D&D 5E The Potion of Healing

Archade · Jul 19, 2014

So, reading through the basic rules, trying to absorb the changes, and I see that the trusty Potion of Healing can be purchased for 50gp, and someone proficient with the herbalism kit can make them (as far as we know) in 10 days of work. However, I'm a little perplexed why the 3E pricetag is still attached to the potion.

In 3E, hit points took days to recover, but in 5E a long rest recovers them all, or a short rest and some hit dice expended get them back. If staying at an inn is 8sp, why would a potion be 50 gp? Certainly convenience and time come into play, but is there any reason a potion with this effect shouldn't be 5gp or 10gp?

Nagol · Jul 19, 2014

Archade said:
So, reading through the basic rules, trying to absorb the changes, and I see that the trusty Potion of Healing can be purchased for 50gp, and someone proficient with the herbalism kit can make them (as far as we know) in 10 days of work. However, I'm a little perplexed why the 3E pricetag is still attached to the potion.

In 3E, hit points took days to recover, but in 5E a long rest recovers them all, or a short rest and some hit dice expended get them back. If staying at an inn is 8sp, why would a potion be 50 gp? Certainly convenience and time come into play, but is there any reason a potion with this effect shouldn't be 5gp or 10gp?

Mainly, I expect to influence their use during play. If the potions were <20 gp each, you'd see very low level parties buy a dozen of so and quaff them throughout their day. They would become very pervasive. At 50 gp each, low-level parties can have a couple for emergencies, but an insufficient quantity to use them as a primary source of mid-day damage remedy.

CM · Jul 19, 2014

I would hate for 3e's wand of cure light wounds to become 5e's potion of healing. Keeping them (relatively) expensive is worthwhile to me.

That said, 10 days for a single potion seems a little excessive. I'd probably allow people to double the expense to halve the time (making them the same price as buying).

ThirdWizard · Jul 19, 2014

When a monster or beast is bearing down on you, and you're wondering if you're going to survive a fight, how much HP you recover after a good night's rest is less than relevant.

Archade · Jul 19, 2014

That's the thing ... I don't think wands or potions of healing will be as necessary. With hit dice and second winds and flexible casting lists, external healing might not be as necessary.

I'm playing my first 5E game tomorrow, so we'll see, but I'm thinking magic items are going to be less integral to play ...

JRRNeiklot · Jul 19, 2014

ThirdWizard said:
When a monster or beast is bearing down on you, and you're wondering if you're going to survive a fight, how much HP you recover after a good night's rest is less than relevant.

This sounds very much like something Jack Burton would say.

DEFCON 1 · Jul 19, 2014

Archade said:
I'm playing my first 5E game tomorrow, so we'll see, but I'm thinking magic items are going to be less integral to play ...

That's exactly what I think they were going for. Not an assumed part of the play experience.

Tormyr · Jul 19, 2014

I have been running Age of Worms, a 3/3.5 campaign , under the playtest rules and now 5e, and have given all of the magic items listed in the game. These includes wands of shatter and cure light wounds. I changed cure light wounds to a wand of Healing Word and made its mechanics similar to the wand of magic missiles from 5e. 7 charges; recharges 1d6+1 charges per day; use 1-3 charges to cast Healing Word at level 1 to 3.

Tony Vargas · Jul 19, 2014

Archade said:
That's the thing ... I don't think wands or potions of healing will be as necessary. With hit dice and second winds and flexible casting lists, external healing might not be as necessary.

Hit dice aren't accessible in combat, second wind is 1/rest (and short rests are unlikely to be a whole lot more frequent than long ones), and a party shouldn't be absolutely required to have a 'heal bot.' So potions serve their purpose in campaigns where healing spells are unavailable for whatever reason.

Keep in mind that there are no wealth/level guidelines, so 50gp could be prohibitively expensive or dirt cheap to a party at any given level, depending on how much treasure their DM felt like giving out.

ExploderWizard · Jul 20, 2014

JRRNeiklot said:
This sounds very much like something Jack Burton would say.

Its like I told my first wife, I never fight monsters faster than I can heal and besides its all in the reflexes.

I 'm not sure I like magic healing potions available at the corner drugstore like 5 hour energy drinks. I'm going to run the starter adventure RAW and see how things play out first though.

D&D 5E The Potion of Healing

Archade

Azer Paladin

Nagol

Unimportant

CM

Adventurer

ThirdWizard

First Post

Archade

Azer Paladin

JRRNeiklot

First Post

DEFCON 1

Legend

Tormyr

Hero

Tony Vargas

Legend

ExploderWizard

Hero

Similar Threads