D&D (2024) Making and Selling Potions for Fun and Profit?

[ezo]

Especially since bloody equipment filled with holes that you took off of bandits would either go for nothing or maybe like, 1/10th of its price.

Blood can be cleaned off, and stuff with holes probably won't fetch much.

Fortunately, there is a lot of other "loot" equipment enemies have which can easily be sold for half value.

 

[Oofta]

Especially since bloody equipment filled with holes that you took off of bandits would either go for nothing or maybe like, 1/10th of its price.

I've just eliminated the whole "Loot the bodies" part of my game. If an enemy has anything worthwhile on them and the group actually has time find it, they do. Otherwise it's just not worth worrying about it. I tell them how much loot they got when they get back to a base.

There are rare exceptions of course, where getting the treasure is part of the challenge, but for the most part my game's motivations focus on achieving goals not getting loot.

 

[KYRON45]

I'll never understand the value of crafting in a game like D&D.
I get the occasional scenario of making the X that you need to kill the Y...but the idea of setting up your own fantasy etsy shop is mind boggling.
It's a brave new world. Less brave though now that all of our heros are setting up craft fair stalls.
Game on my friends.....game on.

 

[Xeviat]

Since there's a basic metric for making money by working during downtime, I'd look at those to help figure out things. If the character has a bastion, that could be their lab and shop, and most low level bastion rooms can make some gp every week.

More and more tempted to make Bookkeeping and Bartering rules.

 

[SnTamara]

Firstly, apologies if this is a topic that has been asked previously or covered somewhere on these here forums, but I've searched and found nothing. Hopefully though, you can shed some light on our query.

So, in a couple weeks I start to run my first D&D campaign in 1 years (we skipped 4th and 5th for Pathfinder 1) and one of my players has decided on a Druid and he wants to make potions of healing for the group during downtime so they don't have to rely heavily on him as no one is going for a dedicated healer role. To help finance this at least at lower levels he wants to be able to sell some about the town where the party is based (Saltmarsh). Looking through how the PHB 2024 has it, the character spends 25gp (half the sale cost) on ingredients to brew said potion but despite buying from an NPC where it would cost you 50gp, he can only sell it for half that thus only covering his costs, which seems odd. The player in question is a long time player of mine and I know he's not out to create some infinite gold production but outside of me saying as DM that he can sell a few and get 50gp, it doesn't seem that PC crafting under the rules makes any money. Are we just missing something here? Thanks.

You're not missing anything RAW, potion crafting costs 25gp and sells for the same (or less), meaning no profit. This is mainly to prevent gold farming and keep balance, not simulate a realistic economy.


That said, it's totally fair for your Druid to sell potions at or near market value (50gp), especially in a place like Saltmarsh where demand might be high. As DM, you can allow it with limits - like selling only 1–2 per week or tying it to reputation or local connections.


In short: RAW is restrictive, but ruling in favor of limited profit makes sense and won’t break your game. Go for it!

 

[kigmatzomat]

Huh, didn't know potions of Raise Thread existed....