Page 179 of the core book explains that poisons and toxins are simulated by causing a wound once, then allowing the Recovery roll mechanics to simulate a human body trying to purge the poison over time (With Heavy or worse poison causing more damage over time for that precise reason). The first part of my question is; because Aquam spells have difficulty producing immediately lethal poisons, should Herbam and Animal magic have complexity requisites on creating plant or animal products that just HAPPEN to be toxic or venomous? Doing some spell design, I found that magi are able to conjure toadstools and Asp venom with almost no effort and a shelf-life longer than should really be needed. Is the advantage of Aquam based unnatural poisons their relative subtlety?
Second question is, are there expanded tables for the weird stuff a player character might (purposefully or otherwise) ingest or be stung by? The mechanics are abstract enough that I could improvise, but some estimations of relative danger could help.
-A really terrible mushroom like the Amanita Virosa, or "Destroying Angel"
-A less deadly but still inedible "throat burning" mushroom, the type that a character with no Survival skill might accidentally pick up
-Nightshade berries, again because of really lousy Survival rolls
-Black Widow venom
-Millipede venom
-Scorpion venom
-Water shrew venom. It could happen!
-Heavy metal poisoning, such as from ingesting gold
-Lead poisoning, even though we're not in Ancient Rome anymore
-And for Art & Academe characters, toxic cleaning chemicals
While I'd rather not be poisoned at all, knowing such things is better than not.
To the first question: I don't think there's any problem creating entire plants or animals containing poison, but for creating processed plant or animal products containing refined poisons I think you should require a finesse roll with as high a difficulty as if you were creating a pharmaceutical theriac from Art & Academe as per the rules on page 70 (finesse difficulty 9 + the formula level) and 77 (base level 4 for causing a wound on a 6+, with minimum 1 extra level for a light wound. Extra wound levels or +3 to difficulty on stamina roll adds a magnitude) to keep making poisons and healing medications consistent.
To the second question: I haven't seen any expanded tables anywhere. Individual venoms are listed in the animal descriptions in some books (The Cradle & The Crescent, Between Sand and Sea, Lands of the Nile), but I don't recall seeing toxins anywhere other than in scenarios, where the difficulty is pretty much down to storyguide fiat.
Huh, thinking of the most immediately toxic example, an Amanita... I think that would be Ease Factor 9, Heavy wound. By the Art & Academe rules, creating an isolated dose of amatoxin with Creo magic is a base level of 20. or is that 8? does the base for Natural Philosophy increase the same way spell magnitude does? Because if it does, then just making a living Amanita (dangling mycelium and all) is base 1, or spell level 5 if you want one that exists for Moon duration. Of course, the more complex route is necessary for venom, since those kinds of compounds break down very quickly outside the animal's body. Meanwhile, arsenic doesn't break down at all! That example NPC with the poison darts from Against the Dark wasn't power gaming, they were just smart.
I think that when you create an animal with significant ability, relevant requisit(s) are required. For example, a fire breathing dragon is a CrAn with Ignem requisit (and possibly Vim for the truly magical nature of the beast).
So I would think that by extension, creating a plant or a mushroom with a significant ability would also require a requisit. In the case of the Amanita, it should be Perdo.
What is open to discussion is the base level: should the "power" of the natural ability of the plant impact the level of the spell ? For game balance reason, I would say yes, thus creating a amanita would be CrAn (base 1) & PeCo 25-30 (depending which wound level seems adequate). But you could also decide that what is important is the creation of the plant, and adding a requisit for the ability is enough - discuss that with your troop, but be aware that it could lead to much abuse.
I don't think the Perdo requisite is necessary if it's a natural attribute of the thing summoned - "Summoning the Creeping Death" in HoH:S (page 34), which creates and controls an Asp (venom doing an Incapacitating wound, ease factor 9) is a Cr(Re)An 25 spell.