Drinkable poison.

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H.Banestone
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Drinkable poison.

Post by H.Banestone »

Okay, so I started tackling alchemy, and lo' n behold, i can make poisons.
But hey, I can't help but wonder, what the heck is use of a drinkable poison?
Poisons for weapons and arrows make sense, but who would you possible use drinkable poison on?

Clearly poison was intended as either a tool of treachery for villain characters or a weapon of druids. I mean, the recipe exists for something. Which is cool. But currently it's pretty ineffective, because with lack of stealth or pickpocketing in the game, it's neither possible to sneak a potion into someone's bag and switching it with another, nor doing so unnoticed.
So you're left with blatant social interaction.

Now, if you trick someone into drinking it instead of a healing potion, you're pretty much permanently screwed in your career. You can delete the character pretty much right away, because people -will- remember you. As their poisoned ghosted self drools out of their mouth, they will !name you 'Evil Druid Who Poisoned Me' and so will every witness. Alternatively, you could spread such poison through a middle man, but then you screw both the middle man, and yourself, because now it can be traced to you.

So I wonder, would it be possible in VBU to maybe do more versatile things with such poisons? Maybe apply them to food and drink? That could be a lot nastier, and could introduce quite a good bit of fun paranoia, more in tact with medieval novels.
"Have a drink with me to victory, friend."
"My thanks, good Duke, but I prefer my own wine."
"You do not trust me? Amusing."
"Very well, hmm, it wasn't poisoned after all."
"Oh, I wouldn't say that, just wait till tomorrow."

Especially since so much food and drink circulates in whole stacks daily, that it's pretty easy to mix in the bad.
If druids were meant to be the silent power to be reckoned with because of their potential as assassins, that would probably be the way to go with poison.

Naturally, if poisoning food and drink was made possible, I would suggest to include ability to detoxify them with an antidote, and an ability for characters skilled at either alchemy or cooking, to tell that the particular food/drink item is not normal, with differing degrees of precision. A high level cook would get a vague message that something is off about this food, where as a druid would get a precise reading.

Opinions, explanations? Maybe i missed something about this concept?

It's just to me it seems that the so feared poison is just pretty much a one time trap for characters who act stupidly and would pick up a potion off the ground and drink it out of curiosity. Usually, those are just newbies.
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Juliana D'cheyne
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Re: Drinkable poison.

Post by Juliana D'cheyne »

I see some possibilities for the idea and some things may not work well i.e. food usually goes straight from cook to the person buying so it will be quickly known a cook that poisons the food etc. Possibly put the idea in Mantis as recommended here: http://illarion.org/community/forums/vi ... 67#p634867
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Jupiter
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Re: Drinkable poison.

Post by Jupiter »

It is common knowledge that the system needs a rework. And it is very likely that something like posioning food will be included. But it is just like with the magic system. Be patient....very patient :P
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Llama
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Re: Drinkable poison.

Post by Llama »

Jupiter wrote:. Be patient....very patient *:P
*Note: Illarion is always looking for volunteers if you're not the patient sort ;)
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Re: Drinkable poison.

Post by Owain »

Personally I like the idea.
I like the druid system at the moment as it is hard and actually makes you think.
You can sit there with a pen and paper for hours making all degrees of poison, healing, shrinking, stat boosting once you have worked out the system. The more advanced potions like your transformation, language, polish, boom are passed down from druid to druid and I actually have alot of fun playing a druid. Even if it is poisoning myself at a camp fire.
Maybe it needs a few tweeks but druid system is good in my opinion.
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Thrym
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Re: Drinkable poison.

Post by Thrym »

Nice current uses of the (broken, yes) poison/harmful mechanics in potions.

1) Create a potion that appears to do something good (like healing) while also doing something bad. Not so easy to put into practical use.

2) Carry a few healing potions with a couple severe damaging/poisoning potions mixed in there (The "You have no chance to survive, make your time" kind). You can tell the difference, but can they? When you get PKed, go ahead and trollface as they loot your corpse.

Don't want to give away too much, but these ideas could get you started if you're looking to go down that path... hopefully alot of it will be fixed with VBU, yes. ;) Diseases, while not as bothersome to create as some things, are a bit rediculous to try to use.
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Qeewee
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Re: Drinkable poison.

Post by Qeewee »

Thrym wrote:Nice current uses of the (broken, yes) poison/harmful mechanics in potions.

1) Create a potion that appears to do something good (like healing) while also doing something bad. Not so easy to put into practical use.

2) Carry a few healing potions with a couple severe damaging/poisoning potions mixed in there (The "You have no chance to survive, make your time" kind). You can tell the difference, but can they? When you get PKed, go ahead and trollface as they loot your corpse.

Don't want to give away too much, but these ideas could get you started if you're looking to go down that path... hopefully alot of it will be fixed with VBU, yes. ;) Diseases, while not as bothersome to create as some things, are a bit rediculous to try to use.
Good idea :lol: Should've carried some of those when Verdazar and Felbion went around looting the corpses in todays quest :P :mrgreen:
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Kevin Lightdot
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Re: Drinkable poison.

Post by Kevin Lightdot »

Image

This
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Qeewee
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Re: Drinkable poison.

Post by Qeewee »

Knew it!
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Drakon
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Re: Drinkable poison.

Post by Drakon »

The "quite difficult" solution to this problem: Buy your potions from someone who's trustworthy... like a druid circle or an alchemy guild or someone else with a good reputation...
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Skamato
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Re: Drinkable poison.

Post by Skamato »

I like this screen^^
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Rincewind
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Re: Drinkable poison.

Post by Rincewind »

Once wehn I got my chars hands on such a pot, the shadowly mand told its healing. So I offered it to a elfess in trouble. I roflt like hell, when she droped down like a stone then. XD
Flux
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Re: Drinkable poison.

Post by Flux »

Did anyone get a screenshot when someone tried to heal Pellandria after she was clouded with a health potion and accidentally gave her poison? Good times.
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Kevin Lightdot
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Re: Drinkable poison.

Post by Kevin Lightdot »

All I has is this piece of art.
Image
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Rincewind
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Re: Drinkable poison.

Post by Rincewind »

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ThisGuy
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Re: Drinkable poison.

Post by ThisGuy »

sorry to revive an old thread, but I was reading through looking for something else when I came across this...there is a way to use poison on another character theres even a skill called poisoning(my main chars highest fighting skill but shhh) so poisons such as those already have a use

...that is unless its been changed while I was away which I don't think it has as I still have the skill
Flux
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Re: Drinkable poison.

Post by Flux »

ThisGuy wrote:sorry to revive an old thread, but I was reading through looking for something else when I came across this...there is a way to use poison on another character theres even a skill called poisoning(my main chars highest fighting skill but shhh) so poisons such as those already have a use

...that is unless its been changed while I was away which I don't think it has as I still have the skill
That skill is associated with fighting with poisoned swords and daggers.

And incidentally, only one of your characters has a poisoning skill and that one's value is 1.
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Kevin Lightdot
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Re: Drinkable poison.

Post by Kevin Lightdot »

Real pros have blacksmithing skill.
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Re: Drinkable poison.

Post by ThisGuy »

Flux wrote:And incidentally, only one of your characters has a poisoning skill and that one's value is 1.
hes not a fighter, so its his best fighting skill

and are you sure its about weapons? I got it from using a yellow potion on an old friend...so even if its not the use of the skill those poisons still have a use don't they? :?
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