Potions

Potions are brewed liquids that give whoever drinks them magical or spell-like abilities, generally lasting 40 plus d20 minutes, though healing is permanent. Each potion starts with an expensive base of one pint of clear water, a dram apiece of powdered gold, silver and copper, and a carat apiece of seven powdered gems, which an alchemist may replace with 2 drams of Rare Earths. Brewing requires a mortar and pestle, a small cauldron or alembic and a furnace; every potion takes a week and succeeds 90% of the time plus 1% per level, to a 99% maximum. The skill costs 2,000 XP and can be learned from a tutor by anyone who already knows Read Magic, Philtres, and Magical Mixtures or Herbal Elixirs.

While fermenting, a potion is unstable, with a 1% chance of mishap from the second through the seventh day. Herbs of a similar nature may stand in for rare animal ingredients, but that doubles the base and lowers the success chance by 25%. The minimum price for a potion is 400 GP, higher if the ingredients were expensive.

The recipes call on gems and monster parts. There are potions of healing, made from jade and troll's blood (3-24 points), regeneration, ogre or giant strength, speed (each dose ages the drinker one year), flying, gaseous form, ESP, magic resistance and water breathing, along with immunities to fire, cold, poison, petrification and magical control. Control potions allow the drinker to command 1-4 creatures of a single type, which become hostile once the effect ends. Adding powdered fly, black cat's hair, bat's wing and mercury makes any potion cursed or reversed, and tests and spells frequently fail to detect the change.