"Write a UO book authored by "Iola Tome" teaching those who wish to
learn poisoning from start to finish. This book will be added to the collection of tutorials."
Intro
Poisoning is not a difficult skill to train, but does take time and can be a little dangerous. Those who persevere
can achieve Grandmaster status in a fairly short amount of time. It is also one of the more expensive skills to train,
but can be fairly profitable. And combining this skill with magery can give you a good advantage in combat. The only
downside is that this skill is frowned upon by many people.
Training
The most important rule of poisoning is BE CAUTIOUS. But no matter how careful you are you WILL make mistakes until you
become adept at this skill. So always keep plenty of cure potions within arms reach. Most of your training time will
be spent working with greater poison. You will want to purchase some training to begin with. Then use normal strength
potions until you reach the halfway point in your training. Then begin using greater poison, which runs about 4-5k per keg
on the street, until you have the skill mastered. Now you have a decision to make. You can continue using greater poison
until you achieve Grandmaster status but it may take a little longer than if you start working with deadly poison. If you do
switch to deadly poison you'll probably be shelling out 20-30k for each keg. If you have the extra gold to spend, I suggest
using deadly poison at this point. I was lucky enough to have a couple friends making it for me so all I had to do was
supply the nightshade.
Everyone has a different method of training...this is how I did it. I kept one backpack with 25 single fish steaks, another
with 25 daggers, and another with about 10 of each. Make sure to keep these fish steaks away from your food supply.
*smile* Now start poisoning them one at a time, each in turn. Make only one attempt at each item. Whether you are successful
or not, do not repeat any item until you feel you have learned. When you feel you've learned something, then begin again
at the first one. That is all there is to it. It does get extremely boring at times, but is well worth the time.
Poisoning and Magery
Having advanced knowledge of the art of poisoning can increase the potency of a mage's poison spell. The following examples
assume a person with Grandmaster status of magery. A normal poison spell cast by a person with little to no poisoning
experience will always be of the lesser strength. At the midpoint of your training you will start casting regular poison
regularly. When you become an expert in poisoning is when it starts to get interesting. At this point if you are close
enough to your target, usually about two steps away, your poison spell will of greater strength...a nice surprise for
who/whatever you are fighting.. After you reach Grandmaster status, you have about a 1 in 20 chance at that distance
that your greater poison spell will actually be a deadly poison spell.
Negatives
Poisoning anything is considered dishonorable by most citizens of Britannia, and will result in a bit of bad karma.
But you can easily counter these karmic effects by visiting any Virtue shrine and by doing other good deeds (assuming
you are a good person), and no one will be the wiser.
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