Unknown Potions

[Glim]

Hello,

A thought came to me while brewing. How does a normal person know exactly what spells are in a potion bottle or not?

So, from this, I was thinking. Perhaps when you brew potions, it wouldn't show the name of the potions upon the item. The creator of the potion would be able to see what spells he has brewed into the bottle when he creates it, but then he would actually have to label the bottle so that others can see, similar to letters or boxes or pieces of parchment.

There would be a few different ways of telling what spells are in the potion. Perhaps a spellcraft check, an identify spell, an appraise check, or even a brew check.

This could lead to a few things:

1. Devious potionmakers slipping in harmful spells into an otherwise innocent bottle (increased roleplay opportunities!).
2. Players would have to go to spellcasting classes to have an unknown potion identified (improved spellcaster usefulness!).
3. The spell, detect poison, would be able to detect if a harmful spell is imbued in the potion (adds more utility to an otherwise seldom used spell!).
4. This would add a bit more to the mystery of selling potions (mystery! did you see that? MYSTERY!!!!).

Feedback is always welcome,

[Sairaven]

As a non-spellcaster, I have only this to say:


I love it!!

[Alvirin]

I always thought that the ability to appraise potions should help you indentify which spells contains a potion.

[Jaenoic]

Couldn't the brewer just slap a label onto the potion bottle after brewing it? That's always how I RPed knowing what was in a bottle.

[Glim]

Couldn't the brewer just slap a label onto the potion bottle after brewing it? That's always how I RPed knowing what was in a bottle.

Err...?

The creator of the potion would be able to see what spells he has brewed into the bottle when he creates it, but then he would actually have to label the bottle so that others can see, similar to letters or boxes or pieces of parchment.

[Dalvyn]

I believe that Jaenoic was giving an IC interpretation for the potion to be called "a potion of cure light, armor and bless".

I actually have 2 problems (well, 3 to be precise) with your suggestion.

1 - Why would the brewer auto-magically remember what he has brewed, even years after the brewing has been done?

2 - I agree that it would make it possible for brewers to trick others into believing they have a potion of X while they actually possess a potion of Y. BUT it would make it incredibly more difficult for buyers to distinguish potions received during "honest" transactions (because they would all look like "a potion"). Now, I would believe that perhaps 1 or 2 potions in 20 would be part of a fake deal. So, in essence, this modification would make this new "5%" roleplay possible while making the remaining "95%" roleplay much more difficult.

3 - To "fix" problem 2 above, we would have to introduce a system to "label" potions, like what was added to notes. That might be a bit more tricky, especially to enable people to re-use potion bottles that have already been used.

[Dalanna]

What if instead of making the potion writeable, like a note, a series of containers are added, each only large enough for one potion... like crown royal bags . Each of these containers could have a Rune embroidered on the outside indicating its contents for each potion type and be available at a shop for a few copper each.

I'm assuming you can't put more than one affect into a potion... if you can this would be impossible to do. It'd be a fairly long list I'm sure as there are many spells in the game, but it would probably be easier to code as you'd just have to make items and a shop, instead of reworking an entire system.

Also, that fixes the re-usable bottle issue as well. Since the bottle itself would be unlabeled.

Downside is someone could take off the wrapping and it'd have to be re-id'd, or someone could put a potion in a bag it didn't belong in. But they could do that with the proposed labeling system too.

[Adabelle]

From what I have seen you can change the titles of notes as many times as you wish. If you make a potion label like this then each time you reuse your vial you can rename it. Or I can take this label off the potion I bought and put a new one on.

An idea that goes along with this is reputation among NPC buys of potions. If you keep selling them incorrectly labeled spells your reputation drops. They stop paying as much and eventual stops buy potions at all. You can get away with it once and a while but not consistently. These NPC merchants have reputations to uphold. It they keep selling healing potions that are really potions of curse then they will lose THEIR customers and no merchant wants that.

[Glim]

1 - Why would the brewer auto-magically remember what he has brewed, even years after the brewing has been done?

Ahh, what I meant was, the brewer would know what the potion has in it when he brews the spell into the potion by the message "You brew up a glas flask of cure light, armor". Then he would have to label it so that even he would be able to remember it later.

If he doesn't label it, he wouldn't remember unless he uses one of the ways mentioned above.

[Nysan]

From written sources concerning alchemist and wizard folk, heck even considering folks who use vials/bottles regularly today (chemists and the like), some sort of system is used to remember what is in what bottle: labels, color coding, alphabetical, whatever. So, potions in the brewers possession maybe be remember, even for years on end, due to their personal sorting habbits. Potions sold without specific markings identify the contents however... *shrug*

Let me add a suggestion to this. Adjust brewing to require pieces of parchment, for labeling purposes. Allow the parchment to go through several uses before being destroyed since labels are rarely large (similar to how it is slowly consumed by spell use).

[Kregor]

if I recall, knowing the content of a potion bottle is a function of a spellcraft check, yes? Much like a spell scroll?

[Glim]

Identifying Potions
In addition to the standard methods of identification, PCs can sample from each container they find to attempt to determine the nature of the liquid inside. An experienced character learns to identify potions by memory—for example, the last time she tasted a liquid that reminded her of almonds, it turned out to be a potion of cure moderate wounds.

I think by standard methods they mean identify. Also, under spellcraft for a DC of 25:

| 25 | Identify a potion. Requires 1 minute. No retry.