Multiple Potion Drinking

[Herremann the Wise]

Hello Everyone,

This old chestnut came up recently, first time in 3.5 though:

The PC in the hope of being expedient grabbed three healing potions and gulped down the collective contents. They were Cure Moderate Wounds and two Cure Lights.

To what effect:

1) All work immediately
2) All work consecutively in a random order (that is over the next three rounds - one round per potion)
3) All work consecutively from most to least powerful
4) Only the most powerful one works - the others have no effect
5) Only a random one works - the others have no effect
6) Something bad happens
7) Something random happens

Personally, I always thought number 7 was fun if slightly ridiculous. In truth though, my ruling would most likely be 5 or maybe 4. Can anyone help out with something more official or logical?

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Man-thing]

Well according to Ronin Arts' Forbidden Arcana: Potion Mixology :
(checking his file)

Drat, can't help you it seems that potion mixology rules only apply to when a character drinks a second potion while a first one is still in effect. Since cures are instantaneous they will not cause problems with each other. If they did I would have rolled on the table for you.

 

[Herpes Cineplex]

You seem to have missed the obvious option:

8) Drinking a potion is a standard action, so a character simply can't drink three potions simultaneously. Each round the character may choose which potion he is drinking (or choose randomly if he's just uncapping and drinking whatever comes to hand), and the results will be resolved normally, just like the rules say.

--
that hoary old potion miscibility chart was intensely stupid anyway
ryan

 

[Herremann the Wise]

Hi Herpes Cineplex,

Your DMing. The player says that they have three vials taped together. They swallow the collective contents. You as the DM say:

Ooh. Yep. This is going to take a while - three rounds actually. Do you just want to swallow one instead? Oh yeah. That would be a little difficult. Can you give me sleight of hand check. DC 12 please?

Alternatively, consider that the three have been poured together into a cup and the cup's contents are skulled.

Either way, I would rule this a standard action. It does not seem feasible to say it take's longer and thus why I did not want to include your version 8.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[x12b20]

Disclaimer: I wrote Forbidden Arcana: Potion Mixology.

A potion is usually a single ounce of liquid, so it wouldn't be much of a problem to pop the tops from three vials and down them all at once.

The real issue here is what kind of precedent you want to set for your game.

If you choose option#1, players will most likely begin combining potions ahead of time to maximize their effectiveness, which could potentially be problematic (and how do you stop them from combining four or five potions or claiming that they can stack effects?).

Options #2 and #3 can get a little problematic with potions that last a while.

#4 breaks down when both potions have the same level of power.

#5 is probably your best choice if you want this sort of thing to have the least impact on your game.

#6 should keep them from moxing potions in the future, but now you have to decide what "bad" things you want to happen if they do.

#7 is the most interesting option but you have to decide what random things can happen. This is the option I use in my campaign and why I wrote the PDF.

 

[Grayhawk]

To avoid this kind of situation in the future, I'd spell out that you can only drink 1 potion per round. If someone asks for a reasoning, it's because it's magic. That's how potions work. If you mix several of 'em up in a cup, to be able to drink more than one simultaneously, the potions negate each other. Same thing if you try to drink from several vials at the same time. For a potion to take effect, you must drink it pure and undiluted. (Disclaimer: I'm not saying that that's how the rules put it, but it seems to be a suitable explanation for why the rule is the way it is.)

Unless, of course, you'd like them to be able to do so, in which case it would be a house rule and in which case you'd have to make up house rules for how to handle it.

 

[pbd]

Multiple potions

The replies so far seem to be more about if the character could actually drink 3 potions in a round or not, rather than what will hapen when he does.

From the context it seems that the Herreman has already allowed the player to grab and drink the potions, so I won't question that for now.

The issue is what would happen when you drink multiple potions; my own thinking is that healing potions would just be additive, you get 2d8 + x + 1dx + x + 1d8 + x (x is the xaster level bonus for each potion). The magic is all the same kind, healing. It is just stronger in the cure moderate wounds potion than in the two cure lights. As for other potions I like options 4 or 5. This is more of a game balance issue than anything else though. If you could just drink a bunch of potions at once and get all the effects, high level characters would just have a bunch of prepackaged bundles of bufing potions and drink them all down when they need the boost. That just doesn't smack me as right. The healing potions, though, I think should be the exception to this rule and just be additive; it is the same kind of magic here.


As an aside, on the issue of if the character can drink three potions in a round, remmeber a round is 6 seconds. Time it it is longer than you think. You can do a lot in six seconds. This whole standard action/move action stuff is a guideline and it is a shame to follow a "rule" that is just isn't realistc (yes I know this is a Fantasy game with magic and isn't very realistic, but the game is applying basic metaphysics to fantsy situations. But just imagine a 21 foot giant weighting 12,000 pounds, it would be so dense that it couldn't walk on anything but rock or it would break through). Look at your clock and imagine grabing three vials, popping a cork from each one and drinking them all at once. If I remembeer a potion is usually in a vial not a jug, so the amount of liquid isn't a problem (imaging three shot-sized amounts). Also, I have spent a decent amount of time in a lab woking with test tubes and know that you can easily pop a cork off ingle handed and it doesn't take very long.

pbd

 

[Saeviomagy]

A potion is usually a single ounce of liquid, so it wouldn't be much of a problem to pop the tops from three vials and down them all at once.

My suggestion:

Potions are not roughly the density of water. They are magical after all. One of these properties is that they are unnaturally light - about 1/10th the density of water.

Which means that instead of being about 28 millilitres, they're 280 millilitres.

Or a bit more than a cup of liquid.

And you need to drink and swallow the whole thing for it to take effect.

Now it's suddenly reasonable that you can't drink more than one potion at a time. Even if you do pour them all into your mouth at once, they still take a bit to swallow.

And of course there's a reason for potion bottles to be of a decent size, instead of tiny little thimbles...

 

[drnuncheon]

I'd charge them a move-equivalent action to prepare each potion - that is, to get them held correctly in the hand, uncapped, and situated so that you don't spill half of them down your shirt instead of your throat - and a standard action to drink them all. I'd require both hands to arrange the potions that quickly, and it would provoke an attack of opportunity.

All would take effect normally, however.

The PC would get a slight benefit for this - downing 3 potions would only take 2 full rounds, as opposed to 3 standard actions - but the drawbacks are significant enough that it probably wouldn't be used often.

If the vials were taped together, they'd still have to uncork each and avoid spilling it - also provoking an Attack of Opportunity. Try taping three shot glasses together and downing them without splashing most of it all over your face.

As for pre-mixing the potions, that's when I'd have them start cancelling each other out, having random effects, becoming toxic, etc. Alternately:

"OK, that's a move action to get out the cup, a move action to retrieve the first potion, a move action to pour it into the cup, a move action to retrieve the second potion, a move action to pour it into the cup, a move action to retrieve the third potion...wouldn't it be easier to drink these separately?"

All of these, of course, are intended for people who try this during a fight. If they're not in combat time, then why worry about it? Just say they drink the potions and move on.

J

 

[Herremann the Wise]

Hello again,

From the DMG:

A typical potion or oil consists of one ounce of liquid held in a ceramic or glass vial fitted with a tight stopper. The stoppered container is usually no more than 1 inch wide and 2 inches high.

Thus I have no issue allowing the player to consume three times this in terms of the amount of liquid.

and

In terms of activation:
Drinking a potion requires no special skill. The user merely removes the stopper and swallows the potion.

Does this mean that unstoppering the vial is part of the activation? Does the vial need to be airtight? Am I probing too deeply into this?

Apologies for asking the question but it just seems like the rules don't cover all the options logically.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise