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Whether coating them on your swords for an advantage in combat or slipping them in an adversary’s drink, poisons inDungeons & Dragonscome in various forms and uses. More often used by the Rogue class to assist in stealth and assassinations, poisons are a handy tool on anyone’s belt.
Some poisons also require expensive materials to create to be granted their potent effect. This could cause the Dungeon Master to send their party on a side quest to obtain said materials. But once you have a deadly vial in hand, how you use it can make a difference in the tides of battle.
Types Of Poisons In D&D
TheDungeon Master’s Guidehas a table dedicated to the common poisons available to the world. You will also learn that each poison has different methods of application.
There arefour poison typeswithin D&D:
Knowing the different poison types allows you toget creative and expand your arsenalwith different ways of inflicting poison on your intended target.
While having a powerful poison that you can coat on a sword is great, having multiple types will give you more versatility.
The official Dungeons & Dragons source materialcontains fourteen different poisons. Depending on the type, they all cost between a couple of hundred gold and a few thousand.
Drow Poison (200gp)
Injury
Poisoned Condition for 1 Hour. Unconscious if failed save by 5 or more.
Malice (250gp)
Pale Tincture (250gp)
Ingested
1d6 Poison Damage every 24 Hours. Can’t be healed until succeeding 7 Saving Throws.
Torpor (600gp)
Truth Serum (150gp)
Poisoned Condition for 1 Hour. Under conditions of the “Zone of Truth” spell while Poisoned.
7d6 Poison Damage.
Injury Poisons will have their effect wear off after a successful hit. They must also be applied/intentionally wiped off to use or remove it.
Incorporating Poisons In A Campaign
From a player’s point of view,poisons can be a bit of a gamble.Since the full effect of poisons is inflicted after a failed save from the target, it can betough to justify the time and costof getting poisons on your own.
If you intend on building a character around poisons, you may also consider using thePoisonerfeat to give yourself an edge on poison-based warfare. The Poisoner’s feat, fromTasha’s Cauldron of Everything, allows you to do the following:
Besides making your poisons,consider working with your DM to buy them from a source.There are plenty of ways to acquire rarer poisons, either from a black market, making a deal with an Assassin, or hunting the raw materials so someone could make it for you.
For poisons likePurple Worm PoisonorCarrion Crawler Mucus, there isn’t much stopping you from tracking those creatures and siphoning their venomwith a successful Nature check.
Dungeon Masters enjoy using poisons as story elements. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of different ways poisons can add twists to a story or plot.
Using Poisons During Gameplay
When the time comes that you may use poisons for yourself,remember to keep track of what type of poison you have.
The most common type of poison is Injury-based (coating a weapon with poison). Remember towait until you need it to apply the poison. Otherwise, it willlose effect after a minuteor be wiped away.
ForContactorIngestedpoisons,think thoroughly about where and when your target will be during your window of opportunity.Discuss with your party and get any details you may from your Dungeon Master to give yourself the best chance at success.
Ingested poisonsare the hardest to usesince you need to slip them into a drink or food without anyone looking and have the correct target drink or food to eat them. However,Ingested poisons often have the strongest effects, so the payoff is worth it.
Contact poisons are the least used type, but they can be an incredibly versatile tool when you think outside the box. Some examples include:
As forInhaled poisons, it is best to use them either as alast resort escapeor to get anadvantage on someone quickly. If you are being detected by a guard, blowing a bit of Malice in their face is a nice way to escape.
The key takeaway to using poisons, especially before entering combat, is tobe creative and use them to slow down enemy progression.Ultimately, if you can use poisons in a way that will allow you never even to enter combat in the first place (i.e., making enemies unconscious before they can get up from the bar table to strike a punch), you will be able to complete the most difficult of tasks.
