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

I don't have my PHB to hand but we both read it in the equipment section I believe. It could be, as others have mentioned just be referring to selling mundane equipment, which is probably what I will go with.
IDK, I skimmed over the crafting section, and didn't see anything.

IF anything, I know I allow PCs to sell used equipment, weapons, armor, etc. for half value generally. Like when they gather up equipment from defeated foes. I imagine they might have a suggested rule along these lines.

But something a PC is crafting and is "brand new"? No, that should sell for full value or relatively so.
 

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Where are you reading this? I haven't seen it, but could have missed it.

Frankly, if it is the case, ignore it. Stupid 2024 rules rear their ugly head again. 🤷‍♂️
Actually, the sell-for-half-price rule is in the Equipment section of the 2014 rules.

Selling Treasure​

Opportunities abound to find treasure, equipment, weapons, armor, and more in the dungeons you explore. Normally, you can sell your treasures and trinkets when you return to a town or other settlement, provided that you can find buyers and merchants interested in your loot.​
Arms, Armor, and Other Equipment. As a general rule, undamaged weapons, armor, and other equipment fetch half their cost when sold in a market. Weapons and armor used by monsters are rarely in good enough condition to sell.​
Magic Items. Selling magic items is problematic. Finding someone to buy a potion or a scroll isn’t too hard, but other items are out of the realm of most but the wealthiest nobles. Likewise, aside from a few common magic items, you won’t normally come across magic items or spells to purchase. The value of magic is far beyond simple gold and should always be treated as such.​
There doesn't appear to be an equivalent entry in the 2024 rules.

In any case, unless the party has a lot of downtime, making enough excess potions to sell is generally going to be pretty rare, and not worth worrying about. Also, for druids, the goodberry spell already allows them to hand out healing items to the party and not worry about casting spells in the heat of combat.
 

Actually, the sell-for-half-price rule is in the Equipment section of the 2014 rules.

Selling Treasure​

Opportunities abound to find treasure, equipment, weapons, armor, and more in the dungeons you explore. Normally, you can sell your treasures and trinkets when you return to a town or other settlement, provided that you can find buyers and merchants interested in your loot.​
Arms, Armor, and Other Equipment. As a general rule, undamaged weapons, armor, and other equipment fetch half their cost when sold in a market. Weapons and armor used by monsters are rarely in good enough condition to sell.​
Magic Items. Selling magic items is problematic. Finding someone to buy a potion or a scroll isn’t too hard, but other items are out of the realm of most but the wealthiest nobles. Likewise, aside from a few common magic items, you won’t normally come across magic items or spells to purchase. The value of magic is far beyond simple gold and should always be treated as such.​
There doesn't appear to be an equivalent entry in the 2024 rules.

In any case, unless the party has a lot of downtime, making enough excess potions to sell is generally going to be pretty rare, and not worth worrying about. Also, for druids, the goodberry spell already allows them to hand out healing items to the party and not worry about casting spells in the heat of combat.

Chapter 6: Equipment
Selling Equipment​
Equipment fetches half its cost when sold. In contrast, trade goods and valuables—like gems and art objects—retain their full value in the marketplace. The Dungeon Master’s Guide has prices for magic items.​
So a potion in theory would sell for full price because it's magical (and potions of healing are weird because it's common). Of course it's always up to the DM, as it states in the DMG chapter 1

The Game Is Not an Economy. The rules of the game aren’t intended to model a realistic economy, and players who look for loopholes that let them generate infinite wealth using combinations of spells are exploiting the rules.​
So as I stated above, selling an item or two here and there is fine and kind of expected. But if you want to make a living selling potions you'd need agreements with the local guilds, a storefront, a steady stream of customers, pay appropriate taxes and so on.
 

"Normal" potions are instant effect but ordinary citizens would rather cheaper version although these needed more times for the healing effect.

Seller PCs could suffer sabotages caused by agents hired by rival companies, criminal asking the pay for the "protection", excessive taxes when rivals don't pay so much thanks "certain friends", speculation by oligarchs against small and medium-sized businesses.
 

"Normal" potions are instant effect but ordinary citizens would rather cheaper version although these needed more times for the healing effect.

Seller PCs could suffer sabotages caused by agents hired by rival companies, criminal asking the pay for the "protection", excessive taxes when rivals don't pay so much thanks "certain friends", speculation by oligarchs against small and medium-sized businesses.
Just the fact that they're itinerant amateurs rather than established merchants would tend to drive down the price they can ask.
 

This all presumes the existing locale has a potion maker, let alone a guild.

For Saltmarsh, it's likely a sketchy tiefling of dubious origin. I doubt there'd be much pushback from the village council unless the druid is of an even less acceptable background to those of Keoish culture.

While some people hate the notion of adding economics to d&d, this will bring the PC druid to the attention of said sketchy tiefling which creates opportunities for role playing. D&D is not a game of economics but as a sideline it creates a whole domain of role playing opportunities. I'm sure someone would say something like "economics are Arnesian-negative spaces in d&d."

Opposing shop keepers and guild masters are foes the PCs should not be defeating in combat. These are opportunities to engage players in different ways, or in some cases engaging different players. It also creates people who might fund people in competition or opposition to the players.
 

IDK, I skimmed over the crafting section, and didn't see anything.
Page 213 bottom left corner has a highlighted insert thing stating that "Equipment fetches half its cost when sold". That's a great rule of thumb to print in the book but I would've preferred to see the word "generally" in there just to make it more clear that the player should expect that the DM could always change that at any time to fit their world.

So a potion in theory would sell for full price because it's magical (and potions of healing are weird because it's common). Of course it's always up to the DM, as it states in the DMG chapter 1
I disagree with the first sentence, magical items ought to be considered Equipment and subject to the recommendation of selling for half cost. For example, the section on Brewing Potions of Healing is directly under "Crafting Equipment", because they are equipment.

100% agree on your second sentence, all of this should only be considered default recommendations since pricing is entirely up to the DM
 

Page 213 bottom left corner has a highlighted insert thing stating that "Equipment fetches half its cost when sold".
This is for used equipment, including "loot" equipment taken from enemies.

Using this rule for "crafted" new equipment would be nonsense and hopefully no one is actually doing that.

That's a great rule of thumb to print in the book but I would've preferred to see the word "generally" in there just to make it more clear that the player should expect that the DM could always change that at any time to fit their world.
Hopefully everyone understands that everything in the books is by default "generally" and subject to the DM's discretion.

What can I say, generally I am an optimist. ;)
 

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.
Yes, you are missing the fact that D&D doesn't have "profit" among its game design purposes.
 

Page 213 bottom left corner has a highlighted insert thing stating that "Equipment fetches half its cost when sold". That's a great rule of thumb to print in the book but I would've preferred to see the word "generally" in there just to make it more clear that the player should expect that the DM could always change that at any time to fit their world.
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.
 

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