Prestige Class Spotlight 14: Daggermark Poisoner
(art by Photomaster70 on DeviantArt)
In the city of Daggermark, the criminal underworld has cornered the local market on poisons, with the Poisoner’s Guild working to perfect new and greater toxins to weaken and make suffer.
Some join in hopes of making use of the guild’s resources for their own goals, while others may view it as a way to gain fame or infamy for their alchemical skill or skill as an assassin.
No matter what the reason is, however, those who prove their prowess may indeed gain the attention of the guild, and access to their secrets.
Naturally, such a skill is not exactly smiled upon in polite society, but those who have need of their skills know that they are among the best due to their association with the guild.
If you’re interested in a poison-based character, this may certainly be for you, so let’s take a look at what’s inside!
This prestige class requires mastery of alchemy, medicine, and deft hands. In addition, it requires training in how to use poisons carefully without poisoning oneself, meaning this prestige class is available to alchemists and ninjas, as well as rogues and vigilantes via talents they can take, and possibly the investigator if you decide to count poison lore as poison use. Additionally, certain archetypes may get the poison use ability and therefore be viable options.
These apothecaries are especially skilled at brewing potions, and can even treat a poison to change it’s nature so that it can be applied in different ways, such as turning one normally applied to a weapon into an inhalable gas, for example.
Additionally, their constant exposure to poisons gives them a measure of resistance until they become totally immune.
They are also very efficient, crafting poisons and applying them with grace and speed.
Despite their profession being the creation of poisons, they are also able to apply their skills at fighting back against them, giving them basic magic for sensing poison and improving their ability to treat patients afflicted by such toxins.
These poisoners also get their own array of tricks and talents to choose from, ranging from smoke bombs that can be further altered with poisons, combining and altering poisons, creating and launching poisoned traps, brewing poisoned tailored to be especially virulent to certain species, and even learning various minor poison magics for altering, enhancing, or generating poison.
Given how they work for a guild that brews poisons to sale, they learn several efficiency techniques to increase the yield and speed at which they can brew.
They also are very familiar with the mechanisms of traps, especially those that use poison, allowing them to disable or even craft them with great skill.
They also learn the basics of attacking a foe’s weak points, ensuring that foes are heavily injured in addition to poisoned.
However, they can also choose to instead target key blood vessels, reducing the initial damage to instead better accelerate the rate at which their poison affects vital organs.
Near their zenith they are especially swift at applying poison.
Furthermore, they can quickly brew the right poison for the job within minutes or even seconds in an emergency, though such hastily made toxins are chemically unstable and break down quickly as a result.
If you’re interested in specializing in poisons and traps, as well as even making a living selling poisons, this prestige class could certainly be for you. Your exact build will vary based on what class you use for the base, but generally you’ll want to be able to strike from the shadows with your poisoned weapons so you can forgo sneak attack to boost the DC. After all, poison DCs do tend to fall off at later levels.
With their focus on substances that weaken and kill, it’s safe to say that there is a certain level of moral ambiguity or outright evil. One has to wonder how this came about. Were they once doctors of medicine, turning their understanding of toxins to darker works? Or maybe they were simply talented with an alchemy lab and carved out a niche for themselves in an amoral place.
Tarn linnorm venom is one part poison, one part potent acid, so poison brewers will pay out the nose to get ahold of fresh venom glands from one. Apparently, this is exactly what has happened, as a recent string of killings revolve around victims rapidly dissolving from the inside out from minor cuts. However, when the remains begin reanimated as undigested undead, it’s clear that the provider has been doing some experimentation as well.
Having come to utterly despise the primitive organics they find themselves thrust among, Elegy-19 has put their medical skills to work in devising increasingly lethal and painful poisons, the android hoping to one day poison entire cities.
The Black Apothecary is as elusive as it’s products are lethal, the owner moving the shop around regularly in the underground with only bare hints at it’s location. Still, the party must track it down if they want to convince the owner to tell them who they sold the poison that nearly killed the king to.