D&D (2024) Taking a healing potion as a bonus action?

[Shiroiken]

We've found that a full action is perfectly fine for potion use. Many potions have a decent duration, so you simply drink the potion before you expect it to be needed. We almost always use potions of healing after the combat, except when necessary to bring the healer back up, because then the action requirement is irrelevant.

 

[glass]

Try it at home with a variety of bottles and fluids. I'm genuinely curious to see if an ounce of liquid, in a sealed vial, can make it from a person's front pocket to their belly in six seconds. Because I've tried several times and can't make it happen.

I have not tried it myself (and do not intend to, for multiple reasons), but I have seen people down 300+ ml alcopop bottles in much less than six second. The neck of the bottle would be about the same or slightly thinner than the one ounce vial in @Horwath's image, and the volume is an order of magnitude more.

 

[Reynard]

They should just embrace how video games and crpgs do it and just have healing potions do a percentage (25% or whatever) of HP.

 

[Horwath]

They should just embrace how video games and crpgs do it and just have healing potions do a percentage (25% or whatever) of HP.

one solution could be that normal potion gives option to spend one HD
more powerful potion could allow up to 2,3 or 4 HD to be spend while drinking them.

 

[James Gasik]

I hadn't heard of this house-rule until I saw it on Critical Role. Maybe that's why it's so common?

It doesn't seem like it would break the game; it's just one more thing that the characters can do in a round. Sometimes it's hard for me to believe the number of things a character is supposed to be able to do in a six-second window of time. Is this even possible?

But now I'm curious, and also thirsty. Is six seconds enough time for me to punch a punching bag twice, then pull an airline-sized bottle of bourbon out of my pocket, open it, and drink it?

I'll let you know. One sec.

EDIT:
Nope. Using a stopwatch with a lap counter, I observed that it took 6.37 seconds just to get the bottle out of my pocket and twist it open. It took another 7.33 seconds to empty its contents through that tiny bottle opening and into my glass of ice. That's two Actions, and I haven't even tasted it yet. Being able to do this as a bonus action--say, while I'm sparring with an opponent, or climbing a ladder--is bonkers.

This myth is BUSTED.
View attachment 260715

How long does it take you to dash 60 feet (bonus action + movement). How long does it take you to swing a sword at someone four times (action) or eight times (+action surge)? How long does it take you to stand up from prone (half movement)?

D&D time is nothing like real time. This sort of thinking leads to game designers tying keyboard mice to their arms to see if they can flip the mouse up from the ground to catch it in their hands to prove how viable weapon cords are.

 

[Nikosandros]

They should just embrace how video games and crpgs do it and just have healing potions do a percentage (25% or whatever) of HP.

Healing proportional to HPs? That's a great idea; they could call it healing surges or something...

EDIT: To be clear, I actually like healing that is proportional to HP and not only for potions.

 

[Horwath]

Healing proportional to HPs? That's a great idea; they could call it healing surges or something...

damn, I wish they thought of that sometimes in last 50 years...

 

[CleverNickName]

How long does it take you to dash 60 feet (bonus action + movement). How long does it take you to swing a sword at someone four times (action) or eight times (+action surge)? How long does it take you to stand up from prone (half movement)?

D&D time is nothing like real time. This sort of thinking leads to game designers tying keyboard mice to their arms to see if they can flip the mouse up from the ground to catch it in their hands to prove how viable weapon cords are.

Like I said:

But maybe in your game world--where magic and dragons and mermaids are real--bottled fluids behave differently. Maybe all of the potion vials are shaped like Mason jars, instead of Erlenmeyer flasks. Don't let anybody tell you what's possible in six seconds! Characters can summon lightning with a snap of their fingers, so drinking a potion in the middle of combat with a sword in one hand and a shield in the other should be no trouble at all. Don't let my own suspension of disbelief govern your game.

 

[James Gasik]

Like I said:

I responded to your first post before I saw the second. But really, you have to suspend so much disbelief already with combat rounds, I'm curious how fast drinking suspends disbelief.

Now one thing I do tell my players is, if they want to drink potions fast, they need to have them someplace readily available, like a potion belt, hip flask, or bandolier. If you need to dig it out of your backpack, that's a different story.

This of course does mean I have enemies with visible consumables on their person, which made a Thief player of mine happy when he could steal them off them.

 

[tetrasodium]

25 hp? My group is level 8, the cleric haS 52 hp & I think that the warlock is similar. The martial types are even higher.. 27 max damage is going to be much loser average & tbh not likely to have good odds of hitting a pc until suddenly they are basically guaranteed to hit. All attacks use the same attack bonus so its not gradual+(bad) lucm

That's another problem. They largely don't (probably thanks to bounded accuracy), instead they will see. monsters that start hitting from 15-20 avg per attack with multiattack and and attack bonus that hits either almost never or like every attack for a blatant execution.

If they do ever encounter a brute of a monster that can hit like that 50 point smack with any reliability that justskes the 49-99+ point improvement death saves give waiting for the last instant have all the more value.