Poison Weapon

[Raona]

Ok, badguys and badgals, I need your help on this one. The Poison Weapon skill seems something of a mess, and its helpfile off the mark. I could do with some inside smarts on it. Here's what I can see so far:

1) Contrary to the helpfile, it looks as though INT and WIS (no longer?) matter for squat with this skill
2) Does it really eat away at weapons? Maybe only less resistant ones?
3) You get the echo "You feel less sick." sometimes. I think this happens when the poison on the weapon wears off, iff (if and only if) you attempt to poison someone with it (and fail?)
4) The poison does -2 STR rather than -4 CON? Is that all poisons, or just this one?

I can probably answer all of these questions myself with enough work, but time is tight - so if you already know the answers, help a goodie-goodie out, would ya? I'm trying to help you all!

Thanks

[Raona]

Please? I don't have time to learn this all myself - if you have experience with this skill, please help me out and tell me what you know in relation to the points above.

[Selveem]

Please? I don't have time to learn this all myself - if you have experience with this skill, please help me out and tell me what you know in relation to the points above.

I'm on it.

[Selveem]

1) Contrary to the helpfile, it looks as though INT and WIS (no longer?) matter for squat with this skill

This may still affect how often you poison weapon, but I am a novice so I doubt it played a part in my failures. Failure rate does seem a bit high though. Of the 5 times I attempted, I failed three times.

2) Does it really eat away at weapons? Maybe only less resistant ones?

This does not seem to be the case, but I was only able to do it three times on "a blunt dagger" (whose worth is 1 copper). My dagger remained "usable" the entire time.

3) You get the echo "You feel less sick." sometimes. I think this happens when the poison on the weapon wears off, if (if and only if) you attempt to poison someone with it (and fail?)

I'm not sure that this is the case, but I finally got this message after a short while (10 seconds after poisoning my weapon). I didn't even fight anyone. If that's how long the poison lasts, I would suggest an enhancement to increase the duration. 10 seconds is really, really short to keep it on a weapon. Especially when considering the amount of water you'd need to carry to keep your weapon poisoned.

4) The poison does -2 STR rather than -4 CON? Is that all poisons, or just this one?

It doesn't appear to affect you at all. Of the three times I failed and "poisoned myself," I got no affects placed on me. I did, however, take damage. Of the three times I was able to strike my test subject, he said he saw nothing of poison and no affects were placed on him. I suspect it only adds to damage.

[Tarven]

In addition to the above, in regards to 'The effects of the poison wear off'... this has only happened to me when I spill the poison on myself, not when I successfully poison the weapon. I think perhaps it's a remainder of old code?

In another thread, Raona has mentioned 'Ideal situation'. Can we maybe throw that on this thread as well?

Selveem, in your testing, did you ever see the '<target> resists the effects of your poison' message?

The duration on the effect seems woefully inadequate. By the time you stealth into a room with an opponent, remove your weapon (Must be in inventory) wield the weapon, and attack, you generally only get 1-2 hits off. It's a sizable amount of effort for very very little return.

[Selveem]

Selveem, in your testing, did you ever see the '<target> resists the effects of your poison' message?

Not once. Like I said, I think the way it works (if at all), it just adds a little damage to your damage roll. I'm not sure if it wears off your weapon immediately after a hit or not. Maybe detect poison spell can see when it is on a weapon?

That's a great question, actually: does a poisoned weapon actually get a (poison) flag added to it for the duration?

[Gwain]

I don't think element flags are currently coded. So you can only see extra affect flags (icy, electric, firery) on weapons with an identify spell. Older weapons with the affect on them should show the flags though. Its sort of like weapon of energy or magic weapon, the damage is there, you just can't see it, have no idea when it is ended or has ended without identifying it first.

[Tarven]

Well, I've seen the message, but yeah, I think you're basically right about it just doing damage. The help file even suggests such. It'd be nice to see a separate echo, though, and yes, a (poisoned) flag would be nice, for the user, and anyone with detect poison spell.

[Raona]

I appreciate the help, though I was hoping some frequent users of this skill would chime in.

Here's what I can easily tell from the code and some quick testport testing:
Success applies a temporary poison flag to the weapon in question for a duration that depends on the PC doing the poisoning, but a maximum of about 7 rounds. The poison remains in place for that entire time, hitting with the weapon and a poisoning attempt doesn't affect duration. However, it looks like after a certain number of poisoning efforts, they stop, even if the weapon is still flagged poisoned. Didn't probe that further yet.

The poison itself causes a -2 STR effect on the target, if a fortitude save is failed. If you spill the poison on yourself, it only does damage. An opponent suffering the poison does gets a "You feel less sick." message when the poison wears off. (I tested changing this to "You feel your strength return as the poison subsides.") I'm pretty sure this echo is seen by the rogue rather than the target if they connect with their poisoned weapon but the target saves.

Perhaps water use could be modified as for spells, with one flask lasting for multiple uses. It's not coded as a spell, so I can't just do that myself with the spell code, but that might be an option.

[Tarven]

I don't think there are many frequent users of the skill. =P Only a couple active and/or semi-active rogues that I know of, and the skill isn't real useful at present time. =P

[Lirith]

I don't think there are many frequent users of the skill. =P Only a couple active and/or semi-active rogues that I know of, and the skill isn't real useful at present time. =P

Correct. I think I've tried it out three or four times in total.

[Raona]

The Poison Weapon skill has gotten some tweaks, such that the echoes work correctly. I've updated the helpfile to reflect my best understanding of how it currently works. I now think poisoned weapons do suffer a durability decrease (though only while the poison is active?). I think you can only poison a given target once.