Potion as Bonus Actions, and How to Alchemy in 5e

[Bjarkmundur]

Following Treantmonks advice and in perfect harmony with my own experience, I decided to allow Consumables in my game to be used as a bonus action.

I was looking at some potions, excited to see many of them being used for the first time, when I noticed that most of them are just reflavoured spells.

And it got me thinking. How about reflavouring some bonus action spells as Consumables. I mean, they are balanced around being bonus actions, after all. It should be fine, right?

And hey, even if using a consumable costs an action in your game, you can still use all of these potions. A long duration buff with no concentration might well be worth the action.

I just finished writing upp all cantrips and 1st Level Spells as Consumables, and this looks hella fun!

What are some problems I might run into giving my group access to bonus action spells?

P. S. I removed the concentration requirement in all cases. Did I just break the game? I mean, it's still just a single-use ability.

My list of potions. (https://docs.google.com/document/d/15AEkpDVMeKoQXt-lT3bDsnovX6rUW8UbWOU71atVxZQ/edit?usp=drivesdk)
Here I have my current guidelines on looting and crafting, as well as how rare these new potions might be.

Availability
Right now I'm treating these items as "You find one per encounter, along with some coins".
Based on your setting you can have availability scale as a caster, half caster or subcaster. Meaning that 2nd Level Consumables will not be found by PCs until 3rd, 5th or 7th level, respectively.
I like magic items to be a wow-factor, and this list makes sure that my feature-hungry players always have some new toys to play with whilst adventuring for their Sword of Destruction.
I also have a rule of thumb, that a party should not have more than 4 proactive Consumables at a time. Too many Consumables on hand might lead to a party hoarding them, or trying to save them for some nonexisting 'perfect opportunity'. They are meant to be expendable trinkets, something fun to do with your bonus actions (and a fee hand).

Regarding Normal Potions
I probably won't be using the official 5e potions at all, due to overlapping effects, and them being balanced around their effects costing an Action to activate. I might however look over them and maybe frankenstein some of them with my Spell-Potion hybrids.

Regarding Crafting
Following the guidelines on Scribing a Spell Scroll from XgtE, potions can be crafted if a player meets the requirements, such as tool proficiencies, skill proficiencies, level, as well having access to the formula.
Some potions require proficiency with a kit, whilst other only need a specific skill. Feel free to add your own requirements to each specific potions. Magic Stones might only need the Arcana skill, Shillelagh might require a spell slot, Ensnaring Strike might require any combination of Nature, Survival and Herbalism Kit proficiencies.
Additionally, a player can spend time, a single potion, money and a couple of checks to learn the formula by tasting it to discern the ingredients, and experimenting to recreate the effect, given that he meets the requirements to craft the potion.
I also add various checks to find rare or uncommon ingredients, either foraged or bought from a specific supplier. Some crafting equipment or ingredients might be an small adventure to aquire. A (un)dead mage's magical distillery, or a rare dinosaur's crushed bones might be needed to unlock crafting 2nd level potions, increase all your potion's potency, or lower the crafting cost.

Cantrip - Crafted in 1 day - Costs 15gp to craft
1st Level - Crafted in 1 day - Costs 25gp to craft
2nd Level - Crafted in 3 days - Costs 250gp to craft

[Man_Over_Game]

It shouldn't break too much, honestly.

It does allow players to be more reckless, and it does make Dying a lot more trivial. It also makes the Healer's Kit (and the Healer feat, and Medicine) a lot more useless. It also makes the Thief's level 3 feature redundant.

The biggest concern is that now nobody really cares if they start Dying, because someone can make them chug a potion. Also, since buffs and spells don't get in the way of fighting, fights will be over a bit sooner than normal.

Shorter, faster fights, possibly with less caution.

[Bjarkmundur]

As a result of it being a bonus action or as a result of having access to spells as potions?


.... I still control the supply, so that should help.

[Man_Over_Game]

As a result of it being a bonus action or as a result of having access to spells as potions?


.... I still control the supply, so that should help.

Primarily talking about making potions quaffable as a Bonus Action.

Adding more spells as potions will exaggerate the change.



Similarly, if you say that all Scrolls gain a +3 to their DCs, this becomes a bigger deal if you make Scrolls more common or give the players more to choose from.

[Aquillion]

P. S. I removed the concentration requirement in all cases. Did I just break the game? I mean, it's still just a single-use ability.I would be cautious about this. I think you could run into some issues with long-acting buffs or debuffs like Hex in particular - combining it with spells that require an ability check to resist or break free (like Telekinesis or Maze) could be brutal.

Of course, you can do that currently if you have a wizard and a warlock, but being able to do it as one person in one turn is dangerous. A Bard with Telekinesis in particular could win initiative and immediately drop Telekinesis + Hex, forcing the victim to claw through their Jack of All Trades-boosted Charisma check with a disadvantaged Strength check (which the Bard can then ruin further using Cutting Words on the rare situation where both rolls are strong.) And this completely bypasses Legendary Saves, so you can do it to almost anything.

[MikeRoxTheBoat]

I kind of like the feel of some of them. The shileleigh one is gonna go out of style very quickly, though, since proficiency bonus and wisdom aren't taken into account.

I'd give Thief a little something to compensate them, or else it's not as likely to get chosen.

Some of the abilities sound a little like drugs, so adding some sort of side effect for persistent use, or a slight penalty on the effect wearing off, could be interesting.

[Bjarkmundur]

Also, should I nerf the original potions, since they are balanced around being actions?

My fighter picked up Herbalism, and with a couple of checks and 25gp he can make a Healing Potion in 8 hours.

If he learns any of these potions, should it cost 25gp, or should I adjust the cost based on spell level.

For example a Healing Potion is effectively a 2nd Level healing word, does that mean cantrip-potions and 1st Level potions should be cheaper to craft? Should I perhaps use the Sane Magic Item Costs, and say that a cantrip-potion costs 5gp and a 1st Level potion costs 30gp?

Or is the high price maybe OK since he circumvents some of the downsides of scribing Scrolls?

This will definetly make being an alchemist á lot more interesting, since I wrote on his character sheet "You can taste a potion and try to discern its ingredients. With some time and resources, you might be able to recreate it"

I'm most likely going to simply say

[Bjarkmundur]

I kind of like the feel of some of them. The shileleigh one is gonna go out of style very quickly, though, since proficiency bonus and wisdom aren't taken into account.

I'd give Thief a little something to compensate them, or else it's not as likely to get chosen.

Some of the abilities sound a little like drugs, so adding some sort of side effect for persistent use, or a slight penalty on the effect wearing off, could be interesting.

As you can see all the effects are balanced as being cast by a PC on the same level as my group. I might upgrade some as we level, or I'll just balance 2nd level spells around a 3rd level caster and 3rd level spells as being cast by a 5th level PC and so on.

I actually like the addiction part, but it might make things just more of a hassle. I'll think about it, since it has pretty cool flavour. A potion that is so strong and so potent you get exhausted when "coming down" is a neat addition.

[Hipno]

So if i go Cleric1/Fighter1/Warlock2 that means that I could use Compelled Duel (as an item), Witches Bolt, and Sancuary in the same turn, every short rest.
So once every short rest i can cast those on my first turn, and (assuming I hit with WB, and it failes its saves) It has to stay with 30 of me, taking automatic lightning damage every turn, unnable to attack me, with dissadvantage against attack anyone but me.

[Rukelnikov]

We've actually been running with, "drinking a potion takes your object interaction and half your movement", even then they saw few use past lvl 7ish, 7 hp is not that much after all. The more interesting magic potions are so absurdly expensive that you might as well be drinking a +2 magic sword, so they didn't saw much use either until we were like lvl 15-16 and prepared for the BBEG.

[sithlordnergal]

So if i go Cleric1/Fighter1/Warlock2 that means that I could use Compelled Duel (as an item), Witches Bolt, and Sancuary in the same turn, every short rest.
So once every short rest i can cast those on my first turn, and (assuming I hit with WB, and it failes its saves) It has to stay with 30 of me, taking automatic lightning damage every turn, unnable to attack me, with dissadvantage against attack anyone but me.

Well, with the new errata for Sanctuary, you wouldn't be able to use the Witch Bolt thing, since it now ends if you do any damage to a target. But you can do Compelled Duel/Sanctuary

[Arcangel4774]

Whioe i think the bomus action potion is itself tends to rain on the theifs parade, i like the magical items. I always feel like there should be more consumables and magic items with effects in that fall between powerful and powerless

[dejarnjc]

Can't comment on balance since you control the supply and are also the one to balance encounters but I do really like the list and might do something similar for the next game I run.

[Bjarkmundur]

Thank you for all your comments.

There's a reason why I don't include Hex in the list, and it's not just that I have two Warlocks in my group xD

I'm looking forward to trying this out. I'll add my experience in the first post once we've played around with the system.

I never really liked the 5e potions, so I might actually ignore them entirely.

I'll add 2nd level spells once we level up, and make a final decision whether availability should scale as a caster, half caster or subcaster.

What are your favourite 5e potions, and how do you interpret the common/uncommon/rare into availability?

Edit: Most of the potion's in 5e are simply a drinkable spell, so I might just remove them completely. I like how they have multiple effects, based on how you use them. I might try that later, once I've gotten some experience with this system as is.

Edit: Added some availability guidelines and 'what to do with normal potions'

[DarkKnightJin]

The ones in the Spoiler should be good as-is.
Most Warlock things shiuld probably not be allowed to have Concentration removed, for balance sake.

As for (healing) potions: I think the "Bonus Action to quaff it yourself, Action to administer to another" is a good one.

And I'm always game for making cantrips available to non-casters, even if only at 1st level strength.

The Smite spells (at least the 1st level ones) not being Concentration is a good change, and one I think wouldn't really break Paladins a great deal if applied to the actual spell version.

[Bubzors]

Ive thought about this but was wary of making all potions bonus actions. So I ended up implementing a magic item called a magical syringe. You can fill it with any potion and use the potion inside of it as a bonus action. Gave the party two of them.

So far they have kept one filled with a healing potion for emergencies (ie someone goes to 0hp) and another with a buff potion that the fighter can activate on the first turn of combat if she decides she needs it.

I think it's been pretty successful and the party appreciates it. I lean on the side that bonus action potions in general would be a little too lenient

[Hipno]

Well, with the new errata for Sanctuary, you wouldn't be able to use the Witch Bolt thing, since it now ends if you do any damage to a target. But you can do Compelled Duel/Sanctuary

Bane then. -1d4 ontop of the disadvantage.

[Vogie]

It does allow players to be more reckless, and it does make Dying a lot more trivial. It also makes the Healer's Kit (and the Healer feat, and Medicine) a lot more useless. It also makes the Thief's level 3 feature redundant.

The biggest concern is that now nobody really cares if they start Dying, because someone can make them chug a potion. Also, since buffs and spells don't get in the way of fighting, fights will be over a bit sooner than normal.

Shorter, faster fights, possibly with less caution.

If you'd do this, I'd rule that unconscious people can't drink potions. Healer's kit/medicine would still be required to stabilize a creature, and potentially get them to 1 hp.
That way it acts like normal healing, but won't reduce those other items to uselessness.

[mephnick]

Technically the Thief cannot use a potion as a bonus action because it is a magic item anyway (though it's really dumb to rule that way.)

I do not like BA potions because 5e is already very HP lenient and it's basically giving BA spells to everyone. I think it's a bad houserule that has gotten very popular for some reason.

[Bjarkmundur]

... 5e is already very HP lenient and it's basically giving BA spells to everyone. I think it's a bad houserule that has gotten very popular for some reason.

I agree to some extent, which is why a healing potion with my bonus action potions is a 1st Level Healing Word (1d4+3) and a Greater Healing Potion (2d4+4) costs 250gp and 3 days to craft.

So even though healing is more accessible in actions, it's less accessible in terms of gold, and it doesn't do very much.

[Bjarkmundur]

I want more cantrips on the list, but if I do so I might have to start clarifying which potions are bonus actions (to consume) and which are actions (to throw).

But since no one seemed to have a problem with shillelagh and magic stones, I'll take it that no one has a problem with "drinking is a bonus action, but using in ay other way is still an action, unless specified"

Common Consumables, that cost 15gp to craft or 30gp to buy, seems okay to me. I'll add some flavourful cantrips in, one by one.

Edit: Added a couple of cantrips and fixed some wording to clarify use.

[Bjarkmundur]

There. All the most obvious non-game breaking cantrips have been added.

I kinda like that this might make cantrips and 1st Level Spells more common, but makes 2nd and 3rd level spells rare and almost godlike in power. Since you can compare spells and skills so easily, it makes higher level spells that more special.

"Anyone with a formula and some training can shot a incindiary Flare, but my sorcerer can make FIREBALLS"

I avoided some obviously broken cantrips like Spare The Dying and Guidence.

The only thing that bugs me now is the general lack of utility provided. I'm basically begging for someone to ask "Wait, I can deal up to twelve points of damage, but I can't melt a lock?!?!"

I might have to address that at some point...

[Bjarkmundur]

I've added a link on account for my latest revisions.
2nd Level (rare) consumables will be added later.