How high can poison damage go

the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim

So, I have been blindly making potions and poisons to raise my skill level using a calculator to just make the most expensive combinations I can. Last night when I went to sell my stacks off to get more ingredients I found this poison in my inventory and had to do a double take.

crazy poison
(source: steamusercontent.com)

That is 1651 damage along with a few other effects. My alchemy is not level 100, I do have some of the basic boosts and the more damaging poison and beneficial perks, but this seems just way way out there. Was this a fluke? Are poisons of this level possible?

Edit: Ingredients and an Ah Ha.

This poison had to have been made with a Jarrin Root which is only obtainable by a quest and only one sample. (I must have done my crafting while on this quest I guess). The recipe was:

  • Jarrin Root
  • Ectoplasm
  • Glow dust

So, this potion aside as it is a one time only deal (Should have saved it :D), what should I be expecting from my poisons for outright damage?

Best Answer

The reason why your poison is so high is because you used the jarrin root. It is extremely deadly and I've seen potions with it that can go much higher. The wiki says that jarrin root and deathbell can make a poison of 2400 damage.

You should have saved it as there's no way to obtain a second jarrin root except through the console.

Through normally obtainable ingredients, the highest damage poison I was able to make (while wearing 5 pieces of fortify alchemy gear, including usage of the falmer helmet glitch, all necessary alchemy perks and alchemy skill at 100) was this:

enter image description here

This was done with these ingredients:

For some reason, crimson nirnroot makes the strongest damage health effect @221, all other combinations do not come close.

Assuming the target has no poison resistance, this will end up being roughly 384 instant damage. Here are combinations of damage health with other effects:

Crimson Nirnroot + Giant Lichen + Jazbay Grapes: enter image description here
The ravage health comes handy since it lowers the max hp of a target so they cannot heal themselves to regain that hp.

Crimson Nirnroot + Imp Stool + Slaughterfish Eggs:
enter image description here
If you do not care about instant damage, this is probably the highest damage poison you can make in the game with over 500 poison damage.

And finally, for a fun experiment, here is what my maxed out alchemist can make with a jarrin root:
ITS OVER 9000!!!! Roughly 12.8k damage(take that Alduin!)