The Poisoner's Kit
The Poisoner's Kit
The Poisoner's Kit
Homebrewing Poisons
There isn't too much said about the use of a poisoner's kit in
the Player's Handbook. It states that the kit contains the
ingredients needed to make Basic Poison. It doesn't say how
much poison can be made with the kit, or what the DC is to
make Basic Poison.
The DM's Guide does state that it is up the DM's discretion
to allow characters to make other poisons with the poisoner's
kit, but still contains no additional information on how to
create them, other than rules on extracting venom to use as
poisons.
The following guide to the poisoner's kit should help DM
and player alike in the use of the kit.
The Kit
The kit itself, newly purchased for 50 GP, contains enough
supplies to make 4 doses of basic poison. Once youve made
4 doses, you need to resupply your kit. Each dose requires 10
gp in materials. The most your kit can hold is enough for 10
doses. If you need more material, youll have to put it
elsewhere. Not in the kit.
While the kit can be as basic as a small wooden box with
spaces for vials and tools, it can also be elaborate and artisan.
Many posioners may want to disguise their kit as something
else, such as a jewelry or trinket box with hidden
compartments and tools.
Being discovered with a poisoner's kit will likely be
frowned upon by most of society. At best, a character found
with such a kit will be treated with extreme suspicion, and
any unexplained deaths in the area may be blamed on the
character. At worst, there may be local laws that require the
immediate arrest of someone with such a kit at their disposal.
The Poisoner
Creating a poison requires that the character has a poisoner's
kit and the necessary igredients to create the desired poison.
The DC for creating a particular poison is listed in the table
below. A rogue who has choosen the assassin archetype is the
only character in the Player's Handbook with proficiency in
the poisoner's kit, and adds their proficiency bonus to their
roll. This proficiency implies that the character has
knowledge of the various ingerdients and how to prepare and
mix them, and has spent some time studying poisons.
If a character who is not proficient with the kit wishes to
craft a poison, they have disadvantage on the a straight d20
difficulty check. A detailed recipe for the poison can remove
the disadvantage.
The Poisons
Poison comes in many types and varieties. Listed here are
the poisons included in the Dungeon Master's Guide. More
types of poison can be created with the DM's guidance and
discretion.
Types of poison
Using Poison
Poisoner's Kit
Sample Poisons
Poisoner's Kit
The Crafting
If the character has the ingredients to craft a poison,
determine the DC, time required, and maximum possible
doses by using the poison crafting table. If the proficiency
check is successful, the character has created the desired
poison.
If the proficiency check fails, the character must then make
a Widsom saving throw against the same DC as the poison
crafting. If the saving throw fails, the character must then
make a saving throw against the poison itself, or suffer the
effects. In either case, the attempt fails and the posion is
ruined or wasted.
Getting Ingredients
Shopping for the required ingredients for a poison depends
on a number of things. The community in which the
character is in could be generally lawless, in which case all of
the ingredients may be easy to purchase in the open, while in
a strict, law abiding society, it may require numerous bribes,
contacts and black market shopping to get what is required.
The DM's Guide has rules for harvesting poisons from
creatures, stating that:
"the creature must be incapacitated or dead, and the
harvesting requires 1d6 minutes followed by a DC 20
Intelligence (Nature) check.(Proficiency with the
poisoner's kit applies to this check if the character
doesn't have proficiency in Nature.) On a successful
check, the character harvests enough poison for a single
dose. On a failed check, the character is unable to extract
any poison. If the character fails the check by 5 or more,
the character is subjected to the creature's poison."
Ingredient Availability
Ingredient Cost/Dose
Assassin's Blood
Common
50 gp
2 hours
10
Basic Poison
Common
10 gp
1 hour
10
Rare
250 gp
1 hour
13
Uncommon
75 gp
8 hours
13
Drow Poison
Uncommon
75 gp
4 hours
13
Essence of Ether
Uncommon
150 gp
8 hours
15
Malice
Uncommon
100 gp
1 hour
15
Midnight Tears
Legendary
1,000 gp
1 hour
17
Oil of Taggit
Rare
200 gp
16 hours
13
Pale Tincture
Uncommon
100 gp
24 hours
16
Legendary
1,500
8 hours
19
Serpent Venom
Common
75 gp
1 hour
11
Torpr
Rare
250 gp
4 hours
15
Truth Serum
Uncommon
100 gp
8 hrs
11
Wyvern Poision
Very Rare
600 gp
2 hours
15
Optional Feat
Poisoner
Prerequisite: Intelligence and Wisdom of 12 or higher.
You have studied the various plants, venoms, chemicals,
and formulae that allow you to understand the crafting of
various poisons and antitoxins.
You can readily identify poisons, their ingredients and
effects by making a Nature, Survival or Poisoner's Kit check.
In case of a failure when crafting a poison, you have
advantage on the saving throw required to avoid the effects of
the poison.
If you do not already have it, you gain proficiency with the
Posioner's Kit.
Credits
The rules for harvesting poison, the poison types and sample
poisons came from the Dungeon Master's Guide and the
SRD. This document was made using the Homebrewery at
NaturalCrit.com
Except where noted, The Poisoner's Kit supplement is
Copyright 2016 by Armand Charpentier of Geek Trash and
Geek Fight Club. You can talk to the writer @dharmabob on
twitter, or over at GeekTrash.com
Support our Patreon at http://patreon.com/GeekTrash!
Poisoner's Kit