Potions, EVERYONE Loves Potions

[Rasman]

Everyone loves potions since even a trained monkey can shove one down your throat if you pass out.

So tell me Playground, if you had to pick a 1st level, 2nd level and 3rd level potion and you could ONLY have one of each, what would YOU pick?

My choices would be:

1st: Enlarge Person
2nd: Invisibility
3rd: Haste or Fly (It's SUCH a tough call, tbh, guess it depends on the caster level)

[Kuma Kode]

I like how none of your examples are really usable if induced by monkey while you're unconscious.

I would say I agree with Invisibility and Haste, but 1st level has got to be the old standby, Cure Light Wounds. Though Lesser Vigor might be better for non-emergencies.

[LordBlades]

For 3rd level: Gaseous Form definitely. I can't count the times it saved my char's life.

2nd level: Most likely Invisiblity.

1st level: Protection from Evil. Poor man's Mind Blank.

As a sidenote, for any spell that has a psionic equivalent it's better to use a psionic tatoo. It functions exactly like a potion, with the exception that an AOO can't target(and probably destroy) it.

[T.G. Oskar]

1st level: Protection from Evil. Yeah: you can grow big, have the best-working analgesic and so forth, but the ability to ward off evil spirits and evil creatures for one minute (and coincidentally become immune to mind control and other mental maladies) is pretty much undefeatable defense. Likely the potion should have a higher CL so the protection lasts for more minutes. Oh, and increased protection/resistance versus physical and mental assaults, plus uncanny increase in reflexes against such things like grenades or splash attacks. Shield would be a nice runner up, because it would increase your defense as well.

2nd level: Aid, believe it or not. Certainly, you might wonder, "why have temporary HP and a meager bonus to attack rolls and fear scores?" That translates to increased resilience in eventual combat (so you might get shot, ran over by a car or something of similar magnitude and you might still survive), and you'd hit those punches better. Plus, you'd get a bonus against fear, something that you'll face eventually. Boosts your morale and everything, and for a good three minutes at that. Good runner ups: Bull's Strength or Bear's Endurance in order to have a second wind or better strength for menial jobs; Invisibility for when things seem to go all wrong on you and all you wished was only to disappear...though you'll have to do something with your clothes (they turn invisible with you, but what if they don't!?)

3rd level: I'll think I'll agree; Haste is a good choice. Better reflexes, move (and run!) almost twice as fast, better dodging and the chance of hitting so fast you might land an extra hit when making a flurry (not the monk's flurry, but at any chance you're trying to smack someone several times). Probably banned as some sort of steroid, and definitely something you wouldn't want on a boxer (because then you'll be on deep trouble). The sheer amount of stuff it grants, specifically on the speed benefit, means you can use it for a lot of situations. That, or Heroism which also grants a lot of bonuses, such as better chances to land a hit, resist a poison or disease, or woo a lady with renewed morale; both are very nice bonuses. Good runners-up are Magic Circle against Evil (the perfect foil for creatures such as serial killers!), Neutralize Poison (good for anything from snake bites to cyanide to asbestos), Remove Disease (good for anything; from a simple case of food "poisoning" or salmonellosis, to something as serious as cancer), Tongues (because sometimes you'd wish you knew what the heck the guys of your favorite game, anime or related visual entertainment are actually speaking about).

Alas, it's highly improbable that such elixirs appear, so...

[Bayar]

Minor nitpick: you can't make potions of shield.

[Rasman]

I like how none of your examples are really usable if induced by monkey while you're unconscious.

I would say I agree with Invisibility and Haste, but 1st level has got to be the old standby, Cure Light Wounds. Though Lesser Vigor might be better for non-emergencies.

In...Invisibility kinda is...I mean...if the can't find the body, they can't coup de grace it :D

MONKEY!

Tongues (because sometimes you'd wish you knew what the heck the guys of your favorite game, anime or related visual entertainment are actually speaking about).

Alas, it's highly improbable that such elixirs appear, so...

"I cast Subtitles"

I think you mean you cast Tongues.

"No, I cast Subtitles since Joe is using Predestination to make the words appear below them"

I hate you both.

Minor nitpick: you can't make potions of shield.

Pretty sure he meant Shield of Faith, I've always just called it Shield though...

[Kurald Galain]

I found Elan's potion of Jump very impressive.

[Mastikator]

1: Potion of Charm Person
2: Potion of Invisibility
3: Potion of Fly


I can immediately think of good uses for all three both in "game world" and in real life. But I'd probably save them until I really needed to use them.

[Kurald Galain]

1: Potion of Charm Person

...how's that work? You drink it and then you're charmed by yourself?

[PetterTomBos]

...how's that work? You drink it and then you're charmed by yourself?

-2 Cha for pure smugness xD

[erikun]

I was always a fan of the Master Alchemist prestige class from 3.0e. Brew potions for spells of ANY level! It was quite some work to get a Cleric into the prestige class (given that the Alchemy skill was cross-class) but potions of Resurrection must sell like liquid gold.

Hmm, I wonder if I could convince a DM to allow the class.

[Mastikator]

...how's that work? You drink it and then you're charmed by yourself?

Or the first person you see a la Elixir of Love.

[Warlawk]

Everyone loves potions since even a trained monkey can shove one down your throat if you pass out.

I don't I Despise them. I feel like every time my character uses a potion he's pulling out a $100 bill and torching it with his lighter. I like to have just a couple healing potions on hand throughout the party to save lives, but the other stuff... meh, I hate consumable magic items in all forms. Potions, scrolls, anything with charges just feels like a complete waste of loot.

Aside from feeling like that potion is delaying getting an actual useful permanent item I also tend to not use them for other considerations. The "what if I *really* need this later" syndrome. Healing potions don't really get this, since the main time I think of using them is when someone is in the negatives or very close, and that feeling isn't really a problem but for everything else I just don't tend to use it. Frankly, I usually forget we have them at all and I have a long and glorious history of going through the most convoluted off the wall RP solutions only to be reminded that we could have just used <consumable Y> to do that. Frankly, I prefer the RP solutions. It's good to keep the mind sharp for problem solving and honestly is a lot more interesting than just "I drink X and beat the puzzle/trap/encounter".

1) Cure/Vigor
2) Delay Poison/Remove Paralysis (Or a cure)
3) Removed Curse/Remove Disease (Or a cure)

So yeah, just to be contrary I guess, not everyone loves potions.

[nedz]

Do Elixiers count ?
I mean, technically there not potions.
Elixier of hiding is possibly better than invis, +10 competance bonus to Hide for 1 hour. Thats game changing for a stealth based character with maxed out hide anyway; much better than invis in my experience.

Potions:
Level 1 Expeditous Retreat, a level 1 get-out
Level 2 Cure Moderate - gets someone back up, +1 to the action economy.
Level 3 way too many options here.

[bokodasu]

I don't I Despise them. I feel like every time my character uses a potion he's pulling out a $100 bill and torching it with his lighter...
Aside from feeling like that potion is delaying getting an actual useful permanent item I also tend to not use them for other considerations. The "what if I *really* need this later" syndrome.

I'm totally with you on this. I always finish CRPGs with five billion "cure 1 hp" potions, because I'm afraid to waste them until they're no longer useful, and then, well, they're no longer useful. In our last campaign, I made it to level 26 with a bunch of low-level scrolls, because I made them "just in case" and then never wanted to waste them.

So I'm trying to just avoid buying consumables at all. Potions, yuk. (But ok, I do have a couple of psionic tattoos. At least they remain decorative, even if I never use them.)

[nedz]

I'm totally with you on this. I always finish CRPGs with five billion "cure 1 hp" potions, because I'm afraid to waste them until they're no longer useful, and then, well, they're no longer useful. In our last campaign, I made it to level 26 with a bunch of low-level scrolls, because I made them "just in case" and then never wanted to waste them.

So I'm trying to just avoid buying consumables at all. Potions, yuk. (But ok, I do have a couple of psionic tattoos. At least they remain decorative, even if I never use them.)

Yes - for some reason my characters always end up with a ton of potions, to the extent that the DM grumbled that my pouches were too full recently. I just put off using them, 'cos they might be more useful later.