Alchemy

You have gained the knowledge of how to make potions and tinctures. This is an artisan skill, and follows all the normal rules for Crafting as described above. You may use this skill to craft any potion or alchemical substance which you know the recipe for.

Alchemy is a downtime skill; refer to the Downtime page for the rules on making downtime skill checks, progress clocks, and short, day, and multi-day activities.

## Brewing a Potion

***Prerequisites:** Proficiency with Alchemist's Supplies, and a modifier of +1 or more in at least one of the following skills: Nature, Survival, Medicine, or Arcana.*

When you have the ingredients and facilities, you can spend time and materials to make potions. Your facility must include a worktable, an alchemist’s kit, a supply of water, and a fire large enough to effectively heat your potion. Additionally, you cannot work within a magically Consecrated or Desecrated space. Certain potions may have more specific requirements for workspace.

Each potion you can make has a **Level**, a **GP** **Cost**, and certain required **Materials**. You must know the recipe for a potion before you can craft it. A recipe will list all three of these attributes.

You must obtain all materials required for the potion, as described in its recipe, before you can begin work on the potion. You have the option to forage for natural ingredients, harvest animal and monster parts, or purchase ingredients directly, if you so desire. Rules for this can be found in the **Obtaining Materials** section.

When brewing, you will make a number of Alchemy skill checks, as described in the Crafting page. The number of checks you make is determined by the potion’s level. If you succeed each check, you gain one potion with its effects determined by the recipe. If any of your crafting checks for that potion fail, your efforts and materials are wasted and you must start over.

 **Level 2** | 4 hours
 **Level 3** | 8 hours
 **Level 4** | 24 hours

Alchemist's Stasis

*Transmutation cantrip*

***Casting Time:*** 1 min

***Range:*** Touch

***Components:*** V,S,M (the lid of your brewing vessel)

***Duration:*** Special

You take a moment to settle the magic in the brew you are making, preserving its current state and leaving you free to step away from your work. You may release this stasis as an action while touching your brew.

This spell is a delicate, impermanent stasis; if the potion spends a total amount of time equal to half its crafting time under the influence of this spell, if the potion vessel is broken, or if this spell is dispelled by any means, the potion will destabilize and explode violently. Each creature within 10 feet of the potion must make a DEX save (DC 14) or take a number of d6s of acid damage. The amount of damage dice rolled equals the potion’s level.

#### Potion Level

Each potion recipe has a level, which is a measure of the complexity of the recipe. Higher-level potions require more time (and often more materials) to be invested in their creation. The level of a potion determines the amount of time required to craft it, as well as the amount of skill checks required to finish it, as described below:

#### Pausing a Brew

Some potions require long periods of time to craft. As part of your knowledge, you know how to put a stasis charm on a potion, halting its brewing process. You gain the *Alchemist's Stasis* cantrip, which does not count against the number of cantrips you know from any class.

You may use *Alchemist’s Stasis* to pause your brewing whenever you like, as long as the total time paused during the whole brewing process does not exceed half the crafting time of the potion (see the spell’s description).

#### Leaving a Brew Unattended

If you leave your potion unattended for longer than 1 minute without using *Alchemist’s Stasis*, roll a d3. On a 1, the potion explodes as described in *Alchemist’s Stasis*. On a 2, the potion becomes inert and useless, a wasted effort. On a 3, the potion remains in its unfinished state, and this roll must be made again after 1 minute. If the circumstances make sense, the DM may choose what result occurs at their discretion (ex. the DM declares that the potion becomes inert when the brewer abandons it after only 10 minutes of progress crafting).

### Cauldron Brewing

Once your skill in Alchemy is reached 1d8 or better, you gain the ability to brew potions in bulk, using a cauldron and a more dedicated workspace. When you do this, you quadruple the crafting time and the material cost for your recipe, but the brewing process is a bit more forgiving than brewing single batches.

Over the course of brewing your potion, you will make several downtime skill checks with your Alchemy die, as normal. The recipe's output varies depending on the amount of successful checks you make.

 **Level 2** | 16 hours
 **Level 3** | 32 hours
 **Level 4** | 56 hours

While the potion is brewing, you must attend it, but you can perform any activity that you normally could over a Short Rest. The regular rules for pausing the brewing or leaving it unattended still apply, but the damage of any explosion is multiplied by 3.

## Obtaining Materials

Each potion requires materials of two types: **Base Materials**, which consist of natural herbs, powders, and compounds commonly found throughout the world, and **Special Materials**, which are specific magical or rare components that give the potion most of its effects. The higher level the potion, the more ingredients you will need.

Most recipes describe each material’s required quantity in terms of **GP**, or gold pieces. When you obtain ingredients, space or weight is not usually a limiting factor, so you will measure your stock of ingredients by using this cost value.

You can obtain materials in several different ways, as described below.

#### Buying Ingredients

If you wish to buy the ingredients for a potion, you can purchase them at an herbalist’s or alchemist’s shop, or any other shop that would carry the ingredient in question (at the DM’s discretion).

If you want to buy ALL of the ingredients for a potion, there is an easy way to do this. A potion’s GP Cost is not only a measure of what its price might be if sold by a vendor, but is also a measure of its material cost. You can buy all ingredients for a potion by paying half the total value of the potion itself. You will find that the total cost of all base and special materials equals this value.

#### Foraging for Base Materials

All potions share common natural ingredients that can be easily found in most biomes, which can be gathered using the Foraging downtime activity. Refer to the Foraging rules for this.

#### Harvesting Monster Parts

Often, useful potion ingredients can be acquired from slain beasts, particularly magical beasts. When you wish to extract an undamaged sample from a slain monster, roll a Nature or Medicine check. The base DC is up to the DM, but some suggestions are shown below. On a success, you can extract 50 gp worth of material, or more at the DM’s discretion. Higher results should result in higher amounts of material extracted.

 **DC** | 10

#### Other Special Materials

Some potion recipes require unique ingredients or items, such as spell scrolls, raw metal shavings, gemstone dust, or even other potions. In such cases, their cost is still stated in the recipe, but you may have to speak with your DM about how you can obtain those items.

## Recipes

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