The people have been clamoring (clamoring!) for more overwrought Mazes and Minotaurs houserules. And who am I to deny them? Indeed, who am I?
When you want to make a potion, describe the effect you want to produce and add ingredients. There are two kinds of ingredients, Animal and Vegetable. Animal ingredients can be obtained from slain creatures, so long as the creature has things like blood and flesh. Tiny, Small, and Medium creatures provide 1 ingredient, Large creatures provide 2, and Gigantic creatures provide 3. Animal ingredients may produce effects that relate to the animal they came from: An eagle may give eyesight or flight, a bull may give strength or horns or rage at the color red, obvious stuff. Animal ingredients are not rations, they are stuff like blood or powdered horn or eyeballs.
Vegetable ingredients may be either found or bought, but the only plants useful for Pharmakeia are the Six Sovereigns:
- Mystic Mandrake, whose form is that of both man and woman. The one who pulls a Mystic Mandrake from the earth* must make a Mystic Fortitude save or lose (temporarily) 1d2 of a random basic attribute, except luck. Roll 1d6 to see which attribute is affected, but if you roll luck there is no effect. The effects of Mystic Mandrake are described below.
- Scorching Cinnamon, whose element is Fire, which can cause fevers and alleviate sorrow.
- Limpid Lotos, whose element is Water, which can dampen pain and produce euphoria.
- Fuming Frankincense, whose element is Air, which can make one feel light-limbed or light-headed.
- Earthly Amaranth, whose element is Earth, which can make the limbs strong but static.
- Holy Moly, whose element is Aether. The one who pulls a Holy Moly from the earth* must make a Mystic Fortitude save or lose 1d2 Luck. The effects of Holy Moly are described below.
In each locale, only one of the Six Sovereigns grows, and can be found with a Hunting roll. The MM may either rolls or choose which one makes sense. A city state may sell 0-5 of them, depending on its size and prosperity (1 for small, 2 for medium, 3 for large, ±1 for poor/rich, +1 for Magocracy).
Four of the Six Sovereigns have a basic element associated with them, and can produce effects relating to that element (e.g. water-breathing for the Limpid Lotos). All potions with one of these elements give an extra spell point when imbibed by an elementalist who uses that element, and take a spell point away from an elementalist who uses the opposite element. Using two ingredients with opposite elements negates this effect.
To turn the ingredients into a potion requires a source of water, a source of fire, a fire-proof and water-proof container like a pot or a beaker, and 10 minutes. The process is mostly just boiling the ingredients. What makes it a potion instead of just soup is the divine names and secret words you speak into the brew.
For each ingredient that you use, state how it is contributing to the overall effect, and roll a d10+10, and check if the result is below your luck score and your wits score. If it is below both, that ingredient functions in the potion as you described. If it is below one but not both, that ingredient functions in the potion but produces a side-effect. If the roll is below neither score, that ingredient does not function or contribute to the potion. A roll of 10 (or, 0) is always a failure in this way, even if your scores are above 20.
Example: Boops has a luck score of 17, and a wits of 12. He rolls a 1d10+10. If he rolls a 1, his result is 11 and is below both, meaning the ingredient functions perfectly. If he rolls a 2-6, it is below his luck but not his wits, and it functions with a side-effect. If he rolls 7 or more, it does not function at all.
If the MM is unsure of the effects of each individual ingredient on the main effect of the potion, just assume a numerical increase: there's an extra dose, or it lasts twice as long, or its effect is twice as strong, etc. Thus, if an ingredient does not function, the result can be simply determined. However, its more fun if you can figure out what happens if your Limpid Lotos functions but your Gill of Fish does not in your potion of water-breathing.
Potion effects can, at minimum, reproduce the effect of a spell using one Power-point per ingredient. For instance, you can get a +2 to a score similar to a Divine Blessing. However, just as making a potion is more chaotic than normal spells, potions can also break the rules of normal spells. A two ingredient "blessing" potion can, for instance, give a temporary +4 to a stat, where using Divine Blessing with 2 Power-points can only give +2 to two different stats.
If an ingredient has a side effect, the MM should use whatever is funny and makes sense, write it down, and not tell anyone until they drink it. If the MM is unsure, two tables are provided below. For all diseases and mutations, they last for the duration of the potion, and then the character makes either a Physical Vigor or Mystic Fortitude save (their choice), otherwise it sticks around until cured. For Benefits, roll a d20 + luck modifier. If it is over 20, it sticks around.
Animal Side-Effects (d6)- Disease. A purely negative effect, like coughing up feathers or blindness.
- Mutation, limbs. Your legs become a snake tail, or your arms become wings or some-such.
- Mutation, facial. Your whole head becomes an animal head.
- Mutation, personality. You gain the pride of a lion, or a sibilant hiss in your voice, or an irrational fear of mice, or whatever.
- Mutation, minor cosmetic. Your eyes become goat eyes, or you're a bit slimy, or something. No effect besides people can tell you used a potion.
- Benefit. You basically just get a free potion effect, like if you used a potion of Eagle Flight you get the Eagle's Eyesight thrown-in.
- Disease, lame. You come down with an ignominious imbalance of the humors: A fever, cough, diarrhea...
- Disease, cool. You come down with a rather interesting imbalance of the humors: Coughing fire, river-like tears, stone hands...
- Mutation, personality. Your personality shifts one step towards the sanguine, choleric, etc. depending on the plant.
- Mutation, minor cosmetic. Your hair starts smoldering, or your skin turns grey. No effect besides people can tell you used a potion.
- Elemental Energy. You can cast the magnitude 2 Elementalist spell for the relevant element, once.
- Benefit. You basically just get a free potion effect. You can breathe fire, or have skin like stone. Cool!
Mystic Mandrake and Holy Moly act a little differently from other ingredients. They have no side-effects when used in a potion, treating a result that indicates side-effects as merely a success. Mystic Mandrake does not "count" as an ingredient for the purposes of determining the strength of a potion. Instead, due to its affinity for balance and humanity, it negates one side-effect produced by another ingredient. Holy Moly does count as an ingredient when determining potion strength, but has no properties of its own. When any magician drinks a potion containing either, they get an extra power point.
Obviously, Magicians of various kinds are best at at Pharmakeia, with their high wits and luck, but most cities also have a Pharmakeus who can make potions out of ingredients brought by hunters and warriors for a considerable fee. A normal Pharmakeus has ~13 luck and ~16 wits.
