Herbal Elixirs

Herbal elixirs are water-based brews that act much like potions but fade far sooner, usually after d6+4 minutes. The maker grinds fresh or dried herbs with a mortar and pestle and heats them over a fire in a fluid ounce of clear water. Each takes 1-4 hours, or half that for an alchemist, and ready-made elixirs sell for 200 GP or more. Anyone can learn the art from a tutor for 2,000 XP if they already know Herb Lore and either Herbal Remedies or Philtres.

The effects are varied. Some boost the drinker: Charisma or Strength up by 1-4, Heroism (racial maximum Strength and Will), Luck (+1 on all saves), unearthly beauty for a woman, sight sharp enough to pick out tiny details a mile away, flight, invisibility, a charming gaze, and a mistletoe brew that adds 50% to picking locks even for the untrained. Others reveal things: detecting illusion, answering one yes-or-no question, sensing danger within a 100-foot area, putting three truthful questions to someone dead less than a day, or acting as a truth serum. Elixirs of Protection keep a named kind of threat (disease, evil, lightning, lycanthropes, serpents, spirits, vampires and others) from coming within a foot of the drinker, and Elixirs of Resistance give +2 saves against magic, necromancy or witchcraft. A juniper elixir sprinkled over food, drink or a mixture makes any poison in it harmless.