The potential power of any potion is limited by the strength of the ingredients used to create it. Alchemical Ingredients have three primary attributes: their school, strength, and depth.
The School of an ingredient determines which types of effects it can be used to produce. For each effect a character wishes to include within a potion they must use an ingredient corresponding to the school of that effect.
The Strength of an ingredient determines the amount of stored magicka within it. The cost of the effect an alchemist wishes to create with those ingredients is limited by the strength of those ingredients. Higher quality ingredients have higher strength values, allowing for more powerful effects to be stored.
The Depth of an ingredient determines the complexity and power of effects it can be used to produce. Effects created with this ingredient may not have a spell level above this value.
Ingredient Quality
Higher quality ingredients have higher Strength and Depth, allowing for more powerful effects. The following table lists the various quality levels and costs of alchemical ingredients of any given type and their corresponding strength and depth values:
| Type | Strength | Depth | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubiquitous | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Plentiful | 5 | 2 | 5 |
| Common | 10 | 3 | 10 |
| Uncommon | 15 | 4 | 35 |
| Rare | 25 | 5 | 100 |
| Very Rare | 50 | 6 | 250 |
| Extremely Rare | 100 | 7 | 500 |
| Legendary | 200 | 8 | 1000 |
Gathering Ingredients
Anyone with a cursory knowledge of Alchemy can identify the most common ingredients, but more skilled alchemists know where to look for higher quality ingredients. To search for ingredients of any type, a character must make an Alchemy skill test for every four hours they spend searching (a maximum of 2 tests per day of downtime spent gathering). Compare their degrees of success to the table below to determine what they find. Characters may choose any school they wish for any ingredients that they gather.
A character may also choose to “downgrade” a result to a lower roll. If a character rolls a critical success when gathering ingredients, they count as having rolled the highest possible degrees of success for their target number plus one (for example, 8 DoS for a TN 74).
| DoS | Maximum Result (any school) |
|---|---|
| 1–4 | 8 Ubiquitous Ingredients OR 4 Plentiful Ingredients OR 2 Common Ingredients |
| 5–6 | 1 Uncommon Ingredient |
| 7 | 1 Rare Ingredient |
| 8 | 1 Very Rare Ingredient |
| 9 | 1 Extremely Rare Ingredient |
| 10 | 1 Legendary Ingredient |