I let one of my players use poisonous plants/shrooms in the forest to make a few vials of poison. I'm unsure now if ,when they use it, to have it cause the Poisoned status, inflict poison damage or both.
Mundane poison vials you coat a weapon (as an action) and on a hit, the target makes a DC 10 con save or takes an extra d4 damage. It lasts for a minute after you coat it, so basically, you can coat at the start of a fight, and then it lasts for about one fight. Not very exciting, and probably not the best use of your action, but it can be a fun little add on for some people.
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I would use basic poison, since it's already really valuable despite doing an average of one extra point of damage against a commoner. If it were more expensive, that might break the economy.
If you want, pick one from the book and save yourself some time. You might decide to do something different (like a sleep draught, or an Emetic,* or whatever you think up. *(Something to induce vomiting.)
What I personally suggest, would be to first look at the rules for crafting, but if you have access to Xanathar’s, use those alternate rules instead of the ones from the DMG. Anyone who has actually compared the two systems agrees that Xanathar’s rules are better, not great, but better. It has more fleshed out rules for crafting as well as actual information about the Tools, examples of what the tools might be used for and depending on the tool, examples of how much time and money it costs to make a couple things and what a balanced DC would be for the Ability Check to see if you succeeded. That all can give some idea how to ballpark something not listed. If you don’t have access to Xanathar’s, there are some rules in the DMG that you can use, there just really isn’t as much to go on.
I can tell you a general guideline that I use whenever I don’t want to stop and waste time looking up the actual rules. For any of the basic equipment, if you’re proficient with the tools required to make something and have access to those tools, then the required material should cost no more than 50% of the listed sale price. And however much the materials cost, for every 25 gp the thing takes 1 day spent working on that thing (and not adventuring), and for every 100gp, it takes an additional day to make. If something costs less than 25 gp, then it might only take part of a day. (Or if it is something that should maybe be a little easier than other stuff they could make for the same price, or if it is something they could possibly set overnight and it would be ready come morning then possibly they could do it on a long rest while adventuring.) So, looking at the Poison, Basic (vial), it costs 100gp to purchase, so if you are proficient with a poisoners kit and have one to use, then it would still require 50gp worth of ingredients and takes 2 days to make one.
The reason I’m going on about crafting when you asked for advice on poisons is because you wrote they already made the poison. So, how long did you tell them it took, and how much, if any, did they spend on additional materials besides those mushrooms? Because if you said it would have cost them 100gp normally, but these mushrooms cut the cost to only another 50gp; and it took them a week to make the poison and it required a really high DC Ability Check to succeed; then I say give them a cool poison.
But if you said they made it on their lunch break, all they needed was the mushrooms and their tools, and the DC to create it was only 10, then maybe give them something that reproduces symptoms similar to a very mild shellfish allergy.* That could still be useful under the right circumstances. Possibly enough to get someone to excuse themselves from a function of some sort, or maybe use it to help convince someone that it’s something much scarier and they should run to get cured right away. (Or just to mess with the Bard on date night, or perhaps save it for that special NPC in their life.) But it isn’t too powerful compared to the level of skill and resources required. Make sense?
*Simulated Shellfish Allergy. Imbibed. Whoever consumes this poison must make a DC 11 Constitution Saving Throw. They get extremely flushed, and have excessive and foul smelling flatulence for the next 1d4 hours on a failed save, or half as long on a successful save (minimum half an hour). In addition, any creature who failed their save will have diarrhea whenever that finish their next long rest.
But heck, it’s your campaign, if you want to you can totally make it just straight instant death to anyone who gets exposed to it in whichever way you decide.
Hi anyone reading this
I let one of my players use poisonous plants/shrooms in the forest to make a few vials of poison. I'm unsure now if ,when they use it, to have it cause the Poisoned status, inflict poison damage or both.
Mundane poison vials you coat a weapon (as an action) and on a hit, the target makes a DC 10 con save or takes an extra d4 damage. It lasts for a minute after you coat it, so basically, you can coat at the start of a fight, and then it lasts for about one fight. Not very exciting, and probably not the best use of your action, but it can be a fun little add on for some people.
It works however you want it to. There is no "this is how poisons work for this plant you made up". You made it up, so it does whatever you want.
Personally, given the ease of how they obtained it I'd just treat it as basic poison.
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Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
I would use basic poison, since it's already really valuable despite doing an average of one extra point of damage against a commoner. If it were more expensive, that might break the economy.
I have a weird sense of humor.
I also make maps.(That's a link)
What Cyb3rM1nd said.
If you want, pick one from the book and save yourself some time. You might decide to do something different (like a sleep draught, or an Emetic,* or whatever you think up.
*(Something to induce vomiting.)
What I personally suggest, would be to first look at the rules for crafting, but if you have access to Xanathar’s, use those alternate rules instead of the ones from the DMG. Anyone who has actually compared the two systems agrees that Xanathar’s rules are better, not great, but better. It has more fleshed out rules for crafting as well as actual information about the Tools, examples of what the tools might be used for and depending on the tool, examples of how much time and money it costs to make a couple things and what a balanced DC would be for the Ability Check to see if you succeeded. That all can give some idea how to ballpark something not listed. If you don’t have access to Xanathar’s, there are some rules in the DMG that you can use, there just really isn’t as much to go on.
I can tell you a general guideline that I use whenever I don’t want to stop and waste time looking up the actual rules. For any of the basic equipment, if you’re proficient with the tools required to make something and have access to those tools, then the required material should cost no more than 50% of the listed sale price. And however much the materials cost, for every 25 gp the thing takes 1 day spent working on that thing (and not adventuring), and for every 100gp, it takes an additional day to make. If something costs less than 25 gp, then it might only take part of a day. (Or if it is something that should maybe be a little easier than other stuff they could make for the same price, or if it is something they could possibly set overnight and it would be ready come morning then possibly they could do it on a long rest while adventuring.) So, looking at the Poison, Basic (vial), it costs 100gp to purchase, so if you are proficient with a poisoners kit and have one to use, then it would still require 50gp worth of ingredients and takes 2 days to make one.
The reason I’m going on about crafting when you asked for advice on poisons is because you wrote they already made the poison. So, how long did you tell them it took, and how much, if any, did they spend on additional materials besides those mushrooms? Because if you said it would have cost them 100gp normally, but these mushrooms cut the cost to only another 50gp; and it took them a week to make the poison and it required a really high DC Ability Check to succeed; then I say give them a cool poison.
But if you said they made it on their lunch break, all they needed was the mushrooms and their tools, and the DC to create it was only 10, then maybe give them something that reproduces symptoms similar to a very mild shellfish allergy.* That could still be useful under the right circumstances. Possibly enough to get someone to excuse themselves from a function of some sort, or maybe use it to help convince someone that it’s something much scarier and they should run to get cured right away. (Or just to mess with the Bard on date night, or perhaps save it for that special NPC in their life.) But it isn’t too powerful compared to the level of skill and resources required. Make sense?
*Simulated Shellfish Allergy. Imbibed. Whoever consumes this poison must make a DC 11 Constitution Saving Throw. They get extremely flushed, and have excessive and foul smelling flatulence for the next 1d4 hours on a failed save, or half as long on a successful save (minimum half an hour). In addition, any creature who failed their save will have diarrhea whenever that finish their next long rest.
But heck, it’s your campaign, if you want to you can totally make it just straight instant death to anyone who gets exposed to it in whichever way you decide.
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