Goodman Games

How available do you make low ish level magic items such as healing potions? My group are all around third level and got quite a haul of gold after their last adventure and have raised this question. On the one hand I do not want to make things too easy for them. The danger of the system is quite fun and I don’t want to lose that. On the other hand, things like healing potions exist so some magic orientated entrepreneurs must be selling them.

Or they don't. Or they are 'lost technology', so that, yeah, you may find some out there, but no one knows how to make them reliably... Maybe the ones they try to make 'nowadays' have a 10-20% of harming you.


If I had the power to heal people, I wouldn't be selling things in the marketplace, with an eye on a nice retirement eventually. I'd set myself up with a little fiefdom -- 'Come get cured! Of whatever ails you! Simply pledge fealty to Lord Gnomeboy!" I'd never want for anything again, because I could get people to give me whatever I wanted for the sake of magical healing.

Of course, when I say "I", I just mean a generic example of someone who had such a thing as a healing potion.

Or do I...??

...maybe I should change my name to Pfizerboy...


But if there are going to be healing potions out there, they should be hard to come by (risky effort to obtain them) or have possible side-effects/drawbacks ("yes, you're healed, but your natural healing is now all thrown off and slowed down. You'll need more healing potions in order to get healed again...").

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Gnome Boy • DCC playtester @ DDC 35 Feb '11. • Beta DL 2111, 7AM PT, 8 June 11.
Playing RPGs since '77 • Quasi-occasional member of the Legion of 8th-Level Fighters.

Link: Here Be 100+ DCC Monsters

If they have a huge pile of gold you need to get rid of then sell them a couple of healing potions. Charge them a kings ransom and then have the seller disappear. A couple of potions won't break the game and it will make the players happy. They will also be broke and ready to adventure again for more gold and glory.

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"When creating your character,choose an ethical system that can justify nearly any fit of temper, greed, cowardice, or vindictiveness, for example, Chaotic Violent..."

THE PROTOCOLS, ADVANCED PROTOCOL #10

That also works.

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Gnome Boy • DCC playtester @ DDC 35 Feb '11. • Beta DL 2111, 7AM PT, 8 June 11.
Playing RPGs since '77 • Quasi-occasional member of the Legion of 8th-Level Fighters.

Link: Here Be 100+ DCC Monsters

I kind of like the idea of some kind of tonic or concoction that is rare that doesn't heal hitpoints, but could give the player temporary hitpoints for the day, but they feel sick the next morning.

I also like having salves or balms that increase the natural healing rate from resting a day.

As far as healing 'potions' go, I reserve those for extreme situations, like if I'm running people through a one-off tourny-style dungeon. In a campaign I would have there be a powerful wizard with the 'sorceror's stone' who can make healing elixers, for a price of course. Players might try stealing the sorceror's stone for themselves, but that could be a deadly encounter, and even if they have it they probably wont have the knowledge or resources to use it.

So the spell "Make Potions" (page 223) is actually a 3rd level spell that can be cast by 5th level Wizards. Considering that 1 out of every 10,000 people is assumed to be a 5th level character and there is no guarantee that that character is a wizard it is safe to assume that it would be several tens of thousands of people for every ONE 5th level wizard. I personally would have the character asking for a healing potion give me a luck roll. This luck roll I would make a DC 15 or 20 (depending on my mood for the day) and if they succeed tell them that they hear a rumor of a grand wizard's tower who has the capability to craft such wondrous items for the party. This sends them on a grand side quest to find the maguffin mage. When they find him he requires the spores from a giant mushroom to cast the spell to create the healing potions they desire in addition he will require either 1000 gold coins (or 50% of party wealth whichever is hire) or a favor to be named at a latter date as his commission. They go on a quest to kill a couple Shroomen who are cultivating a crop of mushrooms in a cave two days to the north and pillage their stores of spores (finding maybe 3d6 usable spore samples). They then go back to the wizard and he makes potions using the reagents they collected and collects his commission. This way the players get to have an adventure and tell stories about how they remember that in DCC to get a couple simple healing potion they had to go on a grand quest and defeat some seriously dangerous monsters. These are the things that make DCC awesome compared to other RPG's where a few gp would solve this problem at the local quick-e-mart.