DnD Poison Rules and Types
Poison in Dungeons & Dragons is one of the game's oldest and most mechanically layered hazards — a category of damage and conditions that spans everything from a kobold's envenomed dart to an assassin's carefully prepared vial of midnight tears. The rules governing poison appear across the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual, and getting them right at the table matters more than most groups initially expect. This page covers how poison is defined in 5th Edition, how the mechanics actually resolve, where it shows up most often, and where Dungeon Masters have to make judgment calls.
Definition and scope
Poison in 5e occupies two distinct roles simultaneously: it is a damage type and a source of the Poisoned condition. Those two things often appear together, but they are not the same thing, and the distinction trips up tables constantly.
The Poisoned condition — defined in the Player's Handbook appendix — imposes disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks for the duration. It does not deal damage on its own. Poison damage, by contrast, is simply a damage type like fire or necrotic; a creature can take poison damage without ever becoming Poisoned, and vice versa.
The Dungeon Master's Guide (p. 257–258) organizes purchasable and craftable poisons into four categories:
- Contact — applied to a surface; takes effect on skin contact, no ingestion required
- Ingested — must be swallowed; typically hidden in food or drink
- Inhaled — released as a powder or gas; affects all creatures in range who breathe
- Injury — applied to a weapon or piece of ammunition; delivered through a successful attack that deals damage
Each type has different application logistics, detection difficulties, and action economy implications at the table. That four-part taxonomy is the core framework for everything that follows.
How it works
When a creature is exposed to a poison, it typically makes a Constitution saving throw against a DC set by the poison's stat block or the ability of the creature delivering it. Failure produces the verified effect — often the Poisoned condition, poison damage, or both.
Some poisons have a delayed onset. Midnight Tears, for example, causes no effect until the stroke of midnight, per the DMG stat block. Crawler Mucus (also DMG p. 258) paralyzes on a failed save. The saving throw DC for crafted poisons is typically 8 + the crafter's proficiency bonus + their Intelligence modifier, assuming proficiency with a poisoner's kit.
The poisoner's kit is the relevant tool proficiency (introduced in the Player's Handbook, expanded in Xanathar's Guide to Everything p. 82). Proficiency allows a character to craft poisons during downtime — the base crafting cost for basic poison is 25 gp per dose, and crafting takes 1 day of downtime per 25 gp of market value.
Resistance and immunity to poison are common among monster types. Undead, constructs, and many fiends are immune to the Poisoned condition entirely. Dwarves have advantage on saving throws against poison as a racial trait. These factors shift poison's tactical value significantly depending on party composition and the encounter roster — something worth understanding as part of the broader mechanics of the game.
Common scenarios
Poison comes up in three recurring contexts at most tables:
Assassination and intrigue. The Assassin subclass (rogue, Player's Handbook p. 97) applies poison damage on surprise attacks and gets proficiency with the poisoner's kit at 3rd level. This is the most common PC-facing use case, and the one where players most often ask what's available to purchase. Basic poison sells for 100 gp per vial (PHB p. 153); more exotic varieties from the DMG range from 100 gp (Serpent Venom) to 1,500 gp (Purple Worm Poison, DC 19 Constitution save, 35d6 poison damage on a failure).
Environmental hazards. Poisoned darts, needle traps, and venomous creatures produce poison as a byproduct of encounter design. Giant spiders, giant centipedes, and wyverns all deliver injury poison through their stat block attacks. These cases follow the same saving throw framework but use the creature's stat block DC rather than a crafted item's.
Political and narrative play. Ingested poisons are almost exclusively a storytelling tool — they require access to a target's food or drink, which is inherently a social or stealth challenge before the mechanics even kick in. For tables running intrigue-heavy campaigns, this is one of the places where the rules intersect most directly with the larger scope of what DnD supports as a game.
Decision boundaries
Several rulings are genuinely ambiguous and require table-level decisions.
Can poison be detected? The rules don't specify a universal detection mechanic. Most DMs call for a Wisdom (Perception) or Intelligence (Investigation) check, often against the same DC as the poison's saving throw. That's a house rule, not a printed one.
Does Paladin's Aura of Protection apply to poison saves? Yes — it's a Constitution saving throw, and the aura adds the paladin's Charisma modifier to all saving throws for nearby allies (Player's Handbook p. 85). This makes the paladin the single most effective counter to poison in a standard party.
Does the Poisoned condition stack? Two sources of the Poisoned condition do not compound — the condition either applies or it doesn't. Additional exposures don't layer disadvantage on top of existing disadvantage.
Natural recovery vs. magical removal. The lesser restoration spell (a 2nd-level spell, PHB p. 255) ends the Poisoned condition immediately. Without magic, most poisons end after the verified duration on a successful save, or at the DM's discretion. For quick answers to other common rule questions, the DnD FAQ covers frequently disputed cases. Newer players unsure how to approach these rulings can find additional context at how to get help for DnD.