I'm not a fan of instantaneous magical healing in fantasy RPGs. I want it to be witchcraft, with consequences and weird side-effects. The same goes for healing potions: I find the standard "drink-and-recover-1d8-points" or whatever solutions bland. I tried to come up with some interesting potions to offer to my players. Some of them are connected to a pseudo-historical 17th century setting, but not necessarily.
Relieving dew
This simple folk ointment is applied to the person's wounds before rest, and tied over with bandages.
Ingredients: honey, butter, assorted herbs and plants like yarrow, elderberry, etc., mixed and fermented for a week in a copper vessel.
Price: low. Requires recipe.
Effect: During the resting period, the normal healing rate is doubled. However, the strong sweet smell of the ointment attracts insects. A LOT of them. ALL of them. There is a 1-in-6 chance that it attracts not only the natural fauna of the area, but also some sort of a strange, exotic, or supernatural creepy-crawly as well... The smell lasts 24 hours.
Weapon salve
This is based upon a real practice. According to the theories of sympathetic magic, a connection is formed between the wound and the weapon that caused it. The healing of the wound is accelerated by applying the salve on the weapon, not to the wound.
Ingredients: skull lichen (moss from the skull of a hanged man), urine, gypsum, pine resin. Before application, add the blood of the wounded to the salve.
Price: moderate. Requires special knowledge and recipe to create.
Effect: If this is accomplished, during the next rest period the wounded person recovers as much hit points, as the standard damage of the weapon (roll for it).
Green blessing
Invented during the "Tulip mania", this solution is used by florists to increase the life-span of their beloved bulbs. However, as usual, the pesky adventurers found an alternative use for this serum!! Turns out, when sprinkled on a fresh open wound, it induces the growth of a weird plant scab, which fuses with the person's body, closes and heals the injury.
Ingredients: petals of exotic tulips (at least three different colors), sulfur, various salts, etc.
Price: very high. Requires special knowledge, recipe, laboratory.
Effect: 1d6 rounds after application, the wounded person recovers 1d12 hit points.
Then save against Poison. If failed, the scab continues to grow rapidly. It takes 10 rounds for the plant to completely cover a human adult. Each round it does 1 damage to the person, and gains +1 hit point. To stop the spreading, the plant has to be reduced to 0 or less hit points. Any damage is divided equally between the plant and the infected person.
On the 11th round, if the plant still has at least 1 hit point, the infected person dies.
What kind of healing potions do you use?
Relieving dew
This simple folk ointment is applied to the person's wounds before rest, and tied over with bandages.
Ingredients: honey, butter, assorted herbs and plants like yarrow, elderberry, etc., mixed and fermented for a week in a copper vessel.
Price: low. Requires recipe.
Effect: During the resting period, the normal healing rate is doubled. However, the strong sweet smell of the ointment attracts insects. A LOT of them. ALL of them. There is a 1-in-6 chance that it attracts not only the natural fauna of the area, but also some sort of a strange, exotic, or supernatural creepy-crawly as well... The smell lasts 24 hours.
Weapon salve
This is based upon a real practice. According to the theories of sympathetic magic, a connection is formed between the wound and the weapon that caused it. The healing of the wound is accelerated by applying the salve on the weapon, not to the wound.
Ingredients: skull lichen (moss from the skull of a hanged man), urine, gypsum, pine resin. Before application, add the blood of the wounded to the salve.
Price: moderate. Requires special knowledge and recipe to create.
Effect: If this is accomplished, during the next rest period the wounded person recovers as much hit points, as the standard damage of the weapon (roll for it).
Green blessing
Invented during the "Tulip mania", this solution is used by florists to increase the life-span of their beloved bulbs. However, as usual, the pesky adventurers found an alternative use for this serum!! Turns out, when sprinkled on a fresh open wound, it induces the growth of a weird plant scab, which fuses with the person's body, closes and heals the injury.
Ingredients: petals of exotic tulips (at least three different colors), sulfur, various salts, etc.
Price: very high. Requires special knowledge, recipe, laboratory.
Effect: 1d6 rounds after application, the wounded person recovers 1d12 hit points.
Then save against Poison. If failed, the scab continues to grow rapidly. It takes 10 rounds for the plant to completely cover a human adult. Each round it does 1 damage to the person, and gains +1 hit point. To stop the spreading, the plant has to be reduced to 0 or less hit points. Any damage is divided equally between the plant and the infected person.
On the 11th round, if the plant still has at least 1 hit point, the infected person dies.
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