Since we've got a CoffeeLock thread going I thought I'd ask the community about this gem.
In case you aren't familiar with the CoffeeLock's little cousin, here's what goes into being a ChemLock:
1. Play as an Elf. This lets you get a full rest in 4 hours. Time to find something to do with those other 4 hours.
2. Take 3 levels in Alchemist Artificer. This unlocks the ability Experimental Elixir. You wake up after a long rest with one random elixir, but can create more by using a spell slot of any level to create one of your choice. The elixirs last until your next long rest.
3. Take 2 levels in Warlock. Technically one level works, but the second doubles your output. Now you have 2 first level spell slots that refresh on a short rest.
4. Time to go to work. Waking up four hours before everyone else, you immediately make 2 elixirs using your warlock pact slots. Then you short rest to refresh the pact slots. Rinse and repeat three more times and you end up with 8 elixirs by the time everyone is waking up.
Remember, short rests don't actually have to be nap time:
A short rest is a period of downtime, at least 1 hour long, during which a character does nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds.
I visualize the ChemLock's process as creating elixirs and then spending downtime in between taking notes and pondering new formula.
So the question is: would you allow a player to use this build in this way? If not, would you allow a scaled down version, perhaps allowing the ChemLock player to have one short rest in that 4 hour period?
I don’t think I would allow it. Under the multiclass casting rules, it says you can use your pact magic to cast spells from other classes. It doesn’t say anything about using slots to power other class abilities. I realize this would also screw over paladin/warlock smiting, and probably a bit more; and I’m actually ok with that.
The relevant quote: you can use the spell slots you gain from the Pact Magic feature to cast spells you know or have prepared from classes with the Spellcasting class feature, and you can use the spell slots you gain from the Spellcasting class feature to cast warlock spells you know.
Nothing about using pact slots for things other than casting spells.
The multiclassing rules (or spellcasting rules) don't mention that regular spell slots can be spent on anything but casting spells either. The caveat of using spell slots for an alternate feature are only ever listed with that feature and Experimental Elixir (like paladin smites) does not mention what kind of spell slot it has to be.
It's a reasonable house rule to follow Xalthu, but I'd like to keep this discussion to RAW.
The point of contention I'm trying to discuss is the looping of Short Rests in the 4 hour period before everyone else wakes up.
Just because you can trance for 4 hours it doesn't shorten the amount of time you need to take for a long rest. Casting spells or creating potions doesn't really seem like it really should be allowed. And taking a short rest during a long rest really doesn't seem legit.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Does the Trance trait allow an elf to finish a long rest in 4 hours? If an elf meditates during a long rest (as described in the Trance trait), the elf finishes the rest after only 4 hours. A meditating elf otherwise follows all the rules for a long rest; only the duration is changed.
Trance changes the length of an Elf's Long Rest to 4 hours long. After this period is when the ChemLock would start making elixirs and short resting.
There aren't any rules limiting how many short rests can be taken during the day or when. It's always in the realm of the DM allowing them to happen or not. It's like the CoffeeLock. It's all RAW, but the sticking point is whether or not the DM will allow the rules to be used in such a way.
Since we've got a CoffeeLock thread going I thought I'd ask the community about this gem.
In case you aren't familiar with the CoffeeLock's little cousin, here's what goes into being a ChemLock:
1. Play as an Elf. This lets you get a full rest in 4 hours. Time to find something to do with those other 4 hours.
2. Take 3 levels in Alchemist Artificer. This unlocks the ability Experimental Elixir. You wake up after a long rest with one random elixir, but can create more by using a spell slot of any level to create one of your choice. The elixirs last until your next long rest.
3. Take 2 levels in Warlock. Technically one level works, but the second doubles your output. Now you have 2 first level spell slots that refresh on a short rest.
4. Time to go to work. Waking up four hours before everyone else, you immediately make 2 elixirs using your warlock pact slots. Then you short rest to refresh the pact slots. Rinse and repeat three more times and you end up with 8 elixirs by the time everyone is waking up.
Remember, short rests don't actually have to be nap time:
A short rest is a period of downtime, at least 1 hour long, during which a character does nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds.
I visualize the ChemLock's process as creating elixirs and then spending downtime in between taking notes and pondering new formula.
So the question is: would you allow a player to use this build in this way? If not, would you allow a scaled down version, perhaps allowing the ChemLock player to have one short rest in that 4 hour period?
Of course you can do this, and arguments against it are specious at best. Rules do what they say they do. You have spell slots, you can spend them. You could also just take woodcarver's tools proficiency and make arrows, for example. Life is great as an elf.
Of course you can do this, and arguments against it are specious at best. Rules do what they say they do. You have spell slots, you can spend them. You could also just take woodcarver's tools proficiency and make arrows, for example. Life is great as an elf.
For myself, I've decided to ignore the sage advice on this. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense anyway since other races only need to sleep 6 hours, if you're going to shorten rests for elves, you should shorten it to 6 hours with up to 2 hours of light activity. A more reasonable interpretation is to give them a full 8 hour rest with 4 hours of light activity. I say more reasonable because if this character were a non-elf that took aspect of the moon, they would still need to take 8 hour long rests despite not needing to sleep at all.
As for the rest of it, I'd allow it, but you should be aware that this means the party is going to be able to face more and stronger enemies. Which inevitably means they will.
Of course you can do this, and arguments against it are specious at best. Rules do what they say they do. You have spell slots, you can spend them. You could also just take woodcarver's tools proficiency and make arrows, for example. Life is great as an elf.
Yes, but would you allow it at your table as DM?
This specifically? Certainly. Experimental Elixir is a garbage subclass ability and you've found a clever way to solve its crippling problem, which is an inability to make the elixir you want to make - by making a bunch of elixirs, you raise the odds you'll make at least one of the potion you actually want today. Plus, your solution requires you to invest in a stat that doesn't help your main class function, so you've inarguably paid a fair price for it. You'll need to cripple a stat you really don't want to - Int, Con, or Dex - to do this. I have no qualms at all allowing it.
Experimental Elixir is a garbage subclass ability and you've found a clever way to solve its crippling problem, which is an inability to make the elixir you want to make - by making a bunch of elixirs, you raise the odds you'll make at least one of the potion you actually want today.
Did you know that you actually can choose what elixir you get, but only when you use a spell slot to create the elixir? It's only the once-a-long-rest free elixir that's random.
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
As for the rest of it, I'd allow it, but you should be aware that this means the party is going to be able to face more and stronger enemies. Which inevitably means they will.
Well I can only handle things when everything is easy and the DM doesn't challenge the group so I guess I'm screwed. 😋
Experimental Elixir is a garbage subclass ability and you've found a clever way to solve its crippling problem, which is an inability to make the elixir you want to make - by making a bunch of elixirs, you raise the odds you'll make at least one of the potion you actually want today.
Did you know that you actually can choose what elixir you get, but only when you use a spell slot to create the elixir? It's only the once-a-long-rest free elixir that's random.
This. The ChemLock ends their 4 hour process with 8 elixirs of their choosing. I find myself agreeing with all of your logic regardless, but I'm curious if that moves the dial for you at all Quindraco.
I'd allow using short rests one after the other to make potions using the warlock pact slots.
But I houserule that Elves still take 8 hours for a long rest - they only need to trance for half. I'd let you use those 4 hours like a short rest, depending on the ability, but at the end of that, it counts as a long rest, still, and so any potions made disappear.
So making the potions for the 4 hours of the long rest you're awake is allowed but totally pointless. But if you had any non-long-rest 4 hours of time, yes I'd let you make the potions.
I would also houserule that when you make the free potion from the long rest, you can choose the result. Just as you can choose the ones from using spell slots.
It's not that big of a benefit as the DM I can always find ways to counter those potions if I wanted to ensure a higher difficulty encounter. Your +10 speed potions aren't going to help you in the 15 ft cube death trap room. Your +1 AC potions will mean nothing to that elaborate puzzle. Ever your alter self potion - arguably the most powerful potion effect - is useless against the adult red dragon who doesn't give a rat's arse what you look like and will roast you all the same.
To be honest, I don't think the investment and cost to pull this off is even remotely worth it - it's not a strong ability by any standard. It is a clever, though, and I see no reason to disallow it. In fact, it could be useful for me as a DM - if I feel like I want you to have an easier encounter I can tailor one where the right choice in potions would make it easy and drop some hints - so you get to feel like the MVP for that encounter. I could even make a puzzle out of it that only you using this would be able to solve.
So, "chemlocks" aren't anything a DM need to worry about at all, and it fits the RAW. So, sure. Go nuts.
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i would allow given that at my table short rests are rare because we often only have 1-2 (3-4 if the party was an idiot) conflicts between long rests so their is not much need for short rests.
By a strict reading of RAW only, it works. Short rests are not limited per day, and the determination of whether an elf finishes its long rest in four or eight hours is ambiguous. Yes, I know, Sage Advice says otherwise, but Sage Advice has been wrong before and it will be wrong again. Nevertheless, one could theoretically do this, yes.
My answer to this Meth Doctor build is generally the same as it is for the Coffeelock - it requires multiclassing which should not be free, it's a midgame build at the earliest, and it's moderate cheese at best. If a player really wants to do it - if they've got a cool character concept they're bursting to play and this idea has them excited to get stuck into my campaign, I wouldn't forbid it. A DM that says "No, you absolutely cannot do the thing that's got you super excited to play" is a DM unlikely to be DMing for long, with the exception of DMs who clearly lay out character building constraints for their campaign during or prior to Session 0.
Even then, my stance has always been that a player who wants to play something outside the scope of my world has to sell me on the idea, rather than just shooting them down. They get to discuss with me, pitch their concept, and argue for it. if they do a good enough job, they may well get their thing, and I'll have a player who's delighted in their victory and super jazzed to play their thing as well as a bunch of new player-driven worldbuilding to bounce off of. Wins all around.
All that said? In this specific case I'd also talk with the player before signing off on Meth Doctoring about what their goal is. Is mass fabrication of many multiple billions of elixirs what they want? Or are they doing this because it's the best/only way they can think of to work around how frustrating, unfinished, and unfulfilling the Experimental Elixir class feature is? I've seen a few really cool character kernel ideas for this Meth Doctor mix, but it is still primarily a bunch of rules jank designed to break daily limits. If that's explicitly what the player's looking for, sure. Shitty Wild Chemistry effects are tame enough that having more of them won't tip the balance too often, and letting the player do their trick keeps them engaged.
But it does leave a bad taste in my mouth, and my preference would be to fix the Shitty Wild Chemistry class feature first. DDB's forbidden me from doing so for other people, but they sure as shit can suck the fattest of donkey inseminators if I'm going to tolerate them demanding I not do so for my own table, should it ever come up. Shitty Wild Chemistry is one of the worst class features in all of D&D 5e; players wanting to make a cool alchemist character but feeling frustrated at how absolutely godawful moose shyte Shitty Wild Chemistry is aren't necessarily wanting to play this Meth Doctor set-up, they're just doing so because they found it online and feel like it's the closest thing they can do to what they actually want while not being a Discredit To Team. That requires a different fix than budget drug dealer Coffeelocking.
So...tl:dr for people who hate Rei going off on tangents: I would allow it, but only if the player was actively invested in playing this specific idea and had a character concept that fit it. Otherwise I'd just homebrew Experimental Elixir Shitty Wild Chemistry to suck less.
Based on some comments about the feature I can see here, I will just take a moment to ensure people are aware: the "freebie" potion is random. Any potion made by expending a spell slot is not random - you actually choose the effect.
You can create additional experimental elixirs by expending a spell slot of 1st level or higher for each one. When you do so, you use your action to create the elixir in an empty flask you touch, and you choose the elixir’s effect from the Experimental Elixir table.
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I would not allow it. Allowing multiple consecutive short rests - for whatever purpose - just doesn't sit right with me and never has. If you have 2 or 3 hours to kill you get a Somewhat Long Rest which grants the same bonuses as a short rest.
I do think Experimental Elixir is a poorly balanced feature, but I would rather houserule that directly than normalize the exploitation of rest rules.
I understand that, CM. Heh, believe me, I understand it very well. I campaigned for a month to revise the Alchemist subclass of the artificer into a state that was fun and viable both for people who wanted to be terrible frizzy-haired Doc Brown cackling potion chuckers and people who actually liked artificers, alchemists, the UA Alchemist, and generally not being a disgrace to their team. Wizards replacing the Alchemical Homunculus with Shitty Wild Chemistry and completely stripping the UA Alchemist of its combat viability completely and irrevocably ruined my favorite pre-Rising artificer character, resulting in me having to scramble to make a new one for the campaign I was preparing for and resulting in me running the Battlesmith pictured in my avatar for the last year and a half instead of my beloved, still-missed UA Alchemist. I am deeply familiar with the rules for Experimental Elixir.
Experimental Elixir is still an absolutely godawful piece of half-baked game design that Wizards should actively feel ashamed of publishing. It was clearly a last-minute hotfix patch to the artificer when they found out that the majority of alchemist players were unsatisfied with the fantastic Alchemical Homunculus and wanted some way to make magic beer on the regular, instead. It is a poorly designed, poorly written, poorly thought out feature that is subpar and unfun in every way imaginable. It actively hinders you in combat, as creating an elixir to hand to someone else in a fight requires between three to five actions depending on starting conditions, and its out-of-battle utility is mediocre at best, roughly equivalent to a Magic Initiate feat outside of Meth Doctor warlock rules jank.
I know in my very bones what Experimental Elixir does, and furthermore what it doesn't do. And I will never forgive Wizards for destroying my artificer, nor the Internet gaggle**** legion of moronic mouthbreathing potion chuckers unable to comprehend why "I MAYK MAJIK BEER" is a terrible character seed that prompted Wizards to destroy my artificer.
Without any house ruling? No, I probably would not allow it.
That being said, I like the idea and think it is very creative. My house rule to deal with it would probably just be to impose a limit on how often you can take short rests (similar to long rests). That way, depending on the restriction, they could still functionally use this build to make 2 to 4 extra potions over the length of a normal long rest as opposed to 8. Outside of this situation, saying something like "you have to wait a X hours after a short rest before you can take another one" would also make things more challenging for a party since they know they cannot simply short rest after every single combat encounter if they try to do them quickly.
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I absolutely would allow it. It's fun, it makes alchemist usable and it's a great interaction of RAW. So for me 100% I would. Coffee-lock I have hit or miss view points on, but the chemlock is for sure yes.
Based on some comments about the feature I can see here, I will just take a moment to ensure people are aware: the "freebie" potion is random. Any potion made by expending a spell slot is not random - you actually choose the effect.
You can create additional experimental elixirs by expending a spell slot of 1st level or higher for each one. When you do so, you use your action to create the elixir in an empty flask you touch, and you choose the elixir’s effect from the Experimental Elixir table.
Since we've got a CoffeeLock thread going I thought I'd ask the community about this gem.
In case you aren't familiar with the CoffeeLock's little cousin, here's what goes into being a ChemLock:
1. Play as an Elf. This lets you get a full rest in 4 hours. Time to find something to do with those other 4 hours.
2. Take 3 levels in Alchemist Artificer. This unlocks the ability Experimental Elixir. You wake up after a long rest with one random elixir, but can create more by using a spell slot of any level to create one of your choice. The elixirs last until your next long rest.
3. Take 2 levels in Warlock. Technically one level works, but the second doubles your output. Now you have 2 first level spell slots that refresh on a short rest.
4. Time to go to work. Waking up four hours before everyone else, you immediately make 2 elixirs using your warlock pact slots. Then you short rest to refresh the pact slots. Rinse and repeat three more times and you end up with 8 elixirs by the time everyone is waking up.
Remember, short rests don't actually have to be nap time:
I visualize the ChemLock's process as creating elixirs and then spending downtime in between taking notes and pondering new formula.
So the question is: would you allow a player to use this build in this way? If not, would you allow a scaled down version, perhaps allowing the ChemLock player to have one short rest in that 4 hour period?
I don’t think I would allow it. Under the multiclass casting rules, it says you can use your pact magic to cast spells from other classes. It doesn’t say anything about using slots to power other class abilities. I realize this would also screw over paladin/warlock smiting, and probably a bit more; and I’m actually ok with that.
The relevant quote: you can use the spell slots you gain from the Pact Magic feature to cast spells you know or have prepared from classes with the Spellcasting class feature, and you can use the spell slots you gain from the Spellcasting class feature to cast warlock spells you know.
Nothing about using pact slots for things other than casting spells.
The multiclassing rules (or spellcasting rules) don't mention that regular spell slots can be spent on anything but casting spells either. The caveat of using spell slots for an alternate feature are only ever listed with that feature and Experimental Elixir (like paladin smites) does not mention what kind of spell slot it has to be.
It's a reasonable house rule to follow Xalthu, but I'd like to keep this discussion to RAW.
The point of contention I'm trying to discuss is the looping of Short Rests in the 4 hour period before everyone else wakes up.
Just because you can trance for 4 hours it doesn't shorten the amount of time you need to take for a long rest. Casting spells or creating potions doesn't really seem like it really should be allowed. And taking a short rest during a long rest really doesn't seem legit.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
From the Sage Advice Compendium
Trance changes the length of an Elf's Long Rest to 4 hours long. After this period is when the ChemLock would start making elixirs and short resting.
There aren't any rules limiting how many short rests can be taken during the day or when. It's always in the realm of the DM allowing them to happen or not. It's like the CoffeeLock. It's all RAW, but the sticking point is whether or not the DM will allow the rules to be used in such a way.
Of course you can do this, and arguments against it are specious at best. Rules do what they say they do. You have spell slots, you can spend them. You could also just take woodcarver's tools proficiency and make arrows, for example. Life is great as an elf.
Yes, but would you allow it at your table as DM?
For myself, I've decided to ignore the sage advice on this. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense anyway since other races only need to sleep 6 hours, if you're going to shorten rests for elves, you should shorten it to 6 hours with up to 2 hours of light activity. A more reasonable interpretation is to give them a full 8 hour rest with 4 hours of light activity. I say more reasonable because if this character were a non-elf that took aspect of the moon, they would still need to take 8 hour long rests despite not needing to sleep at all.
As for the rest of it, I'd allow it, but you should be aware that this means the party is going to be able to face more and stronger enemies. Which inevitably means they will.
This specifically? Certainly. Experimental Elixir is a garbage subclass ability and you've found a clever way to solve its crippling problem, which is an inability to make the elixir you want to make - by making a bunch of elixirs, you raise the odds you'll make at least one of the potion you actually want today. Plus, your solution requires you to invest in a stat that doesn't help your main class function, so you've inarguably paid a fair price for it. You'll need to cripple a stat you really don't want to - Int, Con, or Dex - to do this. I have no qualms at all allowing it.
Did you know that you actually can choose what elixir you get, but only when you use a spell slot to create the elixir? It's only the once-a-long-rest free elixir that's random.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Well I can only handle things when everything is easy and the DM doesn't challenge the group so I guess I'm screwed. 😋
This. The ChemLock ends their 4 hour process with 8 elixirs of their choosing. I find myself agreeing with all of your logic regardless, but I'm curious if that moves the dial for you at all Quindraco.
I'd allow using short rests one after the other to make potions using the warlock pact slots.
But I houserule that Elves still take 8 hours for a long rest - they only need to trance for half. I'd let you use those 4 hours like a short rest, depending on the ability, but at the end of that, it counts as a long rest, still, and so any potions made disappear.
So making the potions for the 4 hours of the long rest you're awake is allowed but totally pointless. But if you had any non-long-rest 4 hours of time, yes I'd let you make the potions.
I would also houserule that when you make the free potion from the long rest, you can choose the result. Just as you can choose the ones from using spell slots.
It's not that big of a benefit as the DM I can always find ways to counter those potions if I wanted to ensure a higher difficulty encounter. Your +10 speed potions aren't going to help you in the 15 ft cube death trap room. Your +1 AC potions will mean nothing to that elaborate puzzle. Ever your alter self potion - arguably the most powerful potion effect - is useless against the adult red dragon who doesn't give a rat's arse what you look like and will roast you all the same.
To be honest, I don't think the investment and cost to pull this off is even remotely worth it - it's not a strong ability by any standard. It is a clever, though, and I see no reason to disallow it. In fact, it could be useful for me as a DM - if I feel like I want you to have an easier encounter I can tailor one where the right choice in potions would make it easy and drop some hints - so you get to feel like the MVP for that encounter. I could even make a puzzle out of it that only you using this would be able to solve.
So, "chemlocks" aren't anything a DM need to worry about at all, and it fits the RAW. So, sure. Go nuts.
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i would allow given that at my table short rests are rare because we often only have 1-2 (3-4 if the party was an idiot) conflicts between long rests so their is not much need for short rests.
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By a strict reading of RAW only, it works. Short rests are not limited per day, and the determination of whether an elf finishes its long rest in four or eight hours is ambiguous. Yes, I know, Sage Advice says otherwise, but Sage Advice has been wrong before and it will be wrong again. Nevertheless, one could theoretically do this, yes.
My answer to this Meth Doctor build is generally the same as it is for the Coffeelock - it requires multiclassing which should not be free, it's a midgame build at the earliest, and it's moderate cheese at best. If a player really wants to do it - if they've got a cool character concept they're bursting to play and this idea has them excited to get stuck into my campaign, I wouldn't forbid it. A DM that says "No, you absolutely cannot do the thing that's got you super excited to play" is a DM unlikely to be DMing for long, with the exception of DMs who clearly lay out character building constraints for their campaign during or prior to Session 0.
Even then, my stance has always been that a player who wants to play something outside the scope of my world has to sell me on the idea, rather than just shooting them down. They get to discuss with me, pitch their concept, and argue for it. if they do a good enough job, they may well get their thing, and I'll have a player who's delighted in their victory and super jazzed to play their thing as well as a bunch of new player-driven worldbuilding to bounce off of. Wins all around.
All that said? In this specific case I'd also talk with the player before signing off on Meth Doctoring about what their goal is. Is mass fabrication of many multiple billions of elixirs what they want? Or are they doing this because it's the best/only way they can think of to work around how frustrating, unfinished, and unfulfilling the Experimental Elixir class feature is? I've seen a few really cool character kernel ideas for this Meth Doctor mix, but it is still primarily a bunch of rules jank designed to break daily limits. If that's explicitly what the player's looking for, sure. Shitty Wild Chemistry effects are tame enough that having more of them won't tip the balance too often, and letting the player do their trick keeps them engaged.
But it does leave a bad taste in my mouth, and my preference would be to fix the Shitty Wild Chemistry class feature first. DDB's forbidden me from doing so for other people, but they sure as shit can suck the fattest of donkey inseminators if I'm going to tolerate them demanding I not do so for my own table, should it ever come up. Shitty Wild Chemistry is one of the worst class features in all of D&D 5e; players wanting to make a cool alchemist character but feeling frustrated at how absolutely godawful moose shyte Shitty Wild Chemistry is aren't necessarily wanting to play this Meth Doctor set-up, they're just doing so because they found it online and feel like it's the closest thing they can do to what they actually want while not being a Discredit To Team. That requires a different fix than budget drug dealer Coffeelocking.
So...tl:dr for people who hate Rei going off on tangents: I would allow it, but only if the player was actively invested in playing this specific idea and had a character concept that fit it. Otherwise I'd just homebrew
Experimental ElixirShitty Wild Chemistry to suck less.Please do not contact or message me.
Based on some comments about the feature I can see here, I will just take a moment to ensure people are aware: the "freebie" potion is random. Any potion made by expending a spell slot is not random - you actually choose the effect.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
I would not allow it. Allowing multiple consecutive short rests - for whatever purpose - just doesn't sit right with me and never has. If you have 2 or 3 hours to kill you get a Somewhat Long Rest which grants the same bonuses as a short rest.
I do think Experimental Elixir is a poorly balanced feature, but I would rather houserule that directly than normalize the exploitation of rest rules.
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(Warlock) The Swarm
I understand that, CM. Heh, believe me, I understand it very well. I campaigned for a month to revise the Alchemist subclass of the artificer into a state that was fun and viable both for people who wanted to be terrible frizzy-haired Doc Brown cackling potion chuckers and people who actually liked artificers, alchemists, the UA Alchemist, and generally not being a disgrace to their team. Wizards replacing the Alchemical Homunculus with Shitty Wild Chemistry and completely stripping the UA Alchemist of its combat viability completely and irrevocably ruined my favorite pre-Rising artificer character, resulting in me having to scramble to make a new one for the campaign I was preparing for and resulting in me running the Battlesmith pictured in my avatar for the last year and a half instead of my beloved, still-missed UA Alchemist. I am deeply familiar with the rules for Experimental Elixir.
Experimental Elixir is still an absolutely godawful piece of half-baked game design that Wizards should actively feel ashamed of publishing. It was clearly a last-minute hotfix patch to the artificer when they found out that the majority of alchemist players were unsatisfied with the fantastic Alchemical Homunculus and wanted some way to make magic beer on the regular, instead. It is a poorly designed, poorly written, poorly thought out feature that is subpar and unfun in every way imaginable. It actively hinders you in combat, as creating an elixir to hand to someone else in a fight requires between three to five actions depending on starting conditions, and its out-of-battle utility is mediocre at best, roughly equivalent to a Magic Initiate feat outside of Meth Doctor warlock rules jank.
I know in my very bones what Experimental Elixir does, and furthermore what it doesn't do. And I will never forgive Wizards for destroying my artificer, nor the Internet gaggle**** legion of moronic mouthbreathing potion chuckers unable to comprehend why "I MAYK MAJIK BEER" is a terrible character seed that prompted Wizards to destroy my artificer.
Please do not contact or message me.
Without any house ruling? No, I probably would not allow it.
That being said, I like the idea and think it is very creative. My house rule to deal with it would probably just be to impose a limit on how often you can take short rests (similar to long rests). That way, depending on the restriction, they could still functionally use this build to make 2 to 4 extra potions over the length of a normal long rest as opposed to 8. Outside of this situation, saying something like "you have to wait a X hours after a short rest before you can take another one" would also make things more challenging for a party since they know they cannot simply short rest after every single combat encounter if they try to do them quickly.
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I absolutely would allow it. It's fun, it makes alchemist usable and it's a great interaction of RAW. So for me 100% I would. Coffee-lock I have hit or miss view points on, but the chemlock is for sure yes.
nice
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