D&D 5E (2014) Thoughts on bonus action potions?

[Horwath]

There is one simple reason why potions/oils were promoted to Bonus action usage.

Drinking potions is not fun, both mechanically and thematically.

Because of that it leaves Action window open to do something impactful and "more fun".

now can you chug down an oz of fluid in a second? yes, it's a glass of shooter. With a little practice, which adventurers do have, pulling it out of specialized potion belt and plug cork, you could probably do all that in 2 second.


but maybe we should all have those "water bladders" that you have in backpack for hiking with a drinking tube.

load the bladder with 20 or so healing potions and you are good to go.


now, that I think about it, it was in 3.5e book somewhere, just need to look it up when I get home.

 

[AlViking]

Reading the DMG and PHB, at least, it never specifies what the containers are made out of, but one can infer that they are glass because several potions describe what they look like. I think the takeaway is that they would be made of glass for easy identification.

RE: potion weights. There is something very odd going on here. The DMG tells us a potion contains 1 ounce of liquid. The PHB says a Potion of Healing weighs half a pound.

But look at the description of a glass vial- it has no listed weight on it's own, but contains up to 4 ounces of liquid (page 153)!

But look at what is contained in vials according to the PHB and things get weirder. A vial of acid weights 1 pound (?), while a vial of antitoxin, perfume, or basic poison has no weight. As a unit of weight, 4 ounces is a mere 0.25 pound, which means they must be talking about fluid ounces (30 ml). Whatever kind of acid is being stored in a vial*, it's apparently at least four times as dense as, say, water.

What's interesting is that there is no known acid that dense- the most dense liquid acids are about twice as dense as water!

*I know someone will say "but obviously it's a vial made of stronger/denser materials to contain the acid", but since it's stated to be contained in a vial, and we have rules telling us the weight and capacity of a vial in the PHB, and that, if thrown, the vial is instantly broken, I have doubts.

Curiously, alchemist's fire, which has the same rules for being thrown and broken as acid, is contained in a "flask", which contains 1 pint of liquid, meaning that whatever alchemist's fire is, it's 8 times as dense as water, or twice as dense as whatever kind of acid is being sold in the PHB!

I think people are really, really overthinking this. No adventuring gear weighs less than 1/2 pound, the weight is rounded up. They simply rounded up even more with the vial of acid.

 

[Horwath]

I think people are really, really overthinking this. No adventuring gear weighs less than 1/2 pound, the weight is rounded up. They simply rounded up even more with the vial of acid.

since we are doing it,
1 fl oz is 30mL, if mostly water that is 30gams
half a pound is 227g, that leaves 197g for mass of the container,
lets make it durable and for longevity and cleanliness and we assume there is knowledge, to make it make it stainless steel.
if it's completely made out of it, including screw cap, that would make average thickness of container 3,8mm, give or take.

that is one hell of a sturdy container.
But for adventuring lifestyle it better be.

if it's made out of glass, average thickness would be 12mm(half an inch)

 

[Horwath]

also, I have these:

it's one fl oz and with cork it can just fit 2d4's inside.

 

[AlViking]

since we are doing it,
1 fl oz is 30mL, if mostly water that i 30gams
half a pound is 227g, that leaves 197g for mass of the container,
lets make it durable and for longevity and cleanliness and we assume there is knowledge, to make it make it stainless steel.
if it's completely made out of it, including screw cap, that would make average thickness of container 3,8mm, give or take.

that is one hell of a sturdy container.
But for adventuring lifestyle it better be.

if it's made out of glass, average thickness would be 12mm(half an inch)

They didn't do a scientific calculation, they came up with a number that works for gaming purposes. A potion contains 1 ounce of liquid unless specifically stated otherwise because that's how general descriptions work. What are people trying to prove? More importantly, why?

 

[Professor Murder]

So I have grown to be fine with it because for some classes, there just aren't that many things that are bonus actions and for others, they have a lot of high value choices. So a wizard who's already cast a spell can use a bonus action for some quick healing instead of having nothing to do, while a rogue has to really debate if they want to use their bonus for a potion or for a class ability. In the end, it is a positive change in my experience.

 

[Horwath]

They didn't do a scientific calculation, they came up with a number that works for gaming purposes. A potion contains 1 ounce of liquid unless specifically stated otherwise because that's how general descriptions work. What are you trying to prove? More importantly, why?

if we take PHB numbers, I'm just trying to give a picture how a container might look like, be it from steel or glass.

Sure, number are gamist, but we can still run those numbers and say are those reasonable or not.
personally, it's a bit too much. 1/4lb would be more appropriate, but as I said, adventurers life is hard and dangerous, so they might want to over engineer the container to survive combat abuse.

on the other hand, acid vial needs to break on purpose so that glass should be thinner.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

So I have grown to be fine with it because for some classes, there just aren't that many things that are bonus actions and for others, they have a lot of high value choices. So a wizard who's already cast a spell can use a bonus action for some quick healing instead of having nothing to do, while a rogue has to really debate if they want to use their bonus for a potion or for a class ability. In the end, it is a positive change in my experience.

This is one of the reasons I do not like it. Does the balancing of the classes take this into account? One weakness of the wizard class is relatively low HP, but if they have an ability to regain HP every turn without impacting their performance then that is a significant power boost for the class.

 

[Maxperson]

This is one of the reasons I do not like it. Does the balancing of the classes take this into account? One weakness of the wizard class is relatively low HP, but if they have an ability to regain HP every turn without impacting their performance then that is a significant power boost for the class.

If the wizard has the option to regain HP every turn by drinking a potion, that's the DM's fault for putting too many healing potions into the game.

 

[Horwath]

If the wizard has the option to regain HP every turn by drinking a potion, that's the DM's fault for putting too many healing potions into the game.

yes, but also:
if you cant buy magic items, what will you spend all that gold on?