Would it be mean for me to have Potions of Inflict Serious Wounds as treasure?

[demiurge1138]

I've used inflict potions for my intelligent undead. The party's never ever drunk any of them, though, although I think they did try to use one once as a grenade-like weapon. But combining inflict potions with illusions to look alive... vicious. Do it.

Demiurge out.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Thanks for the reminder.

In the second session of our current campaign, a traveller sold the party a "potion of healing" that turned out to be poison. They spent much of several following sessions chasing "the fat bastard" across Faerun.

I haven't pulled too many magical switcheroos since then (OK, there were the rings with Nystul's Magic Aura, and the box of devouring) so we're probably due ...

 

[scourger]

That's awesome. I really like the vampire who had the Inflict potions. Another one I thought of was a potion that was both cure light and poison. It would really have to be the save or die kind of poison to be dramatic, though.

 

[davidschwartznz]

This reminds me of something I pulled on my players in a Planescape game. Lost and wounded in Pandemonium, they come upon a village of dour gnomes. The gnome leader offers to heal them before they go into the nearby evil temple (in search of a portal outta there). Unfortunately for the PCs, the gnomish leader wasn't a cleric, but an illusionist. It wasn't until the shadow demon started clawing them, that they got to disbelieve the 'healing'. The moral of the story: Never trust anyone who lives in the Lower Planes, espcecially if they live conviently close to an evil temple.

But I have a question: If they're looting him, I assume he'll be dead/defeated. Might the illusion be breached at some point? Might be a bit of a giveaway.

"Wow, the guy we just killed has mysteriously turned into a corpse!"

 

[Varianor Abroad]

It's inventive and cruel. Go for it.

At a later date, introducing several potions of heal that also curse the drinker to spontaneously suffer the effect of a harm spell whenever they are healed would be a decent followup. Plus it would make players very suspicious of the cleric....

 

[arscott]

I like the Vampire assassin method, where your players know that the potions belong to an undead creature. That way it's still a sinister trap, but it rewards the players for their intelligence in realizing the nature of the potion instead of just punishing them for not being overly cautious.

If you play little unimportant tricks like that now, then you'll screw yourself over when you want to play a meaningful and important trick later and your players immediately see through it.

 

[gordonknox]

Yes but...why would he label the potions? Isnt that kinda screwy?

 

[Dog Moon]

I'd label the potions. If I die, I want to take one of them down with me, if possible. I've thought of doing this before. I've also thought of using traps of Inflicting, for example, when fighting numerous undead. So there are different 5ft squares with Inflict traps. The traps can be used either as an attack [A PC steps on it while charging the undead and triggers the trap, taking damage], or can be used for defensive [An undead needs healing so it steps on the square and triggers the trap, being 'healed.']

It's fun to do different things people don't expect.

 

[Sammael]

Yes but...why would he label the potions? Isnt that kinda screwy?

The same reason why my mom labels fruit preserve jars? I mean, there are lots of red and orange fruits, and it's a lot easier to read the label than try to figure out which is which.

I've done the "potion of inflict wounds" trick before myself, but the PCs were paranoid at the time so they made sure to identify everything they found.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

This is, dare I say it, kick-ass. It's exactly the sort of "makes sense in context but will wreck the PCs' day" style of DMing that I love. If the players are observant, careful, and clever, they'll probably detect the ruse. That should be worth an XP bonus. If they don't detect it, they can hardly complain, once you explain after the game that the illusionist was undead. Actually, anyone with Knowledge (religion) should be able to identify the corpse as a dead ghoul after he's dead and the illusion wears off, if they take care to check the body. The sharp teeth, long nails, strangely advanced state of decomposition...