The Codex Venenorum is done. Whew! I’m sure it will come as no surprise that I’ve always had a special place in my heart for Poisoncraft, which was the first product I ever published, way back in 2004.
Retooling the book for 4e was incredibly challenging, but I’m happy to say it was also extremely rewarding. It opened my eyes to some of the subtler design elements of the new system. In short, I think the process of creating the new book made me a better designer. This caused something of a chain reaction. While I was creating all of the poisons that form the meat of the Codex, I kept coming up with new ideas and new ways of handling things. And, of course, I had 30 levels to play with now, instead of just 20. In the end, I came up with 81 poisons for the Codex, and I’ve only scratched the surface of what these new playthings can do.
I thought I would post a few peeks here for those on the fence. For starters, I’ll show you one of the new poisons, First Strike:
You can see, I tweaked the format a little. For starters, I wanted to add a little more fluff for each poison, using an “implied setting”, written in the voice of Nylson Veld himself. This went a long way in keeping a raft of poison entries from becoming eye-meltingly boring. You’ll also note the dual entry for the component cost. This is for the two versions WotC displayed in the DMG and AV, i.e., persistent and transient, i.e., one-encounter and one-shot. Finally, the poison shows some of the unique directions I took in exploring properties and effects. Here, we have an interesting property that offers strategic challenges and a non-standard remedy (the condition that ends an ongoing effect) that shows off some of what the new Codex is all about.
The product itself includes a handy index of all 81 poisons in separate, sortable Excel and CSV formats. This index includes all of the information necessary to actually use the poison in your game, including the attack bonus and effects. If you want a taste of what the book contains (poor choice of words I know), you can download the Excel spreadsheet and a pdf of the index sorted by level right now.
Finally, I thought I would give a teaser about material I am working on for upcoming Poisoncraft products, specifically the Player Options and DM Options books. They’ll see a return of all the fan favorites from the original Poisoncraft, including the sennith PC race, toxifying magic weapons, and the dreaded toxic deathlords. I’ll be recasting all of the prestige class abilities and spells to suit the new 4e power structure. So get ready for the wall of wasps and the toxomancer paragon path. And I’ll be presenting a slew of skill challenges, encounters, and side treks for DMs to throw at their players. Of course, I’m looking forward to diving in.
I’d love to hear your thoughts about the new Codex, what you are doing with it, and how it’s going down in your game.
The Witch Doctor Player Class
The Shroud has changed the world in many ways, some profound, but others more subtle. This is the story of how the Shroud changed a man’s beliefs without changing his body. A man named Wilhelm ark-Trasser found himself on a quest that led him into the dark heart of the Shroudlands. There he faced the toughest challenge of all: remaining true to his principles in the face of adversity. The Shroud changed him, and he changed the world. Will the Shroud change you?
The syrallax rivals the dark elf and aboleth for domination of the subterranean realm. While syrallaces lack the sheer numbers of other races, they make up for it with the impressive stable of minions and thralls they keep and their ability to maximize those forces through superior strategy. Through intimidation and their poisonous gaze, they force others to serve them out of fear.
Hard Boiled™ Cultures for 4E
Few horrors of the Shroud can match the death-mother. Found consuming entire graveyards to give birth to its terrible spawn, a single death-mother with an ample supply of corpses can bring an entire town or small city to its knees… or worse.
Infected with dark, necrotic magics while dying, the half-dead have returned only part-way to life, their flesh afflicted by an undead curse. Though they can be killed, Death’s grip upon the half-dead is a slippery one at best. Half-dead characters—whether tragic heroes or dark villains—hound their foes relentlessly, driven to action by the horror of their condition. Many half-dead seek to hide their nature from others. When the half-dead are finally revealed for what they are, much of the world responds with horror, revulsion, and worse.
What happens when the faithful lose their way? What happens when a Paladin falls? 
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