Multiple Potion Drinking

[Gaiden]

I'm all about supporting a player's creativity as much as possible... but there are situations when it could possibly make a precedent that you later can't easily get rid of. Two examples coming to my mind are (1) allowing to use a leather strip on the weapon to drop/pickup as a free action, (2) allowing to store wands or small weapons in your belt to draw/sheath as a free action.

As you see, I'm not very confident when it is about changing the type of action...

There are already precedents for what you say and for drinking a potions.

Check FRCS for the bandoleer (I believe) it allows the storage of some number of tiny items that can be drawn as a free action. Dragon came out with an article last year that had a bunch of innovative items, one being a potion helmet - had protective compartments connected with tubes that allowed you to drink potions as a free action (I think it stored 6 potions).

If you have ever been to a fraternity party you'll know that 1 ounce is an incredibly small amount. I personally could chug at least 2 cans of beer in 6 seconds, and I am not all that good at it.

In terms of quantity, there is not contest here, the volume of 3 potions should not be an issue (and let's not have the ridiculous dicussion about a feat called "Chugging").

The question is one of game balance. If you are concerned about game balance, simply rule that simultaneous consumption of potions ruins them. I would add the caveat that this only applied to potions of different types. This means that healing potions (of the same type) would work together. I think of it this way: a enterprising brewer might have the not too brilliant idea that it would be more efficacious to create potions in larger quantities and then alliquot them. So in this particular case, if they were all the same type of potion, I'd say fine. Of course, there would have to be some sort of control on quantity consumed.

If game balance is still a concern with larger volume consumption, consider costs. As a GM if you are regulating PC wealth and keeping track of expenditures, larger volumes of potions cost proportionally more. If the PC's spend their money on larger potions, so be it. It means they have used up that limited resource far faster than if they spread it out. In the long run, they will exhaust such resources. Moreover, if you are considering larger creatures consuming larger quantities, make sure to remember supply limitations. A great wyrm consuming a proportionally larger potion of healing would probably tap the resources of the entire region, if that region even made that much potion. You could also argue that each brewer has a slightly different technique and so the only way to get larger volumes is also by the same brewer (otherwise you act as if you were mixing different potions and their effects are ruined).

 

[jodyjohnson]

Multiple Wands at the same time with the same command word.

Gallon jugs of alchemists fire and acid doing 8d6+ per shot.

Custom weapons with 3 longsword blades connected to a single hilt doing 3d8 damage per swing or better yet allowing 3 rolls per attack action (crescent blade anyone?).

The list of genius ideas continues.

 

[pbd]

Multiple Wands at the same time with the same command word.

Gallon jugs of alchemists fire and acid doing 8d6+ per shot.

Custom weapons with 3 longsword blades connected to a single hilt doing 3d8 damage per swing or better yet allowing 3 rolls per attack action (crescent blade anyone?).

The list of genius ideas continues.

But remember each one of those "genius" ideas should face scrutiny adn approval by the DM...

 

[Herpes Cineplex]

Secondly, just because the rules don't explicitly allow it doesn't mean you should disallow a good idea.

...and if a good idea shows up, it stands a better than average chance of being allowed. But "tape three potions together and chug 'em at once" isn't a good idea. At best, it is simply a stupid idea. At worst, it is a lame attempt to get several tangible and unbalancing benefits (reduced expense, fewer actions, and fewer potential attacks of opportunity, for example) by specifically ignoring a rule which works just fine in play.

--
if scrutiny has really been applied to this, then there won't be any approval

 

[MerakSpielman]

Right. There's a reason the rules say it takes as long as it does to drink a potion, and that reason isn't realism.

If your PCs want to find a way to drink 3 potions in a round, there needs to be a mitigating factor to balance it. Not becuase it's realistic to do so, but because it's broken not to.

 

[ARandomGod]

I've thought of an option I haven't seen meantioned... and one I rather like as to give something, but not too much.

Roll each of the potions effects seperately, take the highest numerical result.

Lessee.... two potions of cure light, and one cure mod..

Roll d8+1
Roll d8+1
Roll 2d8+3

Results
5
9
6 (Bad roll on that mod)

You heal nine.

When asked why, well, the potions each take a certain amount of time to work... they each assessed the damage at the same time, and healed the damage simultaniously, and therefore there was a lot of damage overlap, as two of the potions wasted their magics curing damage that had already been cured. Wow. Now you know why people don't typically do that (But there's still some reason why someone MIGHT).

 

[ph34r]

Am I probing too deeply into this?

Yes.

Why stress out over something that's not that big of a deal. Just say they can drink A potion as a standard action and leave it at that. If they want to complain I'm sure they know where the door is.

 

[Saeviomagy]

An ounce is both a weight and volume measure.

Which is just another reason why the imperial system is silly.

Usually with liquids an ounce refers to volume; so 3, 1 ounce potions should add up to 3 ounces total liquid volume.

Believe it or not, a liquid ounce of water is one ounce in weight. That's the whole grounds for the thing.

And theres absolutely nothing to stop us going with my interpretation - a potion weighs one ounce and contains 10 liquid ounces of fluid.

And hell, if you're going to say "but it comes in a vial that's 2 inches by 1 inch" - for starters that vial can hold up to about 3 fluid ounces...

So in my campaign, a potion is an amount of liquid that is difficult to drink in under 6 seconds. Try drinking 3 at once and either you take 18 seconds choking it all down, or you spill two of them everywhere.

 

[Henrix]

Because, as any suave adventurer knows, only commoners drink potions of cure light wounds.

Or as was posted on a fun thread at RPG.net (Unknown Armies style rumour for D&D):

Potions of cure wounds are addictive. I've known people who've gone for years without drinking a single one. But adventurers can't get by with just one - ever notice?

Tell me about it. My friend got hooked on those things. This would have been back before I lost my eye. It got to the point where he couldn't get through a day without drinking one. Then it got worse. He had to use more and more powerful cure wounds potions to get the same kick. He was downing two or three potions every hour. And then they stopped working altogether. That's when he switched to inflict wounds. Gods, that's an ugly way to die...

 

[Henrix]

But the non-rules answer is surely that potions are magic, you just can't mix them to get increased effect.
It's like mixing drinks, or food. Mixing chocolate, apple juice, mustard, marshmallows, cognac and whisky together doesn't really make it better.