Revised Potions

[Ardanis]

If we are excluding Flame Arrow and similar spells then we should exclude arrow traps too imo...no?

Good point. I honestly have no idea what's better... K, assuming we're disarming traps, rather than walk over them, it won't be such a loss. And there's no way to know beforehands what kind of trap it will be (while it's fairly easy to predict if there'll be a dragon breath coming party's way).

[Demivrgvs]

Potion of Agility/Evasion

Glyph of Warding, Skull Trap, and SR's Fire Trap

Maybe. I'd stop at there, though, otherwise we can justify immunity to half the magic available (Flame Arrow, Entangle, Earthquake, etc.).

On second thought, that's exactly what I had in mind before noticing aVENGER's work, because PnP Evasion works against most of those effects too. Specifically it allow a save against any effect that allows a save vs reflexes to half, thus Flame Arrow would count, but Entangle and Earthquake would not.

 

 

Edit: first post updated with the latest and hopefully definitive changes. Take a look if you can and let me know if you see anything strange or wrong, not to mention that some I've deliberately set a lot of prices, thus it may be a good thing to have some feedback on them.

[Dermit]

Making it work as the HLA seems a bit OP. I'm not sure how it would be rationalized but I would restrict the things avoided to spells 3rd level and lower and comparable effects. A kind of lesser evasion. Either that or reduce the duration to a few rounds.

 

Everything else looks great!

[Ardanis]

Take a look if you can and let me know if you see anything strange or wrong, not to mention that some I've deliberately set a lot of prices, thus it may be a good thing to have some feedback on them.

As I've said several posts ago, Potion of Magic Shielding provides arguably the best bonus among all potions. Imo it should have the highest price, if not the single highest.

 

Making it work as the HLA seems a bit OP. I'm not sure how it would be rationalized but I would restrict the things avoided to spells 3rd level and lower and comparable effects. A kind of lesser evasion. Either that or reduce the duration to a few rounds.

I'm afraid you're correct.

 

PS

Potion of Clarity

Grants immunity to Hold, but desc says nothing about it. Intended?

Otoh more immunities provided will allow to include painlessly the potion into DS, same slot as Chaotic Commands. Thing is, CC has more immunities and thus should overwrite potion's effect, but in the current system CC is assigned the stat value of 1 (and AI dances from it), so making the potion 2 would fool AI into thinking the user is under more potent CC.

[Demivrgvs]

Prices

Take a look if you can and let me know if you see anything strange or wrong, not to mention that some I've deliberately set a lot of prices, thus it may be a good thing to have some feedback on them.

As I've said several posts ago, Potion of Magic Shielding provides arguably the best bonus among all potions. Imo it should have the highest price, if not the single highest.

You're right, 1000gp then.

 

 

Potion of Evasion

Making it work as the HLA seems a bit OP. I'm not sure how it would be rationalized but I would restrict the things avoided to spells 3rd level and lower and comparable effects. A kind of lesser evasion. Either that or reduce the duration to a few rounds.

I'm afraid you're correct.

Well, I could reduce duration to 5 rounds but then I fear it would be of little use. Reducing it to 3rd lvl and lower spells is even worse because you'd be left with a simple Protection from Fireball/Call Lightning effect.

 

RR made it an HLA but Evasion is a 3rd edition ability rogues get at 2nd lvl, as a permanent feature. Speaking of its effectiveness I'd say it's comparable to a 3rd or 4th lvl spell: we've made it not work against tons of effects it protects from in PnP (e.g. Acid/Flame Arrow, traps, ...) and it's easy to understand its power when you notice that it works as a Lesser (much lesser) SI:Evocation. Potion of Magic Shielding is WAY more powerful than this, and in most encounters Potion of Freedom and Potion of Clarity are considerably more useful. Am I wrong?

 

 

Potion of Clarity

Grants immunity to Hold, but desc says nothing about it. Intended?

Otoh more immunities provided will allow to include painlessly the potion into DS, same slot as Chaotic Commands. Thing is, CC has more immunities and thus should overwrite potion's effect, but in the current system CC is assigned the stat value of 1 (and AI dances from it), so making the potion 2 would fool AI into thinking the user is under more potent CC.

Mmm...are you suggesting to make it fully match Chaotic Commands (which I've currently renamed Impregnable Mind within SR V4)? I've nothing against it, especially if it improves "AI compatibility"...or I can simply remove the spurious immunity to Hold and leave it as per vanilla game.

[yarpen]

Mmm...are you suggesting to make it fully match Chaotic Commands (which I've currently renamed Impregnable Mind within SR V4)? I've nothing against it, especially if it improves "AI compatibility"...or I can simply remove the spurious immunity to Hold and leave it as per vanilla game.

I hope I still have my most awesome BAM for this spell. ^^'

[Ardanis]

Potion of Clarity

Mmm...are you suggesting to make it fully match Chaotic Commands (which I've currently renamed Impregnable Mind within SR V4)? I've nothing against it, especially if it improves "AI compatibility"...or I can simply remove the spurious immunity to Hold and leave it as per vanilla game.

If it matches CC and thus can be included into DS, I'd be able to script friendly NPCs into using it when appropriate. PoC in fact is the only real problem with them, everything else can be worked around (I don't trust timers in this matter, because of possible successful dispels).

 

A bit problematic it also must work without IR installed...

[Ardanis]

Potion of Evasion

RR made it an HLA but Evasion is a 3rd edition ability rogues get at 2nd lvl, as a permanent feature. Speaking of its effectiveness I'd say it's comparable to a 3rd or 4th lvl spell: we've made it not work against tons of effects it protects from in PnP (e.g. Acid/Flame Arrow, traps, ...) and it's easy to understand its power when you notice that it works as a Lesser (much lesser) SI:Evocation. Potion of Magic Shielding is WAY more powerful than this, and in most encounters Potion of Freedom and Potion of Clarity are considerably more useful. Am I wrong?

Not wrong, but thing is, the potion becomes alot more powerful than a HLA, if we take IR and RR. Unless you plan to revise it for KR.

 

PS Bah, I thought I was editing the previous post...

[Incantatar]

I feel it's quite disappointing that you took away the spell learning advantage of potion of genius and mind focusing.

1. Scrolls are more expensive and i guess certain scrolls are still very rare.or even unavailable till the end game. I.e. the sorcerer class has even more advantages over mages with IR than without.

2. Some people don't like to change the difficulty slider at all or tweak spell learning failure away.

3. With the non-stacking ability mages with poor or medium intelligence will still have spell failure even with +4/+7 intelligence

[Shaitan]

I still don't get how a potion could boost your intelligence.

 

In my game missing those int boosting potions only added to the overall feel of playing a RPG.

 

I'm sure that somehow changing those specifik potions can be avoided, commenting them out or some such.

[Incantatar]

I still don't get how a potion could boost your intelligence.

 

In my game missing those int boosting potions only added to the overall feel of playing a RPG.

 

I'm sure that somehow changing those specifik potions can be avoided, commenting them out or some such.

 

It depends on playstyle. I often play mages and usually noreload. Even with 1% spell failure i see many spells fizzle and this can be devastating. Also spending 15k for a single spell and seeing it fizzle away is your definition of rpg fun? Ok, i personally don't think it's fun.

[Shaitan]

No, fun isn't the right word. I avoid reloading if possible, in the same manner I treat a fizzled scroll.

[Ardanis]

Some fresh thoughts off the top of my head.

 

Holy Water

Already exists as a semi-quest item, but does nothing by itself. Imo it should be throwable, 2d6 damage to undead in 5'. Also it may be consumed for, hmm... protection from undead (AC/saves) and bless for 1/2 - 1 turn?

 

Cursed potions

Strong beneficial and equally hindering effect? BG1 has red and violet potions, Potion of Stone Form also had a penalty to DEX in vanilla.

 

I understand, however, that coming up with new combinations may be harder than it seems. Therefore...

 

Frenzywater

When consumed by barbarian or berserker character, they receive free rage effect. Other characters become enraged as per Minsc's ability.

 

This is quite close to the Potion of Rage, however

 

Fatigue Cure

Dunno how it should be called. I thought it was elven wine, but looking the latter up in the rulebook proved me wrong. This potion would refresh the drinker and infuse him with extra energy, curing the tiredness and restoring 5 HP.

[kreso]

This is probably necroposting - but - would it be a crazy idea if drinking a potion makes the user "paused" for a brief amount of time? What I really dislike about potions is that they're so powerful that they tend to make all healing spells pretty obsolete. This way, they'd be useful, but not something one would easilly do in the thick of combat ("I've got a Glabrezu behind me, a Pit Fiend at 3 o'clock, but wait unitl I open up the darn bottle... )

[Jarno Mikkola]

would it be a crazy idea if drinking a potion makes the user "paused" for a brief amount of time? What I really dislike about potions is that they're so powerful that they tend to make all healing spells pretty obsolete. This way, they'd be useful, but not something one would easilly do in the thick of combat ("I've got a Glabrezu behind me, a Pit Fiend at 3 o'clock, but wait unitl I open up the darn bottle... )

Generally the potion effects should abide the same rules as spell casting, making them ones per turn and you can't actually cast any other spells or abilities either... not that it matters much in the out come as the player can run a bit and thus neutralize it's opponents as they attack each others.