Alchemy

Finally, we have some ingredients from the wild. Maybe you even got lucky or had a generous DM that gave you something cool. But we can’t just stuff the ingredients in our mouth and hope for the best now, can we? You’ll need an understanding on how to extract their power, which is known as Alchemy.

Just like Herbalism, a player can perform Alchemy either in session or during a period of Downtime. All a player would have to do is declare they want to perform Alchemy with a few ingredients. The mechanics for both in session and downtime are the same.

The Alchemy(Int) skill is is open to all classes and races, and proficiency in a Herbalism kit, Alchemist's Supplies, or Poisoner's Kit grants advantage on all rolls where applicable.

The Process of Alchemy
When a player would like to craft a potion or poison, they would announce it to their DM. Players can perform Alchemy Attempts, which are the equivalent to Rituals. This process takes 10 minutes to complete and results in a single vial of paste, powder, or liquid.

To start a basic Alchemy Attempt, you would select a base ingredient to work with. Base ingredients have the term Effect in front of the description. When crafting, you can only have one of these base ingredients unless an ingredient says otherwise.

Once you have your base ingredient, you can add other ingredients that have the Potion Modifier, Toxin Modifier or Special term in front of the description. You can only have one Effect ingredient and up to three Modifier ingredients in a single concoction. Secondly, there are Enchantment ingredients. These require Elemental Water as their base ingredient, which then you would select the Enchantment ingredient for the Alchemy Attempt.

Now that you have selected your ingredients, you’d find the total difficulty number and roll an Alchemy Attempt DC check. Alchemy Attempt DC = 10 + all ingredient difficulty modifiers combined.

On a successful Alchemy Attempt roll, you create the vial of paste, powder, or liquid. On a failure, the vial’s contents don’t look exactly like they should. It is up to the DM to decide whether the character knows if the potion will work correctly.

Crafting Potions
The two different types of potions are Effects and Enchantments.

An simple Effect potion normally is either a healing-like substance, while Enchantment potions produce a spell-like effect. For example, Wisp Stalks give the effect of making the consumer of the potion to turn invisible for 1 hour. While the healing-like substances can be altered by Potion Modifier ingredients, all of the Enchantment potions cannot.

An example of a potion that you can create using Alchemy:

Potion of Delayed Potent Healing Starting with Wild Sageroot, combine it with Milkweed Seeds and a touch of Gengko Brush.

This potion has a Alchemy Attempt DC of 14. The resulting mixture should give off a bluish-green glow in the water, with the remnants of the brown Gengko Brush swirling around. When ingested, this potion provides (8d4/2) healing over the course of two rounds.

Legendary Enchantments
Due to the nature of Legendary magic items, it is impossible to create them using normal Alchemy means. You could embark on a quest to find an ancient Alchemy Set that can then craft these potions.

Crafting Poisons
One of the main tools in an assassin, Drow, or evil being’s repertoire of ways to kill someone. Poisons. Most of the time these are beautiful, and all of the time they are deadly. There is only one type of poison (Effect) when it comes to this supplement, and that’s all that is needed.

Poisons are very versatile in how one can create them. They can target the target’s core and disrupt their body heat overtime to freeze them from the inside-out, or even decide to boil their flesh off using acidic properties. They can knock-out targets as well as make targets unaware they are even poisoned. When an alchemist creates a poison, they decide whether the poison needs to be inhaled, ingested, dealt with an injury, or just making contact with skin.

Luckily, for all those wanting to master the art of poisons, all they need to start is a very common ingredient called Wyrmtongue Petals. These grow in almost every terrain, and are the base ingredient for all poisons. Additionally, all poisons can be altered by Toxin Modifier ingredients to customize them to their user’s liking.

A few examples of poisons that you can create using Alchemy are be below:

Death’s Bite (injury)

Start with Wyrmtongue Petals like all poisons, and grind in the root part of some Arctic Creeper. Then add some Spineflower Berries and Quicksilver Lichen. This poison has a Alchemy Attempt DC of 18. The resulting mixture should look like a translucent light grey liquid with lines of silver flakes from the lichen. When used appropriately, the target it is used on becomes poisoned for 30 seconds, and takes 2d6 + Alchemy Modifier necrotic damage per round.

Widow Venom (contact)

Start with Wyrmtongue Petals like all poisons, and mix in some Amanita Cap with a little bit of Cactus Juice. After that, add some Spineflower Berries. This poison has a Alchemy Attempt DC of 17. The resulting mixture should be a slime-like red substance that has fuzzy bits of the Amanita Cap exposed. When used appropriately, the target it is used on becomes poisoned for 1 minute, takes 1d6 + Alchemy Modifier poison damage per round, and doesn’t notice the effects until 30 seconds pass. Additionally, the poison will only knock the target unconscious, not kill them.