Pathfinder 1E Potion bottles....Skinny or Flask shaped?

[Kinak]

Does a type of potion (e.g. healing) always come in the same form, or does it vary?

I usually go deep and think about the manufacturing. One temple's healing potions probably all look basically the same, so if you're finding potions in the area around that temple, there's a good chance they'll look like that.

It also provides a nice shorthand when describing treasure: "The cultists are carrying a total of thirty gold pieces, three thin red vials filled with red fluid, and one bottle of smelling salts sealed with the symbol of the Living God." So the party knows three are the same, but still have to figure out what each does.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[ggeilman]

Reminds me of an old Pegasus 2 article, "You Find a Vial of Chunky Liquid". Michael Callihan did a write up around 81-82 with random tables that made finding a potion a rather unique experience.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

This thread needs a poll.

 

[Deset Gled]

factories to mass-produce phials

I never put much thought into it before, I could easily see this as not only a case of mass production, but also as branding. Different factions (houses, countries, churches, whatever) mass produce their own bottles with special markings to identify the manufacturer. And different brands would have specialties in certain market: all Medium Cure Wounds from House Blahblah are maximized, but Levitate from House Heyhey last 20% longer. Merchants would tout the benefits of one brand over another.

This leads to a great adventure hook: a sudden rash of grievous bodily harm befalls a number of low end nobles immediately after using Cure potions from House Tynelon. Some of the nobles are still barely alive, and cannot be cured via normal magical means. The party is first hired by the noble's family to hunt down House Tynelon, force them to provide a cure for the disabled, and (if necessary) seek violent revenge. But after visiting Tynelon, the party learns that the poisoning is not Tynelon's fault. There has been widespread potion tampering by an unknown villain, and they must figure out who and why. Investigation eventually leads to a nickel mine, where the wealthy owner had been poisoned by a potion and latter died. Eventually, the party comes to realize the owner's wife is a low level witch, who tampered with a large number of potions in one of Tynelon's storerooms to kill her husband and take over the mine without suspicion. This leads to a final confrontation and, after defeating the witch's coven, the party finds the alchemical cure for the poison.

 

[MarkB]

I never put much thought into it before, I could easily see this as not only a case of mass production, but also as branding. Different factions (houses, countries, churches, whatever) mass produce their own bottles with special markings to identify the manufacturer. And different brands would have specialties in certain market: all Medium Cure Wounds from House Blahblah are maximized, but Levitate from House Heyhey last 20% longer. Merchants would tout the benefits of one brand over another.

Indeed, and then there's brand recognition. In my Eberron games, potions that came in properly-engraved House Jorasco phials with their seals (provided by House Sivis, naturally) still intact always held their value better, and could be sold at closer to full value by the PCs if they found them in treasure, because people knew they could rely upon them to perform as advertised.

 

[the Jester]

They come in all shapes and sizes in my campaign; some in bottles, others in vials, others in flasks, some even in wineskins.

 

[Greenfield]

Um, whatever shape of bottle the brewer happened to be using that day?

I never thought of anything in a medieval fantasy as mass-produced or standardized. In character I've often thought of the bottles as being different shapes for different potions or alchemical elixirs. That way I know my Darkvision potion from my Cure Critical Wounds potion in the dark.

As for a potion bandolier: I've seen bandoliers for black powder musket ammunition. The bandolier and the containers are made as a set. I imagine that the same sort of thing might have to be done for anything being stored/carried that way.

 

[Manabarbs]

While I try to mix up the shapes and sizes and delivery methods in actual play, the archetypal potion, in my mind, is in a flask-shaped container.

 

[Maul]

This thread needs a poll.

​How do I create a poll?

 

[delericho]

Does a type of potion (e.g. healing) always come in the same form, or does it vary?

No, it varies. However, there tends to be similarities - all healing potions may smell of cinnamon, or they might all share a common red colour, or...

Fabricate will churn out standardised glass phials in large quantities of hundreds per casting. In Eberron, I could easily see House Cannith using Dragonshard Focus items in factories to mass-produce phials, which House Jorasco purchase in bulk and fill with healing potions.

Sure, they can do, and in the specific case of Eberron and the Dragonmark houses I would expect a certain amount of standardisation for 'new' potions. But just as Coke and Ford, and other real-world big companies seem to change the look and feel of core products (or their packaging) every few years, I would expect much the same in Eberron. ("No, you don't want those three-year old potions. Try these brand new ones instead - in clinical trials they've been shown to channel Positive Energy 12% more effectively!")

And, of course, for 'found' potions that may be hundreds of years old (or older), standardisation is that much less likely.

And since spent potion phials would be cheap to buy and fairly readily available, many smaller providers would probably end up collecting them and filling them with their own wares, rather than buying new bottles.

True. With the Dragonmark Houses then no doubt going to great lengths to demonstrate the pedigree of their wares. There's probably an adventure in there somewhere, although "The Phantom Menace" may have demonstrated that such plots are not the most thrilling.