Let's Talk About Potions in 5e!

I recently asked y'all about bonus action potions on the community tab and you had OPINIONS, so let's talk about it!
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[@dylanhyatt5705]

The 4e approach of Minor Actions instead of 'Bonus Actions' was so much more logical, and the Healing Surges not only allowed for flexibility but also added an interesting attrition mechanic as they burn down until you take a rest.

[@Numbers257]

For my games, I use bonus action healing since healing in combat with potions is usually inconsequential and also gives them more use than being hoarded. My players also have the option of either action or bonus action which just gives them the freedom to choose. However, one interesting change I decided to do was inspired by a house rule of my DM which is that an action provides the full benefit but a bonus is a normal roll. I'm not a huge fan of it for my games but I liked the idea behind it. So what I did instead was have it be that during combat, you roll but outside of combat, you get half the full benefit. It's supposed make it feel like you're drinking it haphazardly in combat but, outside of it, you give yourself the time to drink it alongside time to process and feel the benefit that a standard potion should provide for your body. But, not all potions are made entirely equal so you roll the other half. For example, 2d4 + 2 is 1d4 + 6 outside of combat. It seems like it could be "complicated" to do on the spot so I made a table for my players so it's an easier time for them to see what they roll.

[@cameronmarshall-straw6627]

The argument between "should I heal or attack" is complicated somewhat by the fact that dnd characters do full damage at 100hp vs 1hp, and the same applies to opponents. Additionally, the amount of healing you can get from a single healing potion, particularly a standard "common" potion, is less than the damage output of whatever enemies you are going up against. This was a real problem in DnD 3.5 and Pathfinder 1st edition which I spent a lot of time playing, and similar arguments over if it is worth casting a healing spell. In general the consensus was no, it wasn't worth it

[@IcarusGames]

It's why I'm a fan of bonus action potions as it means you don't have to sacrifice your almost always more precious attack to get some healing in.

[@cameronmarshall-straw6627]

@@IcarusGames agreed, bonus action healing makes it a lot better

[@DNDHotTakes]

Making potions be a bonus action fundamentally changes the economy of the game. 5e as it is gives no in-combat benefits to being rich outside of plate mail and to a lesser extent spell scrolls. With this change you now have to consider that the more gold you give your players the more powerful they will be. I think there is a design space for potions or perphaps a subtype of potions being a BA but I think the potions should be designed specifically with that in mind, meaning they should be balanced to be comparable to other BA options.

[@IcarusGames]

I mean, at least it will give the players *something* that they will want to spend their gold on in 5e 😂

[@davec1]

@@IcarusGames I can see a setting that is all about alchemy and the power of potions and adventurers binge-drinking potions with side-effects, interactions, addiction etc. where characters spending their gold on potions is an integral and interesting part of the experience! :-) whether 5e in a generic setting benefits so much from this particular solution to the problem of "what's money worth if you can't do anything useful with it?", I'm not sure...

[@xxTerraPrimexx]

2 minutes in :) I go with bonus action healing potions, full amount as an action. Everything else is an action, I find that a potion of speed as a bonus action is too strong in my opinion.

[@IcarusGames]

Potion of speed as a bonus action is very powerful (I hoard every one I can find in BG3 because they are so powerful!) But the easy way to control that as the GM is by controlling how many of those potions you give your players access to!

[@xxTerraPrimexx]

@@IcarusGames Whilst a totally fair comment, I like using the kibbles crafting so they end up making their own supply ahahah (oh and for the potion of speed in BG3, if you throw it on the floor you can AoE cast concentration free haste :') ) Sbut yes I totally agree for a normal game controlling the flow is a great way to go.

[@andischipelbaum5338]

Hi Anto, I've used the potions as a BA since I first saw one of your KZbin vids suggesting it as a house rule and I think it works really well. I will actively mitigate that with the "2 slots on a belt" option being utilised to the point that if a character is running and jumping around, there is a risk of cracking, breaking or losing these two potions on their belt slots. In general, I've found it enables some more gritty damage opportunities in combat as players will try to "reserve" at least 1 slot for healing so they have some healing ability available. With regards to @xxTerPrimexx's comment below, I tend to run reasonably low magic campaigns so if a party managed to find enough potions of speed to load on their belt slots, then more power to them. Having the safer backpack storage option generally means I don't see any major issues with how this idea augments the 5th Ed action economy. I've yet to make the leap with playing with Pathfinder 2E so I don't know the effect there.

[@krelraz5486]

I feel that BA healing potions are the wrong answer and I'll die on that hill. I agree that they feel bad to burn an action on, especially when you deal 100% damage at full health and 1 health. We also want to encourage more potion use in general so that they don't get hoarded. You can address this in two ways, lowering the cost, or increasing the effect. Potions have two costs. First is availability. This is going to vary wildly based on gold, the adventure, and most importantly the GM. We can't do too much to modify here. The other cost is its action cost. When it gets downgraded to a bonus action, that is sometimes equivalent to a free action since many classes don't have a bonus action. So they have to give up nothing for it. Even the classes that do use bonus actions typically aren't giving up much. My proposal is to increase the effect. Make it WORTH it to take a defensive action instead of just attacking again. This can come in many flavors, increasing healing is the most obvious. You can also tack on additional effects. Temporary HP? Bake it into the dodge action? Grant advantage on their next attack? Grant an immediate save against an ongoing effect(s)? Any of those are fine, maybe even let the player choose from a few. Now potions are interesting and players can feel good about using them.

[@davec1]

Making in-combat healing efficient in a large variety of cases rather than just in special circumstances is problematic because it leads to even longer combat. This may be fine for an MMORPG, a genre which I suspect has contributed a lot to the imho erroneous notion that combat healers offer interesting gameplay in D&D and that the holy trinity of classes is a thing. But a lot of people already feel like after a few levels combat in 5e can feel like a slog (that takes a lot of real-world time to play out). I think hitpoints and health systems would have to be completely redesigned and gain complexity in order for "in combat, HP might just as well go up, rather than down" to lead to interesting gameplay. That's why I think making in-combat (hitpoint-) healing inefficient was a good and deliberate design decision and I'm actually not sure if the latest Unearthed Arcana playtest with buffed healing spells is going in the right direction in this regard. That's also why I'm a bit apprehensive about unlimited bonus-action potion drinking, among other things because if humanoid opponents also do that then its easy to picture absurdly long fights where everybody attacks, then heals up, round after round. Seems videogamey, and, more importantly, needlessly extending the duration of combat in an uninteresting way. Of course there's a lot of elements interacting here, if potions aren't super abundant, it might be fine.