Poison Guide
Forage ingredients, brew poisons, and put them to use — a homebrew crafting system for 5e-compatible games.
The Kit
A poisoner's kit includes the vials, chemicals, and other equipment necessary for the creation of poisons. Proficiency with this kit lets you add your proficiency bonus to any ability checks you make to craft or use poisons.
Foraging for Ingredients
Roll a Nature check — with proficiency from your poisoner's kit if you are not proficient in the Nature skill — against a DC based on how you search.
| DC | Method of Search |
|---|---|
| 10 | Spend an hour doing nothing but searching |
| 15 | While traveling at a slow or steady pace |
| 18 | While traveling at a normal pace |
| 21 | While traveling at a fast pace |
- Success: Recover one ingredient from the Foraging Ingredient Table.
- Failure: Find nothing.
- Natural 20: Recover one ingredient from the Special Ingredients Table.
Foraging Ingredient Table (2d6)
| Roll | Ingredient | Details | DC Mod |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Mandrake Root | Increases save DC by 2 | +2 |
| 3 | Quicksilver Lichen | Add 1d4 poison damage | +2 |
| 4 | Milkweed Seeds | Reduce crafting DC by 1 | +1 |
| 5 | Wild Sagewort | Add 2d4 poison damage | +3 |
| 6–8 | Wyrmtongue | Required base for all poisons | +0 |
| 9 | Wild Sagewort | Add 2d4 poison damage | +3 |
| 10 | Milkweed Seeds | Reduce crafting DC by 1 | +1 |
| 11 | Quicksilver Lichen | Add 1d4 poison damage | +2 |
| 12 | Mandrake Root | Increases save DC by 2 | +2 |
Special Ingredient Table (1d6)
| Roll | Ingredient | Details | DC Mod |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wrackwort | Reduces target's AC by 2 | +2 |
| 2 | Spineflower Berry | Double poison damage | +3 |
| 3 | Dried Amanita Cap | Target is silenced | +2 |
| 4 | Emetic Wax | Applies the stunned condition | +3 |
| 5 | Verdant Nettle | Halves target's speed for 1 minute | +2 |
| 6 | Bloodleaf | 1d12 poison damage | +3 |
Crafting a Poison
- Roll a crafting check:
d20 + poisoner's kit proficiency - DC =
10 + sum of ingredient modifiers - Maximum of 5 ingredients per poison
Crafting Conditions
DC < 13→ Can be crafted in the field during a short restDC ≥ 13→ Requires a workshop (e.g. an inn room), 1 hour
Outcomes
- Success → 1 vial of poison
- Failure → Ingredients lost
- Natural 20 → Create 2 vials
Shelf life: vials last 1 week before decaying.
Applying Poison
- Use 1 full action to apply poison to 1 melee weapon or 3 pieces of ammunition.
- Duration once applied: 1 hour out of combat, or 5 rounds in combat.
- Each vial = 2 applications.
Poison in Combat
- On a hit, the target rolls a Constitution saving throw:
DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus - Failure → poison effects apply.
- Success → poison is consumed, effects resisted (except the poisoned condition).
Duration & Effects
- The poisoned condition lasts 1 minute.
- Bonus effects from ingredients share the same duration unless noted.
- Status effects: the save is repeated at the end of each turn.
Variant: Drow Poison
A dark elf with poisoner's kit proficiency may craft Drow Poison. It requires a Wyrmtongue base plus innate magic, and consumes all innate magic until the next dawn.
Effect
If the target fails its save by 5 or more, it falls unconscious until it takes damage or another creature uses an action to wake it.
Variant: Poison from Creatures
- Make a DC 20 Nature check to harvest poison from a creature.
- Add proficiency if the creature's stat block includes poison.
- Minimum DC modifier = the creature's save + 5, plus a further +5 for each additional poison effect.