Tonics: the Medicinal Side of Herblore

Making characters who can make things in-game has been one of my few recurring interests since I began playing tabletop rpgs 14ish years ago. The desire to find rules that could accommodate crafting complicated things like traps and alchemical substances led me to first realize that the rules as published by WOTC were grossly underdeveloped.

To make good, robust rules for this kind of thing, I needed to have a really good, robust understanding of all the pieces involved. Trapmaking is based on navigating the very tenuous edge between physics and gaming statistics, something I am still attempting to navigate. D&D alchemy rests on the heritage of Western occultism and witchcraft, which in turn appropriates and amalgamates a number of practices (most significantly, Jewish mysticism).

Within the world of Prodigy, druids (the Sidh-observing practitioners of Adjraysh) are heavily influenced by witchcraft, and as I do more research their presentation and abilities may need to change; we'll see how that goes.

The following rules are a subset of larger collection of herblore rules and abilities that I'd like to implement, depending on how my research progresses. The expanded abilities would only be available to characters with notches in both Chemist and Thaumaturge (Adjraysh), which is one of the reasons I am not discussing them here.


Herbs possess a number of unique magickal properties and affinities accessible to those with the necessary knowledge. While most chemists are able to harness an herb's primary effects, harnessing an herb's hidden abilities requires greater skill. Using herbs with the same or similar properties in conjunction with each other allows for a more powerful effect, however doing so without finesse can easily lead to failure. In general, a chemist may use one herb per skill rank past Novice.

Chemists may use herbs to create a preparation, a stored effect that remains potent for 10 days. Preparations are created in a stillroom, with a character able to spend 1 day to create a number of ounces of the preparation equal to the number of Chemist notches possessed.

A Tonic is a preparation whose effects only manifest after being ingested. Because tonics are imbibed, dosage strongly affects the outcome: the number of doses is optimally equal to the user's weight class. If the dose is too weak, it may fail to have any effect. If the dose is too strong, the intended effect may rebound in unpleasant ways. Dosage depends upon the parts of the plant used.

Primarily, tonics are used for love potions, healing salves, and poison. Healing tonics require herbs associated with healing (such as catnip or cayenne), whereas poisons use herbs with toxic properties (such as atropa belladonna or mistletoe). If the dosage is correct, the chemist makes a Chemist/Athlete test when the target consumes the tonic. On success, the benefits of the effect will manifest in 1d3 days. Poisons give the target 1 injury per herb used in the poison. Healed targets will recover from their injuries a number of days sooner equal to twice the number of herbs used in the tonic.

Long-term Care is an option for chemists in a safe, stable environment looking to heal injured individuals. By spending a week and 14 doses of a chosen herbal combination administering to a single patient, the chemist reduces their recovery time by 1 week per herb used. Chemists may tend to a number of patients equal to their Chemist notches, assuming enough supplies are available.

Herb Examples:
Atropa Belladonna
Effects: poison, curses
Dosage: cherries (3oz), leaves (.02oz)

Catnip
Effects: healing, other
Dosage: leaves (.38oz)