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).
Example
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.