Dosing (sage ability)

Imbues the character with unusual skill in dosing either drink or food with ingestive poison, so that the victim will consume the poisoned nourishment. The ability presupposes the character has the freedom to move and act in the company of the victim, such as acting within the confines of a tavern, while likewise attending a dinner or feast, at a public fair or other event and so on. So long as the character has some pretext for casually passing the victim close enough to reach out and pour out a vial of poison, the dosing can be done without trouble. Obviously, some consumable must be involved; the character may, if choosing to do so, provide food or drink with the poison already incorporated ... but the ability does not provide any assurance that the victim will trust the character, unless the character has taken the necessary role-playing steps in order to obtain this trust.

The ability also gives the character knowledge of how much dose to give, so that the poison will not be detected until it is too late. In certain cases, particularly with the most dangerous of poisons, the consumable to be poisoned must have a strong, potentially bitter taste. This may only mean waiting until such time as the victim chooses to eat or drink a food of that type, then slipping in to perform the deed.

Although the poison is consumed, the victim is yet entitled to a saving throw; a success indicates that only a small amount was consumed (perhaps due to the victim being distracted during the meal or in being convivial) before the poison was detected. A modifier of -2 to the victim's saving throw is applied by the dosing ability. This small amount will yet be sufficient to cause 20-50% of the poison's total potential damage. If the save is not made, then the victim has consumed enough to suffer the full damage of the poison.

There will be no doubt for those directly observing the poisoning to know the cause; to conceal the poison so that the incident will appear to have been death by natural or undetermined causes, the character must possess the subtle poisoning ability.

See Poisoning