Anatomists Origin: Potions

[Torus the Infected]

I read somewhere that each potion may only be used once, i.e. once a potion has been applied to a character that potion wil not drop again unless that character dies or is dismissed. Is this true?

If so, I feel this origin is seriously underwhelming. Take for instance the starting potion, granting +1 hitpoint +1 fatigue, if this potion could be applied to multiple characters multiple times, you could take weak characters and build them up over time, or fix weak stats in otherwise strong characters. That would be cool (also for role playing purposes), but receiving a once off +1 hitpoint & +1 fatigue on one character is absolutely useless!

Thoughts?

[JCSato]

It is true. The potions are powerful enough, however, that the origin is still incredibly overpowered. The +1 health/+1 fatigue potion is underwhelming because you get it for free to get a feel for how the origin mechanics work. (Many of) the ones you get from enemies are drastically better.

[Heron]

Check out the actual potions and then come back to discuss.

The +1 +1 Apotheosis potion (which basically means "ascend to godhood potion") is a joke to show off the hybris of your anatomists and potion mechanics.

[Torus the Infected]

Ok thanks - I'll give it a shot!

[tiavals]

Yeah, the potions you can get range from "meh" to incredibly powerful. You can even stack them on the same character if you want(but they'll be out of commission for a long time due to potion-sickness).

The books in your inventory let you keep track on what potions you haven't gotten yet, which is useful when harvesting for them.

[turtle225]

The more potions you give a bro the longer the sickness duration of the potion. There is one way to cheese this by giving a ton of potions to one bro and then giving them the Waterskin from the Grotesque Tree to cure the sickness immediately. You can create a mutant super soldier with tons of potions stacking.

I feel like the more intended way to do it is to spread the potions around to different bros so that the sickness duration doesn't get too bad. This probably has less high of a ceiling than the super soldier route, but it does let you make use of the potions throughout the game instead of waiting to collect all the potions and the Waterskin to setup the super mutant.

That aside, I think the origin has a challenging early game due to the drawbacks and the stronger potions not really being available until later, but in the late game they are one of the strongest origins once you have all the potions. Somewhat similar to Cultists in that regard, who also have a difficult early game and very strong late game.

[Santo]

Out of curiosity -- which potions would you say are underwhelming and which that powerful?

[tiavals]

The weak ones are definitely the "+5% armor penetration" or whatever it was. Pretty minor buff, a point of damage or two more to armor. The "heal injuries 1 day quicker" is also pretty meaningless.

Night vision potion is IMO super good early on, not so great later when fewer enemies use ranged.

The "can't go to fleeing morale" can be really good for poor resolve guys.

The potions that are related to health are amazing if you make your guy based on it. High HP, nimble, etc, then he reflects damage to attacker, regenerates, bleeds acid, lifesteals.... really good. Obviously really bad if you put them on a random high-armor guy.

The rest are generally pretty good, except for the "boss potions" which are obviously really good.

[Tephros83]

Originally posted by Santo:

Out of curiosity -- which potions would you say are underwhelming and which that powerful?

Some combos are great, particularly for nimble duelists.

High hp vampire duelist: Berserker rage, vampire heal (necrosavant), heal (unhold), and reflect damage (hexe). If you can heal while getting berserker stacks, you can get serious momentum, and more mileage reflecting hp damage.

Infiltrator/assassin duelist: cheap footwork, no flee, no fatigue from getting attacked, natural armor. This makes the fencing sword guy going after high value targets like necromancers on his own more viable, but a bit hard to find a suitable bro. Still training one I consider marginal for it.

Night vision and poison immunity for the best archer. Now you can attack at night and have a good archer while the enemy ranged is compromised. Poison immunity because goblin poison shuts down ranged guys even worse than melee.

33% resist injury for heavy tank or lowest hp heavy armor guy.

Cheaper shieldwall and no knockback for low fatigue tank.

Faster injury recovery for martyr.

The pierce resist potion is great on its own for either making a guy very durable vs archers or a bit better vs eg pikes. Whoever would benefit most.

Insanely poweful stand-alone potions from lorekeeper and kraken, both better for nimble.

And yes some are marginal like 5% piercing for archers or melee. Apotheosis put on anybody who doesn't need better potions

The +10% armor damage one goes better on a user of high base damage aoe weapon like unique greatsword or swordlance, but it isn't a big buff.

Refund half of missed attacks I think is good but I put on an unsuitable guy last time (not good for aoe). I think it would go well on a duelist or somebody who uses expensive single attacks like a polehammer's anti-armor special.

[Rezox]

Anyone know how the orc warlord potions works?
"Suffers no fatigue penalty for using orc weapons"
Does this mean that using an ax skill, for example, doesn't cost fatigue if it's an orc axe?

[Tephros83]

Originally posted by Rezox:

Anyone know how the orc warlord potions works?
"Suffers no fatigue penalty for using orc weapons"
Does this mean that using an ax skill, for example, doesn't cost fatigue if it's an orc axe?

Usually orc weapons incur an extra 5 fatigue per skill use above what is usual for that weapon skill. So a mansplitter will get something like 20 fatigue per use instead of 15, without the ax perk. This is removed with the potion. Haven't tested it with orc shields and don't have it on a bro in current run.

Orc champions are somewhat common with bounty hunter follower, so the most likely use is a duelist with a unique orc weapon. Mansplitter is useful too but I usually just go with 15 fatigue after ax mastery.