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

[Clint_L]

Healing Potions have a weight in the adventuring gear table of 1/2 lbs. Also in the item description. Of course some.if that can be the glass, but the glass is not 7/8 of the whole weight.
The DMG part speaks about potions in general. But the weight for healing g potions is specific. And in D&D 5e specific beats general rules.

That would be mostly the container, which is presumably pretty durable. We know the amount of the potion: one ounce.

You aren’t drinking the potion and eating the container, just doing a shot.

Not that i could care less about the realism argument. We follow the current rule (drinking a potion yourself as a bonus action) because it works better, in my experience. Which is why it became a de facto house rule long before 2024.

 

[pawsplay]

Since nobody as brought it up, and there is a lot of discussion going on about how much you can drink...

The 2014 PHB includes "drink all the ale in a flagon" as one of the examples of a free object interaction.

That's how you know D&D was invented in Wisconsin.

 

[Seramus]

(Just for completeness, #2 most common was doing something with Inspiration,

#2 most common around here was a free feat at 1st level.

That's a little muddier now with 5.5 starting you with an Origin Feat though.

Alternately, you could have
View attachment 419517

Those magic tiles are suspiciously similar to Dueling Cards. Whip them out, activate your trap card, etc.

 

[Blue]

#2 most common around here was a free feat at 1st level.

It's not uncommon around these parts either. Just more people doing something about 2014 Inspiration, even if it's just to ignore it and house rule it out.

For those who kept it, things cross-pollinated and eventually stabilized on it could be used for a reroll (though you could still do advantage if you wanted, useful for Sneak Attack), plus adding to the social contract that players could nominate other players for Inspiration so it wasn't all on the DM to notice. Between granting more often and it being a reroll so it couldn't be forgotten it made a big different.

 

[Peter BOSCO'S]

Despite what many people seem to think, a potion is one ounce. Its a decent sized swallow but it's less than a shot glass.

The rules say that potions weigh 0.5 lb. Does it really seem likely that it is 1 oz of fluid in a 7 ounce bottle? Does it seem likely that they're so much thicker than water that 1 fluid ounce weighs much more than one ounce? They seem to be in the four to seven fluid ounce range.

 

[Tessarael]

Make the weight whatever makes sense in your campaign. If 1 oz. fits better with your intuition of how long it should take to quaff vs. a bonus action, then use that. By the time the encumbrance of potions matters (i.e., if the party buys many of these), they probably have access to Heward's Handy Haversack, Bag of Holding, etc., to not care about the weight anyway.

D&D is a very abstract combat system. The main game mechanic argument for making potions usable with a bonus action is that they are seldom worth using if you have to spend your action to use them, as you usually have better things to do with your action (cast a spell, attack, etc.), whereas the trade-off with a bonus action vs. potion usage is quite reasonable at times. I've been playing Baldur's Gate 3 recently, and it really does feel that bonus action potion usage makes sense given the trade-off in combat utility vs. other alternative usages of an action or bonus action. Requiring an action to help someone else use a potion also seems reasonable - you'd only do it if you need to help a downed ally or similar.

 

[FrogReaver]

Bonus action potions are a problem in games that give a lot of gold and shops with unlimited potions IMO.

I don’t think many people’s games have both these things.

A smaller but more common problem with bonus action potions is they effect maritals much more. Martials use many more bonus actions than casters, giving casters an advantage in the potion department.

 

[AlViking]

The rules say that potions weigh 0.5 lb. Does it really seem likely that it is 1 oz of fluid in a 7 ounce bottle? Does it seem likely that they're so much thicker than water that 1 fluid ounce weighs much more than one ounce? They seem to be in the four to seven fluid ounce range.

The rules state that most potions are 1 oz of liquid. Some potions do not appear to be liquid at all, a Potion of Gaseous Form "seems to hold fog that moves and pours like water". A potion of invisibility "looks empty but feels as though it holds liquid." When there's an exception to the general rule they spell it out. So why would healing potions be the one exception to the general rule but not have it explicitly spelled out? Healing potions are one of the few potions the majority characters are likely to carry and many characters will carry multiple, it is far more likely that they rounded up for simplicity.

I see no reason to go out of our way to make it unbelievable that we could drink a potion quickly. Unless you're just looking for an excuse to call the design stupid of course.

 

[pawsplay]

The rules say that potions weigh 0.5 lb. Does it really seem likely that it is 1 oz of fluid in a 7 ounce bottle? Does it seem likely that they're so much thicker than water that 1 fluid ounce weighs much more than one ounce? They seem to be in the four to seven fluid ounce range.

I looked up some examples on Amazon, and a 1 oz perfume bottle weighs about 5 ounces. So it is actually accurate for ounce of liquid in a bottle to weigh half a pound.