Having shiny potions isn't terribly interesting if nobody ever takes them. Without knowing in advance which potions will be useful, the sensible course of action for a party is to take a lot of healing potions and not bother with the rest. An alchemist who's prepared healing gels just becomes "a lot of healing potions", and would be derelict in their hitpoint-vending duty if they made any more interesting potions.
So, how about we allow alchemists some kind of ability to abort to healing, like a third edition D&D cleric? They'd need to be present in person to do this, giving an extra reason for alchemists to linear, and they'd be able to carry interesting potions. Quite a few people on #larp thought this was a good idea, though arguments about implementation still abound. I propose the following:
Healing Synthesis, replaces Master Synthesis in the Alchemical Synthesis list. By taking a one-minute action to mix the herb and potion, you may combine a single potion with a single dose of Milfoil to produce a healing potion of the same level as the original potion. If the original potion was a gel, this potion is a gel. You must have the necessary Alchemical Skill to make this potion. You do not need to have any other levels of Alchemical Synthesis to learn this skill.
- The problem I have with this is the apparent lack of metaphysical basis for it. It would be a complete immersion breaker for me to see it done. It also seems to indicate that healing potions are qualitatively different from all other kinds of potion, which disturbs me for similar reasons. --Winterlove
- I don't see why healing potions should not be qualitatively different from all other kinds of potion if this makes more interesting potions being carried by uptime alchemists be more feasible. I don't see a problem with a metaphysical basis for it - the power of Milfoil is that it turns other potions into healing potions, it is just an item which does that, like other items do other things. I like this idea a lot.--ChessyPig
- It's something I'd be happy with, but also happy without. Also, could people sign their posts please? --Pufferfish
- I have a slight problem with this skill. First off, rather than replace master synthesis (which is an absolutely brilliant skill), replace something like copious synthesis. Secondly, this creates level n healing potions from a level n other potion. If you are allowing this flexibility, should there not be a trade-off in power? Thirdly, generally to create a healing potion of level n, you need alchemical skill of n-1. This synthesis ability would appear to overwrite it, making the already fairly underpowered skill even worse. Would an ability that allowed you to turn a potion of level n into a shitty cure that cures n points of damage really be that bad? -- Flying_O
- I suppose Master Synthesis gives alchemists something to do on 3YGBs. The cost of using a portion of milfoil, and taking a minute, and consuming another potion, are intended to be sufficient to compensate for not losing any levels. The intention of this skill from my point of view is that alchemists should carry lots of interesting potions and few healing potions, so that some of the vaunted flexibility of alchemists ("I'm not just a hit-point vendor!") actually gets seen in play. I don't think turning a level n potion into an n-point heal will do that - you still get more healing out of carrying just healing potions. I think requiring that the user have the skill to make the resulting healing potion is a good plan - fixed. --NT
- The idea behind gels in the first place was that by use of them an alchemist could create far more healing than they could realistically apply. Creating, say, four or so low to mid level gels would generally provide all the healing a high level party would want (certainly when combined with First Aid) - healing above a certain level is pretty well strictly inferior to whatever else you can do at that level, as hits scale linearly while buffs don't. A couple of ideas follow; I'm not sure about them. --R
- What about a condition or researched bolt-on that allowed a potion to have a healing effect if taken one way while still functioning as whatever else it was made for if taken another way? --R
- Or, indeed, a synthesis skill that is incompatible with all other synthesis skills (basically, you can't use it on a slot with a modified level) that allows the potion to be used in an emergency as an N-hit healing salve? --R
- I suspect that both of these would lead to uptime confusion as people didn't know whether a given potion could be used as a healing salve or not. We'll be in to proper lammies as opposed to little labels at this rate, and I don't want that. --Pufferfish