Alchemy is the mixing of ingredients, natural and unnatural, in a way that produces a potion magically infused with a particular effect. Alchemists take advantage of magicka stored within the ingredients in order to create potions that can replicate many of the same effects that can be achieved via spellcasting, or deadly poisons to quickly bring their enemies to their knees. Potions are one-use vials of alchemically prepared mixtures, created from alchemical ingredients, that can grant particular magical effects to characters. A list of common potions is provided in 7 - Economics & Equipment. Potions have an ENC of 0.
Alchemical Ingredients
Alchemical Ingredients
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).
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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
Creating Potions
Creating Potions
This section contains the rules for creating potions. Alchemy can only be performed if one has an Alchemy Lab, which can be found in Goods & Services.
The Basics Unlike spells, potions do not have forms. Creating a potion is simply a matter of choosing the desired effects, setting the parameters of that effect to determine a final cost, and then writing down the effects of the potion for reference.
Multi Effect Potions Characters can create potions that impart multiple effects when consumed. Creating these sorts of potions can prove more difficult for the character but is not much more complicated than creating a normal potion.
Learning Effects A character can use any effect from any school when creating potions, but attempting to use effects of a higher level than the character’s rank in the Alchemy skill can be difficult.
Reference Materials A complete list of effects can be found in the Appendix.
Step 1: Choose Ingredients
First, decide on which ingredients you will use for the potion. Each ingredient included allows for a single effect to be added to the potion, and no more than three ingredients (and thus three effects, which must be unique) can be used in a single potion.
Step 2: Pick Effects & Determine Parameters
Next, pick the effect(s) (maximum 3) that the potion will produce, and decide on their parameters. Only effects with the potion attribute may be used.
The school(s) from which effects are chosen are limited to the school and number of ingredients used in the potion (for example, one destruction and one alteration ingredient would allow for one destruction and one alteration effect). Each effect has an associated value, called spell level, that determines its strength. The chosen spell level may not be higher than the depth of the chosen ingredient.
Step 3: Determine Spell Cost
Next, simply “plug in” your chosen spell level values to the effect cost formula provided for your chosen effect(s). If the cost of an effect is higher than the strength of the corresponding ingredient, then you must reduce the spell level of that effect or use a stronger ingredient.
Step 4: Create Potion
To create a potion a character must pass an Alchemy skill test. This test suffers a -10 penalty for each level by which the potion’s highest spell level effect exceeds the Alchemy skill rank of the character and an additional -10 for potions with more than one effect. Creating a potion takes a number of hours equal to the total of the spell levels of its effects, and requires a set of alchemical tools. Ingredients are lost on failure.
Important Note
Calculating penalties for an Alchemy test is distinct from that of a Spellcasting test. Here, there is no concept of a Spellcasting Level; so, for example, a Novice (0) level alchemist attempting to create a potion with a level 1 spell effect will suffer a -10 penalty to their Alchemy test.
If a character critically fails this test, or fails normally when creating a potion that either includes multiple effects or an effect with a level above their Alchemy skill rank, the potion backfires. Roll a d4 on the creation backfire table and add the highest spell level included in the potion to the result.
Step 5: Finalize Potion
Write down the details of the new potion’s effects somewhere you can reference it, and then add it to your character’s gear list!
Duration: If you choose an effect with the upkeep attribute, then the base duration of that effect is multiplied by an amount equal to the strength of the effect’s ingredient divided by the cost of the effect (rounded down to the nearest whole number).
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If the duration of an effect is normally 1 round, and the effect costs 3 magicka at the chosen spell level, then that effect would last for 3 rounds if created using an ingredient with a strength of 10.
Creating Poisons
Creating Poisons
Alchemists can also create poisons which can be applied to weapons or ammo in order to give one’s weapon an extra bite. This requires a single unit of destruction ingredients, 1 hour, and an Alchemy test to create. This test suffers a -10 penalty for each level by which the poison exceeds the character’s Alchemy skill rank. Poisons can be applied to weapons or ammo using the Ready Weapon action and last for 1 minute (10 rounds). Characters who take damage from a poisoned weapon/ammo must make an Endurance test or suffer poison damage that ignores armor.
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Level Ingredients Used Damage 1 Ubiquitous 1d4 2 Plentiful 1d6 3 Common 1d8 4 Uncommon 1d10 5 Rare 1d12 6 Very Rare 2d8 7 Extremely Rare 2d10 8 Legendary 2d12
Toxins
Toxins
Creating a poison with non-damaging effects, called a toxin, does not follow the rules for normal poisons. They’re brewed like a normal potion except only spell effects with the toxin attribute can be used when brewing the toxin in question.
However, these more complicated compounds lose their bite much more quickly than their simpler counterparts when applied to weapons or ammo, lasting for 1 minute (10 rounds) or 3 successful hits with the weapon/ammo, whichever comes first.
Characters that take damage from a weapon poisoned with a toxin use Endurance for any characteristic tests required by the toxin’s magical effects.
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