Crafting Rules: Healing Potions


Crafting Healing Potions 101

 


NOTE: This entry is strictly for the crafting of Healing Potions and not other potions, or the crafting of magic items. As such all costs for gold pieces and time have been adjusted to be specific for consumables as opposed to the crafting of magical items. 

Crafting a Potion of Healing requires a number of things: 

1) A formula or recipe on how to crate the potion. 

  • A background of Guild Artisan with the Alchemists & Apothecaries field will likely already know the formula/recipe. 
  • A Sage background with the Alchemist specialty will also likely know the formula/recipe. 
    • Sages will also likely know from whom and where they can obtain the information (per the background feature: Researcher) if they don't have the formula/recipe.

2) The crafter has to be a spell caster with healing spells and necessary spell slots for the potion being crafted.

  • The Crafter must expend one spell slot of the spells level for each day of the creation process.

3) An Herbalism Kit. 

  • This contains the items such as clippers, mortar and pestle, pouches and vials used to create the remedies and potions. 

4) Proficiency with the Herbalist Kit

  • Required in order to create an Antitoxin or any Potion of Healing. 

5) Crafter must pay the Cost, and satisfy the level requirements in the table below:


6) Time

A character needs to invest eight hours each day crafting the potion. The number of days it takes is the Creation Cost divided by 25. (This represents gold piece value in material components they will use up in the crafting process.) 


FAQ's

Can more than one person work on a potion? 

Yes. Multiple characters can collaborate, provided each of them meets the level prerequisite. 

Each character can contribute spells, spell slots, and components, as long as everyone participates during the entire crafting process. 

Each character who assists contributes 25 gold worth of effort per day spent helping out. 

So for example a Simple/Standard Healing Potion normally takes 50 gold and 2 days to craft. With assistance this can be done in 1 day with two people. This will still consume the 50 gold and the spell slots and spells will still need to be expended in the creation process.


NOTE: I am ruling that proficiency in the Herbalist Kit is not required to assist as the rules state the level prerequisite is the only thing  RAW required. Those assisting will be considered under the supervision of the crafter who they are aiding.

Can I craft more than one potion at a time?

Provided you have the materials to do so, yes. However you must spend eight hours per potion being crafted. 

Can I work on the potion and come back to it later?

Unfortunately crafting a potion requires uninterrupted time to be spent. This means you have to work on the potion for at least 8 hours per day. If you go more than a day without working on the potion then you will have to start over, and all materials previously spent will be lost. 

What about the rules in Xanathar's Guide to Everything?

Xanathar's Guide to Everything contains a lot of rules and many of which are optional. 
But here is the summary of the rules for crafting Healing Potions:

Brewing/Potions of Healing: Potions of Healing fall into a special category for item crafting, separate from other magic items. A character who has proficiency with the herbalism kit can create these potions. The times and costs for doing so are summarized below:


Xanathar's reduce the crafting time anywhere from 50% - 97.2%, and also reduced the cost for all the potions with the exception of Supreme Healing. 

Keeping in mind Xanathar's Guide to Everything is additional/optional material I'm going to allow this in my games. This will be for a "rush job" on a healing potion. As a result I'm also going to give the potions a 50% failure rate. 

So the crafter will have two options. Either the slower method which is guaranteed to produce the desired potion, or they can attempt Xanathar's fast method and roll the dice once they have finished crafting the potion to see if it was a success. 





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