dailyadventureprompts: Mechanic: Crafting pt 2, Consumables and Magical Items In the first part of t
dailyadventureprompts: Mechanic: Crafting pt 2, Consumables and Magical Items In the first part of this post I expressed my frustration with how clunky crafting in d&d usually is and offered a few fixes. In this post I’ll continue by tackling consumable items like scrolls and potions, and how more modern notions of game design can remove burdensome inventory management and turn the process of alchemy into its own delightful minigame. Here’s some points about consumables in no particular order: No one likes how healing potions are implemented in 5e. They’re so necessary to the game that they’re one of the few magical items parties are allowed to buy, but no one enjoys having to scrounge around town looking for the merchant who sells them OR having to jump through so many hoops to make them. Players should be able to produce their own supply of healing potions, and that should be factored into the game. There’s a natural instinct to horde consumable items in case they’re useful later, which invariably leads to them not being used/forgotten about. Healing potions are ALWAYS applicable given how much fighting a party is liable to do, but anything situational has a risk of being totally forgotten. See Skyrim, BotW, or any JRPG where the main character’s pockets get completely filled with useless basic healing items by the end of the game. To counteract this bloat, lets look at things like decoctions from the witcher, or the estus flask from darksouls, which give the player a set resource at the start of each “deployment” and test their ability to ration or utilize these resources at their disgression. I’d much rather have a gameplay loop where a party starts in town all loaded up with potions and useful gadgets and slowly gets whittled down to nothing over time. I’ve more than once said that a party’s equipment are like a second suite of class abilities that offer infinitely more customization. While obviously you don’t want to drown your party in powerful options, 5e’s move to restrict items cut off a lot of that customization which left a lot of characters in the lurch. Following on from that, letting the party replenish their consumable items lets them come to a better understanding of their mechanical toybox, and gives them more encouragement to seek out new items. Consumable items that are NOT replaceable should generally be fairly powerful, so it’s actually worth the party doing the Risk V Reward calculations. We need way more types of consumables than just potions and scrolls. sure alchemy items have been part of the game for a while, but what about whetstones/weapon oils? Great food to take on the road? Incense and candles? Clockwork wizbangs? Having these sorts of items only restockable in certain settlements/large enough markets encourages the party to revisit places they’ve previously passed through if it means topping up their gear. So, without further ado, here’s how I’m running Consumable items from now on: Rather than crafting an individual item ( check my original post or below the cut for a refresher on how I do crafting rules) Completing a consumable in crafting represents you completing/researching a formulae that will allow you to quickly produce the item in the future, requiring only a few uses of the relevant crafting kit and a number of work periods based on the rarity of the base item. I’d also highly suggest using this brilliant system of “Depletion Dice” for potions rather than tracking individual uses. It takes a little while for players to wrap their heads around, but it grants a lot more utility to a crafter than single use items. Also below the cut: Crafting magical items, the genius upgrade system that WOTC invented completely by accident. Keep reading -- source link