Potion Craft and D&D

[fundeen]

Do these potions and ingredients pair/match well with D&D 5e alchemist or potion making abilities?

[Ghostly]

im sure there is an official potion recipe for DnD 5e. but its DnD make it your game and use these recipes for your potions in the game because why not

[DoctorofMadness]

as an experience 5e DM, what i've gleaned so far from this game is kind of how i run alchemy in my own sessions (currently have 6.5 hours of playtime on potion craft)

for example, a simple potion of healing (I) , in this game its a waterbloom and a terraria, very common ingredients, elementally based its a water ingredient, and an earth ingredient, me personally i would have made it water and air, but thats beside the point.

Taken from the wiki as of 9/26
Terraria has a harvested range of 3-5, and a base price of 12
Waterbloom has a harvest range of 3-5, and a base price of 16

From XGE, "Downtime Revisited", under "Brewing Potions of Healing", a character needs prof. with the Herbalism kit, and spends 1 (work)day (meaning 8 hours), as well as 25gp.

For this game, we make the potion within like, 10-20 seconds, but within the realm of DND that could equate to a whole 4 hour / 5 hour alchemical experiment. I think the prices match up exceptionally well, potioncraft requires 28gp, dnd5e requires 25gp.

Now upgrade this to a better potion of healing. maybe im just bad, but im able to make a (III) potion of healing using 1 waterbloom, and 2 terraria, with precise usage of water. This would now equate to a total cost of 40gp.

in 5E, this doesn't translate too well, considering the next potion should cost 100gp to make, and 4 more (8 hour work)days of effort. For reference;

(2d4+2) Healing 1 day 25 gp
(4d4+4) Greater healing 1 workweek 100 gp
(8d4+8) Superior healing 3 workweeks 1,000 gp
(10d4+20) Supreme healing 4 workweeks 10,000 gp

As you can see, for the simple healing potion, or (I) weak potion, they compare nicely. Once you start moving up, starts to fall off. I would do more comparisons in maybe adding rapid growth as a "regenerate" effect, but I think you get the point. "Healing" might give some pain relief, anti-inflammatory effects, but rapid growth is where the rapid wound closure comes into play.



Ex. 2. Potions of fire.

Now from the Alchemist's Supplies, PHB 154, and additional information given from XGE, 79;

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. 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.

For this example, obviously we will compare the potion of fire in potioncraft, to alchemist's fire.

By 5e rules, a flask of alchemists fire (thrown for 1d4 fire damage at start of turn until extinguished) costs 50gp to buy, so would cost 25gp to make.

A weak fire potion in potioncraft is made using 3 firebell. From the wiki, firebell has a harvest rate of 3-5 buds per harvest, and has a base cost of 20gp.

On a sidenote, the wiki does not yet include this, but i believe firebell also has a lower spawn % than waterbloom and terraria, in my personal experience firebell doesn't pop up very much in my garden. Consider this rarity in the back of your head.

I'd consider a weak fire potion to be equivalent to a flask of alchemists fire, which means what in 5e would cost 25gp, in potioncraft costs 60gp. Not as terrible of a price jump as the healing potions did.

As for upgrading the fire potion, 5e does not have an official item we can compare it to, other than like, tying together several alchemists fire flasks. But considering to get to either (II) or (III) quality, all the player must do is add windbloom (+24gp), and precise usage of water. This equates to the fact that the strongest potion of fire can be produced with a measly 84gp, which in terms of dnd5e economy, is not a lot.


Now some customers in the game don't buy the potion for throwing at enemies, they actually buy it for its fire properties. Brewer to make his drink spicier, guards for cold resistance, so lets look at it in this sense now.

A potion of resistance is marked as an uncommon item, by DMG standards that means it should cost somewhere between 100gp and 500gp. Take into account that before now, the prices we saw were prices to create. This 100-500gp range is a price to purchase. I'd defenitely say that a 84gp cost to make a potion of cold resistance flawlessly matches this price range, allowing the merchant to sell the potion at 100%-200% markup
(2x to 3x creation price), equating to a 168-252gp range, if the potion is made at flawless, (III) quality.

Ex. 3, potion of Frost

we're going to apply this same philosophy to the potion of frost being treated as a potion of fire resistance. Off of the top of my head I cannot recall how I personally make potions of frost, but the wiki states that 1 Terraria, and 3 Waterbloom is the most efficient way to create the potion (Total 60g).

In my eyes, since Terraria and Waterbloom are more frequent/common ingredients than firebloom, I think it makes sense that the price is a good amount lower. This creation cost still allows us to sell the potion within that 100-500gp range in 5e, requiring a markup of at least 100%, with this potion you could justifiably go to 300% markup, giving a range of 120gp-240gp

Ex 4. Potion of Acid

Going back to the start of EX. 2 where we covered the alchemists kit and fire, we can also make acid. In 5e, the buying price of a flask of acid is 25gp, and is a thrown weapon for 2d6 acid damage. This means that to craft it, the player must spend 12.5gp, and 8 hours of work per flask.

If you're experienced in potioncraft, you'll already see where this is going.

For reference, acid is the farthest potion to the south-southwest direction, SSW of Fire, and WSW of stone-skin.

The wiki has a recipe for (strong) acid that takes 2 red mushroom, 2 firebell, and 5 terraria (total cost: 176) though this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lwVF_xnh6g) shows someone making it with 5 firebell, and 5 terraria (total cost: 160).

As you can interpolate, acid does not transfer very well from potioncraft to dnd5e logic at all, or at least in the current state of the game. I won't go on a tangent about physical chemistry and realism because quite frankly, I don't know a lot about it, and only read for like 5 minutes about how prevalent basic acids were in medieval type eras.

Anyway with that, take what you will from it, personally I think it has a lot of potential, but is not flawless, and that's ok. Will I personally use it in my games? Not in a brewing sense, but I'll probably use the lists of ingredients, and their base prices as an indication of rarity should it ever come up.