DIY 30 #15: Three Potions

Continuing the thought that I tend to think of items as magic swords or magic rings, here are three potions to offset my predilections:


Potion of Elemental Fury
These potions imbue the drinker with the power of one of the four dominant types of elementals (fire, water, earth, air; roll a d4 to randomly determine the type associated with the potion). A fire potion burns as it goes down and fills the drinker with a fiery heat; an earth potion is gritty like thick coffee, and fills the drinker with a sense of gravity and deep connection; a water potion tastes of seawater, but fills the drinker with a sense of liquid grace; an air potion seems but a breath of heavy gas which leaves the drinker light-headed and with a sense of "floating".

All potions of elemental fury cause a creature to fight as a staff elemental of the potion's type (AC 2, HD 8, unarmed damage 1-8), but each potion also grants additional abilities appropriate to its type:
-- fire grants fire immunity, so that even magical fire attacks deal no damage;
-- earth grants regeneration of 1 hit point per round, and poison immunity so that poisons do not affect the drinker;
-- water grants waterbreathing and immunity to any kind of gas-based spell, e.g. cloudkill or stinking cloud;
-- air grants the ability to fly, as well as protection from normal missiles as the spell

Characters affected by a potion of elemental fury are incapable of breaking through a circle of protection against elementals like that created by a scroll of protection versus elementals.


Memory Moss
Not a potion per se, but a "helping" of obliviax (memory moss), this black mold can easily be swallowed over the course of a melee round. It is alive with the "memory" of one spell from 1st to 3rd level (determine level randomly with a d6, so 1-3 is 1st level, 4-5 is 2nd level, 6 is 3rd, and roll the spell randomly once level is determined). The only way to know what spell is contained within is to eat the moss.

A character eating the moss gains the ability to use the spell contained within as if they were a magic-user that had memorized it (i.e. just the once). Even a fighter or a thief could eat the moss and thus be able to cast the spell, but neither such character would be able to cast the spell while wearing armor.

There is, of course, the risk of attaining undesired memories by eating memory moss. A successful save versus spells allows a character to ignore such alien memories, but the referee is free to create new plot hooks or strange behavioral hang-ups for those who fail the save ...


Dweomer Potion
Without access to a good reference library, this potion is night worthless; such a potion, dripped over an enchanted item, throws off certain auras and other magical signs that may be cross-referenced in the correct tomes to identify the magic item's properties. The potion is viscous and tastes vaguely of salts and minerals; anyone with memorized spells will cause it to react as it would to a magic item, such that the dwimmers give off an aura and a slight scent of ozone.

Each potion contains enough material to identify 2-7 items or potions. Characters with extensive libraries for magical research (worth 5000+ gp), or perhaps specific encyclopedias, will have a decent or better chance to succeed with the potion for themselves, using their own reference works.

Sages will always buy these potions, though they will talk the price down as much as possible. It is up to the sellers to determine its real worth for the buyer.


Love Potion
Bonus potion, don't forget love potions. They're good for role-playing, and/or for getting players to come up with creative ways to get past encounters using them.