Poison design cost

Poison Cost

The DMG gives no cost guide for poisons. What follows is the system I use to calculate the basic cost of poisons in my own campaign. This is not necessarily the cost paid by a character trying to obtain poison, merely a starting point.

Each “type” of poison has a base cost, ingestive being the lowest due to the relative lack of risk involved in creating it. Inhalants and gases have the highest base cost because of the dangers involved in working with them. The GM should feel free to reset these base costs to reflect the economics and conditions of their own campaign.

Base cost: Insinuative 50 gp Ingestive 20 gp Contact 50 gp Inhalant/gases 100 gp

Modifiers:

• A “death” poison adds +100 gp to the base price
• +5 gp per point of potential damage for a failed saving throw
• +10 gp per point of potential damage for a successful saving throw (i.e. a poison that does half damage with a successful save).
• Sleep & Paralysis poisons add +5 gp for each round of effect, 50 gp for each turn or 100 gp for each hour of effect.
• Poisons with “instantaneous” onset times add 100 gp. to the cost.
• +10 gp for every point below +5 on saving throw; i.e. a +3 poison costs an additional 10 gp, (- save2¬ * 10 gp)

• +50 gp for any “bonus” effects, such as blindness, vertigo, etc. If the poison has more than one “bonus” effect this cost addition is doubled or tripled, depending on the number of additional effects.(i.e. four effects = +200 gp)

Note that poisons created by an alchemist will generally cost more than poisons created by someone with the herbalism proficiency (such as a wisewoman or assassin).

Example: Ajida is an ingestive “damage” poison (base cost 20 gp), with a saving throw penalty of -4 (80 gp), a damage potential of 30 hit points (150 gp) and the added affect of blindness (50 gp). This adds up to a cost of 300 gp/dose.

Many of the poisons do not have cost/dose ratings. In the case of herbal and natural poisons it is often a simple matter of knowing what to pick and where to find it. (Herbalist/Animal Handling) Monster venoms are generally not available for sale in cities and the GM is free to attach whatever price he deems fitting upon such commodities. There is a listing of monster venoms and prices included in the appendices of this guide, but it is not all-inclusive.

Check for succes: Miss: Failed alle penge er spildt Succes 0-2 Cost x 4 Succes 3-5 Cost x 3 Succes 6-8 Cost x 2 Succes 9-11 Cost Succes 12 Cost x ½