Poisoning

Poisoning applies poison to weapons (and, classically, food). The prose is community-derived (paraphrased from the uorenaissance.com skill list plus ServUO behavior) pending field verification; the stats table, potion skill ranges, and charge formula below are source-verified against ServUO.

What it does

Poisoning lets you coat a bladed or piercing weapon — or food/drink — with poison from a poison potion, so that creatures struck (or fed) take poison damage over time. Higher skill lets you apply stronger poisons more reliably. It is a Mastery skill favored by assassins and a nasty addition to a Fencer’s infectious-strike blade.

How to apply poison

To envenom something: use the Poisoning skill, target a poison potion in your pack, then target the item to coat. After a ~2-second application a skill check decides whether the poison takes; on success the potion is consumed (you keep the empty bottle) and the item carries that poison (Scripts/Skills/Poisoning.cs).

What can be poisoned (on this AOS/EJ shard):

Weapons with the Infectious Strike special move. This is the AOS rule the server enforces — not “any bladed weapon.” The weapon’s primary or secondary ability must be Infectious Strike; anything else is rejected with “You can only poison infectious weapons, food or drink.” A poisoned weapon delivers its dose when you land an Infectious Strike.
Food and drink — a poisoned meal hits whoever eats it (the classic assassin’s trick).
Throwing weapons — fukiya darts and shuriken.

Applying poison is an evil act (−20 karma each time), and at under 80.0 skill a failed attempt has a 5% chance to poison you instead (“You make a grave mistake…”). See Poison & status for curing and Combat basics.

How to train it

No town trainer. Poisoning has no standard NPC vendor that teaches it (only a Dryad carries it), so train it by use from the start. The method: apply a poison potion to a weapon, food, or dart, repeatedly — Scripts/Skills/Poisoning.cs runs CheckTargetSkill(SkillName.Poisoning, target, potion.MinPoisoningSkill, potion.MaxPoisoningSkill), so the potion tier sets the difficulty window. Step the potion up as your skill climbs:

Low skill (0–60) — apply lesser poison potions; matched to skill 0.0–60.0.
Mid skill (30–70 / 60–100) — regular then greater poison potions.
High skill (80–100) — deadly poison potions for the steadiest late gains.

Keep a potion supply and a stack of weapons/food to envenom so a session never stops; GGS guarantees the slow late points. See skill gain and using & training skills.

Mechanics & numbers


Primary stat	Intelligence
Secondary stat	Dexterity
Title	Assassin
Mastery skill	Yes
Gain notes	training Poisoning raises Int (primary), or Dex (secondary) — a popular fast Int-trainer; see Stat gain

Verified from ServUO. The check is CheckTargetSkill(Poisoning, target, min, max) (Scripts/Skills/Poisoning.cs); the potion you use sets the difficulty window (next section). A successful weapon application gives 18 − (level × 2) charges (a weaker poison yields more charges). On failure there is a 5% chance to poison yourself below 80 skill.

Poison types and their effects

Poison comes in five strength tiers, each stronger and longer-lasting than the last (Scripts/Misc/Poison.cs, AOS values). The potion you apply determines the tier, and the potion’s skill window is what you train against:

Poison	Apply with (potion)	Poisoning skill	Weapon charges	Strength
Lesser	Lesser Poison Potion	0–60	18	weakest — light damage over ~10 ticks
Regular	Poison Potion	30–70	16	moderate
Greater	Greater Poison Potion	60–100	14	strong
Deadly	Deadly Poison Potion	80–100	12	very strong — bigger ticks, ~15 ticks
Lethal	(not craftable — high-end monsters only)	—	10	strongest — hardest hits, up to ~20 ticks

Higher tiers deal more damage per tick, run for more ticks, and are harder to cure (a Cure spell or cure potion can fail outright against Deadly/Lethal). Damage also scales with the victim — poison is brutal on low-HP targets and a steady drain on tough ones. Charges count down per Infectious Strike; re-apply when they run out.

Special poisons (Stygian Abyss): two exotic potions exist at 95–100 Poisoning:

Darkglow Poison — a Greater-tier venom that reveals and lingers, tuned to punish anyone who tries to out-wait it.
Parasitic Poison — a Deadly-tier venom that heals the attacker for a share of the poison damage it deals — the assassin’s life-leech.

The cure side (cure chances, Lesser/Greater/Arch Cure, cure potions) is covered on Poison & status.

Fencing / a weapon skill — poisoned blades + infectious strike.
Alchemy — brews the poison potions you apply.
Healing / Taste Identification — cure poison / detect poisoned food.