How often does your party use a potion of healing

CleverNickName · May 2, 2019

Mr. Wilson said:
I use the commonly used Bonus Action to drink one yourself, standard action to administer one to your friend houserule.

ad_hoc said:
This is common? First I have heard of it.

This is the first time I've heard of it also. The only time I've ever allowed a character to drink a healing potion as a bonus action was when the potion was already in their hand, and they weren't threatened. (Highly situational.)

Ashrym · May 4, 2019

We spend an action as per the rules. We avoid using healing potions during combat.

I was having trouble selecting an answer because it varies. Healing potions are on the adventuring gear list and we consider them standard equipment. However, that's expensive equipment at lower levels. If the party is spending 300gp/day just on healing potions it adds up fast.

Party composition and playstyle matters as well as options taken. A group doesn't need a dedicated healer but it does help. Song of rest and/or the healer feat make a bigger difference than healing potions with or without a dedicated healer. Taking short breaks to use hit dice for healing matters so groups who use this (rather important) option use less potions.

At higher levels, one ore more per encounter for the group is typical.

77IM · May 4, 2019

If you do the math, drinking a potion during combat is almost always a waste of an action. The exceptions to this rule are:
1) It's one of the higher-level potions, and you are lower level.
2) You're in a safe position, and can't do much to help the group this turn anyway.
3) You are not drinking it; you're pouring it down the gullet of an unconscious ally, so that they regain consciousness.

The math on point 1) is as follows: If the hit points you get back from drinking the potion exceed the amount of damage the enemies are going to deal you next round AND that amount of damage would be enough to drop you to 0 AND (living another round without attacking is useful like because of opportunity attacks or something OR you can heal enough to live for two rounds so you can spend the second one attacking), then you should drink the potion. This is a pretty difficult calculation for a player to perform in the middle of combat, but the general gist is that unless it's a superior or supreme potion you shouldn't even consider it.

Chaosmancer · May 4, 2019

We very rarely use potions.

It used to be never, but then I implemented the house rule of a bonus action to drink a potion, action to apply one to an ally, so they've gotten a bit of a resurgence.

Still, I'm looking into ways to buff healing potions, they don't feel worth the cost in GP for how little healing is actually done.

5ekyu · May 4, 2019

In the game I run, I made some setting changes and ruled.

Healing potions are **not** standard equipment. They are magic items and its infrequent you will find them outside of one or two in specific cases or you craft your own (requires special ingredients.)

On the other hand, "recovery elixirs " are fairly common and require more common ingredients. The difference is that recovery elixirs do not heal on their own, they just allow your character to spend HD (as if you took a short rest.)

The net result of this is that there is a practical cap on the total healing and replacement of HP which is your HD and your magical healing (spells, abilities, more rare potions, etc).

This results in much more frequent spending of HD which of course only recover half during long rests.

I specifically wanted to avoid the 3e-ish feel of burning cheap, expendables willy nilly between fights to always reset to full HP.

I much prefer limits that derive from the charscter and so letting it be centered around spent HD seemed good.

It has worked well in play in more than one campaign so far as part of an overall set.

jmartkdr · May 5, 2019

In games with the bonus action houserule: a couple times per encounter. (How I voted, but not always true)

In games without the rule: almost never; maybe once per 2-3 levels. (This isn't available on the poll - we have the potion, they're just never actually worth an action, and out of combat you can use Hit Dice.)

Azzy · May 5, 2019

DM Dave1 said:
On average, I'd say less than once per long rest in our games. But I've also seen multiple times per encounter when the primary healer of the party got knocked out!

This pretty much sums it up for my experience.

Draegn · May 6, 2019

Thieves tend to use them more than anyone else.

Odysseus · May 6, 2019

Draegn said:
Thieves tend to use them more than anyone else.

any insight as to why?

Sacrosanct · May 6, 2019

Odysseus said:
any insight as to why?

Based on my own experience, it's because thieves are often away from the party scouting or getting into other mischief. Therefore, the healer isn't exactly handy or close by.