What potions do you try to always carry?

[eyebreaker7]

Maybe a couple lesser restoration? spider climb? Resist energy? Neutralize poison?
Just curious what you try to "keep in stock" for you or your party. Low, mid & high levels.

[CharonsHelper]

At low level the first thing I get is some holy water to deal with undead, especially the incorporeal bastards.

I always try to have a couple of cure light potions if my character can't cast healing. I don't use them between combats, but if my character can't cast any healing it's good to be able to jam it down someone's throat to keep them from bleeding out.

Another level 1 spell which is handy is Vanish. If you're about to go down to something and there's nothing you can do about it, popping a Vanish and going invisible can be a great get-out-of-trouble card at low levels. And it's cheap enough that I don't mind if it never comes up.

After that it's the classics of Neutralize Poison and Resist Disease.

At mid-high levels I'll get Heroism (hopefully made by a Bard to be level 2 :P) just because it's an awesome long-lasting buff which stacks with gear, and there may be times when I really need a buff but my party buffer isn't around.

[Thurbane]

If you can get a Healer to brew them, Potions of Restoration can be handy.

Levitate or Fly can be useful for mundanes, if they don't have a caster in the party that can throw those spells around.

[farothel]

I always have a few potions of cure light, often for no other reason than to put the healer back up from negative hitpoints.

Lesser restoration can also be quite useful.

Other potions depends a bit on type of character and composition of the party.

[Kurald Galain]

I mostly carry potions for situational abilities that I'm unlikely to use every day, such as Bless Weapon (oil), Protection from Evil (for its anti-possession effect), Air Bubble, Resist Energy, or Fly (at levels before flight is common).

And a couple of bossfight buffs like Enlarge Person.

And healing potions, including Antitoxin and Antiplague.

[Silly Name]

I like to get myself the kind of stuff that a spellcaster may like to learn/prepare/use but will probably opt not to. Things like Endure elements, Pass without trace, Water breathing, Water walk, etc. Things that can come in handy when you have them.

Also if I'm playing a stealthy character, having Hide from Undead and Nondetection is useful, and being able to just drink an Invisbility potion is very nice when scouting ahead on my own.

I'll also echo keeping some backup Cure wounds just in case, and some all-purpose stuff like Lesser restoration and Protection from evil.

[Laughing Dog]

Well, in Neverwinter Nights 2, if I was playing a caster that took the Brew Potion feat; I would typically make and keep a handful of 'Potion of Summon Creature I's in my inventory. For the record, Summon Creature is the NWN/NWN2 mashup of Summon Monster and Summon Nature's Ally. I'm pretty certain it wasn't supposed to be made into a potion, but it always was amusing. I swig a potion, make a buddy.

Other than those? Typically the general healing potions, plus potion's of Bull's Strength.

[Miss Disaster]

"Drinking a potion or using an oil on an item of gear is a standard action."

Usually, the only potions worthwhile to me are the ones that benefit from the standard-action consumption action. So Lesser Restoration is a perfect example. Instead of a 3 round casting time, you get it activated in an awesome 1 standard action.

[Zaq]

Huh. I had always thought that see invisibility was a legal target for making into a potion. By RAW, it's not. Weird. Why is see invisibility self-only?

[sreservoir]

Huh. I had always thought that see invisibility was a legal target for making into a potion. By RAW, it's not. Weird. Why is see invisibility self-only?

Or the detect line, which for whatever reason doesn't target you (or any creature) and just affects an area.

Restoration from the Healer list (3rd level, CL 5, 850 gp) has its uses. Potions of cure minor wounds (25 gp) are a marginally more expensive Core-only substitute for blessed bandages Other than emergency things, though, there aren't a lot of potions I'd seriously consider paying full price on, since given the no-Personal restriction anything you can put in a potion could just as well be done by a caster or UMDing a wand.

On the other hand, quick potion (sor/wiz 2, SpC 164) + pending potion (artificer 1, MoE 100) is spectacular, especially if you can wand them as needed. Extra cheeky: oils of pending potion.

[Kurald Galain]

there aren't a lot of potions I'd seriously consider paying full price on, since given the no-Personal restriction anything you can put in a potion could just as well be done by a caster or UMDing a wand.

Sure, but there's still spells from casters that your party doesn't have (e.g. many parties don't have a Druid or Paladin, and their lists have a bunch of good spells) and that you don't expect to be using more than a couple times in a campaign.

[Telonius]

Potions would generally be for things that you're going to need right now; when the Cleric might not be able to get to you in a round and fix you (either because going through the battlefield would be too dangerous, or because they're incapacitated); and where you don't have the UMD ranks to get a Scroll of it. Things like Haste, Delay Poison, Remove Blindness/Deafness, Water Breathing, and an oil of Gentle Repose.

[sreservoir]

Sure, but there's still spells from casters that your party doesn't have (e.g. many parties don't have a Druid or Paladin, and their lists have a bunch of good spells) and that you don't expect to be using more than a couple times in a campaign.

For the relatively short list of spells where you really want to be able to use them when the party member expected to perform the role is disabled, sure. Otherwise, scrolls.

You bring up the Druid and Paladin lists, but when you comb them down to spells that you can actually put in potions (nothing Personal!), well, I'm sure there are other examples but the single one I could come up with was potions of snowsight in a party using obscuring snow. To begin with, the kinds of spells that are situational enough that you'll only use them a couple of times in a campaign generally aren't ones that you're in a rush to cast (i.e. it's fine to defer to a caster or UMDer to use a scroll out of combat).

[Thunder999]

Just cure light wounds, specifically so that you can pour them down the throat of whoever can actually cast it if they go down, for pretty much any other purpose it's better to just get a scroll, they're half the price after all.

[Max Caysey]

Maybe a couple lesser restoration? spider climb? Resist energy? Neutralize poison?
Just curious what you try to "keep in stock" for you or your party. Low, mid & high levels.

For high level play, you can’t go wrong with potions of mass heal, miracle, shape change, time stop, or wish!

[CharonsHelper]

For high level play, you can’t go wrong with potions of mass heal, miracle, shape change, time stop, or wish!

Other than potions maxing out at level 3 spells.

[Silly Name]

Other than potions maxing out at level 3 spells.

The Master Alchemist PrC allows a character to brew potions up to 9th level. However, a potion of Wish or Miracle doesn't allow you to choose the effects: any decision regarding the spell's effects is made by the brewer, and they can only target creature (so you can't drink a potion of Wish and have a magical item appear in front of you).

Plus considering how much they cost, by the time you can reasonably afford them you probably have someone in the party who can cast the spells, or hire a caster to do it for you.

[Max Caysey]

Other than potions maxing out at level 3 spells.

Master Alchemist PrC brah!

The Master Alchemist PrC allows a character to brew potions up to 9th level. However, a potion of Wish or Miracle doesn't allow you to choose the effects: any decision regarding the spell's effects is made by the brewer, and they can only target creature (so you can't drink a potion of Wish and have a magical item appear in front of you).

Plus considering how much they cost, by the time you can reasonably afford them you probably have someone in the party who can cast the spells, or hire a caster to do it for you.

I hadn't considered that, but the others still stand :)

[Psyren]

On my alchemist I try to have quite an array handy. Between Alchemical Allocation and Accelerated Drinker, I can get a lot of benefit out of them.

[Feantar]

I hadn't considered that, but the others still stand :)

Well, you can make the wish be "I wish for whatever I state following the consumption of this potion":P

[tiercel]

Resurgence (SpC): yes, it's the sort of thing that's useful enough to merit scrolls (for those who can use or UMD them), and it's a strong contender for having on a wand, but at the end of the day the person you need to fix might be the one who can actually use the scroll or wand.

It's probably not that far behind "have CLW potions for getting the one who can actually cast heals back up, or, myself if I'm separated from others' healing" when it comes to general potion/oil utility.

If there's a buff your whole party could use at once, it might not be terrible to have "everybody drink their potion at once" all in one round, as compared to (A) spamming the spell on everybody 1 round at a time, especially if it's a short-duration buff or (B) using a higher-level spell slot to cast Mass <Buff>, assuming that the Mass version even exists.

[Mordante]

None.

My characters usually don't carry any potions or scrolls.