part needs to mean something...the way I play it I think poison is "bad" (as opposed to good) and has nothing to do with "chaotic" or "lawful". Sen told me to say that poison is a nasty, "bad" - evil - thing that only bad people use, anybody with "good" in their alignment shouldn't be going near it. The chaotic part is about your attitude to "rules" that don't have an immediate or evident bearing on goodness or evilness, not about things you could judge for yourself are evil.

[kuchida]

I found this thread and thought it made sense because I was wondering the same thing..  Why can't druids use (or really, be allowed to make..) poison?

1. Druids have several spells that poison the enemy (quillfire, and, uh, poison) as well as a few others that cause rather nasty diseases (infestation of maggots, contagion..), so I can't imagine it's an issue of ethics and oaths.  As well they can summon some very poisonous spiders..

2. Druids themselves are immune to poison at level 9, which would make them a natural for acquiring and handling it.

And most of all..  And as stated above..

3. Poison is very much a weapon of nature

Obviously a neutral good druid wouldn't use it, but I think a neutral-neutral druid (or chaotic) should actually be encouraged to make and use it.

I can't imagine this would be a lot of work.. allowing them to do so would be as simple as changing the poison crafting tool to a club.  Since poison itself is barely effective as far as I can tell (unless it's being done to you..) I can't imagine this would give druids some super powerful edge, but it would give them one more weapon to use and more importantly one more craft to take up. Or is this just totally out of the question?

[Pen N Popper]

Poison is actually only beneficial to druids as well:  When they shape change, the stats of the items they wield get merged into their animal shape's damage.  This means that druids gain the benefit of unlimited duration of poison when applied just before their shape change.  Sweet, eh?

[Pseudonym]

Really?? *contemplates multi-classing ... reads restrictions ... curses*

[Polak76]

Other than the druid link, can we improve the poisons to make them more interesting.  I'd have to agree with the poison crafters that it's probably quite a useless tool, mainly due to its duration.  If we could increase it to a turn or 1rd/crafter level, it might make it more interesting.

[Hellblazer]

I didn't have a lot of chance to try out the effects, but is there different effects other than con reductions, str reduction. Is there some that actually induce sleeps and such?

[Eight-Bit]

I made a pretty reasonable suggestion a LONG time ago that covered most of the subjects listed here.

I'd try finding it but I'm a wee bit busy.