Shedden?

[danielxcutter]

Shedden: This gray paste is brewed from the exoskeletons of monstrous spiders ground with silk-based oils and mixed with various chemicals and reagents. When spread on your exposed flesh, it temporarily hardens your skin, granting you a +1 bonus to natural armor for 2 minutes. This bonus stacks with any other natural armor you already have. It takes 1 minute to apply shedden to your entire body and obtain its benefits.
Shedden can be created with a DC 20 Craft (alchemy) check. Certain master alchemists can create shedden that provides natural armor bonuses of +2 to +5, but doing so raises the Craft DC by 4 for each additional point of natural armor and increases the price as follows: 200 gp for +2, 500 gp for +3, 1,000 gp for +4, and 2,000 gp for +5.

On the one hand, a Barkskin potion not only lasts for far longer, but is actually cheaper in the +4 and +5 versions(though not by that much, to be fair). On the other... well, that bonus is untyped, right? Not exactly a must-have, but it could be a pretty nice consumable just before a battle I think, though probably better for NPC encounter ambushes than a solid and reliable investment for PCs.

Thoughts?

[Tamior]

Yea, the major advantage is that it stacks with pretty much anything.

The application process is quite open to interpretations, however. Can you apply it without taking off armor, especially medium/heavy armor?

[DrMotives]

The whole "spread on exposed skin" makes it sound like it would take longer too. Sure, that's fluff I suppose because it doesn't say how long it takes to apply, so RAW it takes the same time as drinking a potion. But think about applying lotion versus chugging a potion, it feels like you're spending more time and effort for the lesser effect.

[danielxcutter]

Yea, the major advantage is that it stacks with pretty much anything.

The application process is quite open to interpretations, however. Can you apply it without taking off armor, especially medium/heavy armor?

Well, worst-case scenario, you could always get something like a Ring of Arming I guess... Oh, and since it's not a magic item, it can't be dispelled like a potion might be.


The whole "spread on exposed skin" makes it sound like it would take longer too. Sure, that's fluff I suppose because it doesn't say how long it takes to apply, so RAW it takes the same time as drinking a potion. But think about applying lotion versus chugging a potion, it feels like you're spending more time and effort for the lesser effect.

Hmm... might depend on the DM, then.

[Tamior]

Well, worst-case scenario, you could always get something like a Ring of Arming I guess...
Well, that's an extra standard action to get the armor back, + (likely) some extra actions to swap for a different ring. And you only have 20 rounds of Shedden being active.
5000 gp isn't exactly pocket change either.

What party level are we looking at that getting a ring of arming just to apply another costly consumable isn't a big deal?
With that party level in mind, is "honest" fight even a desirable use of an ambush? (It's clearly an ambush if you know when to apply Shedden.)

On the other hand, one application that Shedden would probably really shine for is buffing up before fighting in AMF.

[danielxcutter]

Well, that's an extra standard action to get the armor back, + (likely) some extra actions to swap for a different ring. And you only have 20 rounds of Shedden being active.
5000 gp isn't exactly pocket change either.

What party level are we looking at that getting a ring of arming just to apply another costly consumable isn't a big deal?
With that party level in mind, is "honest" fight even a desirable use of an ambush? (It's clearly an ambush if you know when to apply Shedden.)

On the other hand, one application that Shedden would probably really shine for is buffing up before fighting in AMF.

Or, as you said, ambush. I've been reading the book, and it's been repeatedly stated the Drow love that tactic.

[Tamior]

Or, as you said, ambush. I've been reading the book, and it's been repeatedly stated the Drow love that tactic.
As in, NPC's ambushing PC's?
Sure. But there is a myriad ways for DM to buff those NPC, using Shedden is just + style points.
As for PC's ambushing NPC's, it's really not obvious that going for an honest fight would be their preferred approach.

[danielxcutter]

As in, NPC's ambushing PC's?
Sure. But there is a myriad ways for DM to buff those NPC, using Shedden is just + style points.
As for PC's ambushing NPC's, it's really not obvious that going for an honest fight would be their preferred approach.

I know, I know. Just saying.

[King of Nowhere]

the "stack with everything" plus "cannot be dispelled, works in antimagic" actually makes it pretty useful.
unfortunately, it lasts way too short. It takes one full minute to apply it, plus extra if we consider armor, and it only lasts 2 minutes. it's impractical even for an ambush, because there is a high risk of either applying it too early and losing the benefit before the ambush is up, or or applying it too late and be still busy doing it by the time your quarry arrives.

I think increasing the duration to 2 hours would make it much more practical. Or maybe make it lose a +1 every ten minutes, gradually losing effectiveness appeals to me for some reason.

[Blackhawk748]

the "stack with everything" plus "cannot be dispelled, works in antimagic" actually makes it pretty useful.
unfortunately, it lasts way too short. It takes one full minute to apply it, plus extra if we consider armor, and it only lasts 2 minutes. it's impractical even for an ambush, because there is a high risk of either applying it too early and losing the benefit before the ambush is up, or or applying it too late and be still busy doing it by the time your quarry arrives.

I think increasing the duration to 2 hours would make it much more practical. Or maybe make it lose a +1 every ten minutes, gradually losing effectiveness appeals to me for some reason.

I'd go with the second version as it makes way more sense as it would signify the oil flaking off slowly. Also it being made out of spider exoskeletons means that it's fairly easy to get the bits to make it. For what that's worth

[Zaq]

Having to know exactly when the fight will start down to a three-minute window (spending the entire first minute to prep) makes this basically unusable.


the "stack with everything" plus "cannot be dispelled, works in antimagic" actually makes it pretty useful.
unfortunately, it lasts way too short. It takes one full minute to apply it, plus extra if we consider armor, and it only lasts 2 minutes. it's impractical even for an ambush, because there is a high risk of either applying it too early and losing the benefit before the ambush is up, or or applying it too late and be still busy doing it by the time your quarry arrives.

I think increasing the duration to 2 hours would make it much more practical. Or maybe make it lose a +1 every ten minutes, gradually losing effectiveness appeals to me for some reason.


I'd go with the second version as it makes way more sense as it would signify the oil flaking off slowly. Also it being made out of spider exoskeletons means that it's fairly easy to get the bits to make it. For what that's worth

If this were a computer game, I’d agree with you about having it flake off slowly. As it stands, tracking 10-minute-duration effects is awkward to begin with, so having to keep track of that for multiple iterations sounds like the opposite of my kind of fun.

I mean, if you genuinely have fun with that, by all means, enjoy. That would drive me nuts at the table, though.

I do agree that it would be far more usable with an increased duration and I’m totally in favor of houseruling it that way, but I don’t think the proposed increase in complexity to have it flake off gradually sounds like a good bargain.

[King of Nowhere]

If this were a computer game, I’d agree with you about having it flake off slowly. As it stands, tracking 10-minute-duration effects is awkward to begin with, so having to keep track of that for multiple iterations sounds like the opposite of my kind of fun.


Depends on how accurately you keep track of time in your game. If you have your big map where every movement is counted round per round even outside of combat, with every exploration part being carrefully parcelled against the expiration of your buff spells, then I agree with your point - although if you do that, you are already keeping track of so much stuff that it's not a big deal to add the lotion flaking off.

In my games, we generally eyeball that. "So, after that last fight we explored some corridors. didn't do a thorough searh for traps. Let's say your minute-per-level buffs are still active for now, but you lose them after this fight"

I agree, though, fixed duration is easier to track. gradual flaking is just an optional bit of flavor.

[Falontani]

Usable for hidecarved Dragon entry (it specifies in their fluff that dragons will occasionally use magic to toughen their hide before ritualistically carving sigils and times in their hide)