Poison (Final Fantasy V)

Poison is a Black Magic spell in Final Fantasy V. It inflicts the poison status effect, causing a target to take 1/16th of their HP every turn as poison-elemental damage unless they are immune to the effect or element. Poison cannot be group-cast. It can be used by the Black Magic and Red Magic skillsets (and can be used twice with Dualcast), and can also be used as a Spellblade to inflict poison-elemental damage and attempt to inflict the status. Poison is also one of the spells that can be cast for free from the Wonder Wand, and is also an Added Ability for the Poison Axe.
Poison is also an enemy ability that can be used by Calofisteri, Enuo, Flaremancer, and Omniscient.
==Obtained==
Poison can be purchased for 290 gil at Karnak or Crescent. Karnak is the earliest place Poison can be obtained. Once it is purchased, it can be used by any of the skillsets with the spell.
==Mechanics==
When cast as a spell, Poison will attempt to apply the poison status effect on an enemy. Unlike Bio, it does not deal initial damage. If applied, and if the enemy is not immune to the effect, poison will remove 1/16th of an enemy's HP on each of their turns.
:Spell Hit\% = 99 + Attacker Level - Target Level
:Evade\% = Target Magic Evade\%
If the target has shell, the Spell Hit% is halved. If the target is a toad, its Evade % is reduced to 0.
The game generates two random numbers between 0 and 99.
:If N1 >= Hit%, the spell misses
:If N2 < Evade%, the spell misses
If the target absorbs the poison element, the poison status heals them; if it is immune to poison, the attack misses. If the target resists poison, the damage dealt is halved, but if it is weak to poison, the damage is doubled. Poison is affected by reflect.
==Use==
Black Mages can use Poison in longer fights to damage enemies that are susceptible to the effect. Because damage dealt by the status the spell inflicts is based on an enemy's HP total, the ability scales throughout the game. Due to Poison's low MP cost, it can be cast cheaply.
As a Spellblade, Poison will deal poison-elemental damage, and inflicts the status each hit unless the enemy is immune. This can be effective to target a weakness to the poison element, and the chance to inflict the status means it can have a considerable improvement to ones' damage output.
The main drawback to Poison, both as a spell and as a Spellblade, is that it is not turn-efficient. Most battles end before poison has significant impact on a normal enemy's HP, and most bosses are simply immune to the effect. This means the turn spent imbuing a weapon with Spellblade, or casting the spell, is often wasted compared to more powerful attacks, especially since Poison cannot be group-cast. The Black Magic spell Bio alleviates this, having a higher MP cost, but inflicting considerable initial damage.
Category:Black Magic in Final Fantasy V