Astral Serpent - am I missing something?

[magnate]

As far as I can work out, this misc item does 2 damage - if it hits. Ok so it's armor negating (it'd be pretty useless otherwise!), but it doesn't add strength and it doesn't poison, paralyze, fatigue or otherwise hinder the enemy in any way.

Am I missing something, or is this precious misc slot *much* better used for something like a pendant of luck, burning pearl, etc. etc? Even on a let's-see-how-many-attacks-we-can-get SC it doesn't seem worth it.

Any dissenting views?

CC

[Molog]

Doesn't it have death poison?

[magnate]

Does it? Can someone confirm that? It doesn't say so in the item description, nor in the Magic Item Quick Reference. Does anyone see a poison drop when using it on an otherwise poison-free commander?

That, I have to admit, would render it a decent competitor for a slot.

CC

[Molog]

I can confirm it after looking at its stats.

[Aku]

its suppose to give 75% poison resist...so i guess that is the main feature of the item not the 2dmg attack

[Thufir]

It does in fact have death poison. If you look at the description of the weapon, as equipped, it shows up there. If you look at the item description in inventory, it's a little more vague (but still implies pretty clearly that poison is involved). The equipped description is:

Damage 2
Attack 0
Defence 0
Length 1
This weapon is considered magic
Death Poison

Pretty good I think, as a freebie bonus attack Also, not too expenseive to make at 5n 5s

[magnate]

Hmmm. I swear it doesn't say "Death Poison" at the bottom of the description in my inv. Never mind, thanks for the tip. From the description of how poison works, that's a maximum of 4.5 damage per turn over 10 turns (ie. 12+35-2 total), but there aren't many enemies big enough to survive 10 turns of melee combat against an SC equipped with one of these. I guess it does its listed 2 damage as well, so that's somewhere between 3 & 6 points per attack.

I think I'd still rather take the floating trident thingy.

CC

[Thufir]

magnate said:
Hmmm. I swear it doesn't say "Death Poison" at the bottom of the description in my inv.

Exactly - it doesn't say that on mine either. I pulled the text I listed above from clicking on Astral Serpent under the equipped weapon list.

Are there other debilitating effects for poison beyond the additional DOT damage? And are such effects specific to the Category (I think there are 4 something like categories of poison: death, paralysis, strong, weak). I don't suppose there's some small chance of instant death with the death poison, is there?

[Sheap]

Paralyzing Poison is the odd one out. It causes fatigue, not paralysis.

The only difference with the other poison types is the amount of damage they do. I know Death Poison does 35 damage (eventually). I don't remember how much strong and weak poison do. I think it's 5 points for weak, and 15 for strong. Don't quote me on that.