Pin Ring

This simple weapon is a ring with a flip-up lid, below which is a needle capable of delivering a dose of poison (or knock-out drug, etc.) to the target. The most primitive version of this will have the pin simply sitting in a small reservoir of liquid drug or toxin. Since administration of the poison/drug is rather haphazard here, the victim receives a bonus of +2 to any saving throw against its effects. Subtler and more refined designs have a needle capable of drawing up liquid from a reservoir, so that only a normal saving throw (or even one with a -2 penalty) applies. The DM should decide which to allow in the campaign (both can exist at the same time, of course).

An attack with a pin ring is a called shot (with a -4 penalty to the attack roll) because it must strike exposed flesh—the pin will not administer poison through any significant thickness of clothing. A strike to the neck is the time-honored way of making sure the toxin gets into the bloodstream quickly. The DM may rule in unusual cases that no called shot is needed (e.g., the thief surprises a victim in his bath) or that the pin ring cannot be effective at all (e.g., the victim is clad from head to toe in field plate).