Goodberries galore

[Kamunami]

I've got a wacky idea to work into a campaign an NPC centered around the spell Goodberry, but a few important questions came to mind as I thought about it. Assuming a goodberry is about the size of a cranberry, about how many do you think someone could ingest in a single turn? Would this be a bonus action? And how many do you think could reasonably be juiced into a potion bottle? Considering they give you all the nutrition you need for a day, what short term side effects could stuffing your face full of them have?

I'd love to hear any input you can offer!

[Snowbluff]

Doesn't it clearly stat that it takes an action to eat one?

Also, Life Cleric can buff goodberry. You're welcome.

[Crgaston]

I’d think you could eat a handful.

(Edit: But I’d be wrong. See above)

Goodberry Smoothie?

Mixed with a potion of Healing?

Goodberry Jam?

[Lord8Ball]

Well if you overfill yourself with many days worth of nutrients it could lead to obesity or poisoning due to unsafe amounts of vitamins or elements in your body. Of course, you can say that the nutrient itself is artificially boosted by magic and has no adverse effect because all you are really eating is one positive energy infused berry. If you want to have a little fun about it try something similar to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory and have the players skin tone change slightly the more they consume. Irl certain foods allow your skin to have a healthy tone so this may boost it to unnaturally vibrant. Also, you could put a bunch of berries in a tube and uncork the thing as an action to swallow a bunch at once.Maybe wash them all down with water like a pill.

[Ganymede]

The Sunken Citadel already explored the concept of a fruit capable of great healing. You should take a look at that adventure, either the original 3E one or the 5E version released in Tales of the Yawning Portal.

[Slipperychicken]

Doesn't it clearly stat that it takes an action to eat one?

It's also clear that some people don't bother to read the rules.

I see it all the time: Someone imagines a scenario in their head, doesn't remember a rule for it, doesn't look it up to see if the rule exists, and then they barge into a forum complaining that there's no rule for it in the book, and then someone who did read the rule immediately corrects them on it.

[JoeJ]

The rules say you can eat one as an action. Common sense says you could physically stuff several into your mouth. Combining the two, I'd allow you to eat at least a dozen at once, but you'd only get the benefit of one. The rest would be delicious, but otherwise wasted.

[thoroughlyS]

...about how many do you think someone could ingest in a single turn? Would this be a bonus action?
According to the spell, it takes an action to eat one.

And how many do you think could reasonably be juiced into a potion bottle?
I'd say that you'd need the juice of all ten berries to fill a vial, and have the vial heal 2d4 + 2 (the equivalent of a Potion of Healing). I feel like this strikes a balance with the action economy problem presented above. I would have this process take 1 minute and require alchemist's supplies (which makes it identical to healing elixer from UA:Starter Spells (http://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/UA-Starter-Spells.pdf).

Considering they give you all the nutrition you need for a day, what short term side effects could stuffing your face full of them have?
I second the skin color suggestion, turning berry colored over time sounds like a fine result. Maybe include lustrous hair and stronger (or more pleasant) body odor.

[Unoriginal]

Due to the potion-maker messing up something with the experimental formula, drinking a goodberry potion turns you into a giant Goodberry.

Then halflings show up and sing about your misfortune.

[JackPhoenix]

There's a precedent (granted, from 3.5) for Goodberry Wine. A jug was 500 gp, had enough wine for 5 separate drinks, and each drink healed 8 hp and nourished the drinker for one day, but the effect only worked 1/day. In Eberron (where it originated from), it also had the honorable mention as being one of the extremely rare sources of healing that worked in Mournland.

[Ivor_The_Mad]

I think that it would be a bonus action. Mainly because you can still chew while you do other stuff unless you casting a spell that requires verbal components.

[Coffee_Dragon]

I think that it would be a bonus action. Mainly because you can still chew while you do other stuff unless you casting a spell that requires verbal components.

The D&D action economy isn't derived from a physics model, though.

[DrKerosene]

Potions are typically a shot-glass worth of fluid, eating a berry seems like a fair comparison. Eating more than one berry at a time in combat seems to be against the spirit of a first level spell giving you a garunteed 10hp in healing. I do like the Alchemy suggestion for turning Goodberries into a (limited lifespan) potion.



I've been playing an Orc Moon Druid in a mega-dungeon campaign, "Mistletoe" is the name for any club with "Shillelagh" cast on it. I measure the value of an Absorb Elements spell needing to be against 22+ elemental damage before it's more valuable than a casting of Goodberry.

The day before dungeon delving I spend all my slots on Goodberry, and keep them all in a pouch. It will be empty by the end and I can fill it with loot.

I normally like to treat the Goodberries as Fruity Pebbles, Skittles, or whatever candy may be on hand, since I think it is funny for a nutritious berry to be candy.



For what it is worth, the spell has a line that says:
Components: V S M (a sprig of mistletoe)

"The word "Mistletoe" is derived from the Old English words, "mistel" (dung) and "tan" (twig). The plant is thought to be named after bird droppings on a branch. "

So, some scat humor may be applicable if you think about picking berries off of a dungtwig. I expect some kids might get a kick out of this, but I've only mentioned it to my wife because I explained why I like to name my magic club "Mistletoe".

[the_brazenburn]

There's a precedent (granted, from 3.5) for Goodberry Wine. A jug was 500 gp, had enough wine for 5 separate drinks, and each drink healed 8 hp and nourished the drinker for one day, but the effect only worked 1/day. In Eberron (where it originated from), it also had the honorable mention as being one of the extremely rare sources of healing that worked in Mournland.

You'd think fermentation would ruin it, though.

I mean, since calories (i.e. energy) come from sugar, I'd always imagined the healing in a Goodberry came from a sudden infusion of highly sugary calories, around 2000 or so. Fermentation would destroy some of that sugar, making it less effective.

Also, do goodberries contain seeds? I'd like to see a Johnny Goodberryseed character planting Goodberry trees in every village in a certain area.

[Ventruenox]

I would love to see Goodberry being used as a society control mechanism in a place where food is scarce. If a PC casts it, it could cause a riot.

[JackPhoenix]

You'd think fermentation would ruin it, though.

I mean, since calories (i.e. energy) come from sugar, I'd always imagined the healing in a Goodberry came from a sudden infusion of highly sugary calories, around 2000 or so. Fermentation would destroy some of that sugar, making it less effective.

Also, do goodberries contain seeds? I'd like to see a Johnny Goodberryseed character planting Goodberry trees in every village in a certain area.

That was adressed: the process to make the wine without ruining the magical properties of the berries was only known to one specific small druidic sect. There are no details, but the wine was magic item, with all it entails (lengthy crafting process, half the market price in material, feat required), so it's safe to say it also involved magic.

Even if the berries contain seeds, and the seeds are viable, the resulting tree (or bush) would be non-magical.

[Ivor_The_Mad]

You'd think fermentation would ruin it, though.

I mean, since calories (i.e. energy) come from sugar, I'd always imagined the healing in a Goodberry came from a sudden infusion of highly sugary calories, around 2000 or so. Fermentation would destroy some of that sugar, making it less effective.

Also, do goodberries contain seeds? I'd like to see a Johnny Goodberryseed character planting Goodberry trees in every village in a certain area.

It also depends on how many good berries go into a glass of wine. If they are the size of cranberries you could fit a decent amount into a glass because its just the juice of them not the whole berry. So I think that you could counteract the loss of sugar from fermentation with the amount you cram into a glass. On the other hand what part of the berry gives the bonus is it the seeds or the juice. I assume the juice based on the previous comments so that way.

There are 4,400 cranberries in one gallon of juice and there are 128 oz in a gallon so 4,400/128 thats 34.3 berries per oz. The typical serving of wine is 5 oz so thats about 172 berries per glass of wine. It seems like a jug of wine contains 5 servings so thats 25 oz per jug 850 berries per jug. If a bottle heals 40hp then that means that for every 85 goodberries you get 4hp worth of them.
(Did I do that right?)

[the_brazenburn]

It also depends on how many good berries go into a glass of wine. If they are the size of cranberries you could fit a decent amount into a glass because its just the juice of them not the whole berry. So I think that you could counteract the loss of sugar from fermentation with the amount you cram into a glass. On the other hand what part of the berry gives the bonus is it the seeds or the juice. I assume the juice based on the previous comments so that way.

There are 4,400 cranberries in one gallon of juice and there are 128 oz in a gallon so 4,400/128 thats 34.3 berries per oz. The typical serving of wine is 5 oz so thats about 172 berries per glass of wine. It seems like a jug of wine contains 5 servings so thats 25 oz per jug 850 berries per jug. If a bottle heals 40hp then that means that for every 85 goodberries you get 4hp worth of them.
(Did I do that right?)

The math looks right.

That's an awful lot of potential HP loss for an alcoholic beverage. That's more than 8 castings of the spell, i.e. more than you need.

If your goal is to preserve them for a later date, why not try pickling them instead? That shouldn't make them lose much nutritional value (in theory).

[Ivor_The_Mad]

I don't know how they make the wine but you need 85 1st level spell slots. Maybe they have items that let them cast it at will but still. Thats a lot of castings for 1 jug. It should restore a lot more hp. Thats 85,000gp worth of spells for 1 jug. This seems outrageously expensive for what it does.

[KorvinStarmast]

I would love to see Goodberry being used as a society control mechanism in a place where food is scarce. If a PC casts it, it could cause a riot. If the PC casts it in private, it provides berries that nourish for 24 hours. Discretely distribute to those who need it (charitable PC) or those who are most useful to the PC (selfish PC).

Or, toss a few dozen onto the center of the village square and cause a riot. (Chaotic PC with a sick sense of humor). :smallcool:

[JackPhoenix]

The math looks right.

That's an awful lot of potential HP loss for an alcoholic beverage. That's more than 8 castings of the spell, i.e. more than you need.

If your goal is to preserve them for a later date, why not try pickling them instead? That shouldn't make them lose much nutritional value (in theory).

Because there's no nutritional value. There's magic, and the magic goes away after 24 hours (in 5e, in 3.5e, it lasted 1 day per caster level, but you could only use 8 per day... the same amount of healing you'll get from the wine), state of the berry itself has nothing to do with it.

The loss from making the wine (assuming it's not just the berry juice added to normal wine and magically preserved) would be worth it, sort of, considering that you couldn't preserve the properties otherwise, it concentrates the effect (you get 8 berries worth of healing from a single action) and, in Eberron, it's the only reliable source of healing available in Mournland, where normal healing spells and potions don't work.


I don't know how they make the wine but you need 85 1st level spell slots. Maybe they have items that let them cast it at will but still. Thats a lot of castings for 1 jug. It should restore a lot more hp. Thats 85,000gp worth of spells for 1 jug. This seems outrageously expensive for what it does.

3.5 item creation. It's 1 spell slot, 250 gp in material, 20 XP and 1 day of crafting. Plus the required feat. It's about comparable to 10 potions of Cure Light Wounds: same price, (different crafting feat and required spell), the potions heal random amount of HP, while the wine is fixed... you'll always get 40 hp from a jug, but you could get anything between 10 and 80 hp from the potions. And you'd need to drag around 10 potions instead of one jug.

[Willie the Duck]

Okay OP, it did not take long for people to point out that there are actual rules for how many goodberries you can eat on your turn, and what type of action it takes (a regular action, not a bonus one). I think there was a little bit of ungenerous reading to assume that you didn't know this, since you are clearly asking for out-of-the-box thinking.

Before I get to the brainstorming, however, I just wanted to touch on this first:


Would this be a bonus action?


I think that it would be a bonus action.


The D&D action economy isn't derived from a physics model, though.

Coffee_Dragon has the right of it. Further, bonus actions are not the action one gives to something you think of as minor or quick. They are something you assign that has the awesome power of you being able to do them alongside whatever else you were going to do. Getting to do something as a bonus action instead of a main action is a huge bonus, one you do not hand out just because.

While large-scale in-combat healing is a losing proposition, minor keep-people-on-their-feet healing is already super powerful in this edition. I don't think we need to add another bonus-action minor heal to the game. Although, admittedly, you have to be conscious to do this, so the greatest abuse, (a Healing Word-like-effect) would be impossible. If you made taking a berry into a bonus action for yourself, and giving one to an unconscious buddy (an act which I don't believe has any rules, but like feeding a friend a healing potion, seems to be a universal house rule) take a full action, it wouldn't be overpowered. It does strike me as missing what bonus actions are supposed to be, however.

Anyways, on to the brainstorming


And how many do you think could reasonably be juiced into a potion bottle? Considering they give you all the nutrition you need for a day, what short term side effects could stuffing your face full of them have?

I'd love to hear any input you can offer!

I think juiced goodberries could be a major ingredient in healing potions. More dilute-ly, perhaps people (or at least the rich) drink goodberry spritzers as a health tonic, maybe getting advantage on saves vs. non-magical disease (if you felt like including those in your campaign world). Perhaps under a witty (or awful) brand name. SnaHPle? Hawaiian Un-Punch?

As to side effects, pungeant fruity smell would be my go-to. Or even 'you smell of life! the Zombies will know where we are!'

[Theodoxus]

Assuming a goodberry is about the size of a cranberry...

I don't.

In my games, goodberries are bananas, which explains why it takes an action to eat. I had one player suggest a pineapple, though that'd be more like eating a 'bunch of grapes' (not to be confused with a 'handful of grapes')... I could see an entire 10 berry casting be a single pineapple though...

I like the idea of using an herbalism kit to change 10 berries into a single potion of healing. Removing the food sustenance from the berry and reducing the healing from 10 to 4-10 range while making the potency last from 24 hours to indefinite is a great compromise. Probably would require a short rest to do it - though maybe long... depending on the level of the caster in question and how many potions you want to flood the market in a specific amount of time.

[Slipperychicken]

The rules say you can eat one as an action. Common sense says you could physically stuff several into your mouth. Combining the two, I'd allow you to eat at least a dozen at once, but you'd only get the benefit of one. The rest would be delicious, but otherwise wasted.

Since each one has nutrition for an entire day, then I could kinda see why you'd only want to do one at a time. Otherwise you'd probably end up looking like Yajirobe in DBZ after pounding down fistfuls of senzu beans.

Honestly the nutrition thing would probably a decent way to limit goodberry healing. You could easily say that eating more than like 3 goodberries at once is enough to make you sick from overeating.


you can say that the nutrient itself is artificially boosted by magic and has no adverse effect because all you are really eating is one positive energy infused berry.

Back in the good old days, you could OD on positive energy. Like if you sat around in the positive energy plane for too long, you'd just kind of fill up and explode.

[JoeJ]

Since each one has nutrition for an entire day, then I could kinda see why you'd only want to do one at a time. Otherwise you'd probably end up looking like Yajirobe in DBZ after pounding down fistfuls of senzu beans.

Honestly the nutrition thing would probably a decent way to limit goodberry healing. You could easily say that eating more than like 3 goodberries at once is enough to make you sick from overeating.

Yeah, you could do that. I don't really like the idea of having negative consequences from a healing spell, though, so I think I'd just go with anything more than 1 berry per action is wasting the berries. It doesn't hurt you, but you don't get any benefit from it either.

[thoroughlyS]

In my games, goodberries are bananas, which explains why it takes an action to eat. I had one player suggest a pineapple, though that'd be more like eating a 'bunch of grapes' (not to be confused with a 'handful of grapes')... I could see an entire 10 berry casting be a single pineapple though...
Using different types of berries seems like a fun way to distinguish your character. Now I want it to create a watermelon, which is then cut into ten slices...


I like the idea of using an herbalism kit to change 10 berries into a single potion of healing. Removing the food sustenance from the berry and reducing the healing from 10 to 4-10 range while making the potency last from 24 hours to indefinite is a great compromise. Probably would require a short rest to do it - though maybe long... depending on the level of the caster in question and how many potions you want to flood the market in a specific amount of time.
Converting the berries into an actual Potion of Healing (one that retains the healing permanently) is too much. The reduced healing is to counterbalance the time saved by consuming them all in one action.

[Daithi]

If you can make goodberry wine then you should be able to distill it --- Goodberry Moonshine.
It won't heal squat, but you won't care.

[Blacky the Blackball]

I have it on good authority that if you eat more than one goodberry at once you end up like Violet Beauregarde.

[Willie the Duck]

I have it on good authority that if you eat more than one goodberry at once you end up like Violet Beauregarde.

You were ninja'd:


Due to the potion-maker messing up something with the experimental formula, drinking a goodberry potion turns you into a giant Goodberry.

Then halflings show up and sing about your misfortune.