Suspension of disbelief doesn’t mean Harry Potter gets a lightsaber. There are rules.
“Rules were made to be broken!”
-fanfictionTHIS ISN’T NAM SMOKIE!
Do we have to bring up the slaver?
Just because you can break some laws of physics, doesn’t mean you break all laws of physics.
This is only a problem because people imagine a potion has to have certain traits. Afaik, none of the rules as written specify that potions have to be more than a mouthful.
It isn’t like potions are medicine, where you have to have a specific quantity to be effective. They’re liquid magic. A single drop could carry whatever it does, though that would be less than useful because getting that single drop out of a bottle would be just as time consuming as chugging a bottle.
If you don’t think of potions as being in a half pint sized bottle, the problem takes care of itself. A vial about two inches long and an inch in diameter, made of earthenware or even glass would hold enough of whatever to fill your mouth, be just as portable, and only take three to five seconds to use.
If you ignore having to swallow, it’s even faster. It’s magic, it could activate and affect you as soon as it’s inside your body. Which also means rectal intake would work tbh.
There’s plenty of fictional reference for potions being contact based, where the first drops start whatever change occurs. And there’s basis good healing positions being able to be used topically, though that won’t always apply to every injury.
But think about that for a second. If the potion has to be swallowed, that’s pretty badly planned magic. The healing spells that healing potions are made from are contact based depending on the system. Touch ranged healing is fairly common. So, why can the healing potions not work if poured onto a wound? Why would you have to wait while you swallow, then let the magic burst from the stomach?
And, we know potions can be used on unconscious targets. Unconscious people can’t always swallow anyway. So the full draught being swallowed is obviously preconception rather than something that is inherent to potion use.
The reason potion making in our world (hey, there’s recipes for them, and people think they work, don’t blame me) supposedly requires drinking the entire thing is that the ingredients are part of the magic, and the use of heat to reduce the potion beyond the initial making is “magically” going to break down what would work. Mind you, that’s what people have claimed when the question is posed to them.
Working with real magic, you could reduce the liquid part, or hand wave it and say that the ingredients are consumed in making the potion, and thus don’t require the same end volume.
And yes, I’ve thought about this way too much lol
Edit: FWIW, I did some quick reading up tonight. I can’t believe I’ve not paid attention to this in over thirty years as a DM. 5e states that a potion usually contains an ounce of liquid. A shot glass typically holds 1.25 to 1.5 ounces. There’s 2 tablespoons per ounce, for another frame of reference.
So it should, RAW, only take about a second to two seconds to lift the potion vial to the lips, throw it back and swallow. That’s about all it takes to do a shot.
3.X edition specifies a difference between potions and oils, so RAW potions do have to be imbibed (per the DMG) with oils being the topical version. However, it also specifies a single ounce as the quantity.
So, D&D intends potions to be slightly less than a single mouthful of liquid.
I’m not sure about TSR era as I’m not sure where to find the potion info, and PDFs of those are a bitch to look things up in. But I kinda doubt that 3.X totally threw away previous descriptions of what a potion is in terms of size
Rectal intake, got it.
dude wrote 10k words and you notice rectal intake
just like I did
So you’re saying we need potion busting boba. Just toss one in your mouth and pop it
In BG3 you can put a potion on the ground between multiple people and hit it, and everyone splashed is healed. So, yes, the whole magic aspect of your explanation and not needing to actually swallow it seems to make sense (in BG3).
just throw it on the ground where you want it to burst. the person using an action doesn’t need to be next to it
but if you aren’t watering down your potions to at least a pint as practice for the tavern victory party afterward i’m not sure you deserve them at all tbh
You are in hard fantasy, not in Avatar.
This is only a problem because people imagine a potion has to have certain traits. Afaik, none of the rules as written specify that potions have to be more than a mouthful.
It isn’t like potions are medicine, where you have to have a specific quantity to be effective. They’re liquid magic. A single drop could carry whatever it does, though that would be less than useful because getting that single drop out of a bottle would be just as time consuming as chugging a bottle.
If you don’t think of potions as being in a half pint sized bottle, the problem takes care of itself. A vial about two inches long and an inch in diameter, made of earthenware or even glass would hold enough of whatever to fill your mouth, be just as portable, and only take three to five seconds to use.
If you ignore having to swallow, it’s even faster. It’s magic, it could activate and affect you as soon as it’s inside your body. Which also means rectal intake would work tbh.
There’s plenty of fictional reference for potions being contact based, where the first drops start whatever change occurs. And there’s basis good healing positions being able to be used topically, though that won’t always apply to every injury.
But think about that for a second. If the potion has to be swallowed, that’s pretty badly planned magic. The healing spells that healing potions are made from are contact based depending on the system. Touch ranged healing is fairly common. So, why can the healing potions not work if poured onto a wound? Why would you have to wait while you swallow, then let the magic burst from the stomach?
And, we know potions can be used on unconscious targets. Unconscious people can’t always swallow anyway. So the full draught being swallowed is obviously preconception rather than something that is inherent to potion use.
The reason potion making in our world (hey, there’s recipes for them, and people think they work, don’t blame me) supposedly requires drinking the entire thing is that the ingredients are part of the magic, and the use of heat to reduce the potion beyond the initial making is “magically” going to break down what would work. Mind you, that’s what people have claimed when the question is posed to them.
Working with real magic, you could reduce the liquid part, or hand wave it and say that the ingredients are consumed in making the potion, and thus don’t require the same end volume.
And yes, I’ve thought about this way too much lol
For that matter, what are people doing keeping your potions in glass bottles anyway? Or even earthenware or waterskins? Put it inside gelatin, or a nutshell, or a ball of resin/sap, or a dried sausage, or a bundle of cotton, really anything you can safely and easily toss in your mouth, bite through, and either swallow or spit out afterward as needs must. Putting it in a bottle you must uncork and swig from is insanely inefficient.
Helm of Potion Chugging?
I’m picturing literally a beer helmet but with potion flasks instead of cans.
Same, but was too lazy to draw a pic.
I don’t see the problem. You can just take a multi action penalty for your second action. In fact, I think there’s an edge that reduces the penalty somewhere in the book.
What system are you talking about here? Because if it’s meant to be Pathfinder 2e, the MAP only applies to attack actions.
Oh, I’m talking about Savage Worlds
Yes, that feature is one of the reasons why Savage Worlds is my system of choice.
This made me decide to add homebrew equipment to my campaign: The
beerpotion bong. Need to swallow a lot of liquid in less than 6 seconds? This is for you!There’s also a rare version that rests your potions on your head and adds a straw, so you don’t need to use your free action to take the potion out of your bag.
you do know you’re not supposed to drink the bong water right
3 action economy FTW
If we’re going for realism, drinking a potion should take 2 full rounds and draw opportunity attacks in both.
Also, hitpoints wouldn’t go up with levels and casters would be limited to cantrips that each require a bag full of components and have no effect if you disbelieve them.And the potion wouldn’t heal anything, it would only give you a bonus to natural healing during rests.
No
Okay, chad faced joke aside (which is what I was going for there and couldn’t undercut it with =P) I do prefer more simulation based ruleset which sortof demands that at least some basic rules of physics are able to be mapped between reality and the gamestate. Abstractions can exist, and explanations can be provided (like the idea of a potion only being a mouthful/shot in quantity and/or size), but strain of an increasingly divorced rulest from the actual narrative is always a problem and should be avoided, imo.
Potion auto injector, a legendary artifact that injects potions of all kind directly into your bloodstream, making them 20% more efficient and 100% less time consuming!
