Alternative uses for potions [Archive] - Wizards Community

Alternative uses for potions [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
jaceofwater
07-06-05, 04:26 AM In a recent dungeon, there is a section about defining how your potions look, taste, smell, and etc. After reading it, I decided to sit down and make a list of descriptions of just what potions in my campaign are like. Because I have that little to do with my time.
I started, and basically finished, with the potion of cure light wounds. The way I described it is as a very thick (Think cadbury egg filling, but a bit thinner), light minty green liquid, with a moderately light sweet, minty taste and a simmilar scent. That is when it hit me. If the potion was like that, It's basically a frosting. So I figured, for fancy occasions, nobiles might buy potions of cure light wounds to use as frostings on their cakes and such. This creates a whole new market, of course. Other potions may have practical or cullinary uses, as well, so of course they'd be sold in a simmilar fashion. Plus, with just a taste of the potion, you wouldn't really get its effect, but you'd probably feel a little something, like a rush of healing warmth when you take a bite of that minty cake.
And aside from that, it'd mess up the market as well. It'd probably be esier to get the bland, coppery-tasting cure moderate wounds than it would be to get the sweet, sugary cure light wounds. But then who'd be making it if it tasted bad?
So, can anyone else think of any other uses for potions based on how you think they'd taste? Or perhaps other qualities? (The sensation one gets when you have just a taste, the beautiful color it lends to a fountain when mixed in with the water, and etc.)
The Cursed Ronin
07-06-05, 11:28 PM Well since no one else seems to like this idea, I could see them being used as a pseudo jewelry when made correctly, i.e. having a potion of (blank) sparkle, so some nobles daughter got the idea to fill a heart shaped piece of glass with it and have it sealed to put on a necklace.

I myself like playing as a ninja so I'm always looking for a way to sneak anything anywhere, and I thought that you could also possibly freeze some potions into crystals magically or let them crystalize like sugar does when sugar water dries, so you could then carry them and have them appear as nothing more than gems.
And if you have the Complete Arcane it tells about alternate potion forms, so you could always have potion tiles worked into clothing as designs or appear as pins, or have a small creatures skull, originally looking like a evil priests focus, actually be a potion of haste.
Thelon Fairblade
07-07-05, 02:04 PM 50 gp for a minty frosting on your cake? Even for a wealthy noble, I would think that the potion would be better used for its intended effect, and a few silvers spent on buying some mundane frosting...

identifying the smell, look, taste, etc. of your potions is neat, *if* you intend to make it a universal thing that you want your players to figure out (or at least, identify). For example, I (too!) used peppermint as a flavor/scent for cure wounds potions in a past campaign; although the color changed with the actual potion effect, the PCs knew (through experience) that the giant flagon of strongly peppermint-scented liquid had something to do with healing. It was a more immersive world because of that.
The Cursed Ronin
07-08-05, 04:23 AM Don't forget too that if you have something with a strong scent it can be used to cover your own scent to throw a predatory animal off, at DM discretion most likely, but an example of this was used in one of the old monster mayhem articles when a hunter was tracking a black loper I believe it was called and had treated his cloak with mint. Though expensive, if I have a black gooey creature trying to kill me I would more than gladly expend a potion to throw it off my trail.
jaceofwater
07-09-05, 03:11 AM You know, you could probably use that for stealthiness, too, in some rare cases. Like, if a pungent potion has an ingredient of a specific sort of monster (Say spiders, for example.) You might be able to use it to throw off other members of that species. (Such as giant spiders.) Perhaps making them unfriendly instead of hostile towards you.
jukar
07-16-05, 01:27 PM Gotta say, I'm loving this idea.

Granted, it's an expensive frosting. But that's nobility for you. If you check the Arms and Equipment Guide, you'll see that mundane marzipan (quite the popular treat for nobility in world with a timeframe equivalent to typical D&D campaigns) is a whopping 20 gp an ounce- AN OUNCE. If someone served several people marzipan as a dessert (assuming each person gets about 2 ounces of marzipan, and they are entertaining an average of 4 people), that's 160 gold just for the marzipan... so, one could argue that they would be just as likely to blow their swag on potions they don't even need in order to satisfy their sweet tooth.

I have a character who is a sorcerer with Profession: Cook in our current campaign, who has an appreciation for the finer things in life- he won't eat basic rations at all (unless he is starving and has cantrips left to cast Prestidigitation), and spends a lot of his money on masterwork kitchen utensils, imported spices and herbs, and expensive foods to eat on his travels. He's also made money off his culinary creations to pay for spell components, and I can definitely see him wasting potions on fancy cakes and pastries. Thanks for the idea!

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
jaceofwater 07-06-05, 04:26 AM	In a recent dungeon, there is a section about defining how your potions look, taste, smell, and etc. After reading it, I decided to sit down and make a list of descriptions of just what potions in my campaign are like. Because I have that little to do with my time. I started, and basically finished, with the potion of cure light wounds. The way I described it is as a very thick (Think cadbury egg filling, but a bit thinner), light minty green liquid, with a moderately light sweet, minty taste and a simmilar scent. That is when it hit me. If the potion was like that, It's basically a frosting. So I figured, for fancy occasions, nobiles might buy potions of cure light wounds to use as frostings on their cakes and such. This creates a whole new market, of course. Other potions may have practical or cullinary uses, as well, so of course they'd be sold in a simmilar fashion. Plus, with just a taste of the potion, you wouldn't really get its effect, but you'd probably feel a little something, like a rush of healing warmth when you take a bite of that minty cake. And aside from that, it'd mess up the market as well. It'd probably be esier to get the bland, coppery-tasting cure moderate wounds than it would be to get the sweet, sugary cure light wounds. But then who'd be making it if it tasted bad? So, can anyone else think of any other uses for potions based on how you think they'd taste? Or perhaps other qualities? (The sensation one gets when you have just a taste, the beautiful color it lends to a fountain when mixed in with the water, and etc.)
The Cursed Ronin 07-06-05, 11:28 PM	Well since no one else seems to like this idea, I could see them being used as a pseudo jewelry when made correctly, i.e. having a potion of (blank) sparkle, so some nobles daughter got the idea to fill a heart shaped piece of glass with it and have it sealed to put on a necklace. I myself like playing as a ninja so I'm always looking for a way to sneak anything anywhere, and I thought that you could also possibly freeze some potions into crystals magically or let them crystalize like sugar does when sugar water dries, so you could then carry them and have them appear as nothing more than gems. And if you have the Complete Arcane it tells about alternate potion forms, so you could always have potion tiles worked into clothing as designs or appear as pins, or have a small creatures skull, originally looking like a evil priests focus, actually be a potion of haste.
Thelon Fairblade 07-07-05, 02:04 PM	50 gp for a minty frosting on your cake? Even for a wealthy noble, I would think that the potion would be better used for its intended effect, and a few silvers spent on buying some mundane frosting... identifying the smell, look, taste, etc. of your potions is neat, if you intend to make it a universal thing that you want your players to figure out (or at least, identify). For example, I (too!) used peppermint as a flavor/scent for cure wounds potions in a past campaign; although the color changed with the actual potion effect, the PCs knew (through experience) that the giant flagon of strongly peppermint-scented liquid had something to do with healing. It was a more immersive world because of that.
The Cursed Ronin 07-08-05, 04:23 AM	Don't forget too that if you have something with a strong scent it can be used to cover your own scent to throw a predatory animal off, at DM discretion most likely, but an example of this was used in one of the old monster mayhem articles when a hunter was tracking a black loper I believe it was called and had treated his cloak with mint. Though expensive, if I have a black gooey creature trying to kill me I would more than gladly expend a potion to throw it off my trail.
jaceofwater 07-09-05, 03:11 AM	You know, you could probably use that for stealthiness, too, in some rare cases. Like, if a pungent potion has an ingredient of a specific sort of monster (Say spiders, for example.) You might be able to use it to throw off other members of that species. (Such as giant spiders.) Perhaps making them unfriendly instead of hostile towards you.
jukar 07-16-05, 01:27 PM	Gotta say, I'm loving this idea. Granted, it's an expensive frosting. But that's nobility for you. If you check the Arms and Equipment Guide, you'll see that mundane marzipan (quite the popular treat for nobility in world with a timeframe equivalent to typical D&D campaigns) is a whopping 20 gp an ounce- AN OUNCE. If someone served several people marzipan as a dessert (assuming each person gets about 2 ounces of marzipan, and they are entertaining an average of 4 people), that's 160 gold just for the marzipan... so, one could argue that they would be just as likely to blow their swag on potions they don't even need in order to satisfy their sweet tooth. I have a character who is a sorcerer with Profession: Cook in our current campaign, who has an appreciation for the finer things in life- he won't eat basic rations at all (unless he is starving and has cantrips left to cast Prestidigitation), and spends a lot of his money on masterwork kitchen utensils, imported spices and herbs, and expensive foods to eat on his travels. He's also made money off his culinary creations to pay for spell components, and I can definitely see him wasting potions on fancy cakes and pastries. Thanks for the idea!