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A little girl and her grandmother were wandering in the forest just outside of Salem, where the raspberry bushes grew wild, their baskets were overflowing, ready to make a delicious feast. As she ran over a hill she saw a marvelous bush with dark blue berries and bright pink flowers, and she simply had to try them. Her grandmother managed to limp over the hill. Old as she may have been, she recognized those berries from a mile away. She ran to the girl and slapped the berries out of her hand, frantically grabbing at her clothes, screaming "Did you eat any?! Did you?! Please tell me you didn't eat any!", and the girl nodded earnestly. "That's a good girl!" a moment passed, and she started screaming again, "Don't you ever touch those plants! You hear me!? Those could kill you!" The girl nodded again, having learned her lesson.

A decade had passed, and she had learned about every berry and herb in a hundred-mile radius. They called her a freak at school, an orphan, a meaningless nobody. How she hated them. She was young and impulsive but unfortunately not stupid. She ground those berries from the very same bush that had nearly killed her as a child and poured the pulp into a pie. She went over to the worst bully of them all, the Mayor's son and offered him the pie. He ate it, and within a moment was dizzy, and nauseous. The day after he was dead. The lookout screamed, "She's the one who visited him two nights ago and gave him a laced pie! She's the murderer!"

Fueled by adrenaline, she ran and ran, as fast and far as her legs could take her into the forest, where the town lost track of her. She kept on running until she ran into an older woman collecting mushrooms. The Coven Leader took the young girl under her wing and decided that inexperienced as she may be, she had potential. She hid the girl from the Town, on the agreement that the girl would work for the Coven as the Poisoner. (credit)


RoleIcon CovenLeader Circled This page describes content that can only be accessed in the Coven Expansion.


Mechanics[]

  • The Poisoner has the ability to Poison someone each Night. Your poison deals the equivalent of a Basic Attack on the Night you poison someone, meaning anyone who has been Poisoned without defense then gains defense the next night (like a Survivor self vesting or being jailed), will still die to Poison.
    SpecialLabel Poisoned

    The icon that appears next to Poisoned players on the player list

    • Your Poison will only take effect the day after you Poison your target. Anyone with Basic or higher defense on the night they're Poisoned will not be Poisoned.
    • Your Poison will only kill those with temporary defense. Anyone who gains permanent defense before the night they die to Poison (like a Mafioso being promoted to Godfather), will survive your Poison.
  • Poisoned players will know they were Poisoned.
    • If your Poisoned target dies from the Poison, your target will receive a message stating "You died to poison!"
  • A Doctor, Guardian Angel, or Potion Master can remove your Poison if they protect your target.
  • With the Necronomicon, your Poison can no longer be cured by a Doctor or Potion Master and will ignore their protections. However, your Poison can still be cured by a Guardian Angel's purge. Your attack will not become more powerful.
  • If you Poison someone with the Necronomicon, it will show the message "You were poisoned. You will die tomorrow!" instead of "You were poisoned. You will die tomorrow unless you are cured!".
  • You cannot Poison a player who has left the game. 

Strategy[]

  • Your delayed kill means that Lookouts will sometimes have a harder time finding you. You can use this to "prove" your innocence in the later part of the game. However, smarter Lookouts will notice you visiting your target, so when they die a day later, they will be suspicious of you or even call you out if their target claims they were Poisoned.
  • Since your kills are delayed, you can utilize this to out roles with defense in your Death Note on the same Night you Poison them provided your previous Poison killed someone that Night.
  • Doctors are a high-priority target; with them in play, you are virtually useless until you have the Necronomicon (even then, a Guardian Angel can still remove your Poison), the reason being that anyone Poisoned can simply claim so and the Doctor will heal them, confirming themselves and the Doctor in the process.
    • However, you will open the door to all other players being attacked by your fellow Coven members, and even members of the Mafia or other hostile Neutrals, provided there are no other Town Protectives.
  • The revealed Mayor is very vulnerable to Poison as they can't be saved by a Doctor. Note that you might be caught by a Lookout or Crusader poisoning the Mayor, so it's wise to find them first and kill them before poisoning the Mayor.
  • Claiming to be Poisoned has its benefits - it means the Doctor will heal you that night, protecting you from harm. Even if the Town notices you haven't died, you can simply claim to have been healed. Of course, this will not work once you get the Necronomicon, as healing will no longer prevent death by Poison.
    • This strategy can backfire if a Doctor decides to heal you and you aren't attacked. You can also be called out by a Spy, who will see no Coven visit you unless a Potion Master interferes.
  • Coordinate with your fellow Coven members on who you should Poison. Before Night 3, you are the only Coven member able to kill reliably and consistently (without requiring a Coven Leader + Medusa combination).
    • Under the rare circumstance with a Necromancer teammate and a dead Blackmailer, the Necromancer can blackmail the target of your Poison, making them incapable of asking a Doctor to cure them. Claiming to be Poisoned yourself the next day, while taking suspicion off you in the short term, makes you vulnerable to being called out in your victim's Last Will after their death unless the Necromancer has an available Janitor/Forger corpse.
    • Once another Coven member obtains the Necronomicon, communicate with them to ensure that they don't attack the same target that's Poisoned or is about to be Poisoned. This will effectively allow the Coven to have a consistent two kills per night. The only to this exception is if the target is someone the Coven absolutely must kill immediately.
  • If you play with a Medusa, you can ask them to claim Poisoned while you don't Poison anyone and ask the Medusa to stone visitors the following night. This will allow them to kill the Doctor and make your Poison an actual threat; however, a Guardian Angel can still remove your Poison through purging. Be warned that smarter players will notice if someone says they will visit the Medusa and dies from stoning the day after.
  • Poison can be used to draw away Doctors from their original intended target, exposing that target in the process. Utilize this with the other available Coven members in order to determine who is and who isn’t protected.
  • The Poisoner is very much like a Mafioso, except with a higher chance that your target will not die. The Necronomicon is like a Mafioso being Disguised, and thus the role should be treated as a Mafioso.
    • Since a Poisoner is a delayed Mafioso, you are the least powerful Coven member, but you are also the most kill-consistent Coven member (without requiring the Necronomicon). Use this to your advantage.

Dealing with Poisoners[]

  • If you are Poisoned as a factional role, you still have a day to strategize with others before you die to Poison. Unlike any other killing role, their delayed attack allows you to coordinate with allies and even get cured if there's a Doctor or Guardian Angel.
  • As a Lookout, if you see someone visit your target and your target claims they were Poisoned, you may have found the Poisoner. If your target dies of Poison the next day, the player you saw is most likely the Poisoner.
  • As a Doctor, make sure to heal anyone claiming to be Poisoned. Not only will it remove Poison from them, it will protect them from any killers and confirm your claim later on. On the other hand, if the Poisoner has the Necronomicon, then healing Poisoned people is a waste of a night.
  • As a killing role, targeting people who are Poisoned is a bad idea. Not only will they likely be protected by Doctors or Guardian Angels, even if they are defenseless, they will die from Poison anyway, wasting a kill. However, if you have a Rampage attack, targeting a player that claims to be Poisoned may help you eliminate a Doctor.
  • As a Tracker, you can call out a Poisoner if you see them visiting someone who claims to be Poisoned the next day. Beware that the player you tracked is not necessarily the Poisoner, they simply may have happened to visit the same target as the Poisoner.
  • As a Mayor, you have the largest risk of revealing yourself if a Poisoner is known as a Doctor can't heal you. Always request protection and safety of any kind, such as a Bodyguard, Jailor, Trapper, or even a Crusader if you feel there are no more protective roles around. Lookouts can cover you and identify the Poisoner, and Transporters can be a good bet too.
  • If a known Doctor visits a role that has claimed to be Poisoned and dies to a Medusa, there is a good chance the person who claimed they were Poisoned is the Medusa (unless a Transporter interferes).

Trivia[]

  • The Poisoner is one of the few roles able to kill another player even after they have already died. 
    • Note, however, that if you change your Death Note after you die, those changes will not be reflected.
  • According to the game's lore, the Poisoner's name is Kande. The Poisoner, before joining the Coven, used to live in a small village in Africa.
  • During playtesting on the Public Test Realm, the Poisoner would come up as Trapper, Ambusher, Poisoner, or Medusa to the Investigator.
  • If you poison someone with defense the icon of being poisoned will appear by their name during the next day and night despite them not actually going to die from it.

History[]

  • 3.2.4
    • Temporary Defense given by certain roles through game mechanics now give attackers the message "Your target's defense was too strong to kill.".
  • 3.1.14
  • 3.2.3
  • 2.5.5.12200
    • The Poisoner's role icon has been changed. Old one was Achievement Poisoner.
    • Added Poisoner's circled role icon (RoleIcon Poisoner Circled).
  • 2.5.1.10655
  • 2.3.2.9706
    • Fixed an issue where if you were Poisoned, healed, then Poisoned again the next Night, you wouldn't receive a message letting you know you were Poisoned.
  • 2.0.0.6582
    • Introduced.
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