Potion Miscibility and other Buffing Limits

[Stormonu]

After having sat down and looking through one of my 3.5 modules (Dread Crypt of Sriholz), I ran across a bad guy who spend about 5 rounds drinking various potions to buff himself up.

The absurd image that brought to my mind of potion guzzling made me think back to the potion miscibility rules back from 1E - primarily the danger it created in trying to stack multiple spell effects on a single individual. I don't want to create a table like 1E's that randomly determines what happens when you attempt to activate multiple potions (especially the explosion and permanent effects) - I'm just wanting to prevent both players and monsters from using buffing effects to absurd extremes.

I'm thinking about putting a limit - say 3 or 5 spells/effects - on the use of potion, scrolls, spells, buffing items (such as a Belt of Strength) that players can pile onto a single individual. I'm not worried about explaining why such a limitation works as it does, but instead putting a reasonable limit on buffing effects to prevent buffing abuse. What do you think would be a reasonable limit, and are there other concerns/items I need to consider when it comes to buffing interactions?

(By the way, if Pathfinder has some sort of spell/potion/scroll stacking limit already, please let me know - that's the system I'm using).

 

[Nymrohd]

Potion Miscibility was there in 2e as well (and I'll admit it was fun). In 4E the consumables that last throughout an encounter are elxirs and cost a healing surge (so you can only use so many and you don't want to eat through surges anyway especially if your DM runs 3-5 encounters per day as I do).

Well I can tell you of one RPG game that has had to severely restrict overlaying buffs. WoW. When they moved to expansions they have went on to change it up to the point were now you can use only 1 potion per encounter (2 if you game it) divided elixirs in two categories (you can only have one of each, half are offensive and half are defensive) and you can only have one buff from each category (though obviously there are many more things to buff than in D&D). (And there is also a boss that is a spoof of Prof. Fansworth from Futuruma who has a mini enrage by guzzling down all the potions in his alchemy lab)

 

[Raven Crowking]

I would just use the table right out of the 1e DMG, personally.


RC

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Kaboom, baby!

 

[the Jester]

Did Pathfinder keep bonus types (morale, luck, etc)? A good way to do what you're proposing might be to boil down to just two or three bonus types (and no untyped bonuses at all!).

 

[frankthedm]

After having sat down and looking through one of my 3.5 modules (Dread Crypt of Sriholz), I ran across a bad guy who spend about 5 rounds drinking various potions to buff himself up.

Issues to the d20 ruleset. Cheap and commonly available potions and classed NPCs needing them to provide thier CR's worth of challenge. Buffs are a big reason why PC and NPC casters should lead out with dispel magic and Greater Dispel against sentient foes.

 

[Quantarum]

You could set some kind of limit based level, say a character can't have more levels of spell effects from potions than his level with a minimum of one potion active at a time or some variation. -Q.

 

[Plane Sailing]

(By the way, if Pathfinder has some sort of spell/potion/scroll stacking limit already, please let me know - that's the system I'm using).

Then the Pathfinder forum is the place for this question - I'll scoot it over there.