Dagger of Venom

bariumdose · Post by **bariumdose** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 10:42 am

How does the dagger of venom work? Do I need to select it from the radial menu to activate the poison effect?

I've armed my ranger with it to be used with his two-weapon fighting/defense feats. Sometimes when he gets in his offhand attack, he can poison the opponent. Other times, if his offhand attack hits, the poison effect doesn't take.

Lord Plothos · Post by **Lord Plothos** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 10:48 am

Poison is not automatic. If you examine the rolls window, you should see the game making fortitude checks for the enemy. If he succeeds, then he won't be poisoned. That's how it's supposed to work anyway; I haven't messed with the DOV's much.

bariumdose · Post by **bariumdose** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 12:51 pm

The poison pill

Ahh, I see now! I forgot to turn on the Roll History window to see if the poison took effect. Thanks, Lord Plothos.

Philos · Post by **Philos** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 2:19 pm

Just Curious

My fighter rogue is carrying the dagger of venom. Whenever I stop to sell stuff, I check to see what things are worth. The DoV seems to always be worth just the same as a normal dagger about 3 SP or so. Is that right? Is this an uncorrected bug?

Thanks

bariumdose · Post by **bariumdose** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 3:06 pm

What's a dram of poison cost nowadays??

Hmm, I haven't checked the price of the DoV. But, if I'm not mistaken, I think my DoV costs about 3 SP like urs. Not sure if it's a bug.

Hey, do I have to select the DoV from the radial menu before attacking with it in order to activate the poison effect?

[QUOTE=Philos]My fighter rogue is carrying the dagger of venom. Whenever I stop to sell stuff, I check to see what things are worth. The DoV seems to always be worth just the same as a normal dagger about 3 SP or so. Is that right? Is this an uncorrected bug?

Thanks[/QUOTE]

Lord Plothos · Post by **Lord Plothos** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 4:43 pm

Yeah, it's price is bugged. There's probably a way to get into one of the files and change this, but I think you'll need a protos editor. It's +1, so that alone should make it cost a fair amount.

And, no, you should not have to specially select it, as far as I know. Why? Is it still not working?

ordnaryjones · Post by **ordnaryjones** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 9:44 pm

You do have to select it, it's one of the options under backpack in the radial menu.

Lord Plothos · Post by **Lord Plothos** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 10:40 pm

Hmm... that's what I get for not ever using the dagger and then mouthing off about it, I guess.

Anyway, here's the info from the SRD:
This black +1 dagger has a serrated edge. It allows the wielder to use a poison effect (as the spell, save DC 14) upon a creature struck by the blade once per day. The wielder can decide to use the power after he has struck. Doing so is a free action, but the poison effect must be invoked in the same round that the dagger strikes.

ToEE may or may not require that you select the dagger BEFORE attacking, contrary to this description, but it's a once-per-day thing that must be declared. I stand quite corrected. Thanks!

bariumdose · Post by **bariumdose** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 8:25 am

Thank you Everyone for the DoV advice

Yes, I noticed that you can select the DoV from the radial menu. What I found a bit irksome is that when you select the DoV from the radial menu during combat, selecting it counts as a standard action(?) and, thus, I can't attack with it during the same round that I select it. However, during the following round when I attack with it, I still don't see the poison being used. I check the Rolls History to see if there are any Fortitude saves by my enemy but I don't see any saves that would indicate an attempt to poison my foe.

I wish I could remember what I did the last time I saw my DoV actually inflict poison on my target.

Could it be that one has to use the DoV as a single weapon rather than using it in an offhand attack? Right now, my ranger uses a shortsword +1 in the main hand and the DoV in his offhand. Logically, it shouldn't make any difference.

Or, do I have to right-click and target my enemy first, then select DoV from the radial menu and then wait for the next round to begin in order to attack with the DoV? Is it sort of like the same problem with the paladin's Smite Evil feat where you have to target your enemy first then select Smite Evil in order to activate the feat?

[QUOTE=Lord Plothos]Hmm... that's what I get for not ever using the dagger and then mouthing off about it, I guess.

Anyway, here's the info from the SRD:
This black +1 dagger has a serrated edge. It allows the wielder to use a poison effect (as the spell, save DC 14) upon a creature struck by the blade once per day. The wielder can decide to use the power after he has struck. Doing so is a free action, but the poison effect must be invoked in the same round that the dagger strikes.

ToEE may or may not require that you select the dagger BEFORE attacking, contrary to this description, but it's a once-per-day thing that must be declared. I stand quite corrected. Thanks![/QUOTE]

bariumdose · Post by **bariumdose** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 8:49 am

Oh, oh, I think I see the lightbulb go on!

Hey, Lord Plothos!

Thanks for the reference to d20 Hypertext manual. I read the description of the DoV and now it occurred to me that I can activate the poison effect AFTER I know I have struck with the dagger. The reference says that the wielder can decide to use the poison power after he has struck the target. Thus, if I know I've hit with the dagger in a combat round and then select DoV from the radial menu in the same round, then the poison should take effect like casting a poison spell.

Philos · Post by **Philos** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 1:51 pm

Do I Have This Right?

You wield the dagger normally as you would any other weapon, Then when you see you have hit, you open the radial menu and select the use dagger option. Yes?

bariumdose · Post by **bariumdose** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 2:30 pm

Well, that's my theory based on my reading of the d20 Hypertext description of how the DoV is supposed to work. I'll have to try it out when I get home tonite.

But, on 2nd thought, if I already hit an opponent with the dagger, that counts as a standard action and I don't get a chance to do any more actions during the current round. According to the d20 reference, I have to hit and declare that I'm using the poison all in the same round for the DoV to have an effect. Well, I guess I'll have wait til I get home from work to test my theory out. I know I got the DoV to work once . . .

[QUOTE=Philos]You wield the dagger normally as you would any other weapon, Then when you see you have hit, you open the radial menu and select the use dagger option. Yes?[/QUOTE]

Lord Plothos · Post by **Lord Plothos** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 3:19 pm

Again, I haven't used it, but I suspect the way you'll have to do so is to right click on the target and select the dagger. ToEE doesn't always follow every single little nuance of 3.5.

Philos · Post by **Philos** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 8:51 am

I'll try these ideas

Thanks Bariumdose and Lord Plothos. I was in the same boat as you Barium, I almost sold the DoV because I hadn't figured out how to use it yet. Wasn't sure if it was worth the time trying to. If I had been offered a decent amount for it I probably would have sold it. Glad I didn't, it sounds like a useful item, for my fighter/rogue.

bariumdose · Post by **bariumdose** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 9:36 am

Hey, Philos and Lord Plothos!

I think I figured out how to work the DoV (Oh, btw, it looks like I don't have the low-price bug for selling the DoV. When I used my sorcerer who had a high Appraise modifier, my DoV would have sold for over 3300 GP. I haven't sold it yet, since it still comes in handy.)

After almost giving up, I had my ranger select the DoV from the radial menu BEFORE my next combat encounter. In my very next encounter I had, my ranger struck with the DoV at one of the Fire Temple priests (I didn't save this game 'cuz I don't think I was supposed to kill the dude) and poisoned him! Nice! It was a bit of overkill, 'cuz my ranger had two-weapon fighting feat and was able to critically hit the bugger so that he fell unconscious as well as being poisoned.

I think that is how to use the DoV: select it or ready it from the radial menu before your next encounter. This might be useful if, say, ur sneaking around in the temple and u just see a glimpse of a mean ogre around a corner but he hasan't seen u yet. Before u engage combat, you select the DoV so that when you do enter melee, your poison is ready. The other thing that Lord Plothos mentioned which may also be true is that the DoV seems to work only once per day, although you can still select it from the radial menu even after you use the poison effect. This may also explain why using the DoV occurs so infrequently.

[QUOTE=Philos]Thanks Bariumdose and Lord Plothos. I was in the same boat as you Barium, I almost sold the DoV because I hadn't figured out how to use it yet. Wasn't sure if it was worth the time trying to. If I had been offered a decent amount for it I probably would have sold it. Glad I didn't, it sounds like a useful item, for my fighter/rogue.[/QUOTE]

Lord Plothos · Post by **Lord Plothos** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 9:56 am

That's really weird. I wouldn't have thought the designers would implement it that way at all.
Question: did you always get 3300 for it, or is this a new thing? That is, is it because you're running co8, or because you managed to use it?