New healing potions, and more

[Appleseeth]

The 3/4 potions in the PH seem a little weak to me. At certain levels, yes, they're awesome, as you get more hit points back than normal. But by 3rd level our fighter's surge value was already equal (he was Dragonborn by the way), then they become a big trade off for the characters, do you spend a weak healing surge in the middle of battle, or do you risk going to the end and possibly getting KOed.

In addition, I'm going to be DMing a bit of a survival adventure, with lots of skill challenges that use up healing surges. I'll be encouraging my players to trek on through by giving them a penalty for taking an extended rest in the middle (just upping the DC a bit, they're tracking someone). So I thought, why not a potion that gives players a healing surge. My problem comes in assessing what level an item it would be.

Secondly, what about a potion that just lets them spend a healing surge?

I think maybe that these two potions might scale with tier, as with the Raise Dead ritual. I think the second one may be a little powerful, so maybe we can ignore it.

Lastly, and I mean lastly, what condition should I impose on characters that are forced to spend a healing surge on a challenge when they are out of them. I know you're saying "Why would that happen?", but my players are just like that.

 

[Runestar]

The cost of said potion will clearly need to scale with character lv, because the hp healed this way will increase as the PCs get more hp.

At what rate, I am not sure.

It would be funny if Orcus managed to get his hands on a few of those potions though.

 

[Zetesofos]

Actually, for regaining a healing surge, I might recommend it be a different magic item, not a potion. With an item, it can have a use per day built in, which serves as a limitor to how often it can be use. Of course, how many you hand out is up to you as a DM.

 

[Appleseeth]

Actually, for regaining a healing surge, I might recommend it be a different magic item, not a potion. With an item, it can have a use per day built in, which serves as a limitor to how often it can be use. Of course, how many you hand out is up to you as a DM.

Ok, I like this. So let's call it the Effervescent Bottle of Health (terrible name I know). It automatically refills itself every day, so it's a daily power item. Now Dwarven armor heals equal to a healing surge. That would make it item level 2. But since it's not tied to a body slot, and the surge is essentially able to be stored, It should be higher. I don't think I'd allow for the surge to boost beyond the normal healing surge maximum (is that allowed with other powers that grant surges?) So I'm guessing it should be level 6, but that's a bit of a shot in the dark.

EDIT: Also, how do we then scale the item, if that's what we're gonna do.

Also, I'm currently unclear on milestones and skill challenges. I have a bunch of complexity 1 challenges that lead into encounters. Should I count those as encounters for the purposes of giving a milestone, or is this one of those DM's discretion things?

Appreciate the help.

 

[deleteme123456]

If you're going by the book or the revised book for skill challenges, then keep in mind that complexity is supposed to be equal to the number of monsters in a same-level encounter. Since a typical Level N encounter is 5 Level N monsters, a complexity 5 challenge is as hard as an encounter. Now it's not unreasonable that the players might have an easy combat some days, but they might also have a hard one. So if your level 1 party is doing a Complexity 3, Level 1 challenge, that's probably the minimum I'd consider an encounter. On the other hand if your Level 1 party is doing a Complexity 5, Level 4 challenge, that's equivalent to a Level 4 combat encounter, considered "hard" and worth a ton of XP to them.
(Above #s assume party of 5 PCs.)