Changing Spell Duration/Combining Potions

[BowStreetRunner]

I had the opportunity to play in a one-shot pickup game over the weekend. My 6th level Fighter was already rolling FORT saves to avoid dehydration when I managed to recover some bottles broken during a battle and tried to salvage as much of their contents as I could, pouring them together into a single container. As it turned out, several of the bottles had contained potions.

The DM used a house rule based on the 1st & 2nd edition Potion Miscibility rules that applied if two potions were mixed, although this only applied if the mixing took place before drinking. (Apparently this rule was added in response to a player who had a habit of mixing potions together to create 'battle juice' that could be quaffed in a single action but would grant multiple effects.) One of the potential outcomes the house rule allowed for was randomization of the durations of the potion effects. While I never found out what all of the potion effects were - they apparently wore off before I noticed what they did - the potion of Owl's Wisdom ended up with a duration of Instantaneous.

So I got an Instantaneous +4 enhancement bonus to my wisdom, which effectively gave my straight Fighter a better Will save and enough common sense to not risk mixing potions again, but not much else in this case (unless you count a jealous party Cleric).

However, it got me thinking. Is there any way within the official rules to pull off something similar and change the duration of a spell to Instantaneous? This would in most cases be strictly better than a Permanency spell. Even if it was something with a random outcome like the house ruled Potion Miscibility table our DM used, I could see opportunities for abuse. (Which is why I doubt there is any way to do this in the official rules, but I figured if anyone knows how it would be someone in the Playground.)

I'd also be interested in what others think about pouring multiple potions together to try to reduce the number of actions needed to gain their effects.

tl;dr - Is there any way to alter the duration of a spell to make it Instantaneous? Can you combine potions into a single draught with multiple effects?

[Necroticplague]

I had the opportunity to play in a one-shot pickup game over the weekend. My 6th level Fighter was already rolling FORT saves to avoid dehydration when I managed to recover some bottles broken during a battle and tried to salvage as much of their contents as I could, pouring them together into a single container. As it turned out, several of the bottles had contained potions.

The DM used a house rule based on the 1st & 2nd edition Potion Miscibility rules that applied if two potions were mixed, although this only applied if the mixing took place before drinking. (Apparently this rule was added in response to a player who had a habit of mixing potions together to create 'battle juice' that could be quaffed in a single action but would grant multiple effects.) One of the potential outcomes the house rule allowed for was randomization of the durations of the potion effects. While I never found out what all of the potion effects were - they apparently wore off before I noticed what they did - the potion of Owl's Wisdom ended up with a duration of Instantaneous.

So I got an Instantaneous +4 enhancement bonus to my wisdom, which effectively gave my straight Fighter a better Will save and enough common sense to not risk mixing potions again, but not much else in this case (unless you count a jealous party Cleric).
Fun fact: an April Fools articles brought very similar rules into 3.5, one of the options on the tabel including 'one of the potions stops working, but the other becomes Permanent'.
Here's a link to where it's archived. (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20060401b)


However, it got me thinking. Is there any way within the official rules to pull off something similar and change the duration of a spell to Instantaneous? This would in most cases be strictly better than a Permanency spell. With Epic spells, one simply has to mix in a Seed with Instantaneous to make the result Instantaneous. The Heal seed it a good option for this, to help make any buffs last forever.



I'd also be interested in what others think about pouring multiple potions together to try to reduce the number of actions needed to gain their effects. Explicitely noted in the beforementioned rules as not being possible.


You could use this layering property to create a big vial and drink a lot of potions at one time. And if you can do that, you might as well layer in six potions of cure light wounds into one vial rather than have a single potion of cure moderate wounds. But, it doesn't work quite that way. Adventurers have found that no matter how many potions they have in a vial, drinking one potion is a standard action and each layer counts as a separate potion. Thus, if you have a vial with the above three potions, it takes three standard actions to drink them. Magic liquid is like liqueur, not beer; you cannot chug it. So, if you want to carry your potions in one vial, you have to decide whether the advantage of having only one vial to grab outweighs the disadvantage of having to drink them in a certain order that may not meet your needs.

Though frankly, I find that kinda odd given the RAW volume of a potion (1 fluid ounce). Drinking two fluid ounces in one breath is not much of a chug. It's barely ceased being a sip.

[BowStreetRunner]

Explicitely noted in the beforementioned rules as not being possible.
It would be nice if there was something as explicit as this that wasn't written in an April Fools Day article. Deducing this ruling from the core rules is all about extrapolating a conclusion indirectly.