Arcanists and Apothecaries (POSM)

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Arcanists and Apothecaries Most large towns in a typical AD&D campaign support one or two apothecaries, herbalists, alchemists, wise women, occultists, or hedge wizards. These shopkeepers make their living by providing minor enchantments, charms, or herbal mixtures to the townspeople. For the most part, the services and goods offered by these merchants are of little interest to the typical adventurer, but they can be excellent sources of spell components, and from time to time they may purchase magical items from player characters or have an odd item for sale.
In addition to the sellers of mundane herbs, minerals, and charms, a few large cities may support an arcanist's shop. An arcanist is a merchant who trades in items of interest to wizards, including spell components, books and parchment suitable for spell books, and magical items. Arcanists are sometimes sponsored by a large wizard's guild and are most frequently found in cities where wizards are well-regarded and fairly common.
==Alchemists==
The great majority of alchemists are 0-level characters, as opposed to mages or specialists in the school of alchemy. They are skilled in the nonweapon proficiency of alchemy, but cannot cast spells or manufacture potions or magical items. What common alchemists can do is create nonmagical chemical mixtures that may be useful to an adventuring party, or provide a character with the opportunity to purchase spell components from the mineral list at the listed cost. Of course, the laws of supply and demand apply; the alchemist will charge what he can get for materials that his customers can't get anywhere else.
Some of the alchemists' other wares include the following:
Acid: Through careful distillation, alchemists can brew potent acid. (See the proficiency description, Chapter 4 .) A flask-full of acid can command anywhere from 50 to 100 or (1d6+4) x 10 gold pieces, while a vial might sell for 10 to 40 gp.
Incendiaries: These dangerous concoctions range from flammable oils and pitches to nasty stuff like naphtha or Greek fire. Again, refer to the description of the alchemist nonweapon proficiency in Chapter 4 . A flask of an incendiary substance usually costs 10 to 30 gp.
Pyrotechnics: Unlike the previous two substances, pyrotechnic mixtures are often powders. They can be used to create clouds of smoke of a variety of colors, or bright flashes of light when added to an existing fire. A vial of pyrotechnic mixture costs 5 to 20 (5d4) gp, while a flask costs anywhere from 10 to 30 gp.
==Apothecaries and Herbalists==
At first glance, these may seem to be two completely different occupations, but they share similar roles in the community. Both apothecaries and herbalists provide medicines for people suffering from a variety of ailments, and a great portion of these remedies are derived from various plants, herbs, and roots. Townspeople go to apothecaries or herbalists for pain relievers, poultices, purgatives and laxatives, and all other kinds of medicines.
Adventurers find that apothecaries and herbalists are excellent sources of spell components, especially from the common, herb, and animal specimen lists. In addition, apothecaries sometimes serve as dealers in odds-and-ends in smaller towns, and a magical item such as a potion or ring may occasionally turn up in their possession. This is an unusual occurrence, so player characters might have the opportunity to examine or purchase an item only once or twice in a campaign year from any given apothecary. Refer to the list of the most common magical items , at the end of this chapter.
In addition to their trade in spell components and the rare magical item, apothecaries and herbalists can create medicinal mixtures with the following properties:
Healing salve: This ointment contains herbs that help to stop bleeding and close a wound, as well as infection-fighting properties. Applying the salve to a character with open cuts or bleeding wounds (not crushing or bludgeoning injuries) restores 1 hit point per separate wound or injury. For example, if a character was struck three times in the course of a melee, three applications of salve could restore 3 lost hit points. Healing salve costs 5 to 20 gold pieces per application.
Healing poultice: This compress helps to reduce swelling and bruising. It has the same effect as healing salve when applied to impact injuries and costs 10 to 30 gold pieces per poultice.
Poison antidote: A herbalist or apothecary can prepare an antidote to one specific natural toxin, such as a rattlesnake bite or the sting of a giant wasp. The apothecary must have some idea of what will help the victim, so rare or unusual venoms (such as the giant wasp mentioned above) may be completely unknown. If the character knows an antidote, the herbalist or apothecary can prepare a dose that will remain good for 1 to 4 days at a cost of 20 to 80 gp. The poison antidote allows the victim to reroll his saving throw vs. poison with a +2 bonus, if it is administered within five rounds of the poisoning. Naturally, it is only effective against the specific toxin it was prepared for.
==Wise Women and Hedge Wizards==
Every village or hamlet has its own resident "witch" or "wizard," or a person who claims command of magical powers and knowledge of herbs, spells, and charms. In a few cases, these characters are actually low-level magic-users, but more often they're fakes or charlatans. Most of these wise women or hedge wizards are 0-level characters with the herbalism and healing proficiencies. They can sell spell components from the herb, animal specimen, and common lists, although they often have no idea what a particular herb or item might be good for.
Wise women and hedge wizards may be capable of creating healing salves and poultices, as described above. In addition, they can create minor charms or fetishes. These are temporary magical items about as powerful as a typical cantrip. Good examples would include a "love amulet," that raised the wearer's Charisma (Cha/Appearance) by 1 or 2 points, but only in the eyes of one particular subject whose hair was used in the making of the charm; a charm that discouraged mice or insects from entering a kitchen or pantry; or a small totem that brought the user good luck (a +1 bonus) on his next saving throw against a specific threat, such as fire, poison, or resisting mental spells. A charm costs anywhere from 5 to 50 gold pieces, and retains its enchantment for 1 to 4 days.
==Arcanist==
Only the largest cities can support an arcanist, or a shopkeeper who deals solely in magical reagents, components, and the occasional enchanted item. An arcanist can provide spell components from any list, and also a number of other generally useful items for a wizard—paper, vellum, parchment, ink, quills, alchemical supplies and equipment, and other such things.
Because arcanists have a clientele of wizards, they are willing to buy magical items and rare or unusual materials that could be useful as spell components. Player characters may sell components for 30% to 80% or (1d6+2) x 10% of their listed value. Magical items can be sold for whatever price the DM deems fair, although a PC selling a magical item should not be able to make more than twice the item's experience point value from the sale. In fact, it's perfectly reasonable for the DM to rule that the seller must sell by consignment—in other words, the arcanist agrees to display the item and handle any inquiries about it for a 10% share of the asking price, but he won't buy it outright. Until another customer comes along to show an interest in the item, the PC seller makes no money. Note that magical items are rare, and from week to week the arcanist has no idea what may or may not show up in his shop.
==Buying, Selling, and Trading Magical Items==
Buying, Selling, and Trading Magical Items
In most AD&D campaigns, magical items are rare enough that it is nearly inconceivable that people would buy or sell them like any other commodity. For various
reasons, magical items tend to be concentrated in the hands of player characters and their principal enemies. This means that the PCs never really experience the true scarcity of enchanted items and lose the sense of wonder that most people in their world would feel at even seeing a magical sword, a wand, or a nifty item like a carpet of flying.
The effect of this scarcity is simple: Allowing the player characters to purchase or trade magical items is a privilege, and a rare one at that. It's an opportunity that comes along quite infrequently in a campaign, and in many cases it should be an opportunity that the players spent time and adventuring to create. In other words, if a player decides that his character wants to find a ring of fire resistance and purchase it, there should be a lot more involved than a stroll down to the corner store. The character might have to hire a sage and spend weeks running down the chain of possession of the last known ring of fire resistance to appear in the area, and then he may have to locate its current owner and make an extremely generous offer—including trading magical items of his own, or undertaking some quest or service for the prospective seller—to have a chance of purchasing the ring.
If the character is content to check in with the nearest arcanist once in a while, it could take months or years before the arcanist happened to stumble across the item the character was looking for—and even then, someone else might be interested in the same item. A bidding war, threats, or outright assassination attempts could result from two wealthy characters both trying to acquire the same item.
Selling items isn't always easy, either. The PCs have to locate a buyer, and then agree on a fair price. Nobody in a small village will have the money required to buy a real magical item, and even a prosperous town may only have two or three individuals who could afford to buy what the PCs are offering for sale. Items such as potions or rings tend to be easier to sell, since anyone can use them, but books, wands, staves, or other items suited for priests or wizards only will be much more difficult to sell. In any event, the PCs are likely to see only 30% to 80% of their asking price for any given item, and they may have to demonstrate that the item works (or pay for an identify spell from a neutral party) in order to clinch the sale.
The Cost of Magical Items: Enchanted items are rare and valuable. Without exception, they are the rarest and most expensive commodities to be found in a fantasy setting. They are valued accordingly. Even if a character happens to locate a magical item for sale (an extremely rare event), the cost of the item is usually prohibitive, to say the least. As a basic rule of thumb, magical items should be worth anywhere from 5 to 20 times the listed experience point value, and a minimum of 200 gp for one-use items, or 1,000 gp for persistent items. In many cases, the DM should set the cost for an item at a significant percentage of the character's total wealth—if someone has the only magical ring for sale in the entire kingdom, they're going to demand a huge sum for it, even if it's only a ring of protection +1.
In addition to the money involved, a character may have to offer a magical item of similar value in trade, or offer to perform a service or undertake a quest to sweeten the deal for the seller. Regardless of the final deal struck, a player character should be careful of switches, swindles, or reneging; more than one adventurer has gone to his death believing that a brass ring with Nystul's magical aura is a ring of wishes or spell turning.