Skills/Poisoning

« Back to Skills

Poisoning is the skill of coating blades and food with poison. A poisoner takes the poison potions an alchemist makes and smears them on a dagger, a sword or a meal, so the next creature that's cut or the next person who eats is poisoned. Poisoning also makes a mage's Poison spell stronger and powers the Infectious Strike weapon move.

This page explains how poisoning works in New Bradford: what you can poison, how strong each poison is, and how to train. Poison potions are made with Alchemy. Poisoned food can be spotted with Taste Identification.

At a glance

Skill category	Crafting & gathering
What you need	Poison potions (see Poison potions)
What you can poison	One-handed swords, knives and fencing weapons, and food
Other uses	Stronger Poison spells, and stronger Infectious Strike weapon moves
Skill cap	100 (Grandmaster)
Starting gear	Choosing Poisoning as a starting skill gives you 2 lesser poison potions.

How to apply poison

1. Put a poison potion in your backpack (or within 2 tiles of you).
2. Use the Poisoning skill from your skills list: "Select the poison you wish to use."
3. Target the poison potion: "To what do you wish to apply the poison?"
4. Target the weapon or food. It must be within 2 tiles of you.
5. The potion is used up straight away and the empty bottle goes in your backpack. Two seconds later you find out whether it worked: "You apply the poison."

You can use the skill once every 10 seconds.

Success chance

Each poison has its own skill range. Your chance is 0% at the bottom of the range and rises evenly to 100% at the top. Below the bottom of the range you'll always fail.

	Poison potion	Range	Success at 50	Success at 80	Success at 100	Weapon charges
	Lesser poison	0 to 60	83%	100%	100%	18
	Poison	30 to 70	50%	100%	100%	16
	Greater poison	60 to 100	0%	50%	100%	14
	Deadly poison	95 to 100	0%	0%	100%	12

When it fails, the potion is still gone: "You fail to apply a sufficient dose of poison on the blade." While your Poisoning is below 80.0, every failure also has a 1 in 20 chance of poisoning you instead: "You make a grave mistake while applying the poison."

Every successful application costs you 20 karma.

Poisoned weapons

Only one-handed slashing and piercing weapons take poison. Anything else: "You cannot poison that! You can only poison bladed or piercing weapons, food or drink."

	Weapon	Combat skill	Infectious Strike
	Dagger	Fencing	Yes (primary)
	Kryss	Fencing	Yes (secondary)
	War fork	Fencing	No
	Butcher knife	Swordsmanship	Yes (primary)
	Cleaver	Swordsmanship	Yes (secondary)
	Skinning knife	Swordsmanship	No
	Katana	Swordsmanship	No
	Cutlass	Swordsmanship	No
	Scimitar	Swordsmanship	No
	Broadsword	Swordsmanship	No
	Longsword	Swordsmanship	No
	Viking sword	Swordsmanship	No

• A poisoned weapon carries a number of charges: 18 for lesser poison, 16 for regular, 14 for greater and 12 for deadly.
• Every hit uses one charge and has a 50% chance to poison what you hit.
• Poisoning a weapon again replaces whatever poison was on it.
• Some creatures are immune to poison, and a stronger poison already on the target isn't replaced by a weaker one.

Infectious Strike

The dagger and butcher knife have Infectious Strike as their primary weapon move, and the kryss and cleaver as their secondary. It only works with a poisoned weapon: "Your weapon must have a dose of poison to perform an infectious strike!"

• Each Infectious Strike uses one poison charge and always poisons the target unless it's immune.
• Your Poisoning limits the strength: you need 20.0 for regular poison, 40.0 for greater, 60.0 for deadly and 80.0 for lethal. A stronger poison on the blade is weakened to the best you can deliver.
• Your Poisoning is also your chance to raise the poison one level for that hit: "Your precise strike has increased the level of the poison by 1". At 100.0 it always goes up a level, so a Grandmaster can turn deadly poison into lethal poison.

Poisoned food

Poison any food the same way. Whoever eats it is poisoned with that poison. There's no sign on the food itself, but anyone with Taste Identification can check it: "It appears to have poison smeared on it."

How poison works

A poisoned creature or player takes damage every few seconds until the poison wears off or is cured. Each tick does 1 plus a percentage of the victim's current hit points, but never less than the minimum or more than 26.

Poison	% of current hit points	Minimum per tick	Maximum per tick	Every
Lesser	2.5%	4	26	3 seconds
Regular	3.125%	5	26	3 seconds
Greater	6.25%	6	26	3 seconds
Deadly	12.5%	7	26	4 seconds
Lethal	25%	9	26	5 seconds

• The first tick comes 3.5 seconds after you're poisoned. After 10 ticks the poison wears off by itself: "The poison seems to have worn off."
• Each tick has a 50% chance to repeat the last tick's damage instead of rolling new damage.
• Cure it with a cure potion or the Cure spell.

Poison spells

When a mage casts the Poison spell, their Magery and Poisoning are added together to pick the strength of the poison:

Magery + Poisoning	Poison
130.2 or less	Lesser
Over 130.2	Regular
Over 170.2	Greater
Over 199.8	Greater, with a 10% chance of deadly

Each tile of distance beyond 3 takes 10 points off the total, so cast it up close. See Magery.

Training Poisoning

• Every attempt can raise your Poisoning, whether it succeeds or fails, as long as you're inside the potion's skill range. Once you reach the top of the range it's too easy to teach you anything.
• Below 10.0 you gain on every attempt. Above that, each attempt has a chance to gain 0.1.
• The harder the poison is for you, the better your chance to gain, especially when you succeed. Your chance also drops as you get closer to your Poisoning cap and to your total skill cap.
• Reaching 100.0 adds Poisoning to the Skills Mastered count on your achievements.
• The thieves' guildmaster will also teach you the basics for a fee.

Suggested path

Practice on one cheap piece of food, such as an apple , over and over. Just don't eat it afterwards. Every attempt uses a potion, so making your own with Alchemy is far cheaper than buying them.

Poisoning	Use	Nightshade each
0 to 35	Lesser poison (alchemists sell them for 15 gold)	1
35 to 65	Poison	2
65 to 95	Greater poison	4
95 to 100	Deadly poison, or keep using greater poison	8

Messages you'll see

Message	What it means
Select the poison you wish to use.	Target a poison potion.
To what do you wish to apply the poison?	Target a weapon or a piece of food.
You apply the poison.	Success.
You fail to apply a sufficient dose of poison on the blade.	Failure. The potion is gone.
You make a grave mistake while applying the poison.	Failure, and you poisoned yourself.
That is not a poison potion.	You targeted the wrong thing.
You cannot poison that! You can only poison bladed or piercing weapons, food or drink.	That item can't take poison.
Your weapon must have a dose of poison to perform an infectious strike!	Poison your weapon first.
The poison seems to have worn off.	The poison has run its course.

Tips

• Keep cure potions handy while you train. Below 80.0 you'll poison yourself now and then.
• Make your own poisons. Poisoning and Alchemy go together: one nightshade makes a lesser poison potion, and you get the bottle back every time.
• Use a fast weapon. Each hit has a 50% chance to poison, so a quick dagger or kryss gets the poison in sooner.
• Re-poison before a fight. Charges run out after 12 to 18 hits.
• A Grandmaster's Infectious Strike raises the poison a level every time, turning deadly poison into lethal.