Potion alternatives

[kkortekaas]

Howdy folks,
I'm not sure if it belongs here or if it belongs in the homebrew section, but I'll give it a shot.

I want to introduce potions in my game (a low magic setting) but I want to make them alchemical in nature and have repercussions.

Can anyone point me in a direction that would accomplish that?

[taltamir]

what do you mean by "have repercussions"?

[Caliphbubba]

How low magic is your setting? are you intending them to be entirely alchemical, or is there still a spark of magic?

I assume that by "have reprecussions" you mean something along the lines of addiction? or mutation? or...?

[kkortekaas]

I'm playing an Iron Heroes game using the True Sorcery rules for themagic system. My game is taking place in a heavily modified (less magic-ie)Forgotten Realms.

Basically item creation is a no go, and they'll be doled out as major quest items,

ie. 1 member of the group might get a +1 sword by level 10 or something like that.

With that in mind, I wanted to change the creation of potions from magical to alchemical. I don't expect them to be cheap (no 50gp cure light wounds potions) and I'd like to see some sort of negative (but less serious then those presented in True Sorcery, where in almost all the cases, the negative is greater then the positive)

Hopefully that helps clarify.

[Aroka]

Craft (alchemy) checks, DC based on spell level (say DC 10 + 5 per spell level, or straight-up DC 10 per spell level), maybe increase the material component cost (although that will just make potions a bad monetary investment rather than an advantage/disadvantage trade-off).

Simple:
Each potion drunk causes 1 point of Con damage (or drain), maybe with a Fort save.

Complex:
Each potion drunk adds 1 (or 1 per spell level) to your Potion Counter. Once the Potion Counter exceeds your Con, you suffer an ill effect, such as being indefinitely sickened, or taking ability damage. The Potion Counter may or may not go down - maybe it's permanent (so you can only drink so many potions in a lifetime), or maybe the counter goes down by 1 every day, week, month, or year. Maybe the effects are based on a multiplier of Con; at or above Con, you're sickened, at or above Con*2, you take a penalty to abilities, etc. Maybe you get Fort saves to resist effects, if they're very temporary.

[Caliphbubba]

I'm playing an Iron Heroes game using the True Sorcery rules for themagic system. My game is taking place in a heavily modified (less magic-ie)Forgotten Realms.

Basically item creation is a no go, and they'll be doled out as major quest items,

ie. 1 member of the group might get a +1 sword by level 10 or something like that.

With that in mind, I wanted to change the creation of potions from magical to alchemical. I don't expect them to be cheap (no 50gp cure light wounds potions) and I'd like to see some sort of negative (but less serious then those presented in True Sorcery, where in almost all the cases, the negative is greater then the positive)

Hopefully that helps clarify.

It does clarify, thanks. I'm not familliar with Iron Heroes or True Sorcery so I don't know much of a help I'll be. That being said:

Addiction might be a useful way to go about it. Increasing DC saves after every use. If/when they become addicted they can have penalties applied until they kick the habit. Depending on how brutal you want to be the withdrawl can start happening with-in hours or days.

[taltamir]

crafting magic items yourself means you pay 1/2 the GP cost of the item, and an XP cost based on its GP cost...

want it to be alchemy based? simply make it cost full GP cost, with an alchemy check. No XP cost, no spell needed... just buy the components and mix them up.

[kjones]

Look up the potion miscibility rules from 2nd edition. They were a blast. Literally.

[Prime32]

crafting magic items yourself means you pay 1/2 the GP cost of the item, and an XP cost based on its GP cost...

want it to be alchemy based? simply make it cost full GP cost, with an alchemy check. No XP cost, no spell needed... just buy the components and mix them up.Rather than making a check, I would say that you can only "buy" potions with a caster level equal to or lower than your ranks in Craft (alchemy).


Each potion drunk adds 1 (or 1 per spell level) to your Potion Counter. Once the Potion Counter exceeds your Con, you suffer an ill effect, such as being indefinitely sickened, or taking ability damage. The Potion Counter may or may not go down - maybe it's permanent (so you can only drink so many potions in a lifetime), or maybe the counter goes down by 1 every day, week, month, or year. Maybe the effects are based on a multiplier of Con; at or above Con, you're sickened, at or above Con*2, you take a penalty to abilities, etc. Maybe you get Fort saves to resist effects, if they're very temporary.This sounds interesting, if by spell level and with a relatively short "cooldown".

[kkortekaas]

Do any addictions rule that I can use as templates? What about descriptions for potions (ie. incrediants, etc)

[Theodoriph]

Do any addictions rule that I can use as templates? What about descriptions for potions (ie. incrediants, etc)

There are addiction rules (sort of) in the Book of Vile Darkness in the section about drugs.

[Prime32]

Do any addictions rule that I can use as templates? What about descriptions for potions (ie. incrediants, etc)Your post wasn't very clear, but there are addiction rules in Book of Vile Darkness and Unearthed Arcana (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campaigns/sanity.htm#drugsandSanity).

[Kamai]

It might be worth taking a look at Iron Kingdoms. They have various curatives that also either need time to work (for the more magical ones) or do mean things to the person using them.

[Fenryr]

Instead of repercussions maybe you can make the potions only work ONCE a week. That way PC with poor Con/Fort can still use 'em. The explanation would be that works like a medicine that stays in the body, and no stack. I consider this a lil' bit harder than "Well, at least I got a roll".

Have you considered medicinal herbs as an alternative or an extra? Maybe they could exist, heal less hit points, hard to find/make and no repercussions.

[Darrin]

Look up the potion miscibility rules from 2nd edition. They were a blast. Literally.

They were also updated to 3.5 rules (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20060401b).

[Crafty Cultist]

If healing potions are alchemical in nature they might work by accelerating a person's natural recovery rate. A standard haling potion could duplicate a vigor spell but cause fatigue as a side effect.

[kjones]

They were also updated to 3.5 rules (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20060401b).

Oh, excellent! Thank you very much for that.

[Beorn080]

Rather then make potions have negatives, why not make them simply add a bonus to healing checks, and allow the healing checks to be the healing process. Obviously healing checks would be limited to once per hour/day/week/whatever, but using the potions would make it more likely to be healed better then not, but it could still fail, or just waste the money.