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

[James Gasik]

Supernaturally fast, or a Fighter with Action Surge.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

It takes significantly longer. You have to open your pouch, pack or whatever that is closed tightly enough so that stuff doesn't fall out in combat, climbing, etc. Then you have to find the potion, and god help you if you have multiple potions in that container. Then pull it out, uncork it, and swallow it. All in 6 seconds.

Realistically, you aren't doing that in a round, but we handwave the unrealistic portion in the name of fun.

The rules don't allow you to get stuff out of a bag without some sort of action (with the exception of spell components out of a component bag you have accessible).

Regardless of whether I ruled the potion can be drunk as an action or bonus action (and I'm leaning towards bonus actions so combat buff potions get used), I would require the normal action economy to get it accessible first. So if you have a couple little dedicated slots on your belt, or a bandolier designed for it, you could use your object interaction to get it. Otherwise, unless you have a magic storage container that makes it faster (I rule Heward's Handy Haversack allows you to get contents as an object interaction, because still taking an action isn't a very handy result from its "always on top" function), you are looking at at least an action to get it into your hand.

Obviously I will make this clear to players when I tell them how we'll be running it, so they can prepare their characters accordingly for how many potions they might want to have accessible, and I'm not expecting anyone to have more than a couple belt spots.

 

[Maxperson]

The rules don't allow you to get stuff out of a bag without some sort of action (with the exception of spell components out of a component bag you have accessible).

Regardless of whether I ruled the potion can be drunk as an action or bonus action (and I'm leaning towards bonus actions so combat buff potions get used), I would require the normal action economy to get it accessible first. So if you have a couple little dedicated slots on your belt, or a bandolier designed for it, you could use your object interaction to get it. Otherwise, unless you have a magic storage container that makes it faster (I rule Heward's Handy Haversack allows you to get contents as an object interaction, because still taking an action isn't a very handy result from its "always on top" function), you are looking at at least an action to get it into your hand.

Obviously I will make this clear to players when I tell them how we'll be running it, so they can prepare their characters accordingly for how many potions they might want to have accessible, and I'm not expecting anyone to have more than a couple belt spots.

You'd really need a magical container for specially made for it. Slots on the belt or wherever would just make it incredibly likely that you'd lose the potions in travel over rough terrain, combat, etc. as they would fall out or break.

Personally, I'm not going to worry about it. I use them as a bonus action and I don't require some special magic item for it to happen without risk of potion loss.

 

[James Gasik]

You'd really need a magical container for specially made for it. Slots on the belt or wherever would just make it incredibly likely that you'd lose the potions in travel over rough terrain, combat, etc. as they would fall out or break.

Personally, I'm not going to worry about it. I use them as a bonus action and I don't require some special magic item for it to happen without risk of potion loss.

Re-usable metal containers, perhaps? I don't think anything prevents you from pouring a potion into another container, like say a hip flask.

 

[Tessarael]

A stainless steel flask for 1 oz of liquid weighs about 2 oz empty, 3 oz full. Say have a rubber stopper at the top that you can easily pop when you take it from your potion bandolier and swig it. Collect the used flasks after the battle, if they haven't been crushed, for a discount at your potion dealer. Or we could just magically hand wave all these complications.

 

[pawsplay]

I suppose if you were supernaturally fast. Like 5x faster than a normal human, you might be able to untie your pouch, fish around for the right potion, pull it out and drink it inside 6 seconds.

Why? why do you think it will take that long? Have you tested it?

 

[ECMO3]

You realize we're talking about how long it would REALLY take, not about the rules, right?

Only heavy crossbow loading takes anywhere near as much time as a potion really would take. Again, we weren't discussing the rules.

All of them take longer to draw than it takes to pull a potion out of my belt.

Have you ever drawn a sword or rapier? It is longer, no way around it and it is a lot more dangerous if you are fighting because of the room you need to do it effectively.

I am being generous by saying a dagger or gun would be about the same, in most cases I don't think it would be either. A regular crossbow or sling isn't either.

Here is avideo of someone loading a modern crossbow (what would be "light" in D&D parlance):


Here is someone pulling a sword from their back:


Here is someone drawing a sword from a scabbard:

 

[Maxperson]

Re-usable metal containers, perhaps? I don't think anything prevents you from pouring a potion into another container, like say a hip flask.

You still run a high risk of just plain losing the potions. If they are easy to grab out of a belt, they will fall out pretty easily as well when things are rough, like in combat, climbing a cliff, and so on.

Edit: This is assumption, but I always assumed they used glass for a reason and that metal would screw things up. Otherwise why would almost all potions be found in glass vials.

 

[Maxperson]

All of them take longer to draw than it takes to pull a potion out of my belt.

Have you ever drawn a sword or rapier? It is longer, no way around it and it is a lot more dangerous if you are fighting because of the room you need to do it effectively.

I am being generous by saying a dagger or gun would be about the same, in most cases I don't think it would be either. A regular crossbow or sling isn't either.

Here is avideo of someone loading a modern crossbow (what would be "light" in D&D parlance):


Here is someone pulling a sword from their back:


Here is someone drawing a sword from a scabbard:

If you stuck potions in your belt in my game, there would be rolls when things got rough for them to break and/or fall out of the belt. It's not a safe space for potions.

 

[James Gasik]

You still run a high risk of just plain losing the potions. If they are easy to grab out of a belt, they will fall out pretty easily as well when things are rough, like in combat, climbing a cliff, and so on.

Edit: This is assumption, but I always assumed they used glass for a reason and that metal would screw things up. Otherwise why would almost all potions be found in glass vials.

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!