Drinking a potion and AoO?

[Pielorinho]

For spells it is 10 + damage + spell level. Probably the same here.

You may be right, but this means it's more difficult to drink a potion of cure serious wounds than to drink a potion of cure light wounds; IMO, that's dumb.

I'll be waving the rule-0 wand at this. I see no reason why wizards should be better at drinking potions than barbarians are, and I see no reason to treat drinking potions differently from picking up weapons from the ground, retrieving an item from a backpack, attempting to disarm an opponent, using a ranged weapon, or any of the myriad other incur-an-AoO actions that don't involve spellcasting.

Daniel

 

[kreynolds]

You may be right, but this means it's more difficult to drink a potion of cure serious wounds than to drink a potion of cure light wounds;

Eh? How so?

 

[Pielorinho]

Eh? How so?

If it's 10 + damage + spell level, cure light wounds is level 1 and cure serious wounds is level 3. So you'd have to succeed a check of 11+damage to drink the former, and 13+damage to drink the latter.

Daniel

 

[kreynolds]

If it's 10 + damage + spell level, cure light wounds is level 1 and cure serious wounds is level 3. So you'd have to succeed a check of 11+damage to drink the former, and 13+damage to drink the latter.

Oh! Nevermind. It's just that the DC makes so much sense to me (the theory and mechanics) that I thought you were trying to point out something other than the obvious. I was reading too much into your post. That's my bad. Anyway, now that I think about it, I believe this might even be addressed in the FAQ. I'll see if I can find it.

 

[Pielorinho]

Oh! Nevermind. It's just that the DC makes so much sense to me (the theory and mechanics) that I thought you were trying to point out something other than the obvious.

Am I understanding you right -- are you saying it makes sense to you that drinking a potion of CLW is easier than drinking a potion of CSW? If so, why should it be easier?

Daniel

 

[Rel]

If so, why should it be easier?

Daniel

Obviously, a Cure Serious Wounds potion is 8.5% larger than a potion of Cure Light Wounds so it takes 8.5% longer to drink and 8.5% more concentration to finish it off.

A potion of Heal is practically like downing a Big Gulp from the 7-11.

 

[Pielorinho]

A potion of Heal is practically like downing a Big Gulp from the 7-11.

Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug!

Daniel

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Me too. Often from Hypersmurf.

I must say that that is right up there near the top of the list for "poor rules placement". I hope the 3.5 PHB will put that rule in the AoO section under COMBAT rather than having it in the section on Potions in the DMG.

You can say that again.

It is conspicuously missing from both the PHB Combat section and the description of the Concentration skill.

I do not really have a problem with wizards being better at drinking potions than barbarians -- cool -headed quick thinking counts for something.

Unfortunately the rules as stated in the DMG are simply incomplete and do not work. While we can assign a Concentration DC based on the assumption we use the rules for spells, not all potions are spells. What is the DC to drink a potion of Love, Vision, or Glibness? Shall we reverse engineer an approximate effective spell level from the item creation rules using the market price as our guide, and then apply the Concentration rules for spells?

It would be better to have something like 10 + <1/2 caster level>.

Not sure that I like it being easier to pick up a sword lying at your opponent's feet than drink a potion...

(Thanks, Hypersmurf, for the reference! Good catch that.)

 

[Pielorinho]

If anything, the concentration check ought to be based purely on damage taken, not on damage+spell level of potion drunk.

Still, I don't think it ought to be more difficult to drink a potion than to pick up a sword from the ground, and I don't think this is a good application of the concentration rules at all. Normally concentration only applies to spellcasting or to things very similar to spellcasting, things which require great presence of mind. A barbarian with 100 hit points ought to have a much easier time drinking a potion (despite being hit for 10 hit points damage) than a 40 hit-point wizard would have; these rules reverse what seems plausible to me.

Daniel

 

[kreynolds]

Am I understanding you right -- are you saying it makes sense to you that drinking a potion of CLW is easier than drinking a potion of CSW?

Not at all. I said I understand the theory and mechanics behind the DC, not the function and practicality of it.