Forum

There was a discussion on the Discord on the possibility of poisoning ranged weapons. RAW seems that poisoned missiles aren't a thing, mainly because ranged weapons do not have the POINTED or EDGED feature, which are associated with the Slashing/Stabbing actions i.e. melee.
The PHB reads on page 114

Poisons can be smeared on weapons with the POINTED or EDGED features. The poison will take effect after an attack that inflicts one point of damage or more. Smearing poison on a weapon is a slow action. The poison stays on the weapon for a Quarter Day or until it’s used in an attack that hits a target.

For Critical Injuries from ranged missiles, GMs are supposed to roll on the Stab-table for arrows, bolts, throwing knives or Blunt Force for rocks. No mention of Slash Wounds table for Throwing axes though.

My question is, is the distinction for POINTED/EDGED just there to disqualify BLUNT weapons, or to categorically limit Poisoning to just melee weapons with those properties?

IMHO, aI all ranged weapons have either the same properties as their hand-held brethren, or are Pointed (Arrows, Bolts). Sling rounds are difficult, IMHO they are either Blunt (for collected stones or purely round shots) or Edged (for cast metal rounds, which are normally lens-shaped with a sharp rim). Not certain if that lack of information was an mistake, but I cannot see any sense in leaving this detail away?

Concerning poison and its application, I'd assume that ranged weapons can be poisoned with off-the-rack stuff, just like melee weapons. But it's IMHO up to the GM to define..
a) how long a prepared weapon remains potent (is the poison just good for the next round, or is it a lasting coating that remains active for a long period of time? The Quarter Day prep time is quite generous), and
b) how long it takes to prepare the round, in case of an in-situ deployment. I'd assume that, under normal circumstances, e.g. dabbing an arrow into a prepared/opened vial and preparing the weapon to shoot is a Slow action. This takes IMHO some attention and agility to do safely. And preparing the poison container for such a frequent use will also take time (at least a Fast action ("Use Item", like a grimoire). Or it's just not possible at all to use poison on wepaons in combat at all.

However, I'd also make sure that the Rogue's Talents are not devaluated, because they are special Profession tricks to have a poisoned weapon (which can also be a ranged weapon's shot) ready without the need of handling the apothecary and the weapon at the same time.

The problem with allowing ranged attacks is that the weapon is smeared until the next attack that hits.
So if you coat an arrow, and miss your attack, you probably lose the applied venom (which you do not with melee weapons). Well if you miss, I would probably rule that you could try to retrieve the missed arrowhead after the combat (since you did pay WP for it), and regain the poisoned arrow as long as you didn't completely deplete your arrow resources, but as long as you accept the risk that missing will make you unable to use the venom in that combat, then I would allow it.

...I would even allow that you could probably envenom multiple arrows at the same time, if you spent multiple WPs. (And the ability to do that could instead considered to be a boon to the arrow user.)

If you run out of arrow resources, I would however consider any pre-envenomed arrows as lost. When my players wonder how the could deplete two arrow resources in a row or so, I just say "your first now noticed that your last dodge (or last damage you took, or something else fitting), unfortunately broke the shafts of your remaining arrows". It is actually a good way of explaining resource roll looses, and can be used for other things as well (like you first now noticed that your remaining food spoiled, etc).