Ive been working on this for a few weeks now. I made this for a character i will be using a future campaign, and wanted it to be fairly simple cause its not something i want to have to put a lot of effort into making work constantly.
my comments are geared towards other people using the document even though you said its for yourself...
not sure if i like the variable DC for potions. it makes it really hard to use across a campaign and that means you have to keep track of every single potion and its corresponding DC and can't really automate any of it for sharing. instead of basic poison, you now have 10ish different kinds of basic poison to worry about - 10 different poisons now become 100 different poisons. IMO, you either make the poison or you don't...if you really want the concept, add something where you have the chance to make whatever is the next stronger poison- most poisons should have multiple ingredients anyway so you just knew the secret mix.
i'd also mark which poisons are official and which are homebrew for clarity. (maybe superscripts with PHB, DMG, XGE, HB after each item - with HB standing for homebrew). same with the rules if you can (although that's harder as a lot of people make subtle tweaks/additions to official rules so its not fully homebrew and not fully core).
it'd be great if you created the feats and potions on D&D Beyond and added links - poisons aren't usually magic items, but for sharing, just make them common. doing that for everything in a document is a lot of work, but imo, what's the point of making a publication if people don't use it? i've found my group doesn't use much of anything unless they can easily incorporate it into their character. just handing them a publication and saying, 'here, this is awesome' has never worked for me. they always respond 'yeah this is awesome' and the topic never comes up again. ...but if you give them a link to a specific item, they'll add it and it comes up again. (although if its just for you like you said, don't bother'...but if you use D&D beyond, you'd probably still want something to be able to add to your character sheet) (and I think you'd still want to do this even for yourself if you use a D&D beyond character sheet, otherwise you're just going to have a character sheet with an empty feat..and you'll have to add a customize item for every single potion you make...)
for the potion of watchful rest, i'd change the language so it matches the elves when they rest.
A lot of its written the way it is because you are only supposed to be making 1 item at any given time (typically) so you would need to go in and look at each item individually every time. I would personally make it the player’s responsibility to mark down the DC and such. I guess i dont really understand what exactly your complaint is here, if you could re-explain.
I also really didnt see a point as to marking all the poisons locations because i had basically reprinted all of them cause there was so few (and none are technically homebrew in the poison section). I dont really use DnDbeyond for my games, mostly just as a place to debate, gain and store information which is why I haven’t put any feats or anything into the website. No one would find them anyway
The Watchful rest is from W:DotMM so i just copied that exact language
my issue with different DC's for a specific item that can be given to other characters - say you have a group of 4 characters and you slay a bunch of poisonous snakes and 3 of the players make basic poison and each give a poison to the 4th player. now that 4th player has 3 different basic poisons that have to be tracked separately (this is an issue if you use the D&D Beyond character sheet or not - its just more stuff you have to keep track of with (imo) no real extra value). (yes, is definitely a 'what if' scenario, but you created something with (imo) usability issues that discourage people from using it.)
Specific to D&D Beyond - If you add an item to your inventory, you can customize it, but you can't add multiple types of one item with different customizations without creating an entirely new magic item for each scenario. so your one poison with various DC's just means more work for everyone who's going to carry it in inventory or be subject to it.
on the annotations - (once again imo), when people look at anyone's homebrew creation, they ask themselves how much is sound, how much is absolutely pooey, and how much is great but still needs a tweak or two (this is all the reader's opinion - but i think many people ask this). In other words, the question 'how much of this will i actually use' is asked. the idea of putting all the official and your homebrew poisons in one spot is great, but the reader has to go through every poison and bounce it off the official item to then make a decision on that item. Noting the source makes that evaluation way faster because they can skip the official stuff.
on feats, you would add the links to your document, so anyone who uses the document would be able to find the feat. i agree, searching on D&D beyond for homebrew stuff isn't worth the effort.
again this is all comments for other people's use. Bramblefoots comment is pretty sound if you're just looking to use this yourself in your own game.
Ah i see what you are getting at now. First of all most of these DCs are so low that past like 5th level the items are pretty much useless, and this system gives the player more autonomy to keep this skill relevant throughout all tiers of play. Not to mention unless you are using a variant rule all players will only be making one poison from that encounter (unless they sit their for multiple hours just to make poison) so if they really wanted to give all of it to one player they could but i wouldnt really see a point.
Also i look at it less like they are changing the DC and more like how it works with the Artificer's 'Spell-Storing Item' where no matter who is using the item it will always use the Artificers spell save DC and spell casting ability numbers. This system works the same way, minus the spellcasting system.
Also i am not adept enough in DnDbeyond to add all of these things and make them work properly in the first place.
Ive been working on this for a few weeks now. I made this for a character i will be using a future campaign, and wanted it to be fairly simple cause its not something i want to have to put a lot of effort into making work constantly.
Oh my goodness, you have no idea how useful this is for the homebrew subclass for wizards: Practitioner of Witchcraft. I hope you don't mind that I'll be using it for my witch because it seems perfectly done in my opinion.
So only one thing stood out to me. Where did the Handle Poison skill come from? My group has been talking about either Medicine or Sleight of Hand skills for this.
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Ive been working on this for a few weeks now. I made this for a character i will be using a future campaign, and wanted it to be fairly simple cause its not something i want to have to put a lot of effort into making work constantly.
Guidelines: Potion Crafting
This is really cool. Sounds good.
'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
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my comments are geared towards other people using the document even though you said its for yourself...
not sure if i like the variable DC for potions. it makes it really hard to use across a campaign and that means you have to keep track of every single potion and its corresponding DC and can't really automate any of it for sharing. instead of basic poison, you now have 10ish different kinds of basic poison to worry about - 10 different poisons now become 100 different poisons. IMO, you either make the poison or you don't...if you really want the concept, add something where you have the chance to make whatever is the next stronger poison- most poisons should have multiple ingredients anyway so you just knew the secret mix.
i'd also mark which poisons are official and which are homebrew for clarity. (maybe superscripts with PHB, DMG, XGE, HB after each item - with HB standing for homebrew). same with the rules if you can (although that's harder as a lot of people make subtle tweaks/additions to official rules so its not fully homebrew and not fully core).
it'd be great if you created the feats and potions on D&D Beyond and added links - poisons aren't usually magic items, but for sharing, just make them common. doing that for everything in a document is a lot of work, but imo, what's the point of making a publication if people don't use it? i've found my group doesn't use much of anything unless they can easily incorporate it into their character. just handing them a publication and saying, 'here, this is awesome' has never worked for me. they always respond 'yeah this is awesome' and the topic never comes up again. ...but if you give them a link to a specific item, they'll add it and it comes up again. (although if its just for you like you said, don't bother'...but if you use D&D beyond, you'd probably still want something to be able to add to your character sheet) (and I think you'd still want to do this even for yourself if you use a D&D beyond character sheet, otherwise you're just going to have a character sheet with an empty feat..and you'll have to add a customize item for every single potion you make...)
for the potion of watchful rest, i'd change the language so it matches the elves when they rest.
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
Deck of Decks
A lot of its written the way it is because you are only supposed to be making 1 item at any given time (typically) so you would need to go in and look at each item individually every time. I would personally make it the player’s responsibility to mark down the DC and such. I guess i dont really understand what exactly your complaint is here, if you could re-explain.
I also really didnt see a point as to marking all the poisons locations because i had basically reprinted all of them cause there was so few (and none are technically homebrew in the poison section). I dont really use DnDbeyond for my games, mostly just as a place to debate, gain and store information which is why I haven’t put any feats or anything into the website. No one would find them anyway
The Watchful rest is from W:DotMM so i just copied that exact language
my issue with different DC's for a specific item that can be given to other characters - say you have a group of 4 characters and you slay a bunch of poisonous snakes and 3 of the players make basic poison and each give a poison to the 4th player. now that 4th player has 3 different basic poisons that have to be tracked separately (this is an issue if you use the D&D Beyond character sheet or not - its just more stuff you have to keep track of with (imo) no real extra value). (yes, is definitely a 'what if' scenario, but you created something with (imo) usability issues that discourage people from using it.)
Specific to D&D Beyond - If you add an item to your inventory, you can customize it, but you can't add multiple types of one item with different customizations without creating an entirely new magic item for each scenario. so your one poison with various DC's just means more work for everyone who's going to carry it in inventory or be subject to it.
on the annotations - (once again imo), when people look at anyone's homebrew creation, they ask themselves how much is sound, how much is absolutely pooey, and how much is great but still needs a tweak or two (this is all the reader's opinion - but i think many people ask this). In other words, the question 'how much of this will i actually use' is asked. the idea of putting all the official and your homebrew poisons in one spot is great, but the reader has to go through every poison and bounce it off the official item to then make a decision on that item. Noting the source makes that evaluation way faster because they can skip the official stuff.
on feats, you would add the links to your document, so anyone who uses the document would be able to find the feat. i agree, searching on D&D beyond for homebrew stuff isn't worth the effort.
again this is all comments for other people's use. Bramblefoots comment is pretty sound if you're just looking to use this yourself in your own game.
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
Deck of Decks
Ah i see what you are getting at now. First of all most of these DCs are so low that past like 5th level the items are pretty much useless, and this system gives the player more autonomy to keep this skill relevant throughout all tiers of play. Not to mention unless you are using a variant rule all players will only be making one poison from that encounter (unless they sit their for multiple hours just to make poison) so if they really wanted to give all of it to one player they could but i wouldnt really see a point.
Also i look at it less like they are changing the DC and more like how it works with the Artificer's 'Spell-Storing Item' where no matter who is using the item it will always use the Artificers spell save DC and spell casting ability numbers. This system works the same way, minus the spellcasting system.
Also i am not adept enough in DnDbeyond to add all of these things and make them work properly in the first place.
Oh my goodness, you have no idea how useful this is for the homebrew subclass for wizards: Practitioner of Witchcraft. I hope you don't mind that I'll be using it for my witch because it seems perfectly done in my opinion.
Absolutely feel free. As long as someone else is getting some use out of it :)
So only one thing stood out to me. Where did the Handle Poison skill come from? My group has been talking about either Medicine or Sleight of Hand skills for this.