I'm having a crack at writing up some much more in-depth rules for poisons - creating them, using them, etc. - and I would like some feedback on the first item I've made for this - The Death Cap Mushroom:

This is based off the Death Cap mushroom in the real world - the most deadly 'shroom on the planet (scarily, it grows in the UK - good job I don't forage mushrooms!).

Real world effects - after 6-12 hours, you start getting pains, vomiting and other, worse things, and then you slip into a coma and die. I took that as a basis for this and applied it to a magical land where you can have your broken arm fixed by drinking a potion - as such, it's really dangerous if you've no means to heal yourself magically, but if you have any magic healing it's just an inconvenience (inflicting Poisoned for 6 hours).

Is 6 hours too long to be poisoned? I feel this should warrant some recovery (I want poisons to have some impact) but I don't want them to be too crippling. This is mainly for players to use rather than enemies, so it'll be largely afflicting the monsters of the world and not the players!

The reason it's "slow acting" is that this is a raw ingredient and a more potent poison can be made from this that will cause damage much faster. I want raw ingredients to be bad but not combat-effective!

I like the design, it has the death saving throw feel to it. Would you look to house rule all poison attacks to be deadlier with damage over time effects? 

I guess my biggest concern with bringing real world poison into the game is that some of those are rapidly fatal, for example cyanide, which can kill within minutes. Snake bites go from a minor inconvenience to rapid death. This could be easily exploited by smart players. 

Quote from Wertbag >>

I like the design, it has the death saving throw feel to it. Would you look to house rule all poison attacks to be deadlier with damage over time effects? 

I guess my biggest concern with bringing real world poison into the game is that some of those are rapidly fatal, for example cyanide, which can kill within minutes. Snake bites go from a minor inconvenience to rapid death. This could be easily exploited by smart players. 

My goal is to remove the generic "poison" altogether - I might overhaul poisonous effects from creatures, but that's also going to affect game balance. I want poisons to be a different entity - one used for carefully planned scenarios, rather than in the heat of the moment. They will (in general) have a shelf-life (which begs the question - if a poison goes off, is it more deadly or less?) so the most dangerous poisons would have to be crafted for the purpose rather than made and stored, and will take time to take effect, making them rubbish for mid-combat use and good for roleplayed scenarios.

The majority of decently dangerous poisons I will be putting in will be consumption-based, so sticking it on an arrow or dart and firing it won't do the job, so the players will have to box clever to get the more dangerous poisons into the enemy. I might also add "sucking out the poison" as an action for injected poisons to stop them from taking effects, as most poison effects will have a delay of sorts.