Poison (historical)

For the item needed for the Ernest the Chicken quest, see poison.

Poisoning is a detriment that players and monsters suffer when they are attacked by a poisoned weapon. Also, the Smoke-type spells from the Ancient Magicks cause their target(s) to become poisoned. Many NPCs are able to inflict poison. The maximum damage from this can range from 1 to 16.

When a player or monster is poisoned, a number appears with a green splat instead of a red or blue one, indicating the amount of damage the poison has dealt. Poison wears off over time, decreasing by a value of one for every three times it strikes.

For instance, if a player is hit by another player wielding a poisoned dagger, they would be hit for 4 damage every minute (four times), then 3 damage every minute (four times), then 2 damage every minute (four times), then 1 damage every minute (four times), and then the poison would be gone.

It is worth noting that an attack with a poisoned weapon does not actually need to score damage to inflict poison. Whether this is a programming oversight or intentional is not known. This could possibly be that poison does not need a cut (1 damage) but just a graze which does nothing to just to touch the player to poison them. Some monsters must inflict damage (Protect prayers do not negate this, and even if they hit zeroes due to the prayer's effect, you are still poisoned.) in order to poison a player. Some monsters, even when they do not inflict damage on you, shows that you are poisoned, while you are not.

It is also interesting to note that being afflicted by poison does not disrupt Woodcutting.

Weapon poisoning
Weapons can be poisoned by weapon poisons made through the Herblore skill. There are several types of weapon poisons which deal progressively more damage. Only spears, arrows, darts, daggers, and hastas can be poisoned. Poison can be removed from weapons with a cleaning cloth, obtained by using Karamja rum with Silk.
 * Weapon poison - poisoning deals 4 damage initially with melee weapons, 2 damage with ranged. (p)
 * Extra strong weapon poison - hits for 5 damage with melee, 3 with ranged (p+)
 * Super strong weapon poison - hits for 6 damage with melee, 4 with ranged (p++)
 * Karambwan paste - hits for 6 damage, cannot be cured by normal Anti-poison potion. This poison cannot be applied to daggers.

Curing poison
Poison can be cured through antidotes in the form of anti-poison potions. Anti-poison potions come in various levels which provide progressively longer immunity to poisoning. Except for Karambwan paste poison, even poisons that hit for 16 can be cured by the regular anti-poison potion.
 * Anti-poison potion
 * Super anti-poison potion
 * Extra strong anti-poison potion
 * Super strong anti-poison potion