This is starting to get a bit too far away from the reality of things... Moving around constantly buffed for 5 gp?
The limitation of the availability puts a bar on the amount of potions that can be produced. Should the availability become a problem, we'll simply regulate that. In effect, if anything, the availability of potions is much lower now than before, given that we've removed the stores where people were hoarding hundreds of potions.
Additionally I'm honestly unmoved by any suggestions that it should be 'realistic' - if we did that, herbalism would be so inferior to magic that no one would ever bother doing it - and we'd have a massive ghost system in the module, demanding resources. Should we make magic realistic too then? Should it be just card tricks? What defines what can contain exceptional magic qualities and what should just be realism?
I do appreciate the discussions and feedback, but if it's just a personal crusade in extend of a continuous and ever ongoing pessimism, I'm personally not going to weight the words very heavily.
Potions have always been a part of DnD. It never rendered the advantage of having casters obsolete - it's just a handy thing to have at hand that might save you in a dire situation.
And finally, we've deliberately chosen to separate the crafts completely from the normal level progression, both because it makes little sense to have people progress by putting down foes, but also because we want to introduce more diversity in the fields of progression, providing more than just one single dimension.
Obviously this is directed at me so I'll answer it.
1. Bottle costs 5gp. Herbs are Free. Buffed up, it's no Issue to churn out a pile of Potions for 5 gp each. Dungeons are a wasteland of nothing now because buffed up Casters move out en'mass to clear cut the lands for every herb they can get. The non casters get the scraps. The Herbs Respawn faster then anything in the game. You can quite easily if you know the recipe, run around stat buffed for the entire duration of your game play, for the chicken feed Expense that equates to a one sewer area Rat Run. Which you have accumulated while stripping the sewers of all Herb spawns.
2. You removed potions from game forcing people that
Didn't stock up on hundred of potions to turn to those people above, furthering their impact on the environment as a whole. The availability is not Lower if you can maintain a steady presence in game, you can find people willing to sell you HUNDREDS of potions at once.
3. Unmoved by suggestions that it should be realistic then you
missed the point completely. A Real Herb system is immensely Useful, and I had mentioned moving the Magical Potions, to the domain of the casters, in the form of Alchemy, which is How Potions are in DnD. Hence it becomes the domain of those that should be able to do that (with the inclusion of the feat) and those that are not magical in nature, can have a system of non magical alternative that Fits the Setting, and would require very little in the term of ingredients resources or materials, using many things that are already In game therefore wouldn't have to be added. Herbalism SHOULD be inferior to magic. It's mundane.
4. As far as me being pessimistic about it an an ongoing campaign in such, well, sorry I'm not all peace and light. But being a Dane by heritage that makes me exceptionally stubborn, and if I see something I don't like and I can back it with point and fact, it's going to be heard. Besides, I am not the only one, so the inference of an "ongoing campaign" is not only incorrect, it's actually mean. I'm obviously not the only one that feels this way nor am I the one that brought up the point first. Yet, one can infer that your entire post was directed at me, and if not, it's certainly directed at players that have views I would defend, since both sides should be heard equally. Otherwise, all you do is end up back tracking to fix something that could have been prevented by hearing out the opposing side in the first place.
5. Yes potions have always been a part of DnD, However, you removed any and all decent gear for a non caster or sneak from the game, in the name of Low Magic, and yet now Unleash something that saturates the realm completely, in Magic? In Effect, giving people a zillion more options to be magical at the drop of a hat if you can guzzle a potion? Up top earlier you mentioned we removed the potions from the stores to solve one problem, YET, down here you renege that response with We need LOTS more potions because that's a part of DnD. Handy because it could save you? Balanced party does that and now we have even less of a reason to have one of those, because the Casters don't need spell slots to buff themselves up to fighter levels. Sneaks and Casters can now Equal Fighters in terms of AB and exceed them in terms of defense, at the expense of chicken feed. In addition to that an environment has been created to where the semi Casters (Paladins/Rangers), swarm into the lower level dungeons by the horde, or camp them, in order to collect the easy money to go back to the crafter casters, and buy a few hundred potions, to go maul the higher level dungeons.
6. Separating the Crafting Skills from the actual Leveling, is a great move. Never said anything against that. What I didn't like, was the Higher Levels that suddenly decided to jump the trade head on, have the insanely unfair advantage of buff after buff, completely skewing the entire system. Now, in the name of a computer game, we have a rather fast Crafting process, which is fine everyone should have time to play. But, in compromise to the real time required by the books, would be to set it up so Buffs Don't Work with the Crafting system. Right now, due to the OOC nature of Recipe exchanges and what not, the Non caster with a good friend on the side that knows the recipes, can quaff a few potions and start churning them out by the truckload as well. The 20 Con, Dwarf Barbarian with a high wisdom, and a pile of other dump stats is right around the corner as an Herb Crafter. Further destroying even the meager hope, of a low magic setting.
Had high hopes for seeing something that was representative of the setting, especially with the reams of material for herbs and plants and even drugs and posiond all over the Ravenloft Material. Don't get me wrong though I actually do appreciate the work that goes into this place. I still stand by the fact though that this is contrary to the nature of the setting, and well like others said, More Forgotten Realms, Less Ravenloft. Don't like it, nor to I liked being FORCED to RP it and the Support of It.
~Rex
