IIRC, the lvl 28 version of the consumable healing poultice gives you a whopping +12 hit points to a healing surge... and costs 285,000 gp.
I plan on using this system again. PCs now pay much closer attention to where they are and what they might gain from it all, and who they fight and what they might gain there, as well. There's more importance in flora, fauna, and mineral (in so far as prospecting and acquiring dungeons and lairs for their mines, farms, and resources- as well as convincing artisans to come work for them if they prove at all skilled). It adds more to high level play, I find, beyond simply building strongholds and heading organizations- another means of attaining resources, power, and prestige.HARVESTED MATERIALS: Reedthagn was a massive wyrm, but even his choicest bits are limited. Below are a list of possible items that could be fashioned from his remains, each given a resource point value. Mix and match as you wish between Scale, Blood, and Bone, but the resource point total for each category cannot exceed 14.
Scales: Reedthagn’s scales are valuable as raw material, worth 525,000 gp if the wyrm’s hide is entirely skinned and plucked; alternatively, Reedthagn could be made into the following armors by a master craftsman:
- Dragonskin Coat (3 pts)
- Dragonscale Plate (4 pts)
- Dragon Membrane Robes (5 pts)
Blood: Reedthagn’s blood is valuable as raw material, and if properly bottled or collected as coagulated powder, could fetch 525,000 gp. However, in the hands of a master alchemist or gifted witch, it could be brewed into the following:
- Potion of Regeneration (3 pts)
- Potion of Young Dragonform (4 pts)
- Elixir of Elder Dragon Breath [Acid or Poison] (4 pts)
- Potion of Acid and Poison Immunity (5 pts)
Bone: Reedthagn’s blood is valuable as raw material, worth 525,000 gp if meticulously collected. However, in the hands of a master alchemist or master craftsman, the following could be made:
- Bonegrim Armor (3 pts)
- Dragonskull Mask (3 pts)
- Rethagnian Vambraces (4 pts)
- Wyrmtooth Dagger (3 pts)
- Dragontooth Shield (10 pts)
Not quite -- it's "only" 85,000 gp. But still: 85,000 to get 12 more hit points from a surge. That's 7,083 gp per hit point. You'd have to be swimming in coins Scrooge McDuck-style for that to even remotely be a consideration.
Any Herbal Poultice above the level 3 version simply isn't worth it, unless you are down to your very last healing surge and absolutely must squeeze out an extra tiny handful of hit points. It's really silly.
But you ARE swimming in coins like Scrooge McDuck at 28th level, lol. [...] Just remember, you will have to pay for what you get.
It doesn't matter if you're swimming in money -- the bang for your buck is simply not there for the higher-level alchemy items. A level 3 poultice gives 1 hp per 15 gp; the level 13 version gives 1 hp per 65 gp. And the level 28 poultice gives 1 hp per 7000gp! Even if you have piles of money, wasted cash is still wasted cash.
Consider: for the price of one high-level poultice that gives back 12 hp, I could buy 2,833(!) poultices that give me 2 hp instead. That's like spending $12,000 on a really good candy bar -- I'd rather buy literally thousands of perfectly decent Mars bars with that same money.
Unless you're truly desperate to maximize your hit points per healing surge, you're better off just buying the cheap, low-level poultices, and saving your money to buy other things that will help keep you alive (e.g. items that will improve your defenses.) And that makes me filled with sad-face.
I think we'll agree to disagree on this one. I don't want to sidetrack the thread on this, since it's already full of good ideas. Let's just say that my group considers this to be inefficient due to the wasted opportunity cost, that not everyone in the world agrees, and to move the thread forward with that as a basis.Any hit point can be the difference between life and death. You may not care ALL of the time, sure, but you'll feel kinda dumb that you saved yourself 7k gold only to have to spend 50k getting rezzed instead. Anyway, the poultice is really the most extreme case. Most of the other items have effects and uses that are just not attainable or easily attainable other ways.