Advaced Potion-Making [Archive] - Wizards Community

Advaced Potion-Making [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
UltimateReality
09-16-05, 02:29 PM So I just finished "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" and thought it would be interesting to remake the special potions textbook Harry gets his hands on. I thought that maybe at first it would grant special changes to the spell, but uickly ditched that in favour of it introducing metamagic components. Then, because of the level limit on potions, I ditched that and thought that it may grant, for the owner who uses it, the use of the Exceptional Artisan feat (reduce item creation time by 25%) for only those spells contained within it, whenever the owner makes potions of them as directed from the text.

How would you recreate the book, and what would you say it is worth?
tarkin
09-16-05, 02:30 PM I would just use the Faerun PrC called a Master Potion brewer, that can brew potions up to 9th level spells.
crossbow
09-16-05, 03:25 PM The book Harry got didn’t really have new potions, it just showed the best way to brew the potions in it. I’d simply allow whoever used the book to increase the effects of the potions in it. Make up a list of potions in the book (basically, whatever you think might be fun and won’t cause havoc in your campaign) and then decide how they were improved. Potion of Eagles Splendor? Now lasts for two minutes per caster level instead of one. Or maybe it gives you a +5 instead of a +4. There are all sorts of things like this that you can do to make things just that little bit more interesting. I’d only put a few potions in it though, that way it doesn’t get out of hand.

Another option would be to allow the potion maker to create potions as though he were a higher level caster. This would probably be easier to institute and less likely to unbalance your game but would loose it's usefulness once the caster caught up to that level. Say the book lets you create potions as though you were an 8th level caster, once you really are 8th level, it stops being useful.

Either option would be worth a pretty penny, not that I see characters trying to sell such a work any time soon.

crossbow
Leewei
09-16-05, 04:53 PM I'd use a Circumstance bonus if the book aided the use of a skill. As an example, a reference on the wildlife found in a region could yield a +2 Circumstance bonus to Knowledge(Nature) and Knowledge(Geology) for that region. In the case of the book, a +2 or +3 bonus to Craft(Alchemy) makes sense.

The book had some spells inscribed into the margins. This makes it in part a wizard's spellbook.

The Brew Potion and Craft Wondrous Item feats in D&D don't require any sort of roll to use -- just experience and money -- so there isn't a good direct analogy for the tips and tricks included in the book. The book could give the PC using it an extra caster level or two for purposes of creating a potion or elixir, I suppose.

Edit: Doh! Looks like crossbow beat me to the extra level idea.
Eightbitmage
09-16-05, 06:08 PM The half blood prince's book didn't help Harry make better potions, the potions were the exact same, the book just suggested shortcuts/better ways to do things, the result was the same, but it was easier to do. I say reduce the time and the cost by a certain amount due to lack of partial failures.
UltimateReality
09-16-05, 06:14 PM The half blood prince's book didn't help Harry make better potions, the potions were the exact same, the book just suggested shortcuts/better ways to do things, the result was the same, but it was easier to do. I say reduce the time and the cost by a certain amount due to lack of partial failures.
That was my thought, and hence why I picked the feat from ECS. There is another one that lets you reduce base cost by 25%, and another that lets you reduce xp by the same. I figured that the book didn't really help you make potions more cheaply: it just used different ingredients. While an argument could be made for the xp case, the book then becomes infinitely more valuable and broken. That's why I chose the time reduction.

Now here's the question: for a book that grants you a temporary feat to be used only when creating items within the book, and only when using the book directly as a reference, how much do you think is a good price?
Leewei
09-16-05, 06:36 PM I'd suggest looking into the price of the various Rods of Metamagic in the DMG. Figure that the item is usable once per day (rather than 3x), and can only work on spells level 3 and under.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
UltimateReality 09-16-05, 02:29 PM	So I just finished "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" and thought it would be interesting to remake the special potions textbook Harry gets his hands on. I thought that maybe at first it would grant special changes to the spell, but uickly ditched that in favour of it introducing metamagic components. Then, because of the level limit on potions, I ditched that and thought that it may grant, for the owner who uses it, the use of the Exceptional Artisan feat (reduce item creation time by 25%) for only those spells contained within it, whenever the owner makes potions of them as directed from the text. How would you recreate the book, and what would you say it is worth?
tarkin 09-16-05, 02:30 PM	I would just use the Faerun PrC called a Master Potion brewer, that can brew potions up to 9th level spells.
crossbow 09-16-05, 03:25 PM	The book Harry got didn’t really have new potions, it just showed the best way to brew the potions in it. I’d simply allow whoever used the book to increase the effects of the potions in it. Make up a list of potions in the book (basically, whatever you think might be fun and won’t cause havoc in your campaign) and then decide how they were improved. Potion of Eagles Splendor? Now lasts for two minutes per caster level instead of one. Or maybe it gives you a +5 instead of a +4. There are all sorts of things like this that you can do to make things just that little bit more interesting. I’d only put a few potions in it though, that way it doesn’t get out of hand. Another option would be to allow the potion maker to create potions as though he were a higher level caster. This would probably be easier to institute and less likely to unbalance your game but would loose it's usefulness once the caster caught up to that level. Say the book lets you create potions as though you were an 8th level caster, once you really are 8th level, it stops being useful. Either option would be worth a pretty penny, not that I see characters trying to sell such a work any time soon. crossbow
Leewei 09-16-05, 04:53 PM	I'd use a Circumstance bonus if the book aided the use of a skill. As an example, a reference on the wildlife found in a region could yield a +2 Circumstance bonus to Knowledge(Nature) and Knowledge(Geology) for that region. In the case of the book, a +2 or +3 bonus to Craft(Alchemy) makes sense. The book had some spells inscribed into the margins. This makes it in part a wizard's spellbook. The Brew Potion and Craft Wondrous Item feats in D&D don't require any sort of roll to use -- just experience and money -- so there isn't a good direct analogy for the tips and tricks included in the book. The book could give the PC using it an extra caster level or two for purposes of creating a potion or elixir, I suppose. Edit: Doh! Looks like crossbow beat me to the extra level idea.
Eightbitmage 09-16-05, 06:08 PM	The half blood prince's book didn't help Harry make better potions, the potions were the exact same, the book just suggested shortcuts/better ways to do things, the result was the same, but it was easier to do. I say reduce the time and the cost by a certain amount due to lack of partial failures.
UltimateReality 09-16-05, 06:14 PM	The half blood prince's book didn't help Harry make better potions, the potions were the exact same, the book just suggested shortcuts/better ways to do things, the result was the same, but it was easier to do. I say reduce the time and the cost by a certain amount due to lack of partial failures. That was my thought, and hence why I picked the feat from ECS. There is another one that lets you reduce base cost by 25%, and another that lets you reduce xp by the same. I figured that the book didn't really help you make potions more cheaply: it just used different ingredients. While an argument could be made for the xp case, the book then becomes infinitely more valuable and broken. That's why I chose the time reduction. Now here's the question: for a book that grants you a temporary feat to be used only when creating items within the book, and only when using the book directly as a reference, how much do you think is a good price?
Leewei 09-16-05, 06:36 PM	I'd suggest looking into the price of the various Rods of Metamagic in the DMG. Figure that the item is usable once per day (rather than 3x), and can only work on spells level 3 and under.