Poison Tongue (Apath)

	Unofficial rules compendium
	Contents 1 Class Information 1.1 Class Skills; ; 2 Class Features 2.1 Weapon and Armor Proficiency; 2.2 Spells; 2.3 Hidden Weapon (Ex); 2.4 Sneak Attack; 2.5 Poison Use; 2.6 Poison Save; 2.7 Uncanny Dodge (Ex); 2.8 Auspicious Display (Ex); 2.9 Business Acumen (Ex); 2.10 Nondetection (Sp); 2.11 Purchase Spells (Su); 2.12 Mystical Contacts (Ex); 2.13 Tounge's Chest (Sp); 2.14 Planar Contacts (Su); 2.15 Hide in Plain Sight (Su); ; 3 Table: Poison Tongue; 4 Summary of Changed Class Abilities;
	Contents 1 Class Information 1.1 Class Skills; ; 2 Class Features 2.1 Weapon and Armor Proficiency; 2.2 Spells; 2.3 Hidden Weapon (Ex); 2.4 Sneak Attack; 2.5 Poison Use; 2.6 Poison Save; 2.7 Uncanny Dodge (Ex); 2.8 Auspicious Display (Ex); 2.9 Business Acumen (Ex); 2.10 Nondetection (Sp); 2.11 Purchase Spells (Su); 2.12 Mystical Contacts (Ex); 2.13 Tounge's Chest (Sp); 2.14 Planar Contacts (Su); 2.15 Hide in Plain Sight (Su); ; 3 Table: Poison Tongue; 4 Summary of Changed Class Abilities;

A poison tongue is a merchant prince who advances herself through the selective use of intrigue, poison, and drugs. A poison tongue rarely uses these tools to kill, preferring to exploit, impoverish and eventually enslave her victims.

Class Information

This is a prestige archetype. The poison tongue is a sweet-talking poisoner.

Prestige Class: Prophet of Kalistrade from Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Paths of Prestige.

Build Classes: Rogue.

Role: A poison tongue makes an excellent ambassador or spokesman, and a clever investigator or assassin.

Alignment: Any non-good. Most poison tongues are lawful evil and exploits society and advances herself at the expense of others.

Hit Die: d8.

Class Skills

The poison tongue's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are .

Skill Ranks at Each Level: 6 + Int modifier.

Class Features

These are all the class features of the poison tongue.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

Poison tongues are proficient with all simple weapons, plus the hand crossbow, rapier, sap, shortbow, and short sword. They are proficient with light armor, but not with shields. She can cast poison tongue spells while wearing light armor without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance. Like any other arcane spellcaster, a poison tongue wearing medium armor, heavy armor, or a shield incurs a chance of arcane spell failure if the spell in question has a somatic component. A multiclass poison tongue still incurs the normal arcane spell failure chance for arcane spells received from other classes.

Spells

A poison tongue casts arcane spells drawn from the sorcerer/wizard spell list, but is limited to divination and enchantment spells. She can cast any spell she knows without preparing it ahead of time. Spells of 5th level or higher are not on the poison tongue's spell list.

Add the following spells to the poison tongue's spell list at the indicated spell levels. She does not automatically learn these spells when they become available—they must be selected as part of her spells known.

**Table: Poison Tongue Spells Known**
Level	Spells Known
Level	Zero	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
1st	3	—	—	—	—
2nd	4	—	—	—	—
3rd	5	—	—	—	—
4th	5	2	—	—	—
5th	5	3	—	—	—
6th	6	4	—	—	—
7th	6	4	2	—	—
8th	6	4	3	—	—
9th	6	5	4	—	—
10th	6	5	4	2	—
11th	6	5	4	3	—
12th	6	6	5	4	—
13th	6	6	5	4	2
14th	6	6	5	4	3
15th	6	6	6	5	4
16th	6	6	6	5	4
17th	6	6	6	5	4
18th	6	6	6	6	5
19th	6	6	6	6	5
20th	6	6	6	6	5

1st—divine favor, floating disk, magic aura
2nd—arcane lock, augury, zone of truth
3rd—glibness, make whole, obscure object
4th—discern lies, divination, lesser planar ally

To cast a spell, a poison tongue must have a Charisma score of at least 10 + the spell's level. Her bonus spells are based on Charisma, and saving throws against these spells have a DC of 10 + the spell level + the caster's Charisma modifier (if any). Her selection of spells is extremely limited—at each poison tongue level, she gains one or more new spells, as indicated on Table: poison tongue Spells Known.

At 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, and 19th level, she can choose to learn a new spell in place of one she already knows, provided the new spell is of the same level as the one she is replacing.

Hidden Weapon (Ex)

At 1st level, an poison tongue becomes a master at concealing her identity and hiding weapons on her body. She adds half her poison tongue level (minimum +1) to all Disguise checks and to Sleight of Hand skill checks made to prevent others from noticing hidden weapons or to surreptitiously use poison.

Sneak Attack

If a poison tongue can catch an opponent when she is unable to defend herself effectively from her attack, she can strike a vital spot for extra damage. The poison tongue's attack deals extra damage anytime her target would be denied a Dexterity bonus to AC (whether the target actually has a Dexterity bonus or not), or when the poison tongue flanks her target. This extra damage is 1d6 at 1st level, and increases by 1d6 every two poison tongue levels thereafter. Should the poison tongue score a critical hit with a sneak attack, this extra damage is not multiplied. Ranged attacks can count as sneak attacks only if the target is within 30 feet.

With a weapon that deals nonlethal damage (like a sap, whip, or an unarmed strike), a poison tongue can make a sneak attack that deals nonlethal damage instead of lethal damage. She cannot use a weapon that deals lethal damage to deal nonlethal damage in a sneak attack, not even with the usual –4 penalty.

The poison tongue must be able to see the target well enough to pick out a vital spot and must be able to reach such a spot. A poison tongue cannot sneak attack while striking a creature with concealment.

Poison Use

At level 2, poison tongues are trained in the use of poison and cannot accidentally poison themselves when applying poison to a blade (see Poison).

Poison Save

At 3rd level, the poison tongue gains a +1 saving throw bonus against poisons. This bonus increase by +1 every three levels after level three. She also gains this bonus on Craft (Alchemy) checks to brew poisons.

Uncanny Dodge (Ex)

Starting at 4th level, a poison tongue can react to danger before her senses would normally allow her to do so. She cannot be caught flat-footed, nor does she lose her Dex bonus to AC if the attacker is invisible. She still loses her Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. A poison tongue with this ability can still lose her Dexterity bonus to AC if an opponent successfully uses the feint action (see Combat) against her.

Auspicious Display (Ex)

At 5th level a poison tongue projects an air of confidence and inviolability by displaying her wealth and status. So long as the tounge wears 1,000 gp worth of purely decorative jewelry, clothing, or other adornments, she gains a +1 dodge bonus to AC and a +1 morale bonus on saving throws. This bonus (and the necessary value of her accoutrements) increases as she gains levels, to +2 for 4,000 gp at 10th level, +3 for 9,000 gp at 15th level, and +4 for 16,000 gp at 20th level.

Business Acumen (Ex)

At 5th level, a poison tongue can treat settlements as one size category larger when determining their base values and purchase limits.

At 11th level, this ability improves so that the poison tongue can treat settlements as two size categories larger.

At 17th level, the poison tongue can treat settlements as three size categories larger.

Nondetection (Sp)

At 6th level, an poison tongue can use nondetection as a spell-like ability once per day as a wizard of her poison tongue level. At 12th level and 18th level, the poison tongue gain an additional daily use of the ability.

Purchase Spells (Su)

Starting at 7th level, a poison tongue can cast spells not normally available to her by expending a certain amount of gold. A poison tongue can spontaneously cast any 1st-level spell from any spell list, even those prohibited by alignment or other restrictions—by sacrificing 500 gp worth of currency (gp, sp, and so on) or gems. If the spell has a material component cost, it is added to the base cost of this ability. Currency or gems used in this way must be on the tongue's person, and goods other than standard currency or precious gems cannot be sacrificed to use this ability. Casting a spell in this way does not expend any of the tongue's uses of spells for that day, and once sacrificed, the currency spent to use this ability cannot be retrieved in any way—the money has effectively disappeared forever.

At 10th level, the poison tongue can cast a 2nd-level spell by sacrificing 1,500 gp.

At 13th level, she can cast a 3rd-level spell by sacrificing 3,000 gp.

At 16th level, she can cast a 4th-level spell by sacrificing 5,000 gp.

Mystical Contacts (Ex)

At 8th level, once per week a poison tongue can call in favors from her trading partners to purchase a spellcasting service at half its normal price. The tounge must still find a spellcaster capable of casting the spell she desires (which usually means finding a large enough settlement), and must provide any expensive material components required by the spell at their full price.

Tounge's Chest (Sp)

At 11th level, a poison tongue can hide a chest on the Ethereal Plane, as per the spell secret chest, except that the tounge does not need an expensive chest or replica—any chest will do. The tounge can summon the chest back to the Material Plane as a standard action up to three times per day. So long as the tounge accesses the chest once every month, it suffers no chance of being lost on the Ethereal Plane. A poison tongue can have only one chest on the Ethereal Plane in this way.

Planar Contacts (Su)

At 13th level, a poison tongue can purchase an outsider's services for half the normal cost when she casts a planar ally spell or is within 30 feet of an ally who casts a planar ally spell. When negotiating with a creature called by a planar binding spell (either her own or an ally's), the tounge gains a +4 bonus on any opposed Charisma checks.

Hide in Plain Sight (Su)

At 14th level, an poison tongue can use the Stealth skill even while being observed. As long as she is within 10 feet of some sort of shadow, an poison tongue can hide herself from view in the open without having anything to actually hide behind. She cannot, however, hide in her own shadow.

Table: Poison Tongue

Class Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Spells per Day
Class Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	1	2	3	4
1st	+0	+0	+2	+0	Hidden weapon, sneak attack +1d6	—	—	—	—
2nd	+1	+0	+3	+0	Poison use	—	—	—	—
3rd	+2	+1	+3	+1	Poison save +1	—	—	—	—
4th	+3	+1	+4	+1	Sneak attack +2d6, uncanny dodge	0	—	—	—
5th	+3	+1	+4	+1	Auspicious display +1, business acumen (+1 size)	1	—	—	—
6th	+4	+2	+5	+2	Nondetection, sneak attack +3d6, poison save +2	1	—	—	—
7th	+5	+2	+5	+2	Purchase spells (1st)	1	0	—	—
8th	+6/+1	+2	+6	+2	Mystical contacts	1	1	—	—
9th	+6/+1	+3	+6	+3	Sneak attack +4d6, poison save +3	2	1	—	—
10th	+7/+2	+3	+7	+3	Auspicious display +2, purchase spells (2nd)	2	1	0	—
11th	+8/+3	+3	+7	+3	Business acumen (+2 size), tounge's chest	2	1	1	—
12th	+9/+4	+4	+8	+4	Sneak attack +5d6, Poison save +4,	2	2	1	—
13th	+9/+4	+4	+8	+4	Planar contacts, purchase spells (3rd)	3	2	1	0
14th	+10/+5	+4	+9	+4	Hide in plain sight	3	2	1	1
15th	+11/+6/+1	+5	+9	+5	Auspicious display +3, sneak attack +6d6, poison save +5	3	2	2	1
16th	+12/+7/+2	+5	+10	+5	Purchase spells (4th)	3	3	2	1
17th	+12/+7/+2	+5	+10	+5	Business acumen (+3 size)	4	3	2	1
18th	+13/+8/+3	+6	+11	+6	Sneak attack +7d6, poison save +6	4	3	2	2
19th	+14/+9/+4	+6	+11	+6	Sneak attack +10d6	4	3	3	2
20th	+15/+10/+5	+6	+12	+6	Auspicious display +4	4	4	3	3

Summary of Changed Class Abilities

These abilities of the rogue are lost or modified in this archetype:

Rogue Talents (all)
Trap Sense
Advanced Rogue Talent

The text in this article is Open Game Content. It is covered by the Open Game License v1.0a, rather than the Action copyright. To distinguish it, these items will have this notice. If you see any page that contains OGL material and does not show this license statement, please contact one of the Action administrators. Please note that images used in article may have different copyright than the text.