D&D 5E Why are potions of healing so expensive?

Tonguez · Apr 22, 2021

If I use a mix of honey, natural oils and herbs to make a burn cream I am still required to cool the burn, clean it and then wait a week or more for the burn to actually heal.

A healing potion does that in a few seconds, damn straight if I make one you are paying for the priviledge

Ancalagon · Apr 22, 2021

Maxperson said:
An unskilled laborer makes 2sp/day, so assuming a 5 day work week, he's making 4g a month. 48g per year. A skilled laborer is 2g/day. I'm sure that many fall in-between, let's call them semi-skilled, so a lot of people will make 50+ gold per year, but many will not.

You need to consider a group banding together to make the purchase (see previous post for math)

Coroc · Apr 22, 2021

Mercurius said:
Maybe it is just how I envision them, as either little vials of blessed water or herbal tinctures, but 50 GP seems a bit much. I mean, I would imagine that in every sizeable village there is an herbalist who sells various ointments and tinctures, and I don't see why they couldn't also sell potions of healing. Consider that in your typical health food store, an herbal tincture is usually $10-15.

Or should I say, in my campaign world they are variable in price depending upon availability, but usually in the 10-20 GP range, maybe even sometimes as low as 5 GP but rarely more than 20.

Why does some basic weapon cost several gold? Or in other words why is gold so cheap in D&D?

The prices in the PHB are the most unrealistic thing of the whole game.

First fix: Alter all prices in the PHB to silver.

Potions of healing prices in relation to other goods thogh is totally ok imho. A potion of healing is a magical item, do not forget that.

Compare it to today: You buy a tool, you pay 100 $. You go to the doctor you pay more (or your insurance does)

UngeheuerLich · Apr 22, 2021

Mort said:
A somewhat mean trick to pull on the players.

A vendor introduces new healing potions 10gp each rather than the 50gp found elsewhere.

PCs use them.

What's not disclosed. These "healing potions" are a different formula and wildly addictive. After having just one, if you don't have another one within 24 hours - you get 1 level of exhaustion.

If your nice - have a Con save to avoid the exhaustion and recover from the addiction.

Thoughts?

It is important to steadily increase the price after you have enough customers.

UngeheuerLich · Apr 22, 2021

Coroc said:
Why does some basic weapon cost several gold? Or in other words why is gold so cheap in D&D?

The prices in the PHB are the most unrealistic thing of the whole game.

First fix: Alter all prices in the PHB to silver.

Potions of healing prices in relation to other goods thogh is totally ok imho. A potion of healing is a magical item, do not forget that.

Compare it to today: You buy a tool, you pay 100 $. You go to the doctor you pay more (or your insurance does)

Actually I totally disagree. The prices, while a bit weird in a few places, make sense overall if you use 1gp is about 50 to 100$.
A pint of beer, 4cp, around 2 to 4 dollars in a bar. Works perfectly.
A warhorse at 300gp which is 30k dollar, a good new car.

Converting that to silver? If you want silver to be worth that much, ok. But strange.

Oofta · Apr 22, 2021

Coroc said:
Why does some basic weapon cost several gold? Or in other words why is gold so cheap in D&D?

The prices in the PHB are the most unrealistic thing of the whole game.

First fix: Alter all prices in the PHB to silver.

Potions of healing prices in relation to other goods thogh is totally ok imho. A potion of healing is a magical item, do not forget that.

Compare it to today: You buy a tool, you pay 100 $. You go to the doctor you pay more (or your insurance does)

On the subject of gold: when people think gold piece they think massive gold doubloons when historically they were typically the size of a dime. Second, who's to say a fantasy world has such a limited supply of gold as earth? Every once in a while alchemists really do figure out how to turn lead into gold, but the process is not free. Or perhaps dwarves are just so good at finding it that there's a much bigger supply.

I consider a GP to be roughly the equivalent of a $20 bill. You can change to silver pieces if you want of course, I'm just too lazy to always be switching the prices in my head and I don't care about replicating anything with any historical accuracy.

EDIT: ninja'd a bit by @UngeheuerLich , although we'd have to figure out the proper scale/conversion factor.

Crimson Longinus · Apr 22, 2021

UngeheuerLich said:
Actually I totally disagree. The prices, while a bit weird in a few places, make sense overall if you use 1gp is about 50 to 100$.
A pint of beer, 4cp, around 2 to 4 dollars in a bar. Works perfectly.
A warhorse at 300gp which is 30k dollar, a good new car.

Converting that to silver? If you want silver to be worth that much, ok. But strange.

I mean currently several weapons literally cost their weight in silver. That is insane.

Democratus · Apr 22, 2021

Crimson Longinus said:
I mean currently several weapons literally cost their weight in silver. That is insane.

Only if silver is as rare in the fictional world as it is in ours.

The typical dragon horde depicted in D&D art (a massive pile a dragon can sleep on) is more gold than had been mined in our world's history up to the 20th century. Clearly there's something going on with the rarity of precious metals.

Oofta · Apr 22, 2021

Democratus said:
Only if silver is as rare in the fictional world as it is in ours.

The typical dragon horde depicted in D&D art (a massive pile a dragon can sleep on) is more gold than had been mined in our world's history up to the 20th century. Clearly there's something going on with the rarity of precious metals.

In addition, making a sword for example despite what movies would have you think is not as simple as pouring molten iron into molds. At least not if you want a good one. Refining ore was not simple, it took at least a week. A cheap sword might take a week or so but high quality swords could take weeks or even months to make and require highly expert craftsmen.

The amount of gold depicted in much fantasy art and depictions also vastly greater than what exists in the real world.

S'mon · Apr 22, 2021

2d4+2 hp healing. 50gp (manufacture 25gp) puts it at the same price as a level 1 spell scroll. A level 1 cure wounds spell heals maybe d8+3. Seems reasonable to me.

D&D 5E Why are potions of healing so expensive?

Tonguez

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