5e Potions Need to be Better
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- Опубліковано 6 вер 2021
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You ever find a potion in dnd and then find it again in your inventory like 6 sessions later. Because potions are bad? Maybe? Yes, they're lame and we gotta take creative reigns to make D&D more fun for ourselves and our table. So here's my 75 cents on potions!
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Fastest house rule in the west for potions:
“Drink hastily for a bonus action (standard roll). Drink carefully for an action (guaranteed maximum value)”.
Ooh, I like that
This is fucking excellent.
Aww snaps
Oh heck that's actually great. Filing that one away for my next game.
Yup, I use that rule. Highly recommended.
“Healing negates the impact heavy hits should have”
5e: “a 9 hour nap cures someone near death”
The Potion of God, if a PC drinks it, the player and the DM get up and trade places. You're the DM now, good luck!
did that at a party once. when you became DM you'd pick a word and the first person to say the word became the new dm. it went well until we swapped DM's twice in one round of combat and the new new dm hadn't kept track of spells, so the monsters used their 1/day abilities again and TPK'd everyone. we then spent like 20 minutes drinking and guessing his word, since his character was the only one left alive only to find out he was a super lightweight and had forgotten his word.
Love that idea!
@@NoESanity That sounds like a shitshow. I want in.
and then the universe falls apart because the player is unprepared for the inundation of responsibilities... karsus 2
Fun Fact: The DMG actually *covers* this idea! It's under "Plot Points" (not what you think) on page 269, and is aptly titled: "The Gods Must Be Crazy" LOL
The Ring of Power is not actually OP.
It comes with the risk of getting assaulted by a gang of immortal, ever returning, Wraiths with necrotic damage inducing blades that poison you. =)
Potentially allows the BBEG to automatically bypass scrying protections and know your location at all times...
Regular Wisdom saving throws at the beginning and end of each day it's in your possession to mitigate accumulating corruption points.
The Ring is only useful for particularly high level adventures and, even then, they’d be better off with other items. On some scrub halfling or human, it’s worse than nothing.
That's why the Ring was pissed that Hobbits had it. Hobbits have a natural Luck boost that allows them to pass a lot of those WIS checks easier than men or other races. Very infuriating.
I love all of you. Have an internet hug.
Thank you ser stinky 🙏🏻
Hehe
I really love giving out weird potions of odd spells. It is extremely rare the druid or Ranger is going to take Animal Friendship at lower levels. So giving them a potion that they can use if they don’t have the spell prepared, or if the group doesn’t have a caster with access to it is great.
Good
Initially I read that as *”I love girls who give out potions”* and kinda am happy with that version lol
Potion/weapon oil recipes are great way of giving cool magical items to your party without making them busted. Once I had the idea of a Beholder potion that, when consumed gave the player a anti-magic cone for one minute
@@slayeroffurries1115 giving Oil of Sharpness to a fighter is always a fun sight to see. It basically lets them go Super Saiyan for an hour.
I feel like that should be saved for spell scrolls. That's why spell scrolls exist in the first place. I prefer potions having more wacky effects
I love the "when thrown" property giving potions a new but related ability.
I also dig this distinction. I think it ought to be a mechanic!
"Potion of future sight", you throw it on a monster, and it dissappear until time next week, prob feeling confused af
I even like that for the normal spell potions. Heroism when consumed buffs, but when thrown casts Bane instead.
In Baldur's Gate 3 you can throw potions of healing at people to heal them.XD
Diluting potions and reverse-engineering potion recipes should be a thing. That way, finding a potion can add something to your character long-term, like most other magic items can. It would also mitigate save-it-for-the-boss-fight syndrome.
The permanent nature of several of these suggestions seems to indicate your agreement.
I also like use it or lose it mechanics. Expiration dates baby.
@@fizzledimglow3523 You go into the old crypt and find a healing potion. When you go to use it later you are told to make a constitution saving throw because the potion expired.
Also instead of random effects I would say random effects on new/experimental potions but existing potions have semi random side effects like our medicine has....(I s e alchemy as the magical equivalent of chemistry and pharmacology)
It’s the kind of thing you would think would be a basic feature for Alchemist Artificers, at least.
Someone who says potions are useless has never defeated the BBEG by throwing a knapsack full of alchemist fires at them.
The Alchemist's Satchel Charge.
Barbarian throwing over 40 with a critical hit.
Seet mother of fifty six dead deities. Never again. Not without some distance.
Catapult that sucker
That sounds more dangerous for the guy lugging all that around than anything. Take an arrow to the back, breaks the vial, chaos ensues. The whole party now hates you for lugging a dangerous bag of death around with them.
You had me at "Potion of Bees" and knocked me out completely by the time we reached "Potion of Labor".
Man stock potions in 5e are underwhelming. They're so expensive that it's often better to sell them.
I love the idea of crafting them passively as you ferment them, instead of spending resources and crafting time, and then getting random effects. But, I also feel like common formulas should maybe be known for common situations.
In older editions (or at least Pathfinder), potions were basically an alternative to scrolls, though only for spells that targeted just you. They didn't get ridiculously expensive and didn't require magical training to use, so they were a way to offer your martial buds some extra power or utility that they could use with their own action economy. While it still was replicating spells, it at least was actually useful and usable.
On a tangent: a lot of other comments are assuming that potions allow you to bypass concentration. This isn't true: Sage Advice 2.6 clarifies: "A potion’s effect only if its description says so or ." Basically, if it lets you cast or replicate a spell, it still has concentration. So, no concentration-free flight. (Edit: actually, on further inspection, a Potion of Flying simply gives you a fly speed, it doesn't cast "fly,." so yes that is a concentration-free flight. But for ones that emulate spells, that's an issue.)
Considering there is an actual subclass called alchemist, I see alchemy as the magic world version of chemistry, so unless it's an experimental potion effects should be known. However I'm find with semi random side effects like medicine in our world has.
@@markcarpenter6020 The way I'd see it, it'd be using untested methods to see what you get.
You could have the players keep research notes even to log what does what.
(Also I'm of the mindset that Alchemist should've been its own class tbh. I've never liked it as a subclass of artificer.)
@@Zedrinbot agreed. Except for common potions. I mean just like most people can cook scrambled eggs I figure most alchemists would know how to make healing potions and stuff used a lot. But I'm not much of a fan of the artillerist either. It's does what it does well, but I still picture a wand slinger instead of a drone pilot.
@@Zedrinbot a really good version of alchemist is the one by mage hand press. If you haven’t already seen it I’d check it out. I personally really like it.
How the hell do you concentrate on a potion effect though?
One way I tried to get my players to use their potions in an old game was to make them expire. An expired potion didn't loose its magic, but rather lost it's intended magical purpose. When used, in any way, an expired potion would generate a wild magic effect.
This ultimately backfired on me as the party decided to just buy up close to expiration potions and see what shit would happen when they threw them on enemies.
Doesn't sound like a backfire to me.
I mean, that worked. They used their potions after all.
Lol! I love all of this!
@@phelllandborn6478 Welcome to our matrix, noobie. Lol.
@@jh1859Thanks, I actually like it here, though, you may have to clarify your definition of "noobie," for me. I am fairly new to 5e and D&D in general, but I'm also sitting on nearly 30 years of narrative improv role-playing experience running games (same basic idea, with no dice or metrics or manuals, just pure theatre of the mind and words.) So, I've been worldbuilding, improv storytelling and writing since I was a kid and spent most of my college time studying literature and creative writing, but the whole metrics thing that TTRPGs feature is certainly new to me and absolutely fascinating. I'm currently writing a 5e companion manual to teach myself the details of the system, and it's one of the most enjoyable projects that I have ever embarked on, I must say. Again, thanks; this community seems awesome, and I'm sure I'll figure it out sooner or later.
we had a two two-liter bottles of healing potions. Could only be consumed in 2d4+2 amounts, 16 uses. Turned into a giant, fought an ancient dragon, only survived because I ate the two bottles.
Potions for spellcasters wouldn't make sense since they could learn the spell, but for non-spellcasters like Fighter or Barbarian they can be very useful or game changing
The fighter/ barbarian should always have a potion of fly. Take their disadvatage and turn it into an advantage.
not to mention it would mean not having to worry about another characters concentration to could screw you over big time. Lets be real 9 times out of 10 you're gonna want to take the potion of haste rather then the haste spell, the 1 time is for when the sorcerer casts twinned spell on you
Honestly, potions are just a good alternative to using spell slots if you can afford them. Instead of having to decide if you want to use your last spell slot on magic weapon or Cure Wounds, if you have a potion you can do both.
by that argument scrolls are also worthless.... why should i get a scroll of fireball when i can just cast fireball, it's not like i might run out of spell slots and by spending time and gold now can create a surplus of disposable alternatives or anything.
@@NoESanity
True, but if it could really come in handy if you found a scroll for a 8th or 9th level spell, could come in handy when dealing with few spell slots
I love how ever Runesmith video for me is just, "Yeah Runesmith that mechanic does suck." and then you say your fix and I am just, "No runesmith your fix is just as bad." I love using your videos as a spotlight for problems, but never a fix.
Fair, every table enjoys things for a different reason. With my haphazard patch jobs, I hope I inspire more functional/freeing systems to sprout up
@@Runesmith It is a key part of DMing. Read all the rules and listen to other DMs so that you can know what you want to and don't want to do.
It's 50/50 for me. some are pretty solid, but this one is definitely a lower 50% percent
..except the Mother of Potion idea, I might take that
@@thered1s276 A while back, I did a fun of thaumoactive-microbiology for a setting. Witches cauldrons had a very complex microbiome of magically active microorganisms, that depending on ambient conditions(temperature, ingredients, aura, caster intent, etc) did all the heavy lifting of alchemy. They extracted magic from monster bits, properly attuned magic in herbs, and assembled little spell bits into functional potions. Samples from the cauldron were passed down, teacher to student, like prized sourdough starters.
This may or may not be where several species of ooze originated.
@@Runesmith To be fair I do that too.
Game design is hard and boring, but when you know a system you start to recognize the flaws in it pretty easily.
The result is me having 1/4 of a good idea to fix/creatively change a rule, slap it together half-hazardly, and then never doing anything with it since I'm missing the rest.
Honestly having multiple people discussing on the internet is great for this shit
"useless" magic items are neat in theory. But in practice I rarely see players actually use them. I get the idea of capturing that same energy you get from a green text of YA novel where the heros use some seemingly useless item to beat an encounter in a clever way. But in reality 99% of players will just kind of sit on it and forget about it after 2 sessions.
Put an Alchemist Jug in my inventory and I swear to you and God I will find a way to fucking kill someone with the MAYONNAISE setting
@@VisonsofFalseTruths we always find a use for the Mayonaise.
It's hard to make something truly useless. Give a clever player a spattering of nearly useless items and they will find a way to match at least one to a situation they find themselves in, even if it's just a vial that can magically produce 10 lbs of fresh popcorn.
@@dynamicworlds1 -frantically writes down “Box of Everpopping Kernels”
@@VisonsofFalseTruths That's gold
Potions are rather mundane in the world my group plays in, specifically common healing potions. But the secret to this is that they're made out of Stirge blood, and they're going extinct so there's a big bioterrorist organization trying to put a stop to it. Other potions are either rare or the ability to make them is lost
Frankly given stirges drink blood, i'd be surprised if there weren't an underground stirge breeding operation made by people trying to get ahead of the game, but relying on letting stirges have a quick suck from prisoners, kidnapees, and even whacking competition by letting them be bled dry in a box full of stirges.
Actually, this makes me wonder if humanoid life force consumed by the stirges isn't actually the source of the magic, FMA style.
That’s a pretty cool idea!! I’ll admit that I haven’t thought too hard about what’s even in some of the more common potions, so I’d imagine that no one in my D&D group has either. (Sort of a “didn’t think of that but it definitely makes sense that that’s what’s happening” kind of thing)
The idea that these potions are being produced via questionable business practices is definitely a great hook for a potential side quest for when I get around to giving DMing a shot!
As far as I'm aware, in dnd gold is actually the literal Bond point for magic.
Which is why stuff like magic items cost a ton of money
A significant portion of it goes straight into the manufacturer of the item
I found a story online of someone making that the lore for their D&D world, but I don't see anything saying it's official. It might be since in 1st edition you only leveled up when you got enough money, but I can't find confirmation
That tends to be mainly the cost for the materials and not the infusing the magic properties into said item.
@@ChasoGod a dagger is 2gp
A dagger of venom is 8000 gp
@@ddd09ish1 Yeah, enchanting that dagger requires untold ingredients and a process. Your point?
@@brontsmoth671 No, the point is that the only thing any magical item needs to be made is gold and time. Spell scrolls are a perfect example because every higher spell slot only requires an extra day or two, but an exponential amount of gold. You can pretend the gold is going towards super special resources, but the rules merely state that the only thing you need is gold. That's why the fan canon is that gold is magic, or at least has an essence that is required to enchant anything.
I've been waiting for a potion remake in 5e since forever!
This is kinda how I made my HB potion system after several party members asked if I could make potion brewing more interesting. And then proceeded to never even purchase a single potion or alchemical ingredient......
thats why i go monster hunter on ANYTHING not humanoid in campaigns. As a Player or dm, you can always use monster parts for SOMETHING.
Example:
Me and my Party (actually was my campaign to DM but due to time issues i cant prepare sessions anymore and my Co DM took over till i have time again) are going to fight an adult black dragon soon (lvl 6 party btw) and my Necromancer already declared she is gonna turn the dragons wing leather into a robe for her! The blood could be used as a potent acid, heart could be usefull for a dragon related magical craft, scales for black dragon scale armor, bones for armor and weapons but we would need to find more black dragons for a full set of black dragon bone plate armor since only the shoulder plate bone are usefull for that and even if youre generous, thats only 4 of them on a classic dragon type body.
Liver, kidney, intestines and lungs COULD be usefull for alchemy, though the black dragon nature would limit its uses, the stomache would make ONE heck of an acid immune fluid storage.
Only useless thing is the meat cause it would be highly acidic.
Atleast with the time the players slayed a young red dragon they could make a feast from its spicy meat
The rules of making Potions (or magic items) in the DMG. pg. 128-129 are expanded in XGtE. pg. 128-129 (it's kind of weird those rules are on the same pages!). In the expanded rules, you actually need special magical componentes out from monsters (they are tied to Tiers of play so you may have to tweek the numbers according to the level up magic your world has)
I guess you are right, I never considered that you can "craft" potions.
Like I just thought of other magic items.
Anyone else ever flat out say to a dm "I smash the healing potion into his face"?
>dm replies "Roll sleight of hand"
my DM made me roll to attack and i did d4 damage before the healing effect.
they healed 1hp after losing 2 death saves. so it all worked out.
I always thought there should be better potions in dnd. They never really seemed worth it.
Especially with the alchemist (once a long Rest one RANDOM effect potion)
Older editions had stronger and longer effects. You can just pick from those (but maybe also use harsher potion miscibility rules).
@@daedalus5253 that number does increase. Nevertheless, each of those is a free limited 1st or 2nd level spell of same effect.
Heck, a flight speed or underwater morph option for free at lvl 3 is nice!
Imagine being sponsored by your friend
I love potions, which is why I was so extremely excited with the Artiificer came out with the Alchemist. Turns out it sucked horribly, and potions are impossible to make in campaigns that you don’t have excessive amounts of down time. Very sad
This is the only reason I play armorer or artillerist
Ah, it doesn't suck too much, at least mechanically. Allowing you to add your int to cantrips and healing spells at level 5 makes you a very capable combat medic (healing word doing +9 health each time is a very nice bonus action to have to combine with 2d10+5 fire damage with fire bolt). Your DM definitely has to let you play around a bit in terms of flavour text for making things and creating mad potions given how disappointing the depth of theme the subclass explicitly gives. The experimental elixir mechanic is really undercooked in particular.
@@crimsoncookiemonster it makes a good medic bit a not so good alchemist. When I picture alchemist...I picture a mad scientist throwing vials of acid and fire, potions of disease, combat drugs for the party. Etc.
@@markcarpenter6020 That's the thing. 5e's mechanics are not made for excessive amounts of crafting. The Artificer's spells are all supposed to be flavored to the subclass. Example: for alchemist, Cure Wounds would be a Healing Ointment, or Acid Arrow would be an acid vial that you lauch at someone.
@@darienb1127 ugh. If I wanted to use flavored spells I would play another class and soak a fire all in cinnamon.
How about a 'Potion of Mimicry'? When bottled, the potion becomes a mimic who looks like red liquid, and waits to be drunk by an unsuspecting victim before attacking!
It coalesces into a tiny ooze that attempts to suffocate you by blocking your throat
I both hate, and love this idea.
That is horrofying, thank you
this reminds me how i made a vampire cure in my dnd setting that consists of garlic, holy water, and the blood of the vampire that turned you
That sounds like it should kill you when you drink it
I enjoy potions, even the others that just mimic effects. It allows martial classes to be able to cast those spells whenever they way, now being on a disadvantage against casters. Just pop a drop and puff, you are flying. For example, on a campaign I'm in, our Fighter was able to clutch save the princess from the baron who was holding her with a Dash Action Action Surge give her a Potion of Gaseous Form. It was a pretty badass moment that wouldn't be able to normally do because no one in our group has Gaseous Form.
smart idea having potions do different effects whether consumed/thrown etc
The funny thing is, I absolutely adore Potions. Especially the ones that can do spells that already exist.
Heck, my current Warlock is a woman covered in an Ooze that makes her constantly hungry/thirsty for magic.
Now, like most Warlocks, she could do stuff like Vampiric Touch, Enervation, Soul Cage and what not to state herself. But why break your alignment when you can fork over all that useless gold for something way tastier and much more fun?
So for the potion of bees I had a horrible idea. Once consumed you gain a 15ft breath weapon.....of bees. It does 4d12 poison damage or half on a con save.
That is horrible and I love it!
So basically: ua-cam.com/video/_hIVjPsF-y4/v-deo.html
@@kimarous yeah basically that.
Here's a few torn out of my personal notes:
Iron-Eater: One one-ounce dose of this clear, oily fluid can, upon contact and over the course of one minute, melt one cubic foot of ferrous metal into a floppy, maleable substance, which reverts to its original hardness and durability one hour later.
Flask of Fluorescence: This potion must be shaken before use to have any effect. Once consumed by a creature, the creature begins to glow for 1 hour in a soft blue-green shade, shedding bright light in a 5 foot radius and dim light for a further 30 feet.
Liquid Luck: A creature can ingest this bitter yellow potion to gain three Fragments of Possibility which last for eight hours.
Tortle Soup: This potion must be heated up before consumption or it will be too thick to down. After drinking it, a creature's speed decreases by 10 and its AC increases by 2 for 1 hour.
Sticky Blimp: As an action, you can crush this shiny squishy orange ball in your hand. It then begins to expand rapidly, filling with a vacuum. As part of the same action, you can try to stick it to a target within 5 feet of you by succeeding on a contested Dexterity check with the target. A Medium creature that begins its turn on the ground with the expanded ball immediately rises 10 feet into the air, a Large creature rises 5 feet and a Small creature rises 20 feet. If the target is an object, it immediately rises in the air a number of feet equal to a creature of the same size. The ball is an object that can be destroyed. It has AC 14, 20 hit points, immunity to bludgeoning, poison and psychic damage and vulnerability to piercing damage.
Frost Bottle: As an action, you can throw this bottle of light blue swirling fluid up to 30 feet. Any creatures within 5 feet of the point of impact must make a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw. On a failure, the target is encased in ice until the end of their next turn. While encased in ice, their speed is reduced to 0, and they are incapacitated. They also gain 50 temporary hit points, which vanish when the effect ends. This bottle loses its magical properties if it is opened for 1 minute.
Piston Oil: When this vial takes any lightning damage, it instantly converts into a gas, forcing all creatures within 5 feet to make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or be pushed 5 feet away from it.
Jötunn's Tears: If a flask of this clear fluid is boiled and the fumes inhaled by a warm-blooded creature over the course of 1 minute, the creature's body temperature magically drops for 1 week. During this time, they require only half as much food a day, suffer no adverse effects from hot climates and have vulnerability to cold damage.
the potion of identety has a lot of potential for my campain, thank you for sharing
"market value is not magic value"
*stares at component costs*
I will admit, I like the concept of potions from The Dresden Files, where each potion is made out of the stimulating effects of all five senses (taste, touch, sight, sound and smell) then when the potion is ready, the magic itself is what turns the mixture potable and palatable even though some of the ingredients would make you do a double-take. And each ingredient had to have something to do with the potion you wanted to make as well.
Potion of God: You usurp the Dungeon Master role
something i plan to have my players stumble across is a spring of lenya with Arya plants growing around it, which is a very blatant yet strangely unknown to them reference to one my favorite RPG RTS, Spellforce (discounting spellforce 2 and 3, WHAT DID YOU DO TO THE RPG SYSTEM? AND THE RTS SYSTEM IS SOMEHOW MEH TOO!)
the players should be able to craft potions of magic recovery from it, a way for them to quickly regain spellslots mid combat.
They do need to be better.
That is why I became an Alchemist. :p
The part about healing magic (and potions) only accelerate natural healing. Thus the Regenerate spell is separate because they force the body rebuild the limb/flesh rather than stimulate the body's own biology.
I love the magic system of Deathbound Duke’s Daughter.
In this world magic talent can be positive, neutral or negative:
Positive give innate abilities that can be powerful, but lack versatility.
Neutral give te possibility of learnig magic that is versatil, but take time to learn and master.
Negative that give magic resistance(immunity to curses, enchantments and less damage when hit by spells) only people with magic resistence can use magic itens like a wand of fire that can shoot unlimited firebolts or one fireball.
Make them do more stuff than normal. Make a list of all items you can think of, and some ways they can be turned into potions: wood can be ground down, shaved, or diced, leather can be torn, cut, or dunked in whole, stone can be ground to dust, cracked to pieces, cut to shapes, or dropped in whole, etc. Make a table of what aspects these ingredients and methods of brewing have, like slimy, bee, hot, cold, flammable, magical, etc, and come up with how you interpret that mix _when the party makes it._ Then don't tell them what it does untill they use it.
Chaos Approved!
I personally like to homeBREW potions based on my favorite games like terraria :)
BEE BREATH WEAPON
CONSUME BEE POTION, EXPECTORATE 10' CONE SWARM OF PAIN
I like the idea of creating potions using a mix of ingredients that seem to have a similar effect, like taking blood from a troll for a regeneration type potion. Basically you have a little bottle, fill it with an alchemical solution that you infuse with magic plus the parts you are using to create an effect. Maybe toss in stuff like increasing potency by increasing the quality or amount of bits tossed in there. Like a single drop of troll blood would net you a 1hp per round regen effect. Topping off the potion bottle would increase it to 3, but obviously you have less to work with so fewer potions made. Maybe include a expiration date on them as well so there is a reason you dont buy them in town. If they are only good for say, a week, you dont want to make them before you reach the castle you intend to raid or whatever. The magic fades from the potion and its now just useless sludge.
Okay, the potion of burning, that's amazing, if I ever get to play D&D again I'm gonna try and get me one of those
4:24 This is such an underrated joke dear god Logan I love you.
So, in the long form campaign I ran several years ago, I had a system for potions that required the long brewing times and fermentation times like alcohol. All potions had some alcohol value to them as well.
The spell contained in the potion was not granted to the drinker as if the spell was cast, but rather the potions only worked if drunk by a magic user who had the capacity to cast the spell. Essentially, when they had empty spell slots (such as those empty from casting spells earlier in the day) they could drink a potion and gain the ability to immediately cast the spell the potion contained. This meant that potions were like ammunition. The caveat here is they would get more and more drunk as they drank potions, and this meant there was a very real chance of being incapacitated just from using too many potions.
The one magic user in the group, an elf, treated his potions like fine wines. During a rather tough boss fight, he downs several bottles of fireball, lightning bolt, minute meteors, etc. (I didn't level cap anything you had to take time to brew or craft) Eventually his character becomes so drunk, he strips off his robes and jumps up onto one of the statues in the room. He's casting from atop a very lewd statue of the cult's goddess, crying out "Yeah, take that up the ass you filthy demon! I bet you like my big lightning bolt don't you, swallow it whole!" etc. It was an epic fight.
Every Runesmith video: "F*ck it I'm gonna get angry"
I used to have this really edgy homebrew setting where scrolls were just alchemical circuitry. You put your thumb on a spot on the paper and a bunch of little lines of alchemical dust baked into the paper activate the circuit and cast the spell. The scroll then burns away like flash paper.
Still think it's a fun idea.
I really like this idea. Would love to add it to the alchemist artificer
Actually really cool.
Do my ears deceive me? Did Runesmith just COMPLEMENT one of his own videos??? That’s character development, baby 👌
Day 26 asking Runesmith to do a Basically Theros
My group also made a homebrew system for brewing and item making, all requiring a blueprint of sorts. It functions as a goldsink in a world where not everything is available all the time.
I like having three types of potions in my campaign, one to be sold in a sort of wild magic cocktail shop that has ones with adverse effects, such as being transported to a random place on a random plane for 5 minutes, and stupid shit like that. Default Shit that you can get from a normal magic shop, and then stuff from a straight up drug dealer that have a change to just straight up kill you but you get cool shit from them
I play as an Alchemist in a D&D classic campaign. Me and the DM worked a simple system for brewing potions:
-each potion has a magic ingredient that makes sense with the effect
-each potion brewing time is really low but it depends on the potion rarity
-each potion has a cost of production
with this system i can create my own potions recipe, mostly stupid ones, that led to some really funny roleplaying moments.
oh, so *thats* what the potion of bees did.
I mean, I cant really say I'm surprised
I mean, you can always just make them cost less, heal more, and be easier to obtain.
A potion idea I've been sitting on for a while, feel free to steal: Potion of Rubber, which gives your body a stretchy consistency when consumed. For the duration, the following effects apply:
- You gain some extent of Luffy stretchiness (haven't balanced it), but with an accompanied slimming down in the opposite direction
- You gain immunity to all bludgeoning damage, but vulnerability to slashing and piercing damage
- Your STR modifier (not your score) is lowered by 2
In my home brew campaign, I’m making custom potions with it’s own personal “special potions” shop with recipes the players can bring it to make their own for free. There’s stuff like “mana potions” (will fill 1d6 spell slots relative (level 2 spell will cost 2)). Spell potions like you stated at the beginning. Resilience potions which boost AC for a period of time, Potions of luck, Potions of wild shape, potions of relentless endurance, And some other home brew stuff. You gave some awesome ideas for some more potions.
I have it where alot of my crafting is based on tools and other crafting stations (think like alchemist pot) and kind of made it somewhat like atelier where ingredients all have general effects and can be mixed, each ore obv has durability but the magic ones have different effects and having rolls and the roleplay ideas affect how the potions change. One of my players at one point made their own original potion that had alot of extremely powerful effects by extreme luck and so I let them, they named it paroxysm brew which acts as a mana-potion, granting +5 to all damage based rolls and skill checks(for the actual damage btw), a healing potion, an antidote, and the negative effect is their burps do frost breath and can freeze their mouth shut or damage other allies.
If they failed the potion crafting roll the entire thing would've either exploded or just been a mess of really gunky acid that they wouldn't be able to store (they had extremely high quality ingredients)
"The ingredients for that one is just one red pill."
Well done introducing *and demonstrating* the effects of the potion of burning.
I really love your simplification of my entire career, gonna use that going forwards
honestly ive been homebrewing potions for a while now just because i want to make crafting more dynamic in my games and have them used more so not to feel bad when my enemies are chuging potions to buff themselves. Some thing fun ive done is that a super old potion that is really old can go bad where it does the opposite of its effect a love potion causes the target to hate you and invisibility potions grant you a rainbow color effect.
My idea was treat it like modern medicine... potions can have side effects and be addictive...and developing new recipes can produce something random. Same way chemistry and pharmacy work in the real world
@@markcarpenter6020 its certainly a cool idea but i use it more for drugs which i keep separate.
I game my players a main quest NPC who is an alchemist. It takes him 8 hours to make a potion, and the ingredients are monster parts. They provide a part and I decide what effect it has. A cyclops eye becomes a potion of hill giant strength, a mimic becomes a potion of alter self, a gargoyle becomes a potion of stoneskin. If they try to mix a bunch of them it becomes a mystery potion: 3 rolls on the wild magic table. I don't necessarily have these pre-prepared, the monster informs the potion.
In my Out of the Abyss campaign, one PC had figured out a way to concoct potions out of Mushrooms (a Sage Goblin Spore Druid) and since the Underdark shrooms were quite new to her, she had to experiment with all the fungi. I had a blast coming up with a table of potion-recipes based on the fungis uses and their magical effects.
Finally, answers on the potion of bees.
Xanathars does have crafting rules in the downtime revisited section and for magic items (consumable or otherwise) and tool proficiencies related for them, with suggestions related to looking for monsters to kill/hunt to get the materials necessary to craft the thing, like a magic lion for magic armor or something. it also has rules for how long it'll take based off rarity. they're maybe not what you're looking for but there are rules for it, just in a different section of the book.
the patting yourself on the back part killed me
One delightful potion I had in a setting was "Termeres regret". Strictly speaking the potion is not complete untill it is willingly drunk. Upon being imbibed, the subject is functionally a demigod(or better), capable of taking on an army, all their magic is boosted to eleven, super strength, super speed, the works. When the duration runs out, they immediately fall over on the brink of death. Any cuts they have bleed only perfectly clear water. The last act of making the potion is the absolute pinnacle of blood magic, perfected. The final ingredient is every drop of blood you can give.
I love having the backstory of being a Executioner and torturer that stopped because they where tired of it and wanted to become a Doctor so they become a Paladin, it's so nice rping as a doctor to the dm asking where I can get some herbs for potions, he made the mistake of making hast potions extremely simple
I added a cantrip called "Synergy", only for classes/subclasses focused in alchemy.
Basically it has 1hour casting time, and you need an alchemist circle made with salt and three candles.
When you mix the *right* ingredients in a small pot and cast this cantrip, the candles' flame become greenish and the potion is made.
Most of my homebrew potions involve giving the players proficiency bonus on some skill for 1 to 10 minutes, or some passive hability like resistance to necrotic/poison damage.
Hope it helps someone, idk
Edit: I usually search for some herbs and flowers that grow in the environment where my adventure settles, like deserts or snow. Looking up for monsters in those environments is really helpful too.
Sorry if there's any English mistake
Wild magic tables are the best inspiration for potion effects.
Consider that experimentation has been done to perfect the recipe, so do what you can to crank all the wild magic effects up to 11.
I like to make potions in my games the way I like to make magic items. Take a spell or ability that already exists, and change it a bit. You still have a reference to go off of, but the end result will feel unique in that regard. Using Logan's bee potion as an example: Turning into a bee is like Polymorph, and summoning a bunch of bees is like Conjure Animals. You'd be suprised of how much milage you can get out of this. You can have a volatile liquid that explodes into a weak AOE spell multiple times per round, as the bottle just sprays it's dangerous contents everywhere. You can have a potion that makes people grow claws, giving them the Primal Savagery cantrip as a bonus action for a small time. You can have an Ointment that gives you resistance to physical damage, but also makes you really bouncy. Trust me when I say this, your players won't care if it's not 100% unique.
One DM trial was how healing magic had to be touch at all times and it had a delay, the amount healed would be provided over 3 turns starting next turn instead of instant.
Thus healing magic was much weaker but still an option, healing potions were divided up into salves, medicated bandages.
Salves were instant small healing (stackable) and prevented 1 knockout until next turn non stackable, however you could not take any other action during that turn other than half movement
This meant that if you are hurt you can apply the salve and retreat a little to apply something better, the KO prevention was to simulate the healing effect keeping you going on when reacted upon and hit. You are still SUPER weak and ranged enemies can pick you off easy and in that case you have advantage on death saves, and no there was no resuscitation midcombat if you were KOed you were out of the fight so you wanted to use cover.
the medicated bandages were the primary healing item they took one turn to apply and their effects began the next turn, you can not take an action or move the turn it was applied nor could you move first and then apply it. their effect were 2-4x in magnitude (depending on feats/racial) compared to equivalent tier healing spell over 2 turns.
at first glance it looks like there is going to be lots of wipes and yes there was, but after a few fights we got over bad habits and instead had a very dynamic battlefield where people did their best to not get hit by using cover and positioning.
combat was much much more fun.
Currently we are trialing redoing magic at its fundamental level
Wizards require a powerful focal in the form of weapons/gauntlets/staff/wand that are carefully imbued with the spells beforehand which is a time consuming process however once 'prepared' rechargeable via short rest, changing out what spells were prepared would take an entire day (18 hours) so just having a long rest would not do anything they needed to actually spend an entire day removing the imbued energies and their residuals before imbuing them with new ones.
This has lead to our wizard now having a set of swords that are preset with certain spells and he picks a sword depending on the fight, Should other people use those swords then when striking a spell at random would be unleashed and hurt the magic user however a wizard cannot just switch focal during the day they have 'spell heat' to contend with too.
This has lead to the whole ''cursed items'' idea being expanded upon since the ''curse'' might just be residuals from a wizard that once used the item as a focal.
Sorcerers are magically gifted by lineage and they are more dynamic, they write in glyphs upon textile wrappings and said glyphs are to channel the energies without hurting the caster.
The fancier and 'rare' the textile material is the higher spell levels it can contain and channel, takes time to prepare but once prepared it is set for life, spell level = understanding how to make it safer to go beyond their comfort zone.
These textiles though prevent the use of armor on that body part and the less body parts covered the less spell slots you have, if other people use the textiles they will be suffering spell burns.
Warlocks have their spells represented upon their bodies in the form of tattoos that swirl and fade, the aesthetic of the tattoos depend on who holds their pact.
Like Wizards they also need a item to act like a focal (pact weapon) however they cannot have more than one item bound to their master.
should they have a sword and then bind an axe then the sword is taken by their master and they cannot ever get it back.
Druids are one with nature and thus they need something natural and powerful to focus on when casting their magic, like roots and sap from different plants down to just mundane rocks and crystals. This is still being worked on.
Paladin/clerics use ointments and incense to prepare themselves mentally and spiritually, however their healing abilities are muted severly as listed up top.
Like the wizard their ointments are made in advance and once applied to a weapon the abilities are available for 4 hours, AOE effects are restrained to incenses.
This one is also still being worked on.
One of the things I did in some of my first ever D&D campaigns was make "Bootleg" potions. I put in a potion seller who was deliberately overpriced and pompous, a real "My potions are far too powerful for you!" type guy. But then, in the alleyway next to his store, I put in a half-goblin who sold "the same" potions for less than half the cost... with a twist.
All of the potions would do what they said they'd do - Healing potions would heal you, magic potions would restore lost spell slots, invisibility potions would make you invisible... however, each one would also result in a con save. If you failed? They'd have a side-effect, usually detrimental. Fail the healing potion check and you _take_ 1d4 damage, but gain 2d8 temporary hitpoints. Fail the invisibility potion? You go blind while it's effect lasts. Fail the magic potion? You become disoriented and roll with disadvantage on all wisdom and intelligence checks for the next hour.
There was also a Potion of Fire Breathing, which would let you breath fire 4 times when consumed... it also turned you into a walking bomb, and if you got hit with any fire attacks while the effect was active, you would have a 1 in 6 chance of _fucking exploding._
My players quickly wised up to my bootleg potion gambit, but I had fun with it while it lasted.
In my campaign, I have mana potions that work similar to Arcane Recovery. Common restores 1 1st level spell slot. Uncommon is 1d4 levels worth of spell slots. Rare is 1d6 levels of spells. And very rare is 1d8 levels of spells. There's a legendary one rumored to restore 1d10 levels worth of spells.
The highest level of spell slot the potion can restore is equal to the highest number on the die, so a d4 can restore up to a 4th level spell slot, a d6 can restore up to a 6th, etc.
However, you can only restore a number of levels of spells equal to the roll. Rolling a 2 on the d4 means you can restore either a 2nd level spell slot, or two 1st level slots.
Also, drinking more than one mana potion before a rest has you roll a percentile die, with a cumulative 20% chance to roll on the Wild Magic table and suffer the effects.
You could brew them using the Elder Scrolls style. In Morrowind and Oblivion Potions are made using 4 Apparatuses; a Mortar & Pestle, an Alembic, a Retort and a Calcinator. At minimum you only need the Mortar & Pestle to make a potion, and adding the other apparatuses will make the potion being made both last longer and more powerful. In Skyrim these Apparatuses were combined all-in-one into a static alchemy table, whilst in previous titles you had the 4 previously mentioned separate Apparatuses that you needed to have in your inventory (again, Mortar & Pestle being the minimum requirement) in order to make a potion.
Then you also have Ingredients. Ingredients are anything that you can consume including Food (most Food items were excluded as an Ingredient in Skyrim, as cooking was a new separate crafting system that also used Ingredients). Each Ingredient had 4 Effects inherent to them. Initially, all but 1 of the Effects are hidden to the player (again except in Skyrim where all 4 effects are hidden until you consume the Ingredient for the first time). As you levelled up your Alchemy skill, you learn what the other hidden Effects are, or by discovering them via trial and error (meaning combining random stuff and seeing if it makes a potion of somekind or not). Let's take Bread for example. It's "everyone knows that" effect is Restoring Fatigue. As you get better at Alchemy you will learn that (moldy) Bread can also both be used to Cure Disease and Inflict Poison. And let's say the last Effect is Restore Endurance. So those are the 4 Effects that Bread as an Ingredient have. Now to make a potion, you need to find at least one other Ingredient that has at least one of the same Effects - like say a Mushroom that has Restore Fatigue. Doesn't matter what the other effects are - you just need two Ingredients (up to three maximum) that have at least 1 Effect that they share between them. If they share more than 1 Effect, then the other Effects are also included making it a Multi-Purpose Potion.
Crafting the Potion requires taking the Apparatuses in your Inventory and combining the Ingredients using them. The quality of the Potion will be determined by the quality of the tools you are using (Are you using Novice level Apparatuses or Master level Apparatuses?) and your character's Alchemy Skill. Say a low-to-no level Alchemy player made a Cure Disease Potion using Novice Apparatuses, the end result would be a Lesser Cure Disease Potion that could maybe cure a Fever but nothing worse than that. But if it's a High Skilled Alchemist using Master Apparatuses, then they could possibly make an extremely powerful Cure Disease potion capable of curing Vampirism, and they also used Ingredients with more than 1 matching effect, so the Potion also Heals the target on top of curing their Disease.
This is potentially the best system to copy and use for homebrewing Alchemy in a game, and should probably be the official system that D&D should be using. The one small change I would make is saying you also need a bottle/vial to put the Potion into, and that only using the Mortar & Pestle without the other Apparatuses should result in a Salve/Paste (that doesn't need a bottle or vial) instead of a Potion. And that besides the skill of the player and the quality of the Apparatuses, the Ingredients should also have their varying own levels of intensity; Lesser, Mild and Potent.
There is one subclass that could allow you to homebrew your own potion: Alchemist Artificer
I know I use the homebrew rule where if you use your action to drink a healing potion, you automatically get the full amount. If you use a bonus action, you have to roll. The Thief subclass can of course use it as a bonus action and get the full amount of healing.
I flavor it as, you're taking 6 seconds to make sure you get every last drop out. If you're using a bonus action, you're just chugging whatever you can get out, hence the roll, you may have left some potion in the bottle.
I have a Homerule where you can use a potion on yourself as a bonus action and it heals 1 of your hit die, you just get the healing you don't roll how much you get (there are more potent versions which do 2 Hit Die, ect, ect).
It helps but more is needed to fix them
I love the idea of randomly getting powers form a killed creature - I'm a bout to start a new game and just wrote down a new rule:
If a creature is killed with a natural 20 the weapon used is infused with a trait of the slain creature.
Not sure what to do about spell kills yet.
You can't handle my strongest potions, you better go to a seller that sells weaker potions.
A potion with the probability of a few different effects (so like a potion can give you fire breath, scales, or vomit out the substance based on bathroom breaks and other factors).
I’m so happy your marking videos a lot more.
This has inspired me to add to my Zelda homebrew. Behold the Potion of Cucco:
When drunk, replaces the normal speech/cries with a Cucco Call that can be used to summon 3d4 Wild Cuccos as a swarm. Cry can be used twice, effect lasts for 30 minutes.
When splashed, polymorph into a Cucco, losing all racial features, but maintain all stats including size. Does not gain Cucco Call, maintaining speech. Lasts for four hours.
My players once killed a dragon for some hags and in return they brew a potion from its blood. It was a d100 chart with a bunch of effects, I don't remember them all, but I remember 1 was instant death and 100 let you turn into a dragon or something. The player who drank it ended up getting a legendary resistance
That means of crafting potions kinda reminds me of Skyrim, where you sometimes end up mixing random ingredients to create mystery potions
So... interesting with things like alchemist's fire. Pathfinder, especially in 2e, actually distinguishes between potions and alchemical items. Alchemical items are what you described toward the end, with their own effects, while potions (and oils) are basically just putting a spell into liquid form to be used later. So the point all those potions is a bit closer to being able to get whatever effect *without* needing someone who can cast it
I do something kinda similar, except the potion ingriedents all have certain properties, and they know the recipies to some common and uncommon potions, as well as some low power homebrew ones. Then they have to experiment with rarer ingredients to find new recipies and identify the properties of the rarer ingredients. Gives me opprotunity to do some of the stuff in here, while also allowing them to consistantly make potions of specific resistances and blade oils, as it is a witcher esque campain where those things are borederline necessary.
I’ve been coming up with a homebrew magic system and potions for my campaign, and recently my party bought from a traveling merchant some potions of healing, but little do they know that one of them is actually a potion of kneeling, which looks identical to a healing potion but if consumed will force the player to fall onto their knees and essentially make them fall prone for a round
So, the Plague Doctor wizard subclass is anathema to you
My next campaign is actually going to be about potions. Well potions and pirates, but I digress. There's this con man who sells super cheap but ineffective potions that cause Alchemy Sickness. It basically slowly turns you into a walking chaos magic table.
Quick point on the Potion of Animal Friendship: it actually lets the drinker cast _animal friendship_ at will for a whole hour. This is amazingly good, to the point that I want my druid to be making Potions of Animal Friendship more than I want him casting the spell, himself. One casting of the spell has to be upcast enormously to grab a significant number of creatures in an encounter. One potion may be slow, so you're fending off possibly-hostile beasts for a while, but each round you can cast it again and again on creatures until you nab them all.
"The Mother of Potions" is definitely going to be in my next campaign.
I gave my party a potion of squirrel vengeance one day and they didn’t drink it till three sessions later in the middle of the woods when they forgot about it. It makes every squirrel within 3 miles aware of your exact location for 4 hours and they hunt you down ignoring any and every consequence.
3:55 the best description of alcohol I have ever heard
Potion of (Self) Fireball was one I liked to slip into stores in my games, disguised as a healing potion.
Your mastery of inflammatory statements without care is magnificent.
I created a potion that literally just erases people’s memories.
Stealing the potion of bees thanks!