Encyclopedia Magical: Alchemy Rules

Alchemy

Magic potions require sacrifice of magic points or power and enchantments rolls during the manufacturing process.

Alchemy (00)

Lore Skill (Medium)

Alchemy is the theoretical skill associated with potions and their ingredients. A successful check in this skill will allow a character to identify proper ingredients and determine the general effect a particular set of ingredients may have on a subject. It may also be used to determine as to what ingredients maybe substituted to achieve the same or similar result.

Alchemy is a Lore Skill that can be acquired by training as per normal rules. A character can become an apprentice to a Master Alchemist. If done during previous experience this gives the normal benefits plus 6 weeks of tuition per year. To be accepted as an apprentice a character must have positive Knowledge, and Magic modifiers.

Learning a Recipe

Each recipe is a separate Knowledge skill (medium) and must be learned separately. The potion's skill percentage/5 determines the POT of the potion which can be manufactured by the Alchemist. An Alchemical recipe must be learned in a process similar to learning a sorcery spell and is checkable, but does not require free intelligence. A character may know as many recipes as he wishes.

Potion cost

As a general rule the standard price for magical potions starts at 5L and increases at each POT. The price varies of course based on ingredients and location. The cost of manufacturing is for a batch, irrespective of the number of potions created at one time. The cost to manufacture a single dose is 1/5 that of a batch.

• 1 - 5L
• 2 - 10L
• 3 - 25L
• 4 - 50L
• 5 - 100L
• 6 - 150L
• 7 - 200L
• 8 - 300L
• 9 - 400L
• 10 - 650L
• +250L /POT to 20

A 'potion' is not necessarily a liquid in a bottle; it could be a pill, powder or ointment, whatever. To change a potion into a paste requires reduction of 3 doses = 1 paste, reduction to powder is 6 doses = 1 powder, reduction to solid is 9 doses = 1 solid. It takes a full day to manufacture a potion in liquid form.

Potions are indivisible in strength. Putting a Heal 4 potion into two smaller bottles gives two bottles of colored water, not two Heal 2's.

Time to manufacture

The amount of time to manufacture a potions varies based on its potency, the more potent the potion the longer it must be cooked. As a quick guide a potion takes its price in L/10 in hours to create. For example a POT 1 potion can be whipped up in 1/2 an hour while a POT 10 one would take almost 3 days of preparation.

Apothecary

Mundane potions are non-magical concoctions, which derive their effect thought the base properties of the ingredients.

Apothecary (10)

This is the skill used in preparing, brewing, reducing, etc. of various compounds. This is the skill used to manufacture both magical and mundane concoctions. The level of success determines if the proper ingredients have been successfully combined to yield the desired results. Assuming an abundance of ingredients a normal success will produce 2d6 doses, a special 1d6+6 doses, a critical will yield 1d6+6 doses at 1d6 POT higher, a failure 1d6 doses at -1 POT, a fumble will waste the ingredients with no benefit and may cause other damage.

Learning a mundane recipe.

Mundane recipe does not have a separate skill associated with it. Once the proper recipe is found and the ingredients are acquired a successful Apothecary Craft check is all what is necessary to create the potion.

The potion can be made weaker or stronger with the appropriate adjustment to the amount of ingredients used. This may or may not have stronger or weaker effects.

Mundane potion cost.

The cost of a mundane potion is based strictly on the availability of the ingredients and the skill of the Alchemist.

Alchemist Equipment

Some handy tools for alchemists to have include:

• Small Bottles
• Pouches
• Parchment and Pen
• Gloves
• Recipe Book
• Flasks (all sizes)
• Mixing Stick
• Food Color
• Wood Bowls or Plates
• Mortar and Pestle

Overall Rules for Alchemical, Herbal, and Poison Compounds:

1 Vial = 1 Ounce = 1 Hit Point = 10 Seconds to collect. You may collect 1 Vial of blood from a creature for each 10 hit points the creature has. (This assumes most blood is spoiled during combat or the collection process, so only a small amount is actually useful as a component.)

Blood and other simple bodily fluids can be collected provided the character makes his Animal Lore roll. Any non-liquid body parts require the Butchery skill to collect.

Some Rare components are gathered from living beings (blood, body parts, etc.). These components must be "First Grown", which means they must be the original part the person was born with. If a creature has a body part removed, then regenerated, that re-grown part is not eligible for a component. If a creature dies, and is resurrected, the whole body is considered "original" and any body parts may be harvested again.

Any component that is biological in nature (Blood, teeth, leaf, bark, etc.) will gradually lose its properties unless preserved. A component will become useless one hour after being removed from the creature, or the creature's death, or being removed from its source.

Taste Analysis (00)

Perception (Medium)

This skill is used to identify alchemical potions and other substances by means of tasting or smelling a very small, harmless amount of the sample.

It can be increased through experience, taught or researched.

The user can only identify substances that he has previously encountered, otherwise he can only hazard an educated guess at what the substance is. If he succeeds in the skill and has not met the substance before the GM must tell him that it is probably a particular substance, but he is not sure. It is up to the GM or to other PCs, if they are doing the training, to determine what substances have been encountered. Most training will cover standard potions, poisons and substances as those are the most frequently encountered.

The user can only identify the potency of the substance within a certain range, giving an idea of the strength of the potion. I play that a normal success gives ranges of very strong, strong, normal, weak, very weak etc., special success gives potency in the ranges of 1-5, 6-10, 11-15, 16-20 and so on, a critical success gives the exact potency.

A fumble with the skill means that the user is affected by the potion - he swallowed the Hydra Venom or the Impotency Potion.