Resistant to Posions (+8): Poisons for casual consumption and/or showing off

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I remember a thread about whether one could enjoy mild toxins with immunity to poisons. I don't think there was ever a consensus.

Presumably you can be immune to specific effects of poisons and vulnerable to other effects; I don't see a problem with "when drinking alcohol, you can become Tipsy, but are immune to all other effects" (see B439-440 for normal effects), though it may be difficult to come up with a good reason to have this advantage.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Still, poison resistance won't help where Filter Lungs are needed.

In what way? Smoke is a poison. Chemical weapons are poisons, at least ones that act by being poisonous and not, say, reacting with the water in a body and producing a flame at the point of contact.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by whswhs

But you could probably drink not only high-proof spirits but alcohols other than ethanol.

In The Noble Dead Saga, dwarves are extremely resistant to poisons (big shocker there) and typical alcohol, and instead tend to get drunk off wood alcohol, which I assume would be methanol. This strikes me as odd, as apparently methanol is actually less intoxicating (in terms of getting you drunk) but more toxic (in terms of getting you sick/dead) than ethanol. Still, something to consider.
From one of the human characters' reaction to drinking a bit of normal dwarven ale, it's also possible it's all at least mildly poisonous (beyond the toxicity of ethanol), as IIRC it takes her a few days to recover from drinking a relatively small amount of the stuff.

In another book series, The Stormlight Archives, there are some parahumans called Horneaters who, in addition to eating normally-inedible bits of creatures (shells, horns - hence the nickname - and so forth), have a lager they're rather fond of. Rock, the Horneater character, is hopeful that a bar they go to will have some of it, but is shot down when the waitress informs him they don't carry it because it melts their cups.

Originally Posted by GodBeastX

Spider Venom

I watched an episode of myth busters that was busting the myth of daddy long legs being the most deadly spider. There was a guy who extracted and tested spider venom for potency in the episode. You might consider various spiders, snake venom, etc.

Unless I've been gravely misinformed, most snake venom and similar is actually safe for a baseline human to ingest - it's not able to get into the blood stream via the mucus membranes, and the bits that make it dangerous are broken down in the stomach. You need a proper poison - something that's toxic simply by ingestion - to show off a trick like this. Keeping a syringe of snake venom and injecting yourself with it could be a method of showing off, provided you're able to convince your audience it's totally rattlesnake venom and not saline with yellow coloring added. Considering certain highly-venomous insects and the like as a delicacy can work, however, and would be far more appropriate for a cultural thing. I remember a comic where one of the major characters has a fancy name in a Language of Power that translates to "Eater of Spiders," although he pretty much had Immunity to Metabolic Hazards.

Originally Posted by GodBeastX

Pesticides

Terro kills ants, what does it do to people? Why not swig a bottle and find out! Rat poison is a neat one. Maybe open your mouth and spray a can of Raid down your throat! Yum!

With how crazy the ants go over Terro, I have to wonder if the stuff is delicious. Given, Borax is apparently not all that toxic to humans, so I could probably get away with giving it a taste... but I think I'd rather not.

Originally Posted by GodBeastX

Drugs

Pharmaceuticals and recreational are pretty much toxins. They just have side effects we enjoy! Does resistance to poison mean you resist these effects? I got no idea off the top of my head, but it might be cool to do a round of morphine with your friends and be the only one not going numb.

One thing I've read in the past is that a lot of recreational drugs aren't that dangerous themselves, but tend to be "cut" with more harmful substances, and a lot of drug-related deaths are due to the toxicity of the filler rather than actual overdoses on the pure stuff. If this is true (or is at least true in the campaign), a character with Resistant to Poisons (+8) might be able to manage a more intense high using badly-cut drugs, as he/she could resist the toxic fillers more readily. Failing that, well, being able to smoke a joint that's been laced with literal embalming fluid might be worth something, right?

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

In what way? Smoke is a poison.

It might be, but nontoxic particulate matter can be a problem. However, I would agree that poison immunity will protect against many things you'd want filter lungs for.

Originally Posted by Varyon

In The Noble Dead Saga, dwarves are extremely resistant to poisons (big shocker there) and typical alcohol, and instead tend to get drunk off wood alcohol, which I assume would be methanol. This strikes me as odd, as apparently methanol is actually less intoxicating (in terms of getting you drunk) but more toxic (in terms of getting you sick/dead) than ethanol.

Honestly, there should probably be a "different biochemistry" ad, disad, or 0p feature out there; things that react differently to specific toxins than humans may also react differently to a whole lot of other substances as well. A lot of biological points would probably be totally ineffectual on aliens, not because the aliens are specially poison resistant, but because they just don't have the receptors targeted by those poisons.

Originally Posted by Varyon

Unless I've been gravely misinformed, most snake venom and similar is actually safe for a baseline human to ingest

Unless you have open sores, bleeding ulcers, or something of the sort. Much better to use a device if one is available.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Honestly, there should probably be a "different biochemistry" ad, disad, or 0p feature out there; things that react differently to specific toxins than humans may also react differently to a whole lot of other substances as well. A lot of biological points would probably be totally ineffectual on aliens, not because the aliens are specially poison resistant, but because they just don't have the receptors targeted by those poisons.

Unusual Biochemisty is a canonical Disadvantage, but is more in the sense of "medicines and the like typically don't work right." Having other things work differently, like getting drunk on certain poisons, would be well within the realm of possibility, however. I wouldn't give Noble Dead dwarves that trait, however - somehow getting drunk off wood alcohol would just be a Feature, probably. Heck, we could probably use some magibabble to explain it away (In that series, dwarves are unsurprisingly connected to the element of Earth, which has associations with poison; wood is associated with Spirit, a different element, so as the drink is derived from wood it's able to magically bypass their Earth-granted resistance, but only in terms of inebriation, not poisoning, as poison is still the purview of Earth. Or something).

Originally Posted by Anthony

Unless you have open sores, bleeding ulcers, or something of the sort. Much better to use a device if one is available.

Much better to just not drink snake venom in the first place, honestly.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Much better to just not drink snake venom in the first place, honestly.

The situation it comes up is for sucking venom out of a snake bite. Snake bite kits include a suction bulb to do the job, but in theory it can be done by sucking (as noted, however, it's risky).

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Anthony

It might be, but nontoxic particulate matter can be a problem. However, I would agree that poison immunity will protect against many things you'd want filter lungs for.

Honestly, there should probably be a "different biochemistry" ad, disad, or 0p feature out there; things that react differently to specific toxins than humans may also react differently to a whole lot of other substances as well. A lot of biological points would probably be totally ineffectual on aliens, not because the aliens are specially poison resistant, but because they just don't have the receptors targeted by those poisons.

Unless you have open sores, bleeding ulcers, or something of the sort. Much better to use a device if one is available.

Breathing in hot ash will make you cough and possibly suffocate. That's due to mechanical hazards not chemical. Smoke inhalation kills more people during fires than fire itself and certainly more than the carcinogens in such smoke.

Aliens likely wouldn't be susceptible to native toxins evolved to knock out natives. But they would likely suffer from chemicals that aren't toxic to natives. Wasp venom itself wouldn't cause problems, but some inocuous protein in it might.

Anecdote: I've been stung by yellowjackets and paper wasp with barely a bump. But one stung when I didn't notice, and I bent my wrist trapping its stinger. It broke off causing a staph infection. Innocuous crud on the specially evolved stinger of a known venomous animal did FAR more damage than the venom itself.
I imagine aliens would be like that times 100.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Anthony

The situation it comes up is for sucking venom out of a snake bite. Snake bite kits include a suction bulb to do the job, but in theory it can be done by sucking (as noted, however, it's risky).

Does that even work outside highly cinematic campaigns?

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Does that even work outside highly cinematic campaigns?

The beneficial value of doing it has been shown to be minimal at best.

[Devil_Dante]

sorry for intrusion guys, but i take the chance to do this question: is there any sources that rules the poison craft? i saw the rules for poison and the pre-done poisons, but, if you wish to create some new poisons?