One of the the liquids than an alchemy jug can produce is 1/2 ounce of basic poison. However, there is no indication in the item's description of how much you can do with this amount of poison. In the description for a poison vial, it says you can coat 1 weapon or 3 pieces of ammunition with the poison from one vial, but it doesn't say how much poison comes in a vial. So, is the half ounce of poison from an alchemy jug intended to be equivalent to one vial? If not, how many weapons or pieces of ammunition can be coated using the half ounce of poison?
[RPG] How many weapons can I coat with the 1/2 ounce of basic poison from an alchethe jug
dnd-5emagic-itemspoison
Related Topic
- [RPG] How many arrowheads can I coat with one dose of poison
- [RPG] Does the Polearm Master attack work with poison
- [RPG] How does a poisoned arrow combine with the spell Conjure Barrage
- [RPG] What DC should I use for someone trying to survive indefinitely solely with an alchethe jug as their only source of food and water? (survival campaign)
- [RPG] Can an ordinary whip be poisoned
Best Answer
There are no numbers given for how much poison is contained in a vial of basic poison, how big that vial is, or how much a single "dose" of poison is so it's hard to say with 100% certainty and ultimately comes down to DM ruling.
Option 1
A vial from the equipment list can hold up to 4 ounces of liquid (PHB, pg. 153).
Assuming a vial of basic poison contains a full 4 ounces of poison, then this gives us 25% weapon coverage per ounce of poison (or 12.5% per half-ounce), and 75% coverage on 1 piece of ammunition per ounce (or 37.5% cover on 1 piece of ammunition per half-ounce).
In short, you wouldn't be able to cover even one piece of ammunition, let alone one weapon, with the half-ounce of poison the alchemy jug produces and it would take you at least 8 days to produce enough poison to fill a vial.
Option 2
However, page 139 of the DMG states that:
Basic poison isn't a magic item or a potion but it is clear that a 4 ounce vial isn't the standard liquid container.
If a vial of basic poison is only one ounce then you could cover half a weapon or 1.5 pieces of ammunition and would only take 2 days to gain enough poison for full coverage.
Option 3
Option 3 is to keep it simple. Don't get bogged down with unnecessary levels of finicky detail trying to figure out how many ounces are in a single dose of poison; the designers sure didn't in this instance.
If we keep things simple then the half-ounce of poison produced by an alchemy jug is equivalent to and follows the same rules as the vial of basic poison.