Are Potions Labelled in Your Game?

Hi Everyone,

This kind of struck me as I prepare for my first DMing session in a while - we have 6 DM's out of 7.

Potions in our group are never labelled. Sure, they can be identified pretty easily (Spellcraft DC 25, 1 minute) but once this has been done, it is assumed that it can be found and used as needed. Really though, I'm surprised the other DMs have not been too concerned about this.

To my way of thinking, if an NPC has a variety of potions, surely they would always label them? Even if it was just an order thing, or a colour, picture or even a label?
Maybe I'm being too nitpicky but I'm thinking that all my NPC's are going to have their potions labelled in some way. And if the PCs just grab a potion out without it being labelled or ordered, I'm tempted to make a random roll to determine what it is that they actually chug. Is this too mean?

How do you guys deal with potions?

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

I never really thought about it. I usually have most potions unlabled that they found, but once they have their potions identified they always grab the correct one.

My character usually marks his potions with his own personally created symbols. That way I can identify them, but my enemies can't. I've had potions stolen from me in the past.

We always ignored the Spellcraft check to ID a potion, nobody really noticed that application of it, so we came up with a house rule that it was a Craft (Alchemy) check with a DC going anywhere from 20 to 40 depending on the rarity of the potion (the vast majority being around 20).

What I did was say that each potion has a distinctive appearance. All Cure Light Wounds potions are Pale Green, all Bull's Strength potions are dark brown, ect. Potions are sometimes labelled, but usually not in common, but in the native langauge of the speaker (like a FR regional language like Chondathan or Alzhedo, or a racial or planar language). In other cases, the user knows by appearance which potions are which, and doesn't bother to label them. The alchemy check is for the character to know what that combination is (notably, I also houserule it back to the 3.0 bit about you not needing to be a spellcaster to take alchemy)

This means that the PC's can actually learn what a potion is by my description (which at lower levels, saves a lot of time because I just say you find "a silvery blue potion and a bubbling green potion" and if they can't make the checks to ID them (quite possible at low levels) then they can figure it out later, because they just have to make the check and tell me what the description is.

Once a potion has been identified we usually just leave it at that presuming that the character can recognize the potion based on vial shape/size/color and/or liquid color/texture/smell.... otherwise (unless you have a really simple idea) it becomes just extra bookkepping and micromanaging with little real end effect.

That's not to say it wouldn't add realism, because in fact, I agree, in the heat of battle when you're down to your last gasps of life are you really going to remember if the potion in your belt pouch is the potion of healing or something else...

just, after trying a couple things it just seemed too much effort for too little result and we (game group preference) would rather have our energy/focus elsewhere in the game.

It is an unspoken assumption in my game that PCs are not stupid enough to carry many potions in identical unmarked containers. There does not have to be a description attached. I just assume that the character puts Potion A in the vial that has two blue dots on the lid, for instance. I don't require anyone to tell me. It's just one of the little details that happen in the background, the same way that I've never made a character's bladder explode.

We use personal runes and special protections on the flasks that contain potions in our games.

Occasionally my players will find a potion that is labelled, but never with the name listed in the rulebook, rather a descriptive name that someone might actually name it by; nobody's really going to call a potion/spell "Cure Light Wounds" or "Alter Self," for instance, that'd just be stupid. As normal the potions can be identified with Alchemy or Spellcraft checks. Generally, though, as a rule I have a particular sort of potion from a particular caster (or any casters that trained together or taught eachother, such as the mages of a particular acedemy, or a master and his apprentice and his apprentice after him and so on and so forth) appear, smell, and taste similar. So for instance, a particular druid's Cure Light Wound potions might all look faint amber in color, flat (not bubbly or murky or anything), smell faintly of tree sap, look and feel a bit thick and sticky, and taste faintly like maple syrup. But another druid might use a different formula, so their CLW potions may be bubbly, dark green, smell strongly like mildew, look and feel very watery, and taste blandly like mushrooms. Generally I figure there may be a handful of different formulas for each sort of potion; more than one type of herb, for instance, is going to have healing properties, and besides herbs there'll be certain monster humors and enriched spring waters that may have healing properties too. For some spells, like those that only appear on one or two class' spell lists, and for really high-level spells, there may only be 1-3 different formulas for potions of such spells.

Arkhandus said:

Occasionally my players ...

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(snip)

I like your thinking.

My world? Labelling is required by law. All potions must be clearly labeled before they can go on sale. However, what constitutes 'clear' can be a source of much dispute. All labels must include the name of the potion, its purpose, serving size, a list of ingredients in descending order of percentage of the total, nutritional value (don't ask), and a list of the major side effects. Many potion manufacturers include literature on all known side effects.

Potions come as liquids, pastes, creams, lotions, aerosols, injections, suppositories, and dusts or powders among other forms. They can be swallowed, injected, snorted, smeared over the target part or otherwise applied. Often they are included in bandages, band-aids, an item of clothing (underwear's very popular for treating STDs), or any other item to be worn next to the skin (Potion of water Breathing and swimsuits for example). Such are considered temporary magic items (they do wear out after all).

Price depends on potency, which not only depends on what the potion does, but on manufacturer as well. Generic potions tend to come with penalties to affect, and can range widely in efficacy, side effects, and consistency. The pricey stuff tends to be more reliable. The rule of thumb is, if the company has to give out lots of coupons to sell it, it's probably not worth your money.

Note: All known diseases are either resistent or immune to standard Cure Disease. Some even have strains resistent or immune to standard over the counter Cure (specific) Disease potions. So the consumer must be knowledgeble of what he is suffering from and use the appropriate potion. Making matters even worse, some diseases register on disease identification divinations (DIDs) as a different disorder. Making matters even worse, some DIDs aint worth the paper they're printed on.

One last item: The Chicken Pox vaccination inhalant from Vatican Goodies* does not turn small children of any species into goblin like creatures. They're born that way.

*The founder was the Pope. He was also a goblin, and there aint much you can do about that.

I hope this gives you ideas.

The way my GM does it... if you've seen it a couple times, you probably know what they look like. Pulling out the right one is pretty easy, then.