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

[Crimson Longinus]

I don't like bonus action potions. The characters are already indestructible and have way too many HP. There is also not a lot of good use for gold. So this basically means that if your build has no regular use for bonus actions you can just buy extra HP with your plentiful surplus gold making the PCs even harder to threaten.

As for other potions and optimal use with normal actions being drinking them before the battle. Yeah, that's a feature. Learning about the enemies so that you can prepare accordingly is something I want to encourage.

 

[Piperken]

...Honestly, slapping on a magic bandaid seems more realistic.

A... trauma patch, if you will.

 

[mellored]

A... trauma patch, if you will.

"Healing Poultice" to sound a bit more fantasy?

 

[Amphytrion]

Im against. Both from a realism standpoint and from a game balance standpoint.

I agree with this.

From a balancing perspective, it’s completely unnecessary. If anything, it makes combats longer, which is the opposite of what I’d like.

Then, it doesn’t strike me as something you could feasibly accomplish wholesale and have another regular action in 6 seconds.

Potions remain an action at my table.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

Our group does bonus action to use a potion on yourself and an action to administer a potion to another creature. It’s worked well for us, and since at least one player want to be a potion maker during a campaign, it also incentives more creative potion creations. Current favorites are the different power sourced wild mushroom potions that give a random effect based on a 1d100 roll plus a minor healing effect.

 

[Distracted DM]

Our group does bonus action to use a potion on yourself and an action to administer a potion to another creature. It’s worked well for us, and since at least one player want to be a potion maker during a campaign, it also incentives more creative potion creations. Current favorites are the different power sourced wild mushroom potions that give a random effect based on a 1d100 roll plus a minor healing effect.

From a design standpoint, if I were to allow bonus action potions I'd probably make it a BA to potion someone else, still an action for yourself: this encourages teamwork and tactical spacing, forces certain choices like "do I want to go into danger to feed my party member a potion" etc. Plus it still helps retain stuff like thieves being able to drink as a BA.
If that's a bit weird from a "realism" standpoint, one could make it a BA for a PC to hand the potion to a fellow, and a reaction for the receiver to drink the potion.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Honestly, slapping on a magic bandaid seems more realistic.

Sure. And games like Shadowrun have the idea of a slap-patch. It's not beyond the pale.

It's just not aesthetic like potions are--so potions are here to stay.

Because, in the end, several things trump realism, often more frequently than some folks would like to admit. Realism is a high priority, but I find most folks, in the end, do recognize that other things can be higher. It is not an unalloyed good; there are times where even the most strident advocates for realism recognize that things have gone too far.

 

[Seramus]

Balance is a funny thing. It can sometimes be the enemy of fun. I've seen entire game systems that are incredibly well balanced that nobody wanted to play because they were just annoying.

Action consumables are one of those things. It's way more fun and accessible if your party can do them as a bonus action - and you can hand out more consumables as treasure. Does it impact Balance? Yes, a bit. Were few people engaging with the system because it's annoying to spend a full action on it? Also yes.