Herbalist idea

[herkles]

Hello,

At the Vallaki lodge, I noticed that there are some herbs sold that have effects like neutralize poison, sleep, heal wounds and so on. My idea is simple, being able to find them in the wild. Perhaps one has to be a druid or ranger to find them, or require high search or healing, or the herbalist skill itself to find it.

what do others think of this idea.

-herkles

[Purist]

I don't have an opinion in this since I don't really fiddle with this crafting. But I'd like to point out that currently any and everybody is an herbalist expert. Anybody goes in the wild and collect the right herbs, either to brew it themselves or sell of a decent sum. Perhaps to add to the suggestion above, there could be random plants/weeds (and real herbs) spawned, and if somebody wouldn't have knowledge in plants/herbs, said person could collect an useless weed by accident, thinking it was a herb with proprieties. Meh.

[DirtyGoblin]

Why not a skill check on use, upon failure they are unable to collect the herb, this could be rp'd as damaging the useful bits, or simply mistaking it for something else.

[respawnaholic]

No. Herbalism is already one of the few user friendly crafts there is, and unless your a cleric or a mage an absolute requirement to know if you ever want to go any where or do anything.

The people inhabiting this setting aren't suburbanites who buy everything at the corner grocery store. Like our immediate ancestors they live allot closer to the earth than we do and would be much more familiar with things that grow. As recently as a hundred years ago your typical house hand didn't need to be a ranger to know what to eat and what not to eat and they could usually pick it without destroying it. Most people a hundred years ago grew or found their own staple foods. I say leave well enough alone.

[whatdoesitmater]

I'm all for adding new herbs to the system, including ones that have unknown powers when used in the raw form. I would also like to see the current herbs get some boost too, the best example I can think of would be eating woundwart (or the other 3 healing ones) and it casts cure minor wounds.

I'd also like to see the ability added to the new herbalist bags, to be able to target a herb placeable to pick herbs, and get a random number of herbs (1d4) from it, placed in the herbalist bag instead of the usual one herb per plant. That may sound a bit like flooding the current market, but it seems that even the most common herbs are in such demand that at present, there are those that pay up to 2000 a box for them. This might bring it back down to less inflated prices.

 I'd like to see a portable cauldron for the herbalism system, much like the portable woodworkers- since there is a small cauldron over a fire placeable available in the pallet. such a portable item could be very expensive.

The current herbalism system is fantastic, and very stable. If I had to pick one thing that should be changed/adjusted is to make all potions in the server apart of it, by either switching over the crafted potion to the sell at a merchant type, or remove the ones are- so that all potions of the same kind stack- meaning why have a cure light from the crafting, that can't stack with a cure light from the loot drop?  Not only is having two separate same types of most of the 30 or so crafted potions, a inventory nightmare-(we want less in the inventory for lag right?) it is 60 items counting to that old 16K max resource bioware bug that likes to mess with DMs logging in.

Thanks for reading!

[qwertyuioppp]

it seems that even the most common herbs are in such demand that at present, there are those that pay up to 2000 a box for them. This might bring it back down to less inflated prices.

I don't think there's anything wrong with this. I think this is more about saving time, providing a money-sink for high-level PCs, and giving low-level PCs a chance to earn some decent gold, rather than a short of supply and high demand. Herbs respawn, what, every fifteen minutes? I rarely ever see a zone that's picked clean of herbs, and even when I do, I can usually pop over just one or two zones and find whatever I'm looking for. People just can't be bothered spending hours and hours running around in forest zones holding down that [Tab] key, and some people don't have the free time to do that. Back when one of my PCs was learning herbalism, she was buying them at 2.5k a box, and I was happy to pay that price.

[dark_majico]

I don't have an opinion in this since I don't really fiddle with this crafting. But I'd like to point out that currently any and everybody is an herbalist expert. Anybody goes in the wild and collect the right herbs, either to brew it themselves or sell of a decent sum. Perhaps to add to the suggestion above, there could be random plants/weeds (and real herbs) spawned, and if somebody wouldn't have knowledge in plants/herbs, said person could collect an useless weed by accident, thinking it was a herb with proprieties. Meh.

Im not an expert, I still only know how to make cure potions from wound wort. Like respawnaholic said there was a time when everybody knew what herbs where useful, and everybody was in tune with the land and what grew, people picked food and collected medicinal plants all the time, and they passed on the recipes for cures to everyone in the family because it was essential for survival. I think the craft is fine as it is.

[Merry Munchkin]

Hello,

At the Vallaki lodge, I noticed that there are some herbs sold that have effects like neutralize poison, sleep, heal wounds and so on. My idea is simple, being able to find them in the wild. Perhaps one has to be a druid or ranger to find them, or require high search or healing, or the herbalist skill itself to find it.

what do others think of this idea.

-herkles

There are already herbs that are collectable that can be used with the herbalism crafting skill to make neutralize poison, curatives (light, medium, serious, and critical), and a whole host of other benefits.  Pick a few and give it a try!

[McNastea]

it seems that even the most common herbs are in such demand that at present, there are those that pay up to 2000 a box for them. This might bring it back down to less inflated prices.

I don't think there's anything wrong with this. I think this is more about saving time, providing a money-sink for high-level PCs, and giving low-level PCs a chance to earn some decent gold, rather than a short of supply and high demand. Herbs respawn, what, every fifteen minutes? I rarely ever see a zone that's picked clean of herbs, and even when I do, I can usually pop over just one or two zones and find whatever I'm looking for. People just can't be bothered spending hours and hours running around in forest zones holding down that [Tab] key, and some people don't have the free time to do that. Back when one of my PCs was learning herbalism, she was buying them at 2.5k a box, and I was happy to pay that price.

Yeah, I pay 2,000 a box not because of the demand but because I have a ton of gold with nothing to spend it on and know that low lvls could use the coin. Also, paying that much is a good way to get people to remember you and bring them to you instead of someone else. It means that I never have to spend my time collecting herbs, I spent enough time at low lvls doing that myself that I don't wanna do it anymore.

[Purist]

The people inhabiting this setting aren't suburbanites who buy everything at the corner grocery store. Like our immediate ancestors they live allot closer to the earth than we do and would be much more familiar with things that grow. As recently as a hundred years ago your typical house hand didn't need to be a ranger to know what to eat and what not to eat and they could usually pick it without destroying it. Most people a hundred years ago grew or found their own staple foods. I say leave well enough alone.

Right. You live in faerun, you spent your life as a city guard there, suddenly you get misted and find yourself in Barovia. Three days later you find yourself collecting herbs, and you can identify each and every herb you come across. I don't see a city guard/mercenary/crusader(paladin)/etc being that in tune with nature, knowing each and every herb they come across in deep underground caves, high peaks, deserts, swamps, jungles, forests. Maybe they would know a handful of herbs on the closest woods/forest. Those commonly used as medicine. And why maybe there are completely new herbs in Ravenloft that are not present in any of the settings a PC may come from?

The point is, most of the time people don't even know how 80% of the herbs they are collecting are used by the people whose buy it. Sure, everybody knows woundwarts are used to brew healing potions. People have a six sense, like a paladins detect evil, they press tab, spot the glowing plant "yes that sure is some random herb, better pick it up". Like hidden doors, maybe spotting herbs would require some points in "Nature Lore". IMO it would be a skill useful for a few things.

[McNastea]

Personally I find the suggestions to be a bit elaborate for something that isn't really that big a deal.

Of course that's just like, my opinion, man.

[respawnaholic]

The people inhabiting this setting aren't suburbanites who buy everything at the corner grocery store. Like our immediate ancestors they live allot closer to the earth than we do and would be much more familiar with things that grow. As recently as a hundred years ago your typical house hand didn't need to be a ranger to know what to eat and what not to eat and they could usually pick it without destroying it. Most people a hundred years ago grew or found their own staple foods. I say leave well enough alone.

Right. You live in faerun, you spent your life as a city guard there, suddenly you get misted and find yourself in Barovia. Three days later you find yourself collecting herbs, and you can identify each and every herb you come across. I don't see a city guard/mercenary/crusader(paladin)/etc being that in tune with nature, knowing each and every herb they come across in deep underground caves, high peaks, deserts, swamps, jungles, forests. Maybe they would know a handful of herbs on the closest woods/forest. Those commonly used as medicine. And why maybe there are completely new herbs in Ravenloft that are not present in any of the settings a PC may come from?

The point is, most of the time people don't even know how 80% of the herbs they are collecting are used by the people whose buy it. Sure, everybody knows woundwarts are used to brew healing potions. People have a six sense, like a paladins detect evil, they press tab, spot the glowing plant "yes that sure is some random herb, better pick it up". Like hidden doors, maybe spotting herbs would require some points in "Nature Lore". IMO it would be a skill useful for a few things.

Right, but my point is that in a point in time lacking copious amounts of 7-11s and corner convenience stores most people would be familiar with the concept of foraging for food since they cant just park the car on their way home from work and pick something up. Lets say your from Faerun and you find yourself in Ravenloft. You would do what most people with common scene do: You would ask somebody (gee...even an NPC) if that purple mushroom is poisonous or not. The point I'm trying to convey is that most people didn't need some special skill to identify and pick plants. It is fairly basic to human beings since well before farming, the written word, fire, and even the wheel. Just because its a skill we have let atrophy doesn't mean it cant be developed fairly quickly and easily.

Hell. This is the 21st century and I know a few folks from the Ukraine that can tell you at a glance what mushrooms are safe to eat or not because its still an activity they use DESPITE modern conveniences, and I can assure you these people are not rangers, druids, or even nature enthusiasts.

[Syl]

Right. You live in faerun, you spent your life as a city guard there, suddenly you get misted and find yourself in Barovia. Three days later you find yourself collecting herbs, and you can identify each and every herb you come across. I don't see a city guard/mercenary/crusader(paladin)/etc being that in tune with nature, knowing each and every herb they come across in deep underground caves, high peaks, deserts, swamps, jungles, forests. Maybe they would know a handful of herbs on the closest woods/forest. Those commonly used as medicine. And why maybe there are completely new herbs in Ravenloft that are not present in any of the settings a PC may come from?

The point is, most of the time people don't even know how 80% of the herbs they are collecting are used by the people whose buy it. Sure, everybody knows woundwarts are used to brew healing potions. People have a six sense, like a paladins detect evil, they press tab, spot the glowing plant "yes that sure is some random herb, better pick it up". Like hidden doors, maybe spotting herbs would require some points in "Nature Lore". IMO it would be a skill useful for a few things.

I want to argue thats not very true that everyone has that sixth sense... I'll throw in my Rogue for example.. ( seems rather common for that) She doesn't know what ANY of the plants do.... Hells she thinks the scarab caps are for food so she will go and cook them unless someone hurries and grabs it before she does.  She would have a great nature lore... but only for her own world Not Ravenloft.

So its more the players choice of the toon knows what the herb does. half the time Monica just wants to grind them up and cook them or use them for seasoning unless she is stopped. and she STILL doesn't know what any of the herbs do accept for scarab caps which she still finds hard to believe that a muchroom or two can be brewed to bring someone back to life.  Also she doesn't collect herbs for people. and she has also tried cooking viccar caps.

The point is. the toon doesn't have that sixth sense unless you make them have it. I've walked by many herbs and yeah I'll hit tab and i see them but i ignore it since they are not in her direct line of sight or they are behind something.

[AriaOfDissonance]

On a server I played on, you could only even see the plants as something harvestable, AKA useful, if you passed a Survival check, which was a skill we had implemented. Was pretty neat.

[dark_majico]

The people inhabiting this setting aren't suburbanites who buy everything at the corner grocery store. Like our immediate ancestors they live allot closer to the earth than we do and would be much more familiar with things that grow. As recently as a hundred years ago your typical house hand didn't need to be a ranger to know what to eat and what not to eat and they could usually pick it without destroying it. Most people a hundred years ago grew or found their own staple foods. I say leave well enough alone.

Right. You live in faerun, you spent your life as a city guard there, suddenly you get misted and find yourself in Barovia. Three days later you find yourself collecting herbs, and you can identify each and every herb you come across. I don't see a city guard/mercenary/crusader(paladin)/etc being that in tune with nature, knowing each and every herb they come across in deep underground caves, high peaks, deserts, swamps, jungles, forests. Maybe they would know a handful of herbs on the closest woods/forest. Those commonly used as medicine. And why maybe there are completely new herbs in Ravenloft that are not present in any of the settings a PC may come from?

The point is, most of the time people don't even know how 80% of the herbs they are collecting are used by the people whose buy it. Sure, everybody knows woundwarts are used to brew healing potions. People have a six sense, like a paladins detect evil, they press tab, spot the glowing plant "yes that sure is some random herb, better pick it up". Like hidden doors, maybe spotting herbs would require some points in "Nature Lore". IMO it would be a skill useful for a few things.

Very true but on the flip side you could just as easily be a city guard in Faerun, who gets sick all the time and you don't know why. You get head aches so you chew the bark of this tree, you get diarrhoea so you drink tea made from this herb, you have tooth ache so you chew this bark, you vomit so you drink tea made from these two herbs as well, you have rashes so you rub these leaves on them, you have a fever so you drink this tonic made from a handful of herbs, your limbs ache so you rub this poultice on them. Your not a doctor but you know a handful of herbal remedys, and every minor ailment that you get a herb is your first answer to it, and if you spend your life getting sick and suffering from minor ailments often enough you learn how to treat them yourself because they either kill you, or they are so dam annoying you do everything in your power to learn how to treat it fast.