TL;DR: I want to give one of my players the opportunity to make a few magical teas with mechanical effects, but I don't want to make the teas or the character too powerful.
For context, I am currently running a campaign in the Koryo Hall of Adventures setting (based on Korean folklore), in standard 5E. PCs are currently level 5, and I expect the campaign to go up to level 8 or 9. The PC in question has the tea master background, custom to the setting. She loves brewing teas that have certain roleplaying-only effects--calming, energizing, etc.
We also established at the beginning of the game that the character knows the secret recipe for a magical tea that duplicates the effect of a certain third-party spell (heart to heart from Deep Magic, for anyone who's curious). However, since the spell can only be cast on one person, the player seems reluctant to use it; having to choose one beneficiary seems to stress her out. I can tell that what she really wants to do is buff the whole party in some way, but of course, 5E is intentionally stingy with such effects.
I originally thought of encouraging the player to take some levels of artificer to gain access to the ability to brew potions, but by the time she could choose a subclass, the campaign would be almost over. Then I thought maybe I'd offer her a custom feat, but that has the same problem, since she won't get another feat until level 8 (same level that she could pick an artificer subclass).
This PC has also recently discovered a sentient teapot. Again, so far this only has roleplaying implications, but maybe I could make it an evolving item that would level up with her? This seems like the best option, but in that case, the effects of the teas would have to be pretty weak in order not to unbalance the character with the rest of the party. Which is probably okay--I think the player would be happy with even some weak abilities, as it's mostly about the flavor ... once again, no pun intended.
Balance thoughts:
For context, I am currently running a campaign in the Koryo Hall of Adventures setting (based on Korean folklore), in standard 5E. PCs are currently level 5, and I expect the campaign to go up to level 8 or 9. The PC in question has the tea master background, custom to the setting. She loves brewing teas that have certain roleplaying-only effects--calming, energizing, etc.
We also established at the beginning of the game that the character knows the secret recipe for a magical tea that duplicates the effect of a certain third-party spell (heart to heart from Deep Magic, for anyone who's curious). However, since the spell can only be cast on one person, the player seems reluctant to use it; having to choose one beneficiary seems to stress her out. I can tell that what she really wants to do is buff the whole party in some way, but of course, 5E is intentionally stingy with such effects.
I originally thought of encouraging the player to take some levels of artificer to gain access to the ability to brew potions, but by the time she could choose a subclass, the campaign would be almost over. Then I thought maybe I'd offer her a custom feat, but that has the same problem, since she won't get another feat until level 8 (same level that she could pick an artificer subclass).
This PC has also recently discovered a sentient teapot. Again, so far this only has roleplaying implications, but maybe I could make it an evolving item that would level up with her? This seems like the best option, but in that case, the effects of the teas would have to be pretty weak in order not to unbalance the character with the rest of the party. Which is probably okay--I think the player would be happy with even some weak abilities, as it's mostly about the flavor ... once again, no pun intended.
Balance thoughts:
- Maybe I should require a skill roll in order to successfully make the teas?
- The character is a rogue with no spell slots, so if this is to be powered by spell slots, I'll have to figure out how to give her some. Maybe give them to the teapot instead? (Other players might be able to brew the teas as well, with a successful Persuasion check on the teapot...)
- I figure it would take at least 10 minutes to brew any teas, so that can also be a balancing factor.
- Maybe offer a similar "crafting" option to other players as well, to keep this character from being unbalanced in the party.
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