Light Crossbow +3: Scorpion's Sting, ApR +3, poison dmg per round 18

• Light Crossbow +3: Scorpion's Sting. CMBWQ03, THAC0 +3, 1d6 +3, ApR +3, save vs. Death or take 18 poison damage per round up to total of 45 damage.

This crossbow was crafted by the Erreth-Akbe for their long fought war against the Necromancers. The crossbow was enchanted with the ability to form poison bolts when aimed at a target. Once built the druids realized that it was too chaotic a weapon for them to permit its use, and so it was buried beneath the temple never to be seen again.

A Dark Horizons addition to Baldur's Gate, this vicious missile weapon is found on the corpse of the assassin, Andrea, in the Section tunnels beneath Beregost.

  

By reason of its unresistable 6 points of poison damage per round up to a total of 15 damage, the Dagger of Venom crowned my best weapons write-up. But now look at the poison inflicted by Sting:

- 18 points of poison damage per round up to total of 45 damage -

That poison will eat away even the deepest hitpoint pool in no time. Also, +3 ApR is crazy. It basically means combat units lacking Specialization and Grandmastery can still devastate. Or it means that 7th level warriors gain max 5 ApR with just Specialization in missile weapons.

Moreover, as per Gesen, Sting's auto-ammo erroneously stacks with conventional ammo loaded into the quiver. Thus, if we load our quiver with Bolts of Biting, the victim has to make a secondary save vs. Death per firing or take 30 dmg over 15 secs in addition. Or, if we load the quiver with Bolts of Lightning, it's save vs. Breath or take 4d4 electrical in addition.

Because it chews out big chunks of HPs with each bolt, even the staunchest, most stalwart tank may end up morale-failed and then enter into a short-lived state of panic as the poison finishes them off.

Note: Looted from the corpse of elven assassin, Jhaeros Auglathla, the Light Crossbow +3: Firetooth [CMXBOW01] sports the same properties as Sting, except that it inflicts +2 fire instead of poison.

Dark Side of the Sword Coast Items --- Baldur's Gate 1 Items.