Scratching with a poisoned needle

[acrosome]

Is there a RAW answer to what skill to use when scratching a target with a poisoned needle? Knife? Or Brawling? Or DX?

Brawling seems to be the "improvised weapon skill".

[WingedKagouti]

IMO Knife should generally only be used if the weapon has a handle and an edge.

Brawling could potentially be used, but a straight DX roll would seem more appropriate to me unless the character has spent a lot of time practicing how to use a similar needle for combat. And for anyone who have actually practiced this way, I'd call Needle a DX/A skill.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by acrosome

Is there a RAW answer to what skill to use when scratching a target with a poisoned needle? Knife? Or Brawling? Or DX?

Brawling seems to be the "improvised weapon skill".

Knife is called out to use a Pneumohypo in combat (Ultratech, p. 199)

If used as a weapon, it can penetrate DR 1, or normal clothing, has
Reach C, cannot parry, and uses Knife skill (or DX-4). Its
vial holds one dose of a drug.

[whswhs]

Are you doing this in an actual fight? It doesn't seem like a very good weapon there; it has no reach to speak of. It would be better to sneak up on them, or to approach them without displaying hostile intent (if it's a social situation), and then surprise them. That's the kind of situation where I think of poisoned needles. It's an assassin's weapon.

[acrosome]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Are you doing this in an actual fight? It doesn't seem like a very good weapon there; it has no reach to speak of. It would be better to sneak up on them, or to approach them without displaying hostile intent (if it's a social situation), and then surprise them. That's the kind of situation where I think of poisoned needles. It's an assassin's weapon.

Yes.

But I need 10 characters minimum post size, so I'm typing more.

[Lovewyrm]

Sleight of hand as a combat skill :P

[mburr0003]

I'd use DX, Knife, Brawling, or Karate at a -2.

[bocephus]

Originally Posted by acrosome

Yes.

But I need 10 characters minimum post size, so I'm typing more.

Is this an improvised weapon situation, or planned?

There is also the option of its use as a technique, but as others have pointed out the 'easy answer' is knife skill.

If this is to be more than a one time spur of the moment choice, I would say invest in a technique for using it to cover the specialization of this as an attack mode.

IMO (as I have no actual experience using a poison needle) Poison needles in COMBAT are really an iffy prospect unless the device is built with combat in mind, which become quickly apparent that its not 'just a ring'. The traditional "secret needle in a ring" trope is really dangerous to the user. The end of that needle is so close to your own skin and mounted to a platform that is basically designed to pivot. Given that the ring can twist it makes it almost as dangerous to the user as it does to any potential target.

----------------------
I had for a time a ring with an RFID chip mounted in it for a security device that was being tested, using it could be super awkward even though it seems like on paper a convenient idea. The intention was to put it very close to the reader like a wonder twins thing (sort of like you're punching it). More than half the time the ring was twisted in a way that made it seem more like you were trying to give a finger print, was very not fast or intuitive. Even when we made some attempts to adjust the ring so that the correct part was oriented in the right direction we ended up finding it easier to have the ring with no orientation and the reader was in the door handle that you gripped as you opened it.

This is only relevant in the discussion about a needle sticking out in the correct direction and not twisting on your finger and stabbing or scratching you while you were trying to use it.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by bocephus

The traditional "secret needle in a ring" trope is really dangerous to the user.

I'm not sure that a ring is what's being discussed.

Needles mounted in a handle are traditional tools for dissection, and I've encountered them being used as poisoner's weapons in fantasy novels. I thought that was what the OP was talking about; they'd handle somewhat like hypodermics, making Knife skill plausible.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by acrosome

Is there a RAW answer to what skill to use when scratching a target with a poisoned needle? Knife? Or Brawling? Or DX?

Brawling seems to be the "improvised weapon skill".

I'd call it Knife, but some of that probably depends on what you are envisioning here. I'm not convinced there are any real poisons you can deliver a lethal dose via a "scratch", and the motions and hence skill you'd need to drive a needle in solidly and push a plunger to inject something are clearly different from a casual scratch too - more like a knife thrust rather than a slap or wild swing. If you did have a cinematic poison that would actually work with a needle scratch or a poison needle ring (and note historical "poison rings" are not that, they're lockets with a space to store a dose of poison to be dropped into a drink or something) then I could believe Brawling (or it's DX "default") would work.