Potions of Mana and Potions of Life

[hymer]

Supposing you use the spell point variant:
I'm thinking about 'mana potions', which give a number of spell points back, in much the same way as healing potions give back HP. Could you give me some thoughts on how these would be balanced against each other?

The mana potions would be considerably more valuable hit point for spell point. After all, there are numerous ways to regain HP and few to regain SP. And SP are far more versatile, while HP can do only one thing. You can even regain HP with SP. Even the least favourable conversion rate at level 1 would give 1d4+2 HP (Healing Word) for 4 SP. The most favourable would be Goodberry + Life Cleric for 40 HP for 4 SP. Appropriately, these outliers come at 1 bonus action vs. 11 actions, but still.

Any of your good thoughts on this subject, playgrounders?

[Naanomi]

I... Wouldn't probably. But if I was going to, they would be potions of 'instant long rest' and 'instant short rest' of some sort; so non-casters can benefit from them as well

[Tiber]

I... Wouldn't probably. But if I was going to, they would be potions of 'instant long rest' and 'instant short rest' of some sort; so non-casters can benefit from them as well

If I were going to go in that direction, I would make it more like, "regain 1 use of an ability that recharges on a short rest, or regain 3 spell points (1 level 2 spell)." You could then either add a stronger variant that also recharges a long rest ability, or add that in if the first option seems too weak.

[Fighting_Ferret]

If I was going to hand out mana potions, I'd remove or restrict the short rest mechanic altogether, in lieu of the potions. Given that warlocks are giving up number of spells for a reset on short rests, and sorcerers can give up points for slots, and wizards can regain half their levels worth of slots on a short rest. HP is also recovered by burning dice on a short rest. Potions that handle both will be a hard mechanic to balance.

I already feel that cantrips the deal scaling damage that basically function as a extra attacks help the casters too much with resource management. If you aren't into resource management, then just let them short rest after every encounter or 2, instead of allowing potions.