KotS Healing Potions

[PeterWeller]

Right. 800+ people living less than a mile from a kobold lair and the evil keep, in isolated farmsteads. Yeah, thats works.

You're right. Sounds like they have a pressing need for a group of adventurers to come along and clear out the local dangers.


Oh, wait...

 

[Fallen Seraph]

It should be a minor action to drink a potion.

Cool, though I am tempted for more powerful potions to be standard. I always have the image in my head of a extremely powerful healing potion working like the Holy Grail in Indiana Jones, where you pour it over the wound and it washes away the wound. I imagine that be a standard action.

 

[MyISPHatesENWorld]

It should be a minor action to drink a potion.

Oh, hecks yeah!

 

[Enoch]

Right. 800+ people living less than a mile from a kobold lair and the evil keep, in isolated farmsteads. Yeah, thats works.

From what I've read (mainly the description someone posted in another thread), the farmsteads are not isolated, but instead (relatively) close together around the walled section.

To me its probably one of the more realistic villages in D&D. Probably a bit excessive in the number of households realistically able to exist without trade, but we don't know about the surrounding civilizations as much.

-Joshua

 

[Stalker0]

It should be a minor action to drink a potion.

This provides an interesting balancing mechanic.

At low levels, where money (and magic items) are rarer, potions are very powerful commodities. Even fighters will get more bang for their buck with these, and as minor actions they add a terrific amount of healing.

At higher levels, the potions are still useful, because being minor actions they don't stop the hero from doing his thing. On the other hand, because they consume healing surges, high level characters aren't tempted to stockpile hoards of them.

Basically its a balance between 1 resource (cost) and another (surges).

I think its a nice way to do it.

 

[Vempyre]

... when money are limited and you can buy only so much, but became more and more useless (less useful) at higher levels when you can afford to stockpile them.

There is no magic shops in 4E, so they should remain in limited quantity even at high lvl since you can't just go around the corner and buy a bunch simply because nobody usually sells them in typical 4E DnD.

 

[nerfherder]

There is no magic shops in 4E, so they should remain in limited quantity even at high lvl since you can't just go around the corner and buy a bunch simply because nobody usually sells them in typical 4E DnD.

I don't remember reading that. Is that from one of the previews?

 

[Vempyre]

I don't remember reading that. Is that from one of the previews?

More like from one of the blogs (or was it in a thread here?) in the past few months. I just can't seem to remember where Developpers were talking about how the implied new cosmology didn't have magic shops all around. Goes with the whole PoL philosophy so might have been in one of those threads talking about PoL settings. I just can't seem to remember (I know this doesn't put much weight to my arguments...)

 

[Fiendish Dire Weasel]

This provides an interesting balancing mechanic.

At low levels, where money (and magic items) are rarer, potions are very powerful commodities. Even fighters will get more bang for their buck with these, and as minor actions they add a terrific amount of healing.

At higher levels, the potions are still useful, because being minor actions they don't stop the hero from doing his thing. On the other hand, because they consume healing surges, high level characters aren't tempted to stockpile hoards of them.

Basically its a balance between 1 resource (cost) and another (surges).

I think its a nice way to do it.

You can't just "potion" in the middle of a fight as a minor action like you can Second Wind on demand as a standard. Most fighters have both their hands full while fighting, in fact, almost everyone does these days. You have to free up a hand, ready the potion, then use it, so it seems like it will take a whole round to me.

 

[Aloïsius]

This is really shaping up as one badly edited adventure. Half-elves, healing potions, weird population numbers, blank rituals... yikes. Not a good way to introduce things.

I'm still thinking 4e has been somewhat rushed... The delay between "playtest done" and "printing done" is to short. I guess I will wait for the second or third printing, when all the major errata will be done...