Crafting Poisons

Poisons are crafted consumables made from dangerous reagents, harvested venoms, toxic plants, distilled essences, and alchemical carriers.

They are not magic items. A poison does not require attunement, a magic item recipe, or a rarity category unless the DM says otherwise. A poison may still require magical or supernatural materials if its effect cannot be produced by mundane toxins alone.

This page covers crafting single-dose poisons using the Andórë Crafting System.

Poison Crafting Overview¶

To craft a poison, a character needs:

proficiency with a Poisoner’s Kit;
access to the required toxic materials;
suitable containers and carriers;
and enough time to stabilize the dose.

A poison recipe should answer five questions:

What type of poison is being made?
What is the poison’s listed price?
What active toxic materials are required?
What tool is used?
How long does the poison take to craft?

Poison Types¶

Poisons come in four forms.

Poison Type	Delivery Method
Contact	Smeared on an object; takes effect when touched with exposed skin.
Ingested	Delivered through food, drink, medicine, or another swallowed medium.
Inhaled	Released as a powder, gas, smoke, vapor, or mist.
Injury	Applied to a weapon, ammunition, needle, trap, claw, thorn, or similar object.

A poison’s type determines its carrier, container, and finishing process.

Poison Type	Common Carriers and Containers
Contact	Oil, resin, paste, wax, skin-binding tincture, sealed ceramic jar, waxed packet.
Ingested	Liquid tincture, powder, syrup, false medicine, food additive, sealed vial.
Inhaled	Powder, smoke pellet, cracked ampoule, vapor flask, incense cone, gas bladder.
Injury	Weapon oil, venom suspension, needle coating, arrow treatment, waxed vial, applicator stick.

Tools¶

Crafting a poison normally requires a Poisoner’s Kit.

Other tools may assist, but they do not replace the Poisoner’s Kit unless the DM allows it.

Tool	Use
Poisoner’s Kit	Required for extracting, refining, dosing, stabilizing, and safely applying poisons.
Alchemist’s Supplies	Useful for distilling, concentrating, suspending, preserving, and stabilizing supernatural toxins.
Herbalism Kit	Useful for identifying, harvesting, and preserving poisonous plants and herbal reagents.
Medicine	Useful for anatomy, dosage, antidote interaction, and preserving toxic organs.
Nature	Useful for identifying venomous creatures, plants, fungi, and natural toxin sources.

Anyone helping craft the poison must be proficient with the tool they are using. If a helper directly contributes to the poison-making check, they should normally be proficient with the Poisoner’s Kit.

Poison Component Burden¶

Poisons are priced mostly by their active toxic ingredients, not by their mundane container.

For this system, a poison’s listed price is its buy price. Its Poison Component Burden is half that amount, rounded down if necessary.

That burden may be paid with any suitable combination of:

harvested venom;
toxic blood, bile, mucus, spores, or ichor;
poisonous plant units;
distilled Poison Essence;
distilled condition essence, such as Poisoned, Paralyzed, Blinded, or Unconscious Essence;
special alchemical reagents;
rare carriers, binding agents, stabilizers, and preservation materials.

Mundane carriers such as oil, alcohol, wax, salt, charcoal, vinegar, resin, water, ash, soot, paper packets, or cheap vials are usually folded into the poison’s component burden.

Expensive or specialized containers may be required separately at the DM’s discretion, especially for inhaled, contact, volatile, or supernatural poisons.

Essence Values¶

Use the standard essence values from Material Values and Weights.

Essence Potency	Essence Value
Minor	50 GP
Lesser	200 GP
Potent	1,000 GP
Greater	5,000 GP
Mythic	20,000 GP

A poison recipe may use higher-value essence than required, but excess value is lost as wastage unless the DM allows the crafter to preserve part of the reagent.

For example, Midnight Tears has a listed price of 1,500 GP, so its crafting burden is 750 GP. A crafter might pay that burden with:

3 Lesser Poison Essences and 3 Minor Poison Essences;
1 Potent Poison Essence, wasting 250 GP of toxic potential;
or a specific harvested ingredient or plant mixture worth the same burden.

Time¶

Poisons are consumable items. Use the normal nonmagical crafting time, then halve it for a consumable.

Crafting Time = Poison Buy Price ÷ 20, rounded up to the nearest workday

A workday is 8 hours of careful labor.

If a poison requires multiple days, those days do not need to be consecutive. Characters can combine their efforts to shorten the crafting time if each participant has the required proficiency and safe workspace.

Poison Buy Price	Crafting Burden	Crafting Time
150 GP	75 GP	8 workdays
200 GP	100 GP	10 workdays
250 GP	125 GP	13 workdays
300 GP	150 GP	15 workdays
400 GP	200 GP	20 workdays
500 GP	250 GP	25 workdays
600 GP	300 GP	30 workdays
1,200 GP	600 GP	60 workdays
1,500 GP	750 GP	75 workdays
2,000 GP	1,000 GP	100 workdays

The DM may allow a dedicated poisoner’s workshop, criminal laboratory, alchemical college, assassin guild, or specialized apothecary to craft multiple doses at once, but each dose still requires its own component burden.

Crafting Check¶

At the end of the crafting time, the character makes an Intelligence check using a Poisoner’s Kit.

Poison Component Burden	Suggested Craft DC
75-150 GP	15
200-300 GP	18
600-1,000 GP	21
5,000+ GP	24

The DM may increase the DC by 2 to 5 if the poison is especially volatile, illegal to test, supernatural, unstable, airborne, delayed, difficult to dose, or made from poorly preserved materials.

Result	Outcome
Success by 5 or more	The poison is completed, and one minor reagent or container is preserved.
Success	The poison is completed.
Failure	No usable poison is produced. Half the component burden is spoiled or consumed.
Failure by 5 or more	No usable poison is produced, the full component burden is spoiled or consumed, and the crafter may be exposed to the poison at the DM’s discretion.

Harvested Poison¶

A character may harvest a direct poison dose from a venomous creature that is dead or Incapacitated.

This follows the standard poison harvesting rule: the effort takes 1d6 minutes, then the character makes a DC 20 Intelligence check using a Poisoner’s Kit. On a success, the character harvests enough poison for one dose. On a failure, no dose is recovered. On a failure by 5 or more, the character is exposed to the creature’s poison.

A directly harvested poison dose does not need to be crafted from essence. It is already a dose of poison.

However, a harvested venom, sac, gland, mucus, bile, or spore mass may also be treated as a raw material and used toward a different poison recipe if the DM agrees it is suitable.

Raw Toxins and Essence¶

A poison may be made from raw toxic materials or from distilled essence.

Use Raw Toxic Material When¶

the recipe calls for a specific creature or plant;
the poison’s effect depends on a physical secretion, mucus, venom, spore, or gland;
the material is already a harvested poison dose;
the crafter wants the source identity to matter.

Examples include serpent venom, wyvern poison, purple worm poison, carrion crawler mucus, spore clouds, toxic plant sap, or a preserved venom gland.

Use Essence When¶

the recipe needs a general toxic principle;
the exact creature or plant source does not matter;
the poison is being reconstructed from distilled materials;
the effect is best represented by potency and tag.

Relevant essence tags include:

Desired Effect	Useful Essence Tags
Poison damage	Poison Essence
Poisoned condition	Poisoned Essence, Poison Essence
Paralysis	Paralyzed Essence, Poisoned Essence
Unconsciousness	Unconscious Essence, Enchantment Essence, Poisoned Essence
Blindness	Blinded Essence, Poisoned Essence
Truth compulsion	Enchantment Essence, Charmed Essence, Poisoned Essence
Delayed harm	Necromancy Essence, Poison Essence, Transmutation Essence
Slowed movement	Transmutation Essence, Poisoned Essence

The DM decides which tags are valid for a specific poison.

Poisonous Plants¶

Poisonous plants from Herbalism may be used as raw plant units or distilled into essence.

A plant is suitable for poison crafting if its tags or notable use support poison, sickness, blindness, sleep, paralysis, nausea, corrosion, confusion, compulsion, unconsciousness, or delayed harm.

Useful tags include:

Poison
Poisoned
Paralyzed
Blinded
Stunned
Incapacitated
Unconscious
Necrotic
Necromancy
Enchantment
Transmutation

Example Plant Sources¶

These plants are especially suitable for poison crafting.

Plant	Rarity	Relevant Tags or Use	Possible Poison Use
Blighted Pollen	★★★ Rare	Poison, Poisoned, Blinded, Deafened, Stunned, Paralyzed	Broad condition poison, inhaled powders, disabling toxins.
Blueglass Mold	★★ Uncommon	Abjuration, Poison; poison stabilization	Stabilizing venom, toxic vapor control, alchemical cleanup.
Corpse Hands	★★★ Rare	Necrotic, Necromancy	Delayed harm, wasting poisons, deathly tinctures.
Gutter Star	★ Common	Poison, Abjuration	Antitoxin, sanitation, water purification, controlled toxin bases.
Magic Mistletoe	★★★ Rare	Poison, Poisoned, Transmutation	Body-altering venom and toxic transformation reagents.
Mud Bane	★★★ Rare	Poison, Poisoned, Incapacitated	Incapacitating swamp toxins.
Nature’s Curse	★★★★ Very Rare	Poison, Poisoned, Necrotic	Severe supernatural poison and curse-adjacent toxins.
Odour Begonia	★ Common	Poison, Transmutation	Noxious contact or inhaled irritants.
Peacekeeper’s Lily	★★★ Rare	Enchantment, Poison, Poisoned	Pacifying poison, forced calm, compliance toxins.
Sporecaster	★★★ Rare	Poison, Poisoned	Inhaled spore poisons.
Stenchblossom	★★ Uncommon	Poison, Poisoned	Nauseating inhaled or contact poisons.
Toad Skin Shrub	★★★ Rare	Poison, Poisoned, Transmutation	Skin-contact toxins and body-warping poisons.
Venomdraw Thorn	★★★ Rare	Poison, Poisoned, Transmutation	Injury poisons, thorn poisons, venom suspensions.

A plant’s rarity determines the potency of essence it can produce. The listed poison’s component burden determines how much plant material or essence is required.

Sample Poison Formulas¶

The following formulas use common sample poisons as benchmarks.

These recipes do not change the poison’s listed effect. They only describe how the dose may be crafted using harvested materials, plants, or essence.

Poison	Type	Buy Price	Crafting Burden	Common Effect Profile	Suggested Component Burden
Assassin’s Blood	Ingested	150 GP	75 GP	Poison damage; Poisoned condition	1 Minor Poison/Poisoned Essence + 25 GP toxic reagents, or 2 Minor Essences with 25 GP wastage.
Burnt Othur Fumes	Inhaled	500 GP	250 GP	Poison damage over repeated saves	1 Lesser Poison Essence + 1 Minor Poison Essence.
Carrion Crawler Mucus	Contact	200 GP	100 GP	Poisoned and Paralyzed	2 Minor Paralyzed/Poisoned Essences, 1 Lesser Paralyzed Essence with wastage, or 1 harvested carrion crawler mucus dose.
Essence of Ether	Inhaled	300 GP	150 GP	Poisoned and Unconscious	3 Minor Unconscious/Poisoned Essences, or 1 Lesser Unconscious Essence with 50 GP wastage.
Lolth’s Sting	Injury	200 GP	100 GP	Poisoned; possible Unconsciousness	2 Minor Poisoned/Unconscious Essences, 1 Lesser Essence with wastage, or spider-themed venom.
Malice	Inhaled	250 GP	125 GP	Poisoned and Blinded	2 Minor Blinded/Poisoned Essences + 25 GP toxic reagents, or 1 Lesser Blinded Essence with wastage.
Midnight Tears	Ingested	1,500 GP	750 GP	Delayed poison damage at midnight	3 Lesser Poison Essences + 3 Minor Poison/Necromancy Essences, or 1 Potent Poison Essence with 250 GP wastage.
Oil of Taggit	Contact	400 GP	200 GP	Poisoned and Unconscious	1 Lesser Unconscious/Poisoned Essence, or sleep-bearing plant oil.
Pale Tincture	Ingested	250 GP	125 GP	Lingering poison damage that resists healing	2 Minor Poison/Necromancy Essences + 25 GP reagents, or 1 Lesser Poison/Necromancy Essence with wastage.
Purple Worm Poison	Injury	2,000 GP	1,000 GP	Severe poison damage	1 Potent Poison Essence, or one harvested purple worm poison dose.
Serpent Venom	Injury	200 GP	100 GP	Poison damage	2 Minor Poison Essences, 1 Lesser Poison Essence with wastage, or one harvested serpent venom dose.
Torpor	Ingested	600 GP	300 GP	Poisoned and slowed movement	1 Lesser Poisoned/Transmutation Essence + 2 Minor Essences.
Truth Serum	Ingested	150 GP	75 GP	Poisoned and unable to knowingly lie	1 Minor Enchantment Essence + 25 GP toxic reagents, or 2 Minor Essences with wastage.
Wyvern Poison	Injury	1,200 GP	600 GP	Heavy poison damage	3 Lesser Poison Essences, 1 Potent Poison Essence with 400 GP wastage, or one harvested wyvern poison dose.

Specific Source Substitutions¶

Some poisons are most efficiently produced from a specific creature or plant.

A specific raw component may replace part or all of the listed essence burden if it naturally embodies the poison’s effect.

Specific Component	May Replace
Carrion crawler mucus	Carrion Crawler Mucus formula or Lesser Paralyzed Essence.
Purple worm venom	Purple Worm Poison formula or Potent Poison Essence.
Serpent venom	Serpent Venom formula or Lesser Poison Essence.
Wyvern venom	Wyvern Poison formula or Potent Poison Essence.
Blighted Pollen	Blinded, Poisoned, Stunned, or Paralyzed poison formulas.
Blueglass Mold	Stabilizers for inhaled poisons, toxic vapors, or volatile poison formulas.
Mud Bane	Incapacitating poison formulas.
Peacekeeper’s Lily	Pacifying, compliance, or Enchantment-linked poisons.
Sporecaster	Inhaled poison formulas.
Venomdraw Thorn	Injury poison formulas.

The DM decides whether a specific component fully replaces the essence burden or only counts toward it at its normal material value.

Antitoxin and Counteragents¶

Antitoxin is crafted with the same basic framework, but it uses stabilizing, purifying, or resistance-bearing materials rather than harmful toxins.

A dose of antitoxin has a listed price of 50 GP, so its crafting burden is 25 GP. That burden may be paid with:

25 GP of mundane antitoxic herbs and reagents;
1 Minor Poison Essence carefully neutralized, with 25 GP wastage;
1 Minor Abjuration Essence, with 25 GP wastage;
1 Minor Healing Essence, with 25 GP wastage;
Gutter Star, Blueglass Mold, Blubber Bulb, Sea Soap, or another suitable purifying plant;
or another suitable purifying material worth at least 25 GP.

Crafting antitoxin normally requires a Poisoner’s Kit, Herbalism Kit, or Alchemist’s Supplies, depending on the materials used.

Legality and Trade¶

Poisons are often illegal, restricted, or socially unacceptable.

Even when a poison has a listed price, that price does not guarantee availability. A buyer may need criminal contacts, guild connections, bribes, black-market access, or a plausible professional reason to acquire or sell poison.

Selling crafted poison may bring legal risk, reputation damage, or retaliation from criminal interests.

Final Rule¶

A poison’s listed price is its buy price. Its crafting burden is half that value, and its crafting time is halved because poisons are consumable items.

That burden may be paid with harvested venom, poisonous plants, specific raw components, distilled essence, or suitable alchemical reagents.

Use raw materials when the source matters.

Use essence when the effect matters.

Or, in its shortest form:

Poison = delivery method + toxic burden + effect tags.