In past Elder Scrolls games, poison has never been the "ace up the sleeve" for the player character it should have been. The lack of enemies who actually poison their weapons, and weakness of the poisons for those that did, also meant that it was never the game-changing threat it should have been either. In my mind, poison should be the one factor even high-level characters should always fear. With this in mind, what are some suggestions you would like implemented in the game to make poison a little more interesting? Here are a few of mine:

1. When sneaking, poisoned weapons should have all their normally "damage over time" effects be front-loaded. That way, sneaky poison users won't have to wait for the full effect to kick in and risk being detected by someone else. (Maybe this could be a perk).

2. Allow the player to see when an enemy is wielding a poisoned weapon. Also, increase the scope and power of poisoned weapons (slower move speed, hallucinations, bleeding out). If this is too cheesy for you maybe make this a perk as well. This is tied directly with number 3.

3. When blocking a poisoned weapon with another weapon or shield, have the poison not take effect until the poisoned weapon hits flesh. This would work for both the Dovahkiin and enemies. Shields would be able to block poisoned arrows while other shield-less characters would just have to try an avoid being hit. This would add a little more tension to fights with multiple baddies where you're trying to kill the poison guy first without being hit.

4. Allow for diminishing returns. Instead of having poison completely removed after hitting one guy. Make it last until it is wiped completely off. For every subsequent guy you hit, you'll do less and less poison damage.

I apologize if any of this has been suggested before, these were the most obvious changes I could think of.

I just hope there's more variety and more varied poisons. I also would be happy if they removed those stupid poisons like drain persuasion and luck.

I like these ideas and I agree with hircine no more pointless poisons

Hopefully Poisons are more Dynamic..Todd did say Alchemy doesnt really matter that much anymore :bonk: and it seems to be under the charge of Thieves now (so now thieves = assassins...k)

Poisons that go in stages, or only become more effective if certain conditions are met.

I don't want to see any Drain skill Poisons...that does not make the least of sense and lets not give it an excuse RP wise kk?

Poisons that blind or blurr your vision, or cause your Stamina to drain much faster than normal.

I definitely want a blinding poison, that would be awesome! *shoots bandit with poisoned (weak)bow and arrow* Bandit: Ow what the hell was that!? YOU! You are going to d- Wait I-I can't see! By the Divines I CAN'T SEE! *Moves in for the kill with dagger and performs a finishing move* any blinded enemy should be an automatic finishing move/one hit kill

As I recall poisons could be quite nasty in Daggerfall, as they could also damage your stats, curing poison did not recover these stats, and the only way to recover stats was to visit a temple. These Poisons were rare though.

You took that out of context. He was implying it doesn't matter what nebula it's under.

I'd like to see a powerful sleeping poison, personally... Just dip your arrow into a vial of sleepy juice, fire at an enemy, wait a few seconds, and do whatever you want without being attacked. :snoring:

i want a poison so deadly i can sneak behind someone poke them and they fall into a seizure or something but it is either extremely rare or you have to make it from rare ingredients with high alchemy and only one time use

Or a delayed death poison that kills a person after a day or so... Stab a guy and run for your life! Check back in a few days and claim your trophy (whatever that may be...).

I thought the paralyzing poison was dangerous thats just my opinion tho.

Visit a temple or have the spells needed to heal yourself of the stat damage. I remember one time in Daggerfall, getting attacked by two assassins in my house in the city of Daggerfall. At first, I thought I didn't pick up anything and went back to what I was doing in the house, which was sleeping, only to find I was taking damage from both a disease and a poison. I cure the disease, but I'm dying of the poison. I run through the city tryin to get to the mage's guild (it was closer), only to find it closed, so I run to the Temple, only to collapse dead right before I could get the poison cured.

Or maybe a poison that takes literally in game years to take effect.
Picture it, you've sunk 400+ hours into the game already, you upon the final quest character to turn in the last quest, when he dies right before you. It's only then that you realize that you poked him with an odd poison at the start of the game.

Tragic.

On a more serious not, I'd like a potion that produces the same results as assassin's creed II

I dont know if this would count towards poisons but the poisoned apples i would like to be able to use more effectively because i dont want to have to steal all the food in someones home just to "sneak" them an apple so they are left to eat this to make sure they get poisoned. I would rather have a poison that you can apply a poison directly to their food with a sneak check maybe so that way they would die from their food in a non suspicious way.

This is a good idea. I think a frenzy effect would be interesting as well. Maybe give poison-making the complexity spell-making has received in past games (and hopefully Skyrim). Spell-making was overpowered because eventually it took no effort to create game breaking spells. As long as you had enough gold and the magicka to cast it, you were set. Poison-making would balance itself because you'd be making an effort to collect rare ingredients for awesome poisons.

Poisons in Oblivion were also deadly if you knew what you were doing. There is this popular fanfic about a character called Buffy, who uses poison a lot.

for poisons i would really like it (Please Beth be listening) if you could have poisons that deal enough damage that you would actually care it was on your weapon or theirs and not have it do like 17 dmg to a character with 900hp. maybe make some with interesting effects like...ohh i dont know have a swarm of rats come out of no where to attack them[Rat pheromones?] idk any improvment from OB would feel appricated

A well-crafted specialize poison should be able to eliminate the toughest opponents with a [censored]. I want my blades to drip death, not minor discomfort.