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Necromancer's spell of Poison Touch

Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2023 1:12 am
by darthauthor
Can a necromancer poison food or drink with the spell Poison Touch?

IF they can how detectable would it be?

Re: Necromancer's spell of Poison Touch

Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2023 7:56 am
by ShadowLogan
For the Poison Touch Spell to work you have to come into contact with bare skin, this indicates the poison is contact type. Contact Poison types can be ingested per PF2E (pg264-5) but see their effectiveness reduced (1/2) so in theory if you could consume the poison created by the spell it could poison food or drink.

Now here comes the kicker(s) IMHO:
-the poison only exists for a few minutes before the substance(s) the necromancer secretes returns to normal or disappears. Which could make it a very time sensitive in terms of use. (something similar happens with the Wizard Invocation "Sleep")
-as this is a spell effect normal poison rules might not apply (like ingesting a contact poison) as there is no indication it can be used to poison food/drink it might not be able to be consumed (well unless you eat live critters and even then it's still a maybe, but definitely if someone took a bite out of the mage). Given the saving throw is 12 instead of real poisons Save vs 14 (as in PF2E) this might be further indication it is not a normal poison.

EVEN IF one allowed it to be used as such, how detectable it would be isn't clear and it might vary from victim to victim (ie their palate) and caster to caster (as it IS secreted by the mage, Bob might secrete something sweet and Jane might secrete something salty, then you have the potency to consider, etc). But based on the above I would think the answer is NO, you CANNOT use Poison Touch on Food/Drink.

Re: Necromancer's spell of Poison Touch

Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2023 7:59 am
by Soldier of Od
I would say no, as well. The spell says "bare skin must be available" to touch - food or drink isn't bare skin. I guess some food might have skin, but I think that is stretching it quite a bit. Unless you can make your sausage supper feel dizzy and feverish and have -30% to skill performance!