Easy Ways to Get Poisoners Kit Proficiency

Note before I begin: This is something my DM and I designed for our homebrew campaign. You might say some of it is OP, and, well, yeah. It is. That's because my DM wanted the group to be strong enough to do a lot of things but weak enough to where his homebrew monsters still provide a lot of challenge. If you are a DM, do what you think is best, and I'll try my best to modify some elements to make it better for your own use.

Intro: The Poisoner's Kit in DnD (Normally)

Hello, fellow humanoids! Today, I am here to talk to you all about something that I hold very dear to my heart: poison. Ever since my first long term character gained access to the Poisoner's Kit, I have had a very intimate connection with creating poisons for the group to take heavy advantage of.

My DM and I, when first trying to figure out the Poisoner's Kit, just said, "Oh, you can make poisons that amplify other poisons you find/harvest." Keep in mind, this was before Xanathar's Guide had come out, so our understanding of poisons was a bit lacking. When I finally got my hands on Xanathar's, I was excited to find out that they had an entire section dedicated to Tool Proficiencies.

Let's see for ourselves what you can do with the Poisoner's Kit, canonically.

This… sucks.

So the DMG requires a DC 20 Nature/Poisoner's Kit to harvest a poison, plus you get poisoned if you fail by 5 or more. This means that the 5e version of the Poisoner's Kit is centered around handling poison, not craft anything, yet it's actually pretty difficult to do so. They don't list any methods of crafting a poison, any checks to make, any necessary ingredients (other than dissecting a venomous monster), or anything that would help my contagion comrades.

Besides, there's only ONE class in the game that allows you proficiency with the Poisoner's Kit: the Assassin Rogue. Because the Poisoner's Kit is not classified as an "Artisan's Tool", but rather as a "Tool", meaning that you have to take a feat in order to gain proficiency in it. Even acquiring the kit itself is relatively expensive, costing 50gp before haggling.

In short, we, as players, should demand change. Many have done this, including a YouTube series called Table Technician, and I, a Rogue enthusiast, wanted to throw my own hat into the ring.

First: Who Should Be Our Befouling Buddies?

As stated before, only one class in the game- a subclass, at that- grants you proficiency with the Poisoner's Kit. Although the Assassin Rogue is a widely popular subclass, it's unfair that only THEY get proficiency in the Poisoner's Kit. One problem with this, however, is that we don't want to give this power to too many classes, as that would spoil the fun and allure of the kit. So, who's first?

Criminal Background

This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. For those that say, "Oh, but the hired killer is made for like, thieves and stuff," those people are misguided, as a "Hired Killer" is one of the options for the background's "Specialty" table.

Giving a tool proficiency to a background isn't too terribly rare, either; Hermits get Herbalism, Sailors get Sea Vessels, etc. If you are still afraid of the Criminal Background being too OP after the kit proficiency (it won't, I swear), then have the kit replace proficiency in either the gaming set or the Thieves' Tools.

But please don't take away Thieves' Tools. Please.

Guild Artisan Background

Have you ever stumbled into a black market where people are selling poisons? Do these poisons work well? Is the seller persuasive? Does he have a guild that will gladly remove some kneecaps if you welch on him?

The Guild Artisan doesn't have to be entirely legal, and crafting poisons is a dangerous profession; don't ever take it for granted. With this, you can become a black market salesman without necessarily having to take the Criminal background.

And hey, maybe you should make some profit off of your… questionable creations.

Alchemist Artificer

They work with chemicals! What more can I say!

Other than, of course, the fact that some fellow Artificers might get mad at the Alchemist because getting three proficiencies and tools are better than the rest of the subclasses who only get two. Quick counter to this: screw the Herbalism Kit. Have the player choose between getting the Herbalism Kit and the Poisoners Kit, meaning they can either heal the poison… or MAKE it.

Note that you can not replace the Alchemist Kit because that is basically a requirement for the rest of the Alchemist's abilities. Not that you would want to remove it, anyway.

Trickery Domain Cleric

How come the Knowledge Domain and the Trickery Domain Clerics don't get any extra proficiencies at level one? The Knowledge Domain gets expertise in two preselected skills and the Trickery Domain gets a pretty nice Stealth benefit, but everybody else gets extra armor, tools, or weapon proficiencies.

So, the Trickery Domain should get proficiency in the Poisoner's Kit. What's more tricky than drugging someone? Not that I condone the practice, but slip a little into the Noble's drink and shank him while he's unconscious! Master of HARMLESS ILLUSIONS my ass, the 8th level ability infuses your strikes with poison damage anyway! Might as well give a

And, as for improving the Knowledge Domain…

Knowledge Domain Clerics? NERDS!!!

Just kidding, I might think of something later, but right now, it's Toxic Time, bay-bee.

Second: Crafting the Terrible Toxins

I'm about to say some things that might seem obvious:

To make a poison, find the ingredient, typically with a Nature check (or, arguably, with an Intelligence "Poisoner's Kit" check). The rarer the ingredient, the stronger the poison. When crafting a poison, make an Intelligence check, with proficiency if you're proficient with the sacred kit or Nature (with both, I'd argue with advantage or expertise). The higher the roll, the better chance of the poison being made.

All of that should remain consistent… but I think we can do something better. Make it so that there are three types of rolls for each time there's a poison being created: Potency, Resistivity, and Effects.

Potency means how LONG a poison lasts. I typically say a low roll (I'd say below 11) means it only lasts for one round, a medium roll (between 11 and 16) lasts for either two or five rounds, and a high roll (17 and higher) lasts for either five or ten rounds. If the poison was designed to deal damage or has a very powerful effect when successful, then the less rounds it should last, so a residual damage or heavy duty paralysis shouldn't last more than 5 rounds, even on an natural 20. Poisons that deal one-time damage don't necessarily have to roll this.

Resistivity means the CON Save DC in order to shrug off the poison. This roll is simple: add your appropriate Intelligence modifier to the roll and voilà! That's the DC. It would really suck if you rolled a 2 and the new resistivity is, like, 5.

And, finally, the Effects are how much the poison actually does. For example, a potion that is supposed to make someone unconscious might instead make them feel woozy if you roll low for its effects. A poison that's supposed to cause hives might tear away at the skin on a higher roll. It is primarily up to the DM how far this is taken; maybe the intended effect only happens on the high roll, or have fun creating brutal effects if the intended effect is the lowest roll. My suggestion is to make the intended effect the medium roll as to prevent both overpowered and underpowered poisons.

"But Austin, what about the damage dice? I wanna know about the damage!"

So here's the thing: Poisoner's Kits should automatically come with basic ways to make poisons without having to search for ingredients. That's the reason why they're as expensive as a 1st level spell is to Wizards- they can act as basic cantrips in terms of damage and effect. I'd say what this means is that, using my "medium roll is primary effect", basic poisons deal 1d8 damage at 1st player level, 2d8 at 5th, 3d8 at 11th, and 4d8 at 16th, with a d6 for low effect rolls and d10 for high effect rolls.

"But Austinnnnnnnn, I think that's too overpowered. Or underpowered."

Then change the dice size- simple. Keep in mind that poisons that require a CON Save in order to resist its effects (taking half as much damage on a failure), so the damage output will be low against stronger monsters, plus a lot of monsters are immune to poison damage (constructs, undead, fiends, spiders, snakes, etc). If you're worried that this will stack onto weapon damage- which it will- do note that it takes your entire action to coat poison onto a weapon, and this only lasts for a minute before the poison loses its potency.

Third: Poisons and Poisoners Are Like Snowflakes- Unique

Where do the effects of the poisons come from? Many and most would say that it comes from the ingredients from the woods, maybe the caves, but I'd like to make the claim that the poison's effects come from the materials inside the Poisoner's Kit itself. After all, if Pop Tarts taste different microwaved than they do from a toaster oven, then poisons should have different effects after being made from different kits.

But that's the thing: different people make the Poisoner's Kit, therefore there are different types of kits being made.

What I'm about to describe are two different types of ingredients, then three types of Poisoners Kits. One kit is centered around dealing damage to the foe, one kit is centered around lingering effects, and the last one is for a small mixture of both. Note that being centered around damage doesn't necessarily mean that it won't have a second effect, but that effect will be small, and vice versa for the lingering effects.

The Laughers' Leaf

"On oak trees that have been touched by the presence of a joyful fey creature, a golden leaf sprouts regardless of the weather. Rumors say that those who drink the tea made from this leaf experience a small bout of joy. The truth is dark, however, as those who experience the joy will also experience a wave of sadness for about twice as long. The wise Druids who recognize this rare leaf warn travellers of its true nature."

Damage Kit:

On a low roll on the effect table, the target takes 1d6 poison damage and 1d6 psychic damage. If the target is capable of giggling, it will.

On a medium roll, the target takes 1d8 damage of each type, and it will laugh out loud.

On a high roll, the target takes 1d8 poison damage and 1d12 psychic, and the sadness will briefly overcome it, causing it to have disadvantage on its next attack roll.

Lingering Kit:

On a low roll on the effect table, the target will snicker uncontrollably, causing disadvantage on its next attack roll.

On a medium roll, the target will laugh so much that it will fall under the effects of Tasha's Hideous Laughter.

On a high roll, the target will experience the medium roll's effects, but once the laughter wears off, the target will have disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes, and the next attack roll against IT will have advantage, as the gloominess takes ahold of its will to live (temporarily).

Mixture Kit:

On a low roll on the effect table, the target will take 1d4 poison damage and 1d4 psychic damage, and it will have disadvantage on the next attack roll.

On a medium roll, the target will take 1d4 damage of each type, and it will have disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes. The next attack made against it has advantage. It still laughs loudly.

On a high roll, the target will take 1d6 damage of each type and will have disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes. The next attack roll against it has advantage.

Fungus of Leeching

"Once in the days of yonder, the growth of these rare mushrooms meant the impending colony of Mycanoids approaching. They would fester in trees and plants, causing rapid wilting before the mushroom becomes sentient just before all life is drained. This sentient mushroom would act as a beacon to Mycanoids, signaling whether they should establish land or run away from neighbors. Now that the Mycanoids have decreased dramatically in size, the mushrooms no longer grow sentient, leaving it to drain all it touches."

Damage Kit:

On a low roll on the effect table, the target will take 1d8 poison damage and 1 more poison damage every turn after that until the potency runs out. Creatures with poison resistance do not take this residual damage.

On a medium roll, the target will take 1d10 damage and 1d4 more poison damage. Creatures with poison resistance ignore a "1" on the 1d4 residual damage.

On a high roll, the target will take 1d12 damage and 1d4+4 damage every turn.

Residual Kit:

On a low roll on the effect table, the target will be poisoned until the potency runs out and will take 1 poison damage every turn. Creatures with poison resistance do not take this residual damage.

On a medium roll, the target will be poisoned, take 1d4 poison damage residually, and will have its movement speed slowed by 10ft, as the poison wilts away at its legs.

On a high roll, the target will be poisoned, take 1d6 damage residually, have its movement speed slowed by 10ft, and, at the end of the poison's potency, the target will fall prone at the end of its turn, as weakness overwhelms its body.

Mixture Kit:

On a low roll on the effect table, the target takes 1d6 poison damage and is poisoned.

On a medium roll on the effect table, the target takes 1d8 poison damage, is poisoned, and takes 1 poison damage on each of its turns.

On a high roll on the effect table, the target takes 1d8 poison damage, is poisoned, takes 1d4 damage residually, and has its speed slowed by 5ft.

Do you see what I am getting at? Players might desire damage all day every day, but a smarter player might recognize that incapacitating your foe is deadlier if used right.

Now keep in mind that what I just showed were three different kits, but in theory, I'd have FIVE: one for damage ("Assassin's Kit"), the residual ("Stalker's Kit"), the mixture ("Artisan's Kit"), a kit that ONLY allows for low and medium potency rolls in exchange for being cheap and looking like a large purse ("Infiltrator's Kit"), and a premium one that includes the first three but is expensive and looks very suspicious when carrying it around a city ("Death Kit").

Fourth: Get "In" With It…

… And by "In", I mean Injury, Ingestion, Inhaling, and… uh, In Contact. These are all the ways a poison can infect someone by the DMG.

Injury means to put it into the person's bloodstream via weapon or syringe, like deadlier salt in the wound. Ingestion, the second most way, means eating or drinking the poison, like a deadlier weed brownie. Inhaling means that the poison, which is a powder or gas (burnt or naturally airborne), gets in the target's lungs, like deadlier smoke. Contact is simply touching the target's skin, like deadlier aloe vera.

Simple, right? Well, let's make it complicated.

For starters, injury. Although there are few changes we can- and should- make to this, I would like to note that the game specifies it has to be slashing or piercing damage. This makes it so that the Blowgun is a very viable option, and I would recommend DMs give Blowguns the ability to add a +2 to the CON Save DC if the dart is covered in poison. The main reason why is because Blowguns are MARTIAL WEAPONS that deal ONE POINT in damage, no modifiers included. This is malarkey, so I'd say that the Blowgun's dart is small enough to inject the full dosage into the target easily.

Second off, ingestion. Do remember, young adventurers, that poison does not taste good. The tongue's job is to detect poisons, and detect poisons it shall! Mask your poisons by disguising it as poorly tasting alcohol in a shot glass, maybe add small doses to the food instead of the whole thing at once. Remember: a half dose does half as much as the full dose.

Third off, inhaling. Now, whether you scream, "POCKET SAND" and dust your opponent or toss some bad weed into a campfire, remember the fact that gas naturally likes to disperse. Depending on what type of DM you have, this either means that in heavy wind, the gas will either have no effect, have an area of effect, have normal effect, or effect YOU. The DMG says that one dose fills a 5ft cube, but I'd argue that, in a heavy wind, this fills a 10ft cube, but has a mitigated effect.

And finally, contact. This could just mean you smeared it onto an opponent, but come ON. There's a reason why Plague Doctors were the worst at extinguishing the plague: they kept poking at the dead and alive with the SAME stick, which would spread illnesses from one to the other. I guess what I'm saying is that you should take the Plague Doctor's approach to everything; breathe in fragrances while everyone else breathes in death, poke at the dying (or those who you want to kill), and get paid for doing the exact opposite of your job description.

Imagine being THIS bad at your job that you end up spreading the plague instead of stopping it.

But sometimes, you want poisons to be in an area of effect. That's why my suggestion is to make what I'm going to call a "splash potion". This could either be a surge of liquid that splashes on the enemies or a blast of smoke that fills their lungs. Either way, it's aimed to hit an area of a 10ft cube away from the user, it only has a low or medium effect, so it's good for a weak mob but not for a tough boss.

Outro: Death Comes in Many Forms, But I Like Poison

So why did I just spout off for who knows how long about the Poisoner's Kit? Well, other than the fact that I might have a few things wrong in the head (I actually have an odd obsession with poisons outside of DnD), it's because I love it so much, and it pains me that other people can't experience it.

So please, fellow DMs, try something new for your players and hand an unsuspecting player a Poisoner's Kit. Well, maybe don't, but keep in mind that fun comes from crafting new things, so let there be a potion or poison brewing opportunity. It almost shocks me how little some of these tools are used.

Well, that's all I've got. See ya champs in another 5 months.

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Source: https://aminoapps.com/c/officialdd/page/item/handling-the-poisoners-kit/kwka_P2QTQIpNmbBJQPw6mLo85vxvJjnwj6