Right, but this not being a video game it does not have the same correlation.
Besides, a healing potion requires an herbalism kit to create. So why would it require a powdered gemstone instead of a specific herbal ingredient? It breaks continuity and verisimilitude for me. At least a specific “green herb” makes sense.
I guess I just always assumed that “green herb” was a catch all (pardon the pun) “umbrella term” for all of the various substances that qualify for the recipe. So while it was lent to represent 50+ different herbs, they all just got inventoried under “green herb” for simplicity sake.
Right, but this not being a video game it does not have the same correlation.
Besides, a healing potion requires an herbalism kit to create. So why would it require a powdered gemstone instead of a specific herbal ingredient? It breaks continuity and verisimilitude for me. At least a specific “green herb” makes sense.
I guess I just always assumed that “green herb” was a catch all (pardon the pun) “umbrella term” for all of the various substances that qualify for the recipe. So while it was lent to represent 50+ different herbs, they all just got inventoried under “green herb” for simplicity sake.
That makes sense to me. I also agree that making a gemstone, specifically, the key ingredient to a Healing Potion isn't how I would do it either.
This actually reminds me of something that my DM and I are planning with the intent of me playing an artificer in an upcoming campaign. My Artificer will gather a collection of items called "Sprocks", which is just a catch-all term to describe generic tinkering supplies (stuff like springs, screws, and of course sprockets). Anything I attempt to craft that has a cost requirement essentially just "spends" a number of sprocks depending on how complex the invention ends up being. We haven't started the campaign yet so I don't know exactly how it will play out, but it gives me a single unit I need to track for general tinkering.
That’s cool. I might maybe do two to three types, so one might be a “sprock/sprocks,” and maybe a “gizz/gizzes,” and a “mabob/mabobs.” Kinda like common, uncommon, and rare components. That way there’s some degree of scaving. And tracking metal by weight too.
I actually prefer the idea that there are different recipes for something like a Potion of Healing instead of one single recipe.
Well like many recipes, what you put into it changes what you get out of it.
Putting potatoes in a stew is different from putting carrots in a stew but they are both stew.
I think changing the ingredients of the Healing Pot might make it more or less potent or give it a healing over time component rather than have the different ingredients just produce the same standard Potion of Healing.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
I actually prefer the idea that there are different recipes for something like a Potion of Healing instead of one single recipe.
Well like many recipes, what you put into it changes what you get out of it.
Putting potatoes in a stew is different from putting carrots in a stew but they are both stew.
I think changing the ingredients of the Healing Pot might make it more or less potent or give it a healing over time component rather than have the different ingredients just produce the same standard Potion of Healing.
Nothing wrong with that whatsoever. And presumably that’s part of the distinction between the various degrees of healing potions and other various potions that are similarly “health” related like Potion of Vitality, Potion of Longevity, or an Elixir of Health.
I just figured that since D&D is so abstracted that multiple combinations of things could theoretically result in 2d4+2HP being the abstracted result for multiple recipes. One recipe uses powdered yarrow, burdock, and comfrey water; and another recipe uses black walnut, elderberry, and black willow. If they both do about the same amount of healing, then I don’t see anything wrong with both being different recipes for equivalent potions, and therefore being mechanically abstracted as the same 2d4+2. I mean, considering what an abstraction HP are in the first place.... 🤷♂️
I mean, it could be different results like you said, but I like that they left it vague enough that it doesn’t have to be and we can both do it however we prefer.
That’s cool. I might maybe do two to three types, so one might be a “sprock/sprocks,” and maybe a “gizz/gizzes,” and a “mabob/mabobs.” Kinda like common, uncommon, and rare components. That way there’s some degree of scaving. And tracking metal by weight too.
We might end up introducing something like that, but the general idea as she explained it to me was that Sprocks fulfil just general tinkering purposes, but anything I craft will still require unique ingredients depending on what I'm trying to create. Like... if I try to create a timed explosive I'll still need dynamite or some other incendiary device. Or if I was making a grappling gun I would need to acquire a grappling hook and probably a power source of some kind. I'm still not sure what, exactly, she'll let me get away with creating but it's at least going to require some level of scavenging and resource management beyond just Sprocks.
That’s cool. I might maybe do two to three types, so one might be a “sprock/sprocks,” and maybe a “gizz/gizzes,” and a “mabob/mabobs.” Kinda like common, uncommon, and rare components. That way there’s some degree of scaving. And tracking metal by weight too.
We might end up introducing something like that, but the general idea as she explained it to me was that Sprocks fulfil just general tinkering purposes, but anything I craft will still require unique ingredients depending on what I'm trying to create. Like... if I try to create a timed explosive I'll still need dynamite or some other incendiary device. Or if I was making a grappling gun I would need to acquire a grappling hook and probably a power source of some kind. I'm still not sure what, exactly, she'll let me get away with creating but it's at least going to require some level of scavenging and resource management beyond just Sprocks.
That’s cool then. You’ll have to share with us how the final system comes out. I’m interested to see what they come up with. In the campaign I am currently DMing several of the PCs are crafty and I have had to come up with all kinds of stuff, so I’m always on the lookout for new ideas.
I don't think potion of healing is overpowered anyway. Nobody stops in the middle of a fight to spend an action drinking one of these potions that will give you back maybe 8 hp when they can deliver more than that in damage and probably kill the enemy rather than take another blow from the enemy that will just remove those 8 hp anyway.
A bandolier of 20 potions is going to cost 500 gp to make, but I suppose there is nothing else to spend your money on in 5E anyway.
I don't think potion of healing is overpowered anyway. Nobody stops in the middle of a fight to spend an action drinking one of these potions that will give you back maybe 8 hp when they can deliver more than that in damage and probably kill the enemy rather than take another blow from the enemy that will just remove those 8 hp anyway.
A bandolier of 20 potions is going to cost 500 gp to make, but I suppose there is nothing else to spend your money on in 5E anyway.
Your right, but people will spend an action to pour one down the gullet of an unconscious party member. And if you have a Homunculus Servant, certain Familiars, and some other pets you can use your bonus action to command the critter to do it. Invisible Servants too.
That’s cool. I might maybe do two to three types, so one might be a “sprock/sprocks,” and maybe a “gizz/gizzes,” and a “mabob/mabobs.” Kinda like common, uncommon, and rare components. That way there’s some degree of scaving. And tracking metal by weight too.
We might end up introducing something like that, but the general idea as she explained it to me was that Sprocks fulfil just general tinkering purposes, but anything I craft will still require unique ingredients depending on what I'm trying to create. Like... if I try to create a timed explosive I'll still need dynamite or some other incendiary device. Or if I was making a grappling gun I would need to acquire a grappling hook and probably a power source of some kind. I'm still not sure what, exactly, she'll let me get away with creating but it's at least going to require some level of scavenging and resource management beyond just Sprocks.
That’s cool then. You’ll have to share with us how the final system comes out. I’m interested to see what they come up with. In the campaign I am currently DMing several of the PCs are crafty and I have had to come up with all kinds of stuff, so I’m always on the lookout for new ideas.
I'll admit to just making stuff up on the spot to satisfy my groups at times.
"I want to make a Horn of Blasting!"
"OK...um...you're going to need an unbreakable mouthpiece, the horn of a minotaur, and the voice box of a thunder dragon." I later discovered that the adventure I was running actually had an unbreakable mouthpiece in it. I had no idea what a thunder dragon was, I just made it up.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
The materials for a potion of healing should be hard to obtain and not just hand-waved. As with any materials for magic item crafting. Make it an adventure to obtain.
Are we talking about the bog standard potion of healing? You know a common and consumable magic item? Seems to me a common magic item ought to be made of common ingredients.
Going on a grand adventure to make a single use consumable item seems like a ridiculous amount of effort for very little reward. It's the kind of thing that seems likely needed to be used perhaps multiple times on the adventure to obtain it.
Now an adventure to learn how to make potions of healing on a regular basis? That seems fair. Maybe an adventure to acquire a reusable catalyst for the creation of healing potions could also be fair. But requiring an adventure for each potion made seems ludicrous to me.
Yes, I'm talking about what to do if you have a player who wants their PC to be able to craft healing potions on a regular basis. It should require an investment of actual game time and effort to make it more "expensive" than buying it from a DM-controlled source. If you make it too easy and cheap to have healing potions, then your players will simply say they are spending 2 months to make 60 potions of healing and going on their adventures with bandoliers stuffed with cheap heals. The DM should try to remain in control of either a seller of healing potions, or the special ingredients required to craft them to prevent misuse.
Are you insane? It's a common item. It's a 2d4+2 heal. That's, at most, 10HP. Not to mention how much the potion weighs. Which is .5lbs, by the by. So if they're carrying 60 pots, that's 30lbs. Enforce encumbrance rules. Don't arbitrarily punish your party. Also, as of XGE, a Potion of Healing takes a full work week (5 days of 8 hours of work a day) to make a Potion of Healing. And 25GP per. So that's... lets see... 60X25= 1,500GP, as well as 60 whole ass weeks to make them. That's more than a year. That's... one year, one month and 2 weeks, actually. "Congrats, while you were brewing potions for a year, the BBEG took over the world/item you were sent to find was stolen/princess you were tasked to rescue died/etc."
There are ways of doing it without being Umberlee to your players. That is to say, without being a ***** Queen to them.
EDIT: I misread XGE. It's a day to make a potion. So it's 1500GP and 60 days. Two months. More than enough time to bar it from being feasible
I know this is an older thread, but I found this. It sets up rules and items for hunting, and you can maybe use rolls to determine if the characters find the items or not?
When I DM, I've been using the potion/ingredient system from Dragon Age Inquisition or Witcher 3 to track most of my potions. This above link isnt perfect, but I've been trying it out in my games and really like it as well. I also use the TIME from the Xanathar's Gudie. An alchemist or herbalist has to sit down for that amount of time, but I also control how/when they find the plant ingredients.
I'd like to add in that the gold system from the base game is incredibly reliant on there being some kind of civilization to buy the ingredients from, and it undermines characters own skillsets. I've played in multiple campaigns where there were NO shops and the players made little to no money because we were in the wilderness. How do we make potions using the base system, melt gold down into vials? There's no shop to buy components from so using gold as a system made no sense. (We also ignored gold spell components in these games. If the spell required gold, then we required the item, instead of using just a focus).
Having a player skilled in plant knowledge and another in alchemy became as essential as having someone with survival skills. There absolutely has to be some kind of limit to prevent players form going overboard, but if you have set and fixed requirements you can control how often the players find these items.
Also, while I like the idea of multiple recipes, tracking that seems like it would be REALLY difficult. This is why I use game systems, the recipes and effects are laid out for me.
That’s cool then. You’ll have to share with us how the final system comes out. I’m interested to see what they come up with. In the campaign I am currently DMing several of the PCs are crafty and I have had to come up with all kinds of stuff, so I’m always on the lookout for new ideas.
I'll admit to just making stuff up on the spot to satisfy my groups at times.
"I want to make a Horn of Blasting!"
"OK...um...you're going to need an unbreakable mouthpiece, the horn of a minotaur, and the voice box of a thunder dragon." I later discovered that the adventure I was running actually had an unbreakable mouthpiece in it. I had no idea what a thunder dragon was, I just made it up.
I wasn’t thinking the creation of magic items so much as nonmagical crafting. To save the others in my group from having to hunt-and-peck for stuff I added their tool proficiencies to their character sheets as “Additional Skills,” and to save myself the trouble of having to repeat the same information ad infinitum, I added the rules I decided on for tIme and resource costs for many basic items to the description fields. So if they tap the Alchemist’s/Herbalism/Poisoner/whatever “skill” on their character sheets, the sidebar includes a selection of products for them.
For example:
Alchemist’s Supplies
These special tools include the items needed to pursue nonmagical alchemy. Proficiency with them lets you add your proficiency bonus to any ability checks you make using the tools in your craft.
Alchemical Creation (1/Long Rest) Type Cost Acid (Vial) 15 gp Alchemists’ Fire (Flask) 25 gp Antitoxin 25 gp Oil 5 cp Perfume 25 sp Soap 1 cp —————————————————————————— Alchemist’s supplies enable a character to produce useful concoctions, such as acid, alchemist’s fire, or antitoxin.
Components. Alchemist’s supplies include two glass beakers, a metal frame to hold a beaker in place over an open flame, a glass stirring rod, a small mortar and pestle, and a pouch of common alchemical ingredients, including salt, powdered iron, and purified water.
Arcana. Proficiency with alchemist’s supplies allows you to unlock more information on Arcana checks involving potions and similar materials.
Investigation. When you inspect an area for clues, proficiency with alchemist’s supplies grants additional insight into any chemicals or other substances that might have been used in the area.
Alchemical Crafting. You can use this tool proficiency to create alchemical items. A character can spend money to collect raw materials, which weigh 1 pound for every 50 gp spent. The DM can allow a character to make a check using the indicated skill with advantage. As part of a long rest, you can use alchemist’s supplies to make one dose of acid, alchemist’s fire, antitoxin, oil, perfume, or soap. Subtract half the value of the created item from the total gp worth of raw materials you are carrying.
Activity DC Create a puff of thick smoke 10 Identify a poison 10 Identify a substance 15 Start a fire 15 Neutralize acid 20
Herbalism’ Kit
This kit contains a variety of instruments such as clippers, mortar and pestle, and pouches and vials used by herbalists to create remedies and potions. Proficiency with this kit lets you add your proficiency bonus to any ability checks you make to identify or apply herbs. Also, proficiency with this kit is required to create Antitoxin and Potion of Healing.
Potions of healing fall into a special category for item crafting, separate from other magic items. A character who has proficiency with the herbalism kit can create these potions. The times and costs for doing so are summarized on the Herbalism Creation table.
Herbalism Creation Type Time Cost Healing 1 day 25 gp Greater 1 workweek 100 gp Superior 3 workweeks 1,000 gp Supreme 4 workweeks 10,000 gp Antitoxin Long Rest 25 gp Eyebright 1 Hour 1gp
—————————————————————————— Proficiency with an herbalism kit allows you to identify plants and safely collect their useful elements.
Components. An herbalism kit includes pouches to store herbs, clippers and leather gloves for collecting plants, a mortar and pestle, and several glass jars.
Arcana. Your knowledge of the nature and uses of herbs can add insight to your magical studies that deal with plants and your attempts to identify potions.
Investigation. When you inspect an area overgrown with plants, your proficiency can help you pick out details and clues that others might miss.
Medicine. Your mastery of herbalism improves your ability to treat illnesses and wounds by augmenting your methods of care with medicinal plants.
Nature and Survival. When you travel in the wild, your skill in herbalism makes it easier to identify plants and spot sources of food that others might overlook.
Identify Plants. You can identify most plants with a quick inspection of their appearance and smell.
Activity DC Find plants 15 Identify poison 20
Poisoners’ Kit
A poisoner's kit includes the vials, chemicals, and other equipment necessary for the creation of poisons. Proficiency with this kit lets you add your proficiency bonus to any ability checks you make to craft or use poisons.
Poison Creation Type Time Cost Simulated Allergy Long Rest 12.5 gp Basic 2 days 50 gp Assassin’s Blood 4 days 75 gp Truth Serum 4 days 75 gp —————————————————————————— A poisoner’s kit is a favored resource for thieves, assassins, and others who engage in skulduggery. It allows you to apply poisons and create them from various materials. Your knowledge of poisons also helps you treat them.
Components. A poisoner’s kit includes glass vials, a mortar and pestle, chemicals, and a glass stirring rod.
History. Your training with poisons can help you when you try to recall facts about infamous poisonings.
Investigation, Perception. Your knowledge of poisons has taught you to handle those substances carefully, giving you an edge when you inspect poisoned objects or try to extract clues from events that involve poison.
Medicine. When you treat the victim of a poison, your knowledge grants you added insight into how to provide the best care to your patient.
Nature, Survival. Working with poisons enables you to acquire lore about which plants and animals are poisonous.
Handle Poison. Your proficiency allows you to handle and apply a poison without risk of exposing yourself to its effects.
Activity DC Spot a poisoned object 10 Determine the effects of a poison 20
That way they have range of stuff to make as examples with some rough ballpark idea what other things would require.* Like, if a bar of soap can be made in an evening’s downtime for a single copper piece worth of materials, it should stand to reason that they could make two candles in the same amount of time and for the same cost. But if I could offer them something a little more interesting, I would to ask them if they are interested.
*(So far, the only issue is that they are in the 3rd Tier, so stuff like Basic Poison is effectively useless, but the one wants to make an “Advanced Poison” with more damage and a save DC in the 16 range (because one must chase the almighty DPR 🙄) but for half the cost of basic poison, and they want to finish it in a long rest (because instant gratification isn’t fast enough I guess 🤷♂️).
Yes, I'm talking about what to do if you have a player who wants their PC to be able to craft healing potions on a regular basis. It should require an investment of actual game time and effort to make it more "expensive" than buying it from a DM-controlled source. If you make it too easy and cheap to have healing potions, then your players will simply say they are spending 2 months to make 60 potions of healing and going on their adventures with bandoliers stuffed with cheap heals. The DM should try to remain in control of either a seller of healing potions, or the special ingredients required to craft them to prevent misuse.
Logic dictates that if something costs more to make than you could sell it for, nobody would make and sell that product.
If you bring in a contractor to your house for an price estimate for them to do a job they use the exact same formula. They go to your house, figure out what you want done and where, measure whatever they need to so they know how much of what materials they will need so they can calculate their material cost. Whatever they calculate for the material costs, they double that dollar amount to write up their estimated price quote they give you. That other half of the invoice is listed as “labor,” and covers their crew and overhead, whatever is left over is their company’s profit.
The sale price of a basic healing potion is 50gp. If it cost more than 25gp in materials to create one, then the price would have to be higher the maintain the same percentage in markup. Keep in mind that 50gp sale price also has to cover the 1gp cost for packaging (the vial), the 2gp the manufacturer has to pay themself for the day of skilled labor they provided, and their overhead. If making the thing for themselves didn’t save them at least the 2gp labor cost then the entire economy would be even leas believable than it is already.
Except none of that 👆directly determines the final sale price of a product the market sets those prices.* If nobody was willing to spend more than 30gp for healing in a bottle, the price would be 30gp, if people were willing to spend as much as 100gp for a basic potion of healing, then that would be the sale price. But no PC in their right mind would pay more than 50gp for one, and 99% of the NPCs in the multiverse cannot even afford one at that price. That would result in fewer people making them which would bottom out the supply , which would result in the market being willing to bear a higher sale price too. Of course, with fewer manufacturers the demand for ingredients would also bottom out and likely result in a similar shot in the supply market. Eventually an equilibrium would be reached and things would normalize in whatever the “fair market price” would end up being. One presumes that has already occurred and that’s how we ended up with the cost being 25gp, and the price at 50gp. Where the markup factors into the equation is in the manufacturer’s determination if it’s worth their time and effort to bother.
TL/DR: That cost:price ratio of 1:2 is not only IRL believable, it also falls wholly in line with “The 5e Design Philosophy… ilosophy… osophy.” They K.I.S.S. (“Keep it Stupid Simple”) everything. In addition, I happen to have irrefutable evidence that it does in fact not result in PCs everywhere running around with “bandolier of cheap heals.” That evidence being the fact that the overwhelming majority of PCs do not in fact run around with ridiculous quantities of healing potions. I’m sure there are some folks out there who get part of their fun from such. I mean, statistically there almost have to be.** But I can honestly say that AFAIK I have not met any of them. (Or if I did, I likely made good use of the “Ignore” feature for different things tied to the same personality type.)
As a final note, I happen to have not one, but two suggestions for DMs on how to handle an absurdly comical excess of healing potions in a party:
My suggested “Easy Solution” for any DM with a party so loaded down with healing potions they clink when the fart is the same advice I give for most such similar situations. Make the game harder. I don’t care how many pick-me-ups they have in their pocketses, PC death should always be possible. Don’t forget it’s a full action to administer a potion and it’s hard to maintain DPR if you have to spend a turn or two using their action to play nursemaid every combat. “What?!? You have 1,000 healing potions in a bag of holding and and a dozen more strapped to your chest. You could wholesale. Now ovary-up, and stop complaining that you have more reasons to use those potions. Your PC spent 29,012gp and more than 3 years making all of those. I mean, it seemed really important to you so I wanted you to feel those were resources well spent.”
My other advice is actually quite unique to this situation. Do nothing. If a PC spent 29,012gp and days creating 1,012 basic healing potions, but the haven’t used more than they would have normally, then their portable warehouse of product is worth whatever a retired PC can get for the leftovers at 50gp each. More than likely it was a “warranty expense” anyway. They weren’t buying healing potions with their time and money, they were buying the piece of mind the get from knowing they won’t run out at the worst possible time. If you buy an extended warranty for a new refrigerator, but the fridge never breaks, but you slept like a baby knowing that it’s covers “just in case,” then that was (to them) money well spent. Ne?
Footnotes 👇
*(If people would be willing to pay that aforementioned contractor more than 2 × materials, then contractors would charge more. If nobody were ever willing to pay that much then they would have to charge less. Why do so many people do their own home repairs? To spend less than the contractors would charge them.) **(If ½% of the global population play 5e, and only ½% of them know exactly what Chester Cheetah has be talking about all this time, that’s still somewhere in the ballpark of 172,500 people who might try this gimmick. If only ½% of them have done this specific gimmick, that’s around 860ish Players with one (or more) PC like that. If as many as 50% of those players do it with all of their PCs, then that’s potentially a lot of characters. But it’s still only an estimated ¾ of a percent of all 5e PCs, past & present. The other 99.25% of totel PCs ever created that were made by the other 99.5% of players, not so much.
I actually prefer the idea that there are different recipes for something like a Potion of Healing instead of one single recipe.
Well like many recipes, what you put into it changes what you get out of it.
Putting potatoes in a stew is different from putting carrots in a stew but they are both stew.
I think changing the ingredients of the Healing Pot might make it more or less potent or give it a healing over time component rather than have the different ingredients just produce the same standard Potion of Healing.
Nothing wrong with that whatsoever. And presumably that’s part of the distinction between the various degrees of healing potions and other various potions that are similarly “health” related like Potion of Vitality, Potion of Longevity, or an Elixir of Health.
I just figured that since D&D is so abstracted that multiple combinations of things could theoretically result in 2d4+2HP being the abstracted result for multiple recipes. One recipe uses powdered yarrow, burdock, and comfrey water; and another recipe uses black walnut, elderberry, and black willow. If they both do about the same amount of healing, then I don’t see anything wrong with both being different recipes for equivalent potions, and therefore being mechanically abstracted as the same 2d4+2. I mean, considering what an abstraction HP are in the first place.... 🤷♂️
I mean, it could be different results like you said, but I like that they left it vague enough that it doesn’t have to be and we can both do it however we prefer.
It would go a bit away from the idea of using a herbalism kit, but I like the idea of using materials from regenerative creatures for potions of healing. For instance one process might just involve a kind of distilling of trolls blood.
Parts may also have value for other crafters and uses of spells like Gentle Repose could preserve the merchandise for those willing to shift bodies.
Survival/nature rolls etc. work for those seeking various materials with lower DCs when using relevant spells like Locate animals and plants.
It's fine for characters to spend time, if they have it, crafting items. It's also fine to say, meanwhile the next level of monsters gets otherwise dealt with and everything has gotten harder.
Personally, in a world where one gold is worth 100 dollars (USD or CAN works) a health pot should (maybe) use some crushed herbs, some edible berries (can be replaced with goodberries for more potency), some kind of non-toxic liquid (just not poison) and some inexpensive medicines for a standard health pot. For higher potency, replace berries with goodberries and increase the amount of medicines for higher purity.
Here's what I'm going to do in my game for healing potions. I have not thought out the numbers exactly. All healing potions have the same ingredients. Some kind of mushrooms, ruby dust, small amount of holy water.
The amount of holy water and gem dust can be constant while the mushroom juice, which is the real component, is hard to come by and difficult to process. To make the potion you must squeeze the juice from the mushrooms and boil it down. This takes some amount of time. For more powerful potions the amount of mushroom juice to start with increases as does the time it takes to boil it down. There is a skill check involved in the boiling process and it can go wrong ruining the whole batch. The skill check increases for the higher level potions because you have to make adjustments as the crafting goes. I will also require a separate set of alchemists supplies for each potion being brewed at a given time. If you want to brew 3 potions at once then you need to make the 150g investment in tools.
I would also make this mushrooms somewhat hard to come by. The potion makers in a town or city would have deals with people to go out and find these mushrooms for them so they could be the ones making the profit from brewing and selling potions. The mushroom itself I will make rare enough to keep up the cost and also for a reason I have not yet decided, it will resist cultivation. Maybe they need specific growth conditions that are hard to replicate like that they need to grow on purple wurm poop which would be dangerous to acquire.
10g for a bluestone, 1g for empty vial, 14g for necessary herbs and perhaps Giant Bee Honey. Voila you got your Healing potion assuming you have the encessary tools and proficiency. Add another blue stone and some unicorn horn dust(worth at least 10g much like Giant Bee Honey) and it'll have antitoxin properties too(or replace unicorn horn dust with honey to get only antitoxin). Either way they(ingridients) would, should cost around 25g if players have access to a proper market.
If you want to homebrew/improvise stuff into it i'd advise easy medicine checks to mix potion ingridients to get both benefits (according to Ed Greenwods Volo's Guide to Everything Magical 1996, so it is not really homebrew) Recipe written above should work, i don't see a reason why it should not work in 5e. (Stuff written in this reply are meant for games set in Forgotten Realms, who like lore adherent games which uses previous[pre 5e] authors' official products in order to increase sophistication and content for the sake of consistency)
Fun addition(homebrew): Roll dices as a DM rather than letting players roll it for mixing ingridients to make more complex potions, use the roll for mishaps, or extra quality potions, eg: 20; ingridients blended perfectly and were of higher quality than expected increasing the duration of potion or the heal amount by your proficiency(15 minutes per point of prof, as 1hp per prof. for healing), 1; Ingridients were of lower quality then expected or you have made an error without realizing what, heal amount and duration decrease by your proficiency (potentially healing potions can damage user if brewed by a high level character, and if duration goes to minus, character gets poisoned status for time that exceeded default duration negatively).
Using gems and herbs given in older official resource books might feel too nerdy for some, but it's fun nontheless...
Just like anyone else my time is worth something. Plus I have overhead on my shop.
So if a simple potion costs you 25gp it only cost me half as much. I need my profit.
If a character is spending his time and effort to make the potion I would give him a cost savings. He is only paying for the ingredients. Half off is a good general rule.
I just came across the idea of crafting healing potions after watching this video:
I thought after: WHAT ARE THE INGREDIENTS OF A FLOOPING HEALING POTION IN D&D?! Bing'd the heck out of that question and found your post... I'm ecstatic! I LOVE the way you've done this.
Because though I'd change a few things, here's the thought: 'A healing potion requires a vial or flask that can hold up to 200mL of liquid, distilled (purified) water, a gemstone with a value of 25GP ground down to fine powder (a ruby to fit the color), and the casting of cure wounds.' THAT'S BEAUTIFUL!
Why? Because this means you can make a MULTITUDE OF DIFFERENT POTIONS just by changing a few ingredients. The gemstone, the spell, and the time/cost, with two other additions.
Other additions: The spell cure wounds requires a creature in order for it to be cast. So I'd probably add in some sort of a very small creature (like a newt) that you have to injure slightly without killing, place within the liquid, and then cast cure wounds upon. I'd also add in the carving in of specific runes on the gemstone you're using BEFORE grounding it into powder so that the magic of cure wounds both heals the creatures AND gets absorbed into the powdered gemstone. (That good ol' logic). You can then of course remove the creature, filter the liquid to remove any odd tastes the creature brought, and add in any flavoring you'd like, as flavor would not tamper with the magic.
And the second addition being an arcana check, that they can add their prof. bonus to IF they have prof. in alchemist tools. The DC being higher - the more difficult the potion or level of spell.
This would still take a days time to complete (or 8 hours at least), and even longer for different or more powerful potions, but I love the concept!
You can do this with invisibility, flight, fog cloud, even fireball - this is an absolutely amazing mechanic you've come up with, and I'm definitely adding it into my games! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Right, but this not being a video game it does not have the same correlation.
Besides, a healing potion requires an herbalism kit to create. So why would it require a powdered gemstone instead of a specific herbal ingredient? It breaks continuity and verisimilitude for me. At least a specific “green herb” makes sense.
I guess I just always assumed that “green herb” was a catch all (pardon the pun) “umbrella term” for all of the various substances that qualify for the recipe. So while it was lent to represent 50+ different herbs, they all just got inventoried under “green herb” for simplicity sake.
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Epic Boons on DDB
That makes sense to me. I also agree that making a gemstone, specifically, the key ingredient to a Healing Potion isn't how I would do it either.
This actually reminds me of something that my DM and I are planning with the intent of me playing an artificer in an upcoming campaign. My Artificer will gather a collection of items called "Sprocks", which is just a catch-all term to describe generic tinkering supplies (stuff like springs, screws, and of course sprockets). Anything I attempt to craft that has a cost requirement essentially just "spends" a number of sprocks depending on how complex the invention ends up being. We haven't started the campaign yet so I don't know exactly how it will play out, but it gives me a single unit I need to track for general tinkering.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
That’s cool. I might maybe do two to three types, so one might be a “sprock/sprocks,” and maybe a “gizz/gizzes,” and a “mabob/mabobs.” Kinda like common, uncommon, and rare components. That way there’s some degree of scaving. And tracking metal by weight too.
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Epic Boons on DDB
Well like many recipes, what you put into it changes what you get out of it.
Putting potatoes in a stew is different from putting carrots in a stew but they are both stew.
I think changing the ingredients of the Healing Pot might make it more or less potent or give it a healing over time component rather than have the different ingredients just produce the same standard Potion of Healing.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Nothing wrong with that whatsoever. And presumably that’s part of the distinction between the various degrees of healing potions and other various potions that are similarly “health” related like Potion of Vitality, Potion of Longevity, or an Elixir of Health.
I just figured that since D&D is so abstracted that multiple combinations of things could theoretically result in 2d4+2HP being the abstracted result for multiple recipes. One recipe uses powdered yarrow, burdock, and comfrey water; and another recipe uses black walnut, elderberry, and black willow. If they both do about the same amount of healing, then I don’t see anything wrong with both being different recipes for equivalent potions, and therefore being mechanically abstracted as the same 2d4+2. I mean, considering what an abstraction HP are in the first place.... 🤷♂️
I mean, it could be different results like you said, but I like that they left it vague enough that it doesn’t have to be and we can both do it however we prefer.
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Epic Boons on DDB
We might end up introducing something like that, but the general idea as she explained it to me was that Sprocks fulfil just general tinkering purposes, but anything I craft will still require unique ingredients depending on what I'm trying to create. Like... if I try to create a timed explosive I'll still need dynamite or some other incendiary device. Or if I was making a grappling gun I would need to acquire a grappling hook and probably a power source of some kind. I'm still not sure what, exactly, she'll let me get away with creating but it's at least going to require some level of scavenging and resource management beyond just Sprocks.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
That’s cool then. You’ll have to share with us how the final system comes out. I’m interested to see what they come up with. In the campaign I am currently DMing several of the PCs are crafty and I have had to come up with all kinds of stuff, so I’m always on the lookout for new ideas.
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Epic Boons on DDB
I don't think potion of healing is overpowered anyway. Nobody stops in the middle of a fight to spend an action drinking one of these potions that will give you back maybe 8 hp when they can deliver more than that in damage and probably kill the enemy rather than take another blow from the enemy that will just remove those 8 hp anyway.
A bandolier of 20 potions is going to cost 500 gp to make, but I suppose there is nothing else to spend your money on in 5E anyway.
Your right, but people will spend an action to pour one down the gullet of an unconscious party member. And if you have a Homunculus Servant, certain Familiars, and some other pets you can use your bonus action to command the critter to do it. Invisible Servants too.
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Epic Boons on DDB
I'll admit to just making stuff up on the spot to satisfy my groups at times.
"I want to make a Horn of Blasting!"
"OK...um...you're going to need an unbreakable mouthpiece, the horn of a minotaur, and the voice box of a thunder dragon." I later discovered that the adventure I was running actually had an unbreakable mouthpiece in it. I had no idea what a thunder dragon was, I just made it up.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Are you insane? It's a common item. It's a 2d4+2 heal. That's, at most, 10HP. Not to mention how much the potion weighs. Which is .5lbs, by the by. So if they're carrying 60 pots, that's 30lbs. Enforce encumbrance rules. Don't arbitrarily punish your party. Also, as of XGE, a Potion of Healing takes a full work week (5 days of 8 hours of work a day) to make a Potion of Healing. And 25GP per. So that's... lets see... 60X25= 1,500GP, as well as 60 whole ass weeks to make them. That's more than a year. That's... one year, one month and 2 weeks, actually. "Congrats, while you were brewing potions for a year, the BBEG took over the world/item you were sent to find was stolen/princess you were tasked to rescue died/etc."
There are ways of doing it without being Umberlee to your players. That is to say, without being a ***** Queen to them.
EDIT: I misread XGE. It's a day to make a potion. So it's 1500GP and 60 days. Two months. More than enough time to bar it from being feasible
I know this is an older thread, but I found this. It sets up rules and items for hunting, and you can maybe use rolls to determine if the characters find the items or not?
Potion Brewing and Ingredient Gathering for DnD 5e | GM Binder
EDIT: found another homebrew with alchemy specs. Herbalism & Alchemy Homebrew v1.2.pdf - Google Drive
Wilderness Survival Guide - The Homebrewery (naturalcrit.com)
When I DM, I've been using the potion/ingredient system from Dragon Age Inquisition or Witcher 3 to track most of my potions. This above link isnt perfect, but I've been trying it out in my games and really like it as well. I also use the TIME from the Xanathar's Gudie. An alchemist or herbalist has to sit down for that amount of time, but I also control how/when they find the plant ingredients.
I'd like to add in that the gold system from the base game is incredibly reliant on there being some kind of civilization to buy the ingredients from, and it undermines characters own skillsets. I've played in multiple campaigns where there were NO shops and the players made little to no money because we were in the wilderness. How do we make potions using the base system, melt gold down into vials? There's no shop to buy components from so using gold as a system made no sense. (We also ignored gold spell components in these games. If the spell required gold, then we required the item, instead of using just a focus).
Having a player skilled in plant knowledge and another in alchemy became as essential as having someone with survival skills. There absolutely has to be some kind of limit to prevent players form going overboard, but if you have set and fixed requirements you can control how often the players find these items.
Also, while I like the idea of multiple recipes, tracking that seems like it would be REALLY difficult. This is why I use game systems, the recipes and effects are laid out for me.
I wasn’t thinking the creation of magic items so much as nonmagical crafting. To save the others in my group from having to hunt-and-peck for stuff I added their tool proficiencies to their character sheets as “Additional Skills,” and to save myself the trouble of having to repeat the same information ad infinitum, I added the rules I decided on for tIme and resource costs for many basic items to the description fields. So if they tap the Alchemist’s/Herbalism/Poisoner/whatever “skill” on their character sheets, the sidebar includes a selection of products for them.
For example:
Alchemist’s Supplies
These special tools include the items needed to pursue nonmagical alchemy. Proficiency with them lets you add your proficiency bonus to any ability checks you make using the tools in your craft.
Alchemical Creation (1/Long Rest)
Type Cost
Acid (Vial) 15 gp
Alchemists’ Fire (Flask) 25 gp
Antitoxin 25 gp
Oil 5 cp
Perfume 25 sp
Soap 1 cp
——————————————————————————
Alchemist’s supplies enable a character to produce useful concoctions, such as acid, alchemist’s fire, or antitoxin.
Components. Alchemist’s supplies include two glass beakers, a metal frame to hold a beaker in place over an open flame, a glass stirring rod, a small mortar and pestle, and a pouch of common alchemical ingredients, including salt, powdered iron, and purified water.
Arcana. Proficiency with alchemist’s supplies allows you to unlock more information on Arcana checks involving potions and similar materials.
Investigation. When you inspect an area for clues, proficiency with alchemist’s supplies grants additional insight into any chemicals or other substances that might have been used in the area.
Alchemical Crafting. You can use this tool proficiency to create alchemical items. A character can spend money to collect raw materials, which weigh 1 pound for every 50 gp spent. The DM can allow a character to make a check using the indicated skill with advantage. As part of a long rest, you can use alchemist’s supplies to make one dose of acid, alchemist’s fire, antitoxin, oil, perfume, or soap. Subtract half the value of the created item from the total gp worth of raw materials you are carrying.
Activity DC
Create a puff of thick smoke 10
Identify a poison 10
Identify a substance 15
Start a fire 15
Neutralize acid 20
Herbalism’ Kit
This kit contains a variety of instruments such as clippers, mortar and pestle, and pouches and vials used by herbalists to create remedies and potions. Proficiency with this kit lets you add your proficiency bonus to any ability checks you make to identify or apply herbs. Also, proficiency with this kit is required to create Antitoxin and Potion of Healing.
Potions of healing fall into a special category for item crafting, separate from other magic items. A character who has proficiency with the herbalism kit can create these potions. The times and costs for doing so are summarized on the Herbalism Creation table.
Herbalism Creation
Type Time Cost
Healing 1 day 25 gp
Greater 1 workweek 100 gp
Superior 3 workweeks 1,000 gp
Supreme 4 workweeks 10,000 gp
Antitoxin Long Rest 25 gp
Eyebright 1 Hour 1gp
——————————————————————————
Proficiency with an herbalism kit allows you to identify plants and safely collect their useful elements.
Components. An herbalism kit includes pouches to store herbs, clippers and leather gloves for collecting plants, a mortar and pestle, and several glass jars.
Arcana. Your knowledge of the nature and uses of herbs can add insight to your magical studies that deal with plants and your attempts to identify potions.
Investigation. When you inspect an area overgrown with plants, your proficiency can help you pick out details and clues that others might miss.
Medicine. Your mastery of herbalism improves your ability to treat illnesses and wounds by augmenting your methods of care with medicinal plants.
Nature and Survival. When you travel in the wild, your skill in herbalism makes it easier to identify plants and spot sources of food that others might overlook.
Identify Plants. You can identify most plants with a quick inspection of their appearance and smell.
Activity DC
Find plants 15
Identify poison 20
Poisoners’ Kit
A poisoner's kit includes the vials, chemicals, and other equipment necessary for the creation of poisons. Proficiency with this kit lets you add your proficiency bonus to any ability checks you make to craft or use poisons.
Poison Creation
Type Time Cost
Simulated Allergy Long Rest 12.5 gp
Basic 2 days 50 gp
Assassin’s Blood 4 days 75 gp
Truth Serum 4 days 75 gp
——————————————————————————
A poisoner’s kit is a favored resource for thieves, assassins, and others who engage in skulduggery. It allows you to apply poisons and create them from various materials. Your knowledge of poisons also helps you treat them.
Components. A poisoner’s kit includes glass vials, a mortar and pestle, chemicals, and a glass stirring rod.
History. Your training with poisons can help you when you try to recall facts about infamous poisonings.
Investigation, Perception. Your knowledge of poisons has taught you to handle those substances carefully, giving you an edge when you inspect poisoned objects or try to extract clues from events that involve poison.
Medicine. When you treat the victim of a poison, your knowledge grants you added insight into how to provide the best care to your patient.
Nature, Survival. Working with poisons enables you to acquire lore about which plants and animals are poisonous.
Handle Poison. Your proficiency allows you to handle and apply a poison without risk of exposing yourself to its effects.
Activity DC
Spot a poisoned object 10
Determine the effects of a poison 20
That way they have range of stuff to make as examples with some rough ballpark idea what other things would require.* Like, if a bar of soap can be made in an evening’s downtime for a single copper piece worth of materials, it should stand to reason that they could make two candles in the same amount of time and for the same cost. But if I could offer them something a little more interesting, I would to ask them if they are interested.
*(So far, the only issue is that they are in the 3rd Tier, so stuff like Basic Poison is effectively useless, but the one wants to make an “Advanced Poison” with more damage and a save DC in the 16 range (because one must chase the almighty DPR 🙄) but for half the cost of basic poison, and they want to finish it in a long rest (because instant gratification isn’t fast enough I guess 🤷♂️).
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Epic Boons on DDB
Logic dictates that if something costs more to make than you could sell it for, nobody would make and sell that product.
If you bring in a contractor to your house for an price estimate for them to do a job they use the exact same formula. They go to your house, figure out what you want done and where, measure whatever they need to so they know how much of what materials they will need so they can calculate their material cost. Whatever they calculate for the material costs, they double that dollar amount to write up their estimated price quote they give you. That other half of the invoice is listed as “labor,” and covers their crew and overhead, whatever is left over is their company’s profit.
The sale price of a basic healing potion is 50gp. If it cost more than 25gp in materials to create one, then the price would have to be higher the maintain the same percentage in markup. Keep in mind that 50gp sale price also has to cover the 1gp cost for packaging (the vial), the 2gp the manufacturer has to pay themself for the day of skilled labor they provided, and their overhead. If making the thing for themselves didn’t save them at least the 2gp labor cost then the entire economy would be even leas believable than it is already.
Except none of that 👆directly determines the final sale price of a product the market sets those prices.* If nobody was willing to spend more than 30gp for healing in a bottle, the price would be 30gp, if people were willing to spend as much as 100gp for a basic potion of healing, then that would be the sale price. But no PC in their right mind would pay more than 50gp for one, and 99% of the NPCs in the multiverse cannot even afford one at that price. That would result in fewer people making them which would bottom out the supply , which would result in the market being willing to bear a higher sale price too. Of course, with fewer manufacturers the demand for ingredients would also bottom out and likely result in a similar shot in the supply market. Eventually an equilibrium would be reached and things would normalize in whatever the “fair market price” would end up being. One presumes that has already occurred and that’s how we ended up with the cost being 25gp, and the price at 50gp. Where the markup factors into the equation is in the manufacturer’s determination if it’s worth their time and effort to bother.
TL/DR: That cost:price ratio of 1:2 is not only IRL believable, it also falls wholly in line with “The 5e Design Philosophy… ilosophy… osophy.” They K.I.S.S. (“Keep it Stupid Simple”) everything. In addition, I happen to have irrefutable evidence that it does in fact not result in PCs everywhere running around with “bandolier of cheap heals.” That evidence being the fact that the overwhelming majority of PCs do not in fact run around with ridiculous quantities of healing potions. I’m sure there are some folks out there who get part of their fun from such. I mean, statistically there almost have to be.** But I can honestly say that AFAIK I have not met any of them. (Or if I did, I likely made good use of the “Ignore” feature for different things tied to the same personality type.)
As a final note, I happen to have not one, but two suggestions for DMs on how to handle an absurdly comical excess of healing potions in a party:
“What?!? You have 1,000 healing potions in a bag of holding and and a dozen more strapped to your chest. You could wholesale. Now ovary-up, and stop complaining that you have more reasons to use those potions. Your PC spent 29,012gp and more than 3 years making all of those. I mean, it seemed really important to you so I wanted you to feel those were resources well spent.”
Footnotes 👇
*(If people would be willing to pay that aforementioned contractor more than 2 × materials, then contractors would charge more. If nobody were ever willing to pay that much then they would have to charge less. Why do so many people do their own home repairs? To spend less than the contractors would charge them.)
**(If ½% of the global population play 5e, and only ½% of them know exactly what Chester Cheetah has be talking about all this time, that’s still somewhere in the ballpark of 172,500 people who might try this gimmick. If only ½% of them have done this specific gimmick, that’s around 860ish Players with one (or more) PC like that. If as many as 50% of those players do it with all of their PCs, then that’s potentially a lot of characters. But it’s still only an estimated ¾ of a percent of all 5e PCs, past & present. The other 99.25% of totel PCs ever created that were made by the other 99.5% of players, not so much.
Edits: Typos
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Epic Boons on DDB
It would go a bit away from the idea of using a herbalism kit, but I like the idea of using materials from regenerative creatures for potions of healing. For instance one process might just involve a kind of distilling of trolls blood.
Parts may also have value for other crafters and uses of spells like Gentle Repose could preserve the merchandise for those willing to shift bodies.
Survival/nature rolls etc. work for those seeking various materials with lower DCs when using relevant spells like Locate animals and plants.
It's fine for characters to spend time, if they have it, crafting items.
It's also fine to say, meanwhile the next level of monsters gets otherwise dealt with and everything has gotten harder.
Personally, in a world where one gold is worth 100 dollars (USD or CAN works) a health pot should (maybe) use some crushed herbs, some edible berries (can be replaced with goodberries for more potency), some kind of non-toxic liquid (just not poison) and some inexpensive medicines for a standard health pot. For higher potency, replace berries with goodberries and increase the amount of medicines for higher purity.
Here's what I'm going to do in my game for healing potions. I have not thought out the numbers exactly. All healing potions have the same ingredients. Some kind of mushrooms, ruby dust, small amount of holy water.
The amount of holy water and gem dust can be constant while the mushroom juice, which is the real component, is hard to come by and difficult to process. To make the potion you must squeeze the juice from the mushrooms and boil it down. This takes some amount of time. For more powerful potions the amount of mushroom juice to start with increases as does the time it takes to boil it down. There is a skill check involved in the boiling process and it can go wrong ruining the whole batch. The skill check increases for the higher level potions because you have to make adjustments as the crafting goes. I will also require a separate set of alchemists supplies for each potion being brewed at a given time. If you want to brew 3 potions at once then you need to make the 150g investment in tools.
I would also make this mushrooms somewhat hard to come by. The potion makers in a town or city would have deals with people to go out and find these mushrooms for them so they could be the ones making the profit from brewing and selling potions. The mushroom itself I will make rare enough to keep up the cost and also for a reason I have not yet decided, it will resist cultivation. Maybe they need specific growth conditions that are hard to replicate like that they need to grow on purple wurm poop which would be dangerous to acquire.
10g for a bluestone, 1g for empty vial, 14g for necessary herbs and perhaps Giant Bee Honey. Voila you got your Healing potion assuming you have the encessary tools and proficiency. Add another blue stone and some unicorn horn dust(worth at least 10g much like Giant Bee Honey) and it'll have antitoxin properties too(or replace unicorn horn dust with honey to get only antitoxin). Either way they(ingridients) would, should cost around 25g if players have access to a proper market.
If you want to homebrew/improvise stuff into it i'd advise easy medicine checks to mix potion ingridients to get both benefits (according to Ed Greenwods Volo's Guide to Everything Magical 1996, so it is not really homebrew) Recipe written above should work, i don't see a reason why it should not work in 5e. (Stuff written in this reply are meant for games set in Forgotten Realms, who like lore adherent games which uses previous[pre 5e] authors' official products in order to increase sophistication and content for the sake of consistency)
Fun addition(homebrew): Roll dices as a DM rather than letting players roll it for mixing ingridients to make more complex potions, use the roll for mishaps, or extra quality potions, eg: 20; ingridients blended perfectly and were of higher quality than expected increasing the duration of potion or the heal amount by your proficiency(15 minutes per point of prof, as 1hp per prof. for healing), 1; Ingridients were of lower quality then expected or you have made an error without realizing what, heal amount and duration decrease by your proficiency (potentially healing potions can damage user if brewed by a high level character, and if duration goes to minus, character gets poisoned status for time that exceeded default duration negatively).
Using gems and herbs given in older official resource books might feel too nerdy for some, but it's fun nontheless...
Just like anyone else my time is worth something. Plus I have overhead on my shop.
So if a simple potion costs you 25gp it only cost me half as much. I need my profit.
If a character is spending his time and effort to make the potion I would give him a cost savings. He is only paying for the ingredients. Half off is a good general rule.
Hi Xerberon,
I just came across the idea of crafting healing potions after watching this video:
I thought after: WHAT ARE THE INGREDIENTS OF A FLOOPING HEALING POTION IN D&D?! Bing'd the heck out of that question and found your post... I'm ecstatic! I LOVE the way you've done this.
Because though I'd change a few things, here's the thought: 'A healing potion requires a vial or flask that can hold up to 200mL of liquid, distilled (purified) water, a gemstone with a value of 25GP ground down to fine powder (a ruby to fit the color), and the casting of cure wounds.' THAT'S BEAUTIFUL!
Why? Because this means you can make a MULTITUDE OF DIFFERENT POTIONS just by changing a few ingredients. The gemstone, the spell, and the time/cost, with two other additions.
Other additions: The spell cure wounds requires a creature in order for it to be cast. So I'd probably add in some sort of a very small creature (like a newt) that you have to injure slightly without killing, place within the liquid, and then cast cure wounds upon. I'd also add in the carving in of specific runes on the gemstone you're using BEFORE grounding it into powder so that the magic of cure wounds both heals the creatures AND gets absorbed into the powdered gemstone. (That good ol' logic). You can then of course remove the creature, filter the liquid to remove any odd tastes the creature brought, and add in any flavoring you'd like, as flavor would not tamper with the magic.
And the second addition being an arcana check, that they can add their prof. bonus to IF they have prof. in alchemist tools. The DC being higher - the more difficult the potion or level of spell.
This would still take a days time to complete (or 8 hours at least), and even longer for different or more powerful potions, but I love the concept!
You can do this with invisibility, flight, fog cloud, even fireball - this is an absolutely amazing mechanic you've come up with, and I'm definitely adding it into my games! THANK YOU SO MUCH!