quote:
Originally posted by Pyrates:
The (2 Str) means that the poison inflicts a penalty on the strength of the victim by lowering it to 2.
Actually, the 2 Str means that the strength of the poison is the equivalent of a Poison spell cast at a strength of 2. Unfortunately, since there is no longer such a spell in Wiz 8 (though it was a staple in Wiz 6 and 7) most people will not realize what it means. Poison as a spell was probably equivalent to a Lvl 2 or
maybe 3 spell but could do some good initial damage and last for quite a while if you cast it at the higher strengths, which is why some of the creatures can really do a number on you poison-wise and others are relatively minor.
So basically the Str 2 tells you that you can get a decent but not superlative poison level out of the dagger if it makes its 20% chance to poison. Looking back on some of the poisoning items from Wiz 7, the Viper Arrows had a 100% poison chance and the Str was 3 as I recall while the Coil of the Serpent also had a 100% poison chance but the Str was a 5.