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

[Morrus]

Neither. I use a wide range of potion containers and description - which I put into a random generator!

http://www.enworld.org/forum/dnd_view_block.php?id=403


Contained in a colossal skull, this potion of enlarge person is brown and opaque, and smells like pears. It has a 3% chance of causing joint aches in the imbiber.


Contained in a miniature steel phial, this potion of darkvision is tan and glowing, and smells like pepper. It has a 2% chance of causing coma in the imbiber.


Contained in a little silver flask, this potion of delay poison is black and translucent, and smells like fish. It has a 24% chance of causing paranoia in the imbiber.


Contained in a dirty ceramic vial, this potion of cat's grace is orange and sticky, and smells like sulfur. It has a 35% chance of causing weakness in the imbiber.


Contained in a beautiful crockery jar, this potion of cure light wounds is purple and cloudy, and smells like cheese. It has a 26% chance of causing paranoia in the imbiber.

 

[was]

test tubes

 

[radja]

different shapes and materials can be useful. A CLW potion for an adventurer needs to be in a durable container that won't easily break and can be easily and quickly handled, like a steel test tube. A CLW potion intended to be used in a hospital-type setting needs less durability, and there's less space restraint. potions like this are often stored in cabinets, so they need to be able to easily stand on their own. By making them out of glass you can see what's in it, reducing errors. In this case, a glass flask makes more sense. A druidic CLW potion might be an enchanted fruit (don't put these on the bottom of your backpack...), or the enchanted milk of a coconut.

 

[Maul]

Hello Morrus,

Can you please put up a poll regarding this topic?

I forgot to do it when I started the thread.

 

[ggeilman]

Mass production, hospitals, sometimes gamers tend to forget the tech level of the average game and want to overlay today's world upon a medieval type setting. Things were made one at a time by skilled craftsmen and rarely were the same twice. It took a team of monks years just to hand copy a bible.

 

[Deset Gled]

Mass production, hospitals, sometimes gamers tend to forget the tech level of the average game and want to overlay today's world upon a medieval type setting.

Magic, potions, a free market of magical items... Sometimes posters tend to forget the tech level of the average game and want to overlay history upon a fantasy type setting.

 

[brvheart]

What ever gives you the idea it would be a free market? Kings, princes, councils and other powers that be would heavily restrict magic to those that would serve them. Your fantasy setting sounds more and more like 2013 than 1613 to me. And the tech level of the average game is preindustrial. That history is the basis for the myths which most games are made from my friend.

 

[MarkB]

What ever gives you the idea it would be a free market? Kings, princes, councils and other powers that be would heavily restrict magic to those that would serve them.

Assuming that they control that magic. Wizards are tricky to control as individuals, and in traditional fantasy tend to frequently form large organisations with significant political weight - and they want to restrict magic to those that will pay for it.

Your fantasy setting sounds more and more like 2013 than 1613 to me. And the tech level of the average game is preindustrial. That history is the basis for the myths which most games are made from my friend.

Pre-industrial societies managed mass production of standardised items perfectly well. Just ask the Roman Legion.

 

[Deset Gled]

What ever gives you the idea it would be a free market?

In Pathfinder, it's spelled out in the SRD under Magic Items: Purchasing Magic Items. http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/magicItems.html The default assumption is that practically any minor magic item is abundantly available in a metropolis, and large numbers of more powerful magic items are easily obtainable.

In D+D 3.x, it's implicit in the DMG that all magic items can be freely bought and sold. It was later explicitly stated in the Magic Item Compendium that players should be allowed to buy and sell any item they can afford.

And the tech level of the average game is preindustrial. That history is the basis for the myths which most games are made from my friend.

The tech level for the average game is magic. History may provide a starting point, but it's certainly not the stopping point. The presence of magic completely revolutionizes industry, trade, transportation, and medicine. The Fabricate spell alone puts the power of mass production in the hands of any 10th level wizard who invests ranks in Craft skills. And there's no reason to think that the technological potential is limited to the spells you'll find in the books.

In point of fact, you're talking about applying pre-industrial rules to the manufacturing of magic potion holders -- magic potions which are advanced far beyond anything we can do with current technology. How can we assume the world with access to such fantastic tools is so limited?

 

[delericho]

Mass production, hospitals, sometimes gamers tend to forget the tech level of the average game and want to overlay today's world upon a medieval type setting.

As was pointed out up-thread, the fabricate spell drastically changes the setting assumptions - mass production of standardised items becomes almost trivially easy.

Things were made one at a time by skilled craftsmen and rarely were the same twice. It took a team of monks years just to hand copy a bible.

No, it didn't take them that long to do it - they chose to take that long to do it. Those ancient Bibles were as much work of art as they were textbook, done by people who believed for the glory of the God they believed in. If all that they had wanted was a copy of the text, they could have done so in a fraction of the time - it still would have been a decidedly non-trivial task, but not quite the labour of years.