Why aren't potions labeled?

[the Jester]

Sometimes my npcs intentionally label their potions... incorrectly.

"Even if those adventurers get me, they'll be shocked to chug some poison when they think they're drinking a potion of cure light wounds!"

 

[Dracorat]

This does not seem reasonable.


Personally, I think practically all potions would originally be labeled (in some way). A select few could be purposely mislabeled for a variety of reasons, but there should originally be a way to quickly identify a potion.

So, the stupid Gnoll would most likely have a labeled potion. There is no real reason to rip off the label before giving it to the Gnoll.


On the other hand, stuff happens. Some percentage of potions should lose their labels unless they are engraved (like on tin vials or some such).


Additionally, not all labels should be in the same language or even in a language at all. They could be color coded, or numeric, or in different shaped vials, or some other technique.


But, it just does not make much sense for anyone to craft potions and not distinguish them in some manner.

I'm just saying that whomever is making potions en masse for a group of gnolls probably doesn't even bother with labelling them since it won't make a difference anyway, but would be more work to them. People are, after all, lazy. =)

 

[lukelightning]

Beware of any potion labeled "healing" you get off an undead...it's probably a cause wounds potion.

 

[Ero Gaki]

As a PC, I almost never lable my potions. If I do, they are coded so that only I know what they are. Why, you might ask? Because, I know that as soon as I die, the other PC's will swarm over my still warm body and loot me like the vultures they are... if they want my stuff, they will have to find out the hard way what it is.

 

[MarkB]

As a PC, I almost never lable my potions. If I do, they are coded so that only I know what they are. Why, you might ask? Because, I know that as soon as I die, the other PC's will swarm over my still warm body and loot me like the vultures they are... if they want my stuff, they will have to find out the hard way what it is.

And as a bonus, you offer them a free game of chance - when you drop but don't die, they can start choosing randomly-selected potions from your pack and pouring them down your throat, until one of them cures you or melts your head off.

 

[Dracorat]

Why would someone carry a potion that harms themself??

On the other hand, wasting a perfectly good potion of bull's strength on the fighter who already has it because you are trying to find his healing potions, well...

 

[airwalkrr]

IMC potion shop owners do not label their potions to help prevent thievery. Some are actually potions. Others are poisons. Most of them are adept enough that they can identify a potion by taking 10 on a Spellcraft check so they always know what a given potion is, even if it isn't labelled, thus preventing the sale of an inappropriate vial. Maxing Spellcraft isn't hard either. At 3rd level with only a 15 Int, a human potion-maker could have +15 to Spellcraft (6 ranks, +2 Int, +2 synergy with Knowledge (arcana), +3 Skill Focus, +2 Magical Aptitude), enough to ID the potion correctly every time. And he still has a feat left over for Brew Potion. If he has an 18 Int, he doesn't need to take Magical Aptitude.

Monsters don't label their potions for the same reason generally. They only have a few potions so it is easy to remember which is which and they don't want their enemies using their weapons against them easily.

 

[Tinker]

"Mediaeval bag of chips" - hehe, I like that. It could be labelled "Seemeth to bee a kynde of fryed roote, mayhappe lyk untoo a persnippe or beete"

Anyway, imc potions have identifying marks of some sort if they come from a helpful, organised, multi-potion kind of source like a wizard's shop or a large temple. As many people have pointed out they probably wouldn't have labels if they were made in a less organised environment or just for personal use.

I'm not convinced that real people would be so keen to set things up on the presumption of their own death. As roleplayers, we're all concerned with what happens after a monster or character dies, but real people often prefer not to think about that. I mean they might make a will, but they don't arrange their everyday life on the presumption of violent death and looting. Perhaps fighters in some kind of doomed guerilla war, but not even your average gnoll raider or scheming vampire I wouldn't have thought.

 

[Kwitchit]

"Mediaeval bag of chips" - hehe, I like that. It could be labelled "Seemeth to bee a kynde of fryed roote, mayhappe lyk untoo a persnippe or beete"

I think DnD has potatoes.

Anyway, the labelling of my potions depends on whose they are. Militaries have a distinctive code based on marks and (for rare stuff) the shape of the bottle(for example, a sun means a cure spell, the number of them shows its strength). Individuals label their potions on what they do to that individual (so a potion made by a lich and labelled Cure is actually an Inflict spell). Arcane potions for general sale are labelled in Draconic, divine ones in the language of that faith. And potions made by alchemists are labelled in code.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Because the FDA doesn't require it, perhaps?