Venom Mage

Obsolete: This article refers to an aspect of the game which has been removed. It is retained for historical reference only.

Venom Mages specialise in poison magic, which is extremely useful in the shallower levels of the Dungeon where few creatures are immune to it.

Venom Mage are spellcasters who specialize in Poison Magic. Their toxic spells are effective against insects and spiders, but they are more than capable of exterminating warm-blooded creatures, too. However, they will probably have to branch out into other schools once they start facing more demonic creatures and undead.

Preferred Species

Merfolk, Demonspawn, Djinni, Spriggan, Tengu, Deep Elf, and Naga are the recommended species if you pick a Venom Mage Background.

Starting Equipment

Some species may receive different items based on their unique restrictions.

• +0 robe
• Potion of magic

Available Spells:

• Sting
• Poisonous Vapours
• Mephitic Cloud
• Olgreb's Toxic Radiance

Venom Mages start with the Sting spell already memorised.

Starting Skills and Stats

These are adjusted by your species' aptitudes.

• Dodging: 2
• Stealth: 2
• Spellcasting: 2
• Transmutations: 1
• Poison Magic: 3

Choosing Venom Mage adds 7 to your starting Intelligence and 5 to your starting Dexterity.

Strategy

Poison Magic itself is a strong starting school. Many of your poison spells ignore both AC and EV. Mephitic Cloud inflicts confusion (and has multiple chances to do so), allowing you to disable dangerous monsters.

Unfortunately, monsters with poison resistance/immunity are very common. Even in the early game, you'll find resistant enemies like ice beasts, jellies, and wights. Therefore, Venom Mages will need some other way to deal damage. What exactly you should use will depend on what items you find, as well as your background. Because you cannot rely solely on Poison Magic past the early game, Venom Mage can be unintuitive for new players.

Fast species like Spriggans are good with keep-away tactics that make poison effective. Physically gifted species also benefit from this background. Even the dopiest character can manage to scrape enough experience together to get Poisonous Vapours and Mephitic Cloud functioning well, and those two spells can make a huge difference for an otherwise melee-based thug.

Spell Details

Sting is a decent spell. It deals some physical damage on its own, but its guaranteed chance to poison will probably kill any foe on the first 2 floors. Once you reach XL 2, you get a burst of power in Poisonous Vapours, a max range, smite-targeted spell that inflicts poison. A few applications will maximally poison a foe, leaving it to die as you run away.

Learn Mephitic Cloud the instant you hit level 3. Confusion is a very strong status, preventing all spells, and monsters only have a 1/3 chance to successfully move towards you. However, this spell is quite loud, attracting other enemies to you. The clouds will affect you if used too close; either have poison resistance, or aim behind an enemy. Having 2-3 points into both Air Magic and Conjurations is helpful; its a little tough to cast by training Poison alone.

Olgreb's Toxic Radiance is a powerful crowd controlling tool. It inflicts less poison than Poisonous Vapours, but it affects all vulnerable monsters in your line of sight. While Vapours is better against single targets, OTR excels against groups, especially in the mid-dungeon and Orcish Mines. A frisky VM may want to go into Orc before Lair (though watch out for many threats: wargs are rPois, while paralysis, stone giants, and many melee threats are still scary).

If you can find it, Ignite Poison is an extremely valuable spell for Venom Mages. It doubles the poison damage you've done, and turns it into fire damage. Great damage, great MP efficiency, and only takes a few turns to poison -> Ignite Poison. You can also turn Mephitic Cloud into flame clouds, allowing you to damage foes with poison resistance.

Tips & Tricks

• Other than the weak Sting, your starting spells are useless against monsters with poison resistance. Poison resistance is common; early threats include undead such as wights and sleepcaps, ice beasts, and water moccasins. Several enemies in Lair have resistance, namely hydras, black mambas and cane toads. Therefore, you'll need to find some other way of dealing damage.
  • As mentioned above, Ignite Poison can turn Mephitic Cloud into flame clouds. However, you are by no means guaranteed to find this spell. Even if you do find this spell, you can't rely on it forever.
  • Early branded or artefact weapons can be a boon to most characters - even more so for Venom Mages.
  • Later on, poison resistance becomes more and more common. Either Sif Muna or Vehumet will help with your magic -- both your current spells and your future endeavors.
• Note that Poison Magic is not useless in the mid- and late- game. Once you get some other way of dealing damage, poison is a great side option. For example, OTR can be used as an MP-efficient option for crowd-control. Mephitic Cloud still has a good chance to confuse enemies in Vaults and Elf.
• For an ordinary, robed caster, OTR only requires around 6-8 skill in Poison Magic to be reliably cast -- even with low Int. You can consider other options as soon as you hit that threshold (or well before).

History

• In 0.31, this background and the Poison Magic school were removed. The new Alchemist background inherited all Venom Mages' starting spells and got a reworked version of Sticky Flame.
• In 0.29, most backgrounds were buffed; all Mage backgrounds gained a potion of magic.
• Prior to 0.27, Venom Mages started with the Young Poisoner's Handbook, and had Ignite Poison.
• Prior to 0.25, Ignite Poison was not in the Young Poisoner's Handbook.
• Prior to 0.20, the Young Poisoner's Handbook had Alistair's Intoxication instead of Poisonous Vapours.
• Prior to 0.19, the Young Poisoner's Handbook had Cure Poison instead of Alistair's Intoxication.
• Prior to 0.14, Venom Mages started with only 1 level in Spellcasting.