D&D 5E (2014) Review request for Alchemy & Enchanting mechanic

[WhosAChaoticGoodBoy]

Hi folks! I know there are dozens (if not hundreds) of homebrew posts about alchemy and enchanting, but I wanted the community's review on the versions I'm introducing into a campaign I'll be running this weekend. Pardon any formatting lost during the paste, and I appreciate your review.

ALCHEMY
You can spend one hour of your downtime using alchemist’s supplies or an herbalism kit to turn raw materials into potions. To make a potion, choose an effect and make an Intelligence or Wisdom check (your choice) based on the effect’s rarity, shown below.

RARITY ALCHEMY DIFFICULTY CLASS
Common 15
Uncommon 17
Rare 20
Very rare 24
Legendary 30

You add your proficiency to this check if you are proficient with alchemist’s supplies or herbalist kits. You can create potions based on spells you don’t know or haven’t prepared, but you have disadvantage on the check if the effect is based on a spell not present in your class’ spell list. For example, a cleric has disadvantage on creating a Potion of Speed because Haste is not present on the cleric’s spell list.
If you succeed on the check, the ingredients used to craft the potion are lost. If you fail, you’re left with half the gp value of the ingredients, rounded down. If you roll a 20 on the check, you complete the potion with half the required materials remaining, rounded down. If you roll a 1, you lose all materials during the attempt.
The raw materials used for alchemy are foraged from the wild or purchased at shops via component pouches. The material cost to craft a potion equals 5 x the alchemy DC. Component pouches yield 4d4 gp worth of raw materials and cannot be used simultaneously for spellcasting.
If you choose to forage, you spend one hour of downtime tracking and preparing raw ingredients for alchemical use. When you attempt alchemy or forage, you choose one activity for the duration of the hour. To forage, make a DC 15 Intelligence (Nature) or Wisdom (Survival) check. If you succeed, you gain a gp amount of materials based on the landscape table, shown below. On a failure, you gain half the amount, rounded down.

LANDSCAPE
Tropical 2d12 (ex: rainforest)
Aterrestrial 2d10 (ex: swamp, cave)
Temperate 2d8 (ex: coniferous forest, grassland)
Sparse 2d6 (ex: tundra, shrubland, shoreline)
Barren 2d4 (ex: polar, desert, open ocean)

You can forage or attempt alchemy once during a long rest and still gain it’s benefits.

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ENCHANT OBJECT
6th level transmutation (ritual)
Casting Time: 8 hours
Range: Self
Components: V,S,M (jewels equal to the gp amount defined below)
Duration: Until the object is destroyed

You imbue a mundane object with a magical effect using enchanters supplies and your profound attunement to spellcasting. To cast the spell, the caster must complete a special ability check called an enchantment check, tied to your spellcasting ability modifier. You add your proficiency bonus to the check if you are proficient with enchanters supplies.
Choose an effect you wish to imbue and roll a d20. The DC depends on the rarity of the enchantment's effect, shown in the table below.

RARITY ENCHANTMENT DIFFICULTY CLASS
Common 20
Uncommon 21
Rare 23
Very rare 26
Legendary 30

If the roll meets or exceeds the DC of the effect, you succeed. Otherwise, you fail. A success or failure has no effect by itself. On your third success, you create the item. On your third failure, the mundane object is destroyed and the spell fails.
When you make an enchantment check and roll a 1 on the d20, it counts as two failures. Likewise, a 20 counts as two successes. Regardless of previous successes and failures, you create a cursed item when either of the results occur (consult your DM on the effects of the curse).

- You roll a 1 when you have two successes
- You roll a 20 when you have two failures

The gp value of an enchantment is equal to the value of the unenchanted object x the enchantment DC. You lose the full gp value if you create the item and retain half the gp amount, rounded down, if the spell fails.
You can also cancel the enchanting process mid-spell. If you cancel the spell you expend no gp and the spell fails. In addition, you roll 1d8 to determine hours spent before cancelling.

 

[77IM]

Do you get one check per casting of enchant object? Does that mean you need to spend the material components multiple times? Or are the components only used up at the end? I get the gist of what you are going for, but it could be a bit clearer.

I do like the idea of enchanting items being a spell, and 6th level seems about right. You could limit the rarity of the item by level and then "At Higher Levels" you can create more rare items. For example, at 6th level you can create common and uncommon items, at 7th level rare, at 8th level very rare, at 9th level legendary.

Where do scrolls, trinkets, and similar trinkets fit in with this? I assume potion crafting are part of your alchemy rules. Maybe I missed this, but how long does crafting alchemicals take?

One thing I like to see for all such crafting rules is an easy spot for "insert GM recipes here." For example, I like to tell my players things like, "Oh, making a frost brand will take 3 months and cost 6,000 gold. But if you slay a white dragon and use the blood of its heart and its dorsal fin during the forging, then it's only going to take 2 weeks and cost 1,000 gold." So you might think of that somewhere. For example, maybe the components for enchant objects don't have to be gems, but can be "magic ingredients," and if the ingredients are appropriate to the item you are crafting, you get advantage on the checks.

 

[WhosAChaoticGoodBoy]

Do you get one check per casting of enchant object? Does that mean you need to spend the material components multiple times? Or are the components only used up at the end? I get the gist of what you are going for, but it could be a bit clearer.

Right on, I'll make it clearer. The intent is to define one casting of the spell as a single "enchantment check", which consists of three or more individual checks (basically borrowing the language/structure from the 'Death Saving Throw' section). I'll think about how to better distinguish the individual checks of the enchantment check and their relationship to the spell's components.

I do like the idea of enchanting items being a spell, and 6th level seems about right. You could limit the rarity of the item by level and then "At Higher Levels" you can create more rare items. For example, at 6th level you can create common and uncommon items, at 7th level rare, at 8th level very rare, at 9th level legendary.

Rarity by spell level is a cool thought, thanks. 6th level spells like Contingency and Stone to Flesh heavily influenced my decision to fit this spell within that power bracket (although the PHB or DMG has a clause somewhere admitting that the balance between spell levels isn't scientific as much as it is aesthetic).

Where do scrolls, trinkets, and similar trinkets fit in with this? I assume potion crafting are part of your alchemy rules. Maybe I missed this, but how long does crafting alchemicals take?

Currently I'm considering scrolls as enchanting a mundane roll of parchment. As far as trinkets (I'm assuming you mean things like jewelry or other ad-hoc shinies) basically I'm letting them enchant whatever they want with whatever they want, as long as they have the item and can find the rarity of the effect. The intent on relying so heavily on Rarity is that it makes the effect more likely to be defined in the DMG or any other official publication.

I do have some concerns that I didn't write in any constraints regarding enchantment effect and the object they wish to enchant. At the same time, I didn't want to reject outright someone's attempt to, for example, have a helmet of magic missile if that's what they really want to do. My group is aware this home brew will be a learning experience for all of us, so they're prepared if I have to nerf on the fly.

Meanwhile, attempting alchemy takes one hour ("You can spend one hour of your downtime using alchemist’s supplies or an herbalism kit to turn raw materials into potions").

One thing I like to see for all such crafting rules is an easy spot for "insert GM recipes here." For example, I like to tell my players things like, "Oh, making a frost brand will take 3 months and cost 6,000 gold. But if you slay a white dragon and use the blood of its heart and its dorsal fin during the forging, then it's only going to take 2 weeks and cost 1,000 gold." So you might think of that somewhere. For example, maybe the components for enchant objects don't have to be gems, but can be "magic ingredients," and if the ingredients are appropriate to the item you are crafting, you get advantage on the checks.

Yeah, this is something I struggled with. While I like the thematic value of not simply requiring a floating gp value of gems, I ultimately don't want players to a) simply turn money into enchantments, and b) slow the game down by asking whether every item they find is advantageous to a specific enchantment. I admit this might be a circumstantial thing, though; one of the players in my group can get obsessive, and I anticipate it's going to be more fun for everybody if we don't spend too much time discussing why some items provide advantages and some don't.

All that being said, I do like the idea of providing (dis)advantage to rolls depending on circumstance and the nature of the ingredients they're using, but I can't think of any circumstances general enough to put into the text itself.