D&D 5E Why are potions of healing so expensive?

[Mercurius]

It heals wounds anywhere on your body well before it could ever have a chance to be assimilated by the body, so it cannot be anything as mundane as something that needs to be digested and instead needs to be a supply of healing magic that is triggered by consuming it. The form is the least of it, imbuing it with magic is the important part.

This only makes sense if you translate HP as "wounds," but they're not - at least not mostly. They're an abstraction that mostly represents bodily fortitude. This has always been the case, but more so in the last two editions with healing surges and HD. If they were "wounds" then they wouldn't heal via HD, which in turn replenish after a long rest.

Well, from another thread I have it on repeated authority that "gold is worthless", so I guess they are free.

But seriously, from a DM perspective I need it pricey enough that characters aren't going into every combat fully healed, like the old Wand of Cure Light Wounds trick from D&D 3.5. And cheap enough that a party will have a few so that non-healers can stand others up.

On the other hand, plentiful healing also facilitates a deadlier game - as the DM, you don't have to worry as much about overwhelming your PCs.

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

The average commoner has 4 hp
A potion heals 2d4+2 for a minimum of 4 and average of 7

If you were dying, literal seconds from death after an accident, how much would you pay to have all your wounds instantly healed?

 

[Blue]

Too bad short rests are even cheaper than a list price CLW wand with unlimited supply & on deman availability

Too bad short rests don't heal you. Hit Dice heal you, which you can use during a short rest, but are a distinctly limited resource. Debunked: Unlimited supply.

Also, they take an hour which you often can not do between encounters. Debunked: On deman[d] availability.

Sorry, you're 100% wrong.

 

[Blue]

On the other hand, plentiful healing also facilitates a deadlier game - as the DM, you don't have to worry as much about overwhelming your PCs.

No, unlimited healing restricts the types of games you can run to ones where you need to be deadlier in every combat because you are removing a major aspect of attrition-based games.

Restricting how DMs can run is a bad thing.

 

[Blue]

This only makes sense if you translate HP as "wounds," but they're not - at least not mostly. They're an abstraction that mostly represents bodily fortitude. This has always been the case, but more so in the last two editions with healing surges and HD. If they were "wounds" then they wouldn't heal via HD, which in turn replenish after a long rest.

Even if they are providing you with pep and a spring in your step, it's still way to quick to be digested. You're right, I shouldn't have used the word "wounds". But since restoring HPs magically is often called "healing magic", I still stand by the statement that this si healing magic triggered on consumption rather than any sort of tincture that needs to be digested and absorbed by the body to be effective. Because it taking effect immediately shows it can't be the second case.

 

[tetrasodium]

Too bad short rests don't heal you. Hit Dice heal you, which you can use during a short rest, but are a distinctly limited resource. Debunked: Unlimited supply.

Also, they take an hour which you often can not do between encounters. Debunked: On deman[d] availability.

Sorry, you're 100% wrong.

Are you playing the same game called d&d 5e as the rest of us where a ritual 3rd level spell can basically guarantee an hour and even if they get interrupted it takes six hundred rounds or a full hour of interruption to prevent the nova squad from finishing. Hit dice are so plentiful with +con that the limits they pose aremore theoretical than a practical concern

 

[Mercurius]

No, unlimited healing restricts the types of games you can run to ones where you need to be deadlier in every combat because you are removing a major aspect of attrition-based games.

Restricting how DMs can run is a bad thing.

I didn't say "unlimited healing" or anything about "restricting how DMs can run."

 

[Blue]

Are you playing the same game called d&d 5e as the rest of us where a ritual 3rd level spell can basically guarantee an hour and even if they get interrupted it takes six hundred rounds or a full hour of interruption to prevent the nova squad from finishing. Hit dice are so plentiful with +con that the limits they pose aremore theoretical than a practical concern

Are you playing the same game as the rest of us where you might come out of a leomund's tiny hut to find yourself surrounded by every possible opposition force that was able to be gathered in 60 minutes? Many, many missions you do not have the time to do that without repercussions. It's not on-demand.

And I love the dismissive attitude when you aren't even addressing that HD are a limited resource, unlike your claim that it's unlimited healing, when the point you are trying to defend is that you can use short rests on demand to heal up completely between every fight. Which has already been disproven.

 

[Mercurius]

Even if they are providing you with pep and a spring in your step, it's still way to quick to be digested. You're right, I shouldn't have used the word "wounds". But since restoring HPs magically is often called "healing magic", I still stand by the statement that this si healing magic triggered on consumption rather than any sort of tincture that needs to be digested and absorbed by the body to be effective. Because it taking effect immediately shows it can't be the second case.

Well, I think it is open for interpretation and each DM can skin it how they want to. I personally like the idea that herbs themselves are imbued with the life-force of the world...sort of like how herbalists in our world see it, although augmented due to being in a magical world.

 

[Blue]

I didn't say "unlimited healing" or anything about "restricting how DMs can run."

First, the discussion was about being able to heal up fully between every battle. That's as much healing as you need. If you want to characterize it as that instead of unlimited healing, go ahead.

Second, you absolutely said things that lead to restricting how DMs can run, you just didn't realize that was the consequence of always being able to heal up full between battles. I was letting you know those consequences, that you were removing one of the main tools DMs had for doing attrition-based adventures, thereby restricting them to a different style.