So I would like to allow my players to create potions of healing on early levels, but it says on the PHB (or Xanathar's guide) that potion crafting with a herbalism kit can take 1 day. How do i reincorporate this into my story though? Is the player just gone for one day? Should I give them a 5 day break time, as we take a break from the game ourselves? Wouldn't that break immersion? Thank you for the advice in advance!
Thanks for the response! I guess spending half the gold for a potion and making it yourself, grants the player some sort of importance and role in the group. I could award the player for looking after the group by giving him an enhanced ability whenever he chooses to craft potions with the group, bestowed to him by a diety. Your response got me thinking thank you!
It doesn't totally make sense, because brewing isn't really the kind of process that can be done in random bits and pieces over time like weaving or leatherworking could be, but you could allow the player to work on the potion gradually over time instead of over a single day. Keep in mind that downtime is generally measured in "work days" rather than actual 24 hour periods, so a work day is actually an 8 hour period. So, if you want to be generous, you could let your player work on the potion any time they happen to have an hour or two free. Like... before a long rest they could spend an hour brewing, or if the party is stuck in town waiting for a contact to reach them for 4 hours they could spend that time just working on a potion.
Again, this is one of those things where you have to abandon a certain level of logic to justify it, but your player probably won't mind.
I would say it all comes down to story structure, make sure plot hooks aren't always presented to players as a matter of utmost urgency. I remember playing an alchemist in my old college 3.5 game and I did most of my potion brewing at times where we'd get to a town or a city and the DM would tell us "OK remember, you have X days until Y happens, go nuts until then". Not only did that give me time to make potions, but we also had plenty of time for wacky hijinks.
Once we got higher level I was eventually able to fit an alchemy lab into a portable hole that I'd just drape over my centaur party-member's back and get in to brew potions on long travel days (I was a gnome so I fit, and it had a door that I could leave open to let the air in).
Another thing you might try, that might work more if your players have a "home base", is that between major story beats you could do time skips, coming back to the party like two months after they defeated the Evil Duke of Rattlebones and freed the land from the skeleton wars, then out-of- game between sessions you can ask your players what they've been up to on their summer vacation. Just treat it like the time skip you usually get between seasons of a TV show, and give the players some time to work on their own goals. You might even get a few new rewarding plot hook ideas out of it.
Mostly I'd just reiterate that if you want your players to have time for downtime activities, you just need to remember to include it
Best way to handle downtime if you ask me is to do it like adventures league does, giving players X amount of downtime days to “spend” each time they level up on whatever they want to in between sessions (crafting, trading, training, fraternizing, whatever.) brewing potions is a valid activity assuming your character is proficient with alchemist tools.
You keep the focus on the story and action during the session, while your players can still spend downtime days to get the benefits without slowing the game down role playing it durning sessions, which not too many folks are interested in role playing out anyways.
It makes narrative sense too because it is assumed the players take downtime days here and there. That’s a valid, reasonable assumption even if it isn’t acted out at times...
If you were doing the Icewind Dale campaign, then whenever a blizzard blows through town the party would generally just hole up for the day - giving them a chance to get a work day of downtime done.
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So I would like to allow my players to create potions of healing on early levels, but it says on the PHB (or Xanathar's guide) that potion crafting with a herbalism kit can take 1 day. How do i reincorporate this into my story though? Is the player just gone for one day? Should I give them a 5 day break time, as we take a break from the game ourselves? Wouldn't that break immersion? Thank you for the advice in advance!
Thanks for the response! I guess spending half the gold for a potion and making it yourself, grants the player some sort of importance and role in the group. I could award the player for looking after the group by giving him an enhanced ability whenever he chooses to craft potions with the group, bestowed to him by a diety. Your response got me thinking thank you!
It doesn't totally make sense, because brewing isn't really the kind of process that can be done in random bits and pieces over time like weaving or leatherworking could be, but you could allow the player to work on the potion gradually over time instead of over a single day. Keep in mind that downtime is generally measured in "work days" rather than actual 24 hour periods, so a work day is actually an 8 hour period. So, if you want to be generous, you could let your player work on the potion any time they happen to have an hour or two free. Like... before a long rest they could spend an hour brewing, or if the party is stuck in town waiting for a contact to reach them for 4 hours they could spend that time just working on a potion.
Again, this is one of those things where you have to abandon a certain level of logic to justify it, but your player probably won't mind.
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I would say it all comes down to story structure, make sure plot hooks aren't always presented to players as a matter of utmost urgency. I remember playing an alchemist in my old college 3.5 game and I did most of my potion brewing at times where we'd get to a town or a city and the DM would tell us "OK remember, you have X days until Y happens, go nuts until then". Not only did that give me time to make potions, but we also had plenty of time for wacky hijinks.
Once we got higher level I was eventually able to fit an alchemy lab into a portable hole that I'd just drape over my centaur party-member's back and get in to brew potions on long travel days (I was a gnome so I fit, and it had a door that I could leave open to let the air in).
Another thing you might try, that might work more if your players have a "home base", is that between major story beats you could do time skips, coming back to the party like two months after they defeated the Evil Duke of Rattlebones and freed the land from the skeleton wars, then out-of- game between sessions you can ask your players what they've been up to on their summer vacation. Just treat it like the time skip you usually get between seasons of a TV show, and give the players some time to work on their own goals. You might even get a few new rewarding plot hook ideas out of it.
Mostly I'd just reiterate that if you want your players to have time for downtime activities, you just need to remember to include it
Best way to handle downtime if you ask me is to do it like adventures league does, giving players X amount of downtime days to “spend” each time they level up on whatever they want to in between sessions (crafting, trading, training, fraternizing, whatever.) brewing potions is a valid activity assuming your character is proficient with alchemist tools.
You keep the focus on the story and action during the session, while your players can still spend downtime days to get the benefits without slowing the game down role playing it durning sessions, which not too many folks are interested in role playing out anyways.
It makes narrative sense too because it is assumed the players take downtime days here and there. That’s a valid, reasonable assumption even if it isn’t acted out at times...
Damn this is very helpful. Great idea to make a portable alchemy lab, never thought about that. Thank you very much!
Wow never thought about splitting the time required for it! Thanks!
If you were doing the Icewind Dale campaign, then whenever a blizzard blows through town the party would generally just hole up for the day - giving them a chance to get a work day of downtime done.