PDA

View Full Version : Alternates to Potions



Rasman
2010-11-14, 09:34 PM
I remember reading in a book somewhere that there are, for mostly flavor, alternates to things like potions and wands. Like instead of a Potion of Cure Moderate Wounds it would be a Waffer that you ate or a stone or symbol that you cracked. What book am I thinking about or am I totally crazy and making it up?

Tavar
2010-11-14, 09:36 PM
It's in the complete Arcane, in the back.

balistafreak
2010-11-14, 09:37 PM
Page 137, to be exact.

Amurion
2010-11-14, 09:43 PM
That's cool. I can see it now, a pizza of cure light wounds. 1d8+1 per slice.

Techsmart
2010-11-14, 09:48 PM
Technically, as long as your dm allowed it, you could do that with almost anything. I mean, eating a pizza in combat might be a little messier to pull off, but functionally would be exactly the same. I might even reduce the cost a little based on what it is, if you gotta make a dex check to not drop it :P

Lev
2010-11-14, 10:58 PM
Technically, as long as your dm allowed it, you could do that with almost anything. I mean, eating a pizza in combat might be a little messier to pull off, but functionally would be exactly the same. I might even reduce the cost a little based on what it is, if you gotta make a dex check to not drop it :P
http://www.brawlsnapshots.com/snapshots/98018.jpg

Randel
2010-11-14, 11:12 PM
Get bottles with magical faeries in them that heal you if you release them. Instead of brewing potions or anything like that then the faeries agree to stay in the bottles and provide healing if the person summoning them donates money to good charities. So its more like the faeries are just doing a charity drive by healing people for 50 gp or whatnot and they agree to stay in the bottle until needed.

Attempting to recapture the faeries after they got out (without paying the right amount of money) or using bugcatcher nets to catch them makes them angry and they release a horde of angry chickens on you.

dgnslyr
2010-11-14, 11:39 PM
Or just eat (http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=118) the faeries. That works too.

panaikhan
2010-11-15, 08:05 AM
Since you can make a 'potion' of almost any spell, the variant allows for some unusual items. My warforged Artificar used to make fireball grenades.

Warlawk
2010-11-15, 03:19 PM
Personally I am a big fan of druids and nature god followers creating fruit-potions. I think we originally scoffed the idea from Dark Sun and converted it over to normal play. Those types of casters would create fruit potions where you got the potion effect when you took a bite.

The first bite triggered the potion and the rest was just fruit. Purely as a RP consideration it was always accepted that potion fruits were REALLY delicious. So no one ever wanted to waste the rest of the fruit and we always had silly little situations where, for instance the fighter takes a quick bite, then just chomps onto the fruit to keep from dropping it and can't talk for the rest of the fight. You would have players shouting out in character "MRGH MRPHMORLF!" as their character had a mouth full of fruit. Or the rogue making a skill check to juggle the fruit in the air as he is throwing daggers, then swearing when he blows the check and throws the fruit. The dwarf cramming an apple onto the horn of his helm so he can finish it after the fight.

A little bit silly for some peoples taste, and some of our players just didn't care, but such a small detail brought a lot of good laughs and silly RP possibilities.

Darrin
2010-11-15, 04:02 PM
Also:

Skull Talismans from Frostburn work somewhat similar to potions. Break the skull (standard action, provokes) to activate. However, skull talismans can be used with higher-level spells, and there's fewer limitations on range/target (range: personal is possible, for example).

Kyo Crystals (Expedition to Undermountain p. 217) work a little like potions (standard action, does not provoke), but the spell selection is much more limited.

ericgrau
2010-11-15, 04:35 PM
Since you can make a 'potion' of almost any spell, the variant allows for some unusual items. My warforged Artificar used to make fireball grenades.

Those are beads, and they already exist but as wondrous items. Same price as potions because all such items use the same pricing guidelines. So ya, invent whatever you want, price it as a potion and go nuts. Just as long as it still takes a standard action to activate which provokes. Allowing anything as attacks, moves, swift or free actions or that don't provoke or that can be done unnoticed is a power upgrade. Allowing people to use one crafting feat for a variety of items is also a power upgrade, so take care how you categorize your items.