Herbalism

THIS PAGE IS A WORK IN PROGRESS

Poison occupies a complex, paradoxical place in Zantaashi life—feared, revered, and thoroughly normalized. Herbalists are not an uncommon sight deep in the marshes, braving the wild dangers to find rare ingredients for new toxins. Even children are taught early to recognize the smell of common plant venoms and the color shifts that mark dangerous herbs.

Artisanal poisoners, licensed by the local House of Life or Death, operate much like apothecaries. Their shops sell soporific reeds, venom salves, antitoxins, incense that sharpens the mind, and tinctures that—when ritually applied—are said to “brighten the karmic mark.” These poisoners are considered valuable businesses, and many come from respected lineages. Members of the different Houses of Karma are able to cast ‘’’Purify Food and Drink’’’ on certain compounds to draw out different potentials depending on the secret House techniques used.

Criminal use is harshly punished, but even criminals tend to use nonlethal toxins. Purposefully crafting a venom with no antidote is a near-sacred taboo. What’s more, each toxin tends to have more than one potential ‘’revector,’’ a compound that acts not just as an antidote, but changes the initial poison into one with a different effect.

Herbalism

The process of gathering ingredients can be a risky and rewarding endeavour. When travelling the swamps of Zantaashi or the forests of Ginwil, a character can attempt to use their Herbalism kit and skills to seek out these reagents to sell or make their own elixirs. Inside encounter areas, a character that sees a potential ingredient can attempt an Herbalism roll to collect the specific reagents. During downtime or travel, they can also attempt (at intervals of the GM’s discretion) to harvest ingredients along their path. In either situation, the roll is a D20 plus their Herbalism Modifier:

Herbalism Modifier = WIS or INT Modifier + Proficiency Bonus if using a Herbalism Kit you’re proficient with.

Identifying Ingredients

After the player has gathered some ingredients, the DM can determine whether or not the character has past experience with it. This can be done either through a quick decision by the DM, or by rolling for the knowledge. If the second option is chosen, the player would perform an Herbalism check at a DC of 10 + DC Difficulty of the ingredient (see below for rare ingredients).

If the player fails the roll, the character does not recognize the ingredient enough to understand its purpose. Another attempt can be made after the player has researched more about the ingredient, or has another party member identify it for them. A player cannot roll again for the same ingredient if they do not already know what it is, or have gained insight on it.

If the player succeeded the roll, the character recognizes the ingredient and has a general idea of what it can do as a Base Effect in a concoction. Additionally, if the player surpassed the DC by 5 or more, the character learns the Revector of that ingredient. See the Alchemy section below for more information.

Gathering During Gameplay

Rules for gathering ingredients are from "Herbalism and Alchemy v1.2", by Dalagrath.

In between the dungeon delving, the sword slashing and the spell casting, the players usually have a period of rest. Many occasions call for a short or long rest during these times. Gathering plants or herbs is not considered a strenuous activity, and does not interrupt the resting periods that allow movement.

For these occasions, a player would announce to their DM that they would like to gather some plant life around the area. The player would then roll a DC 15 Herbalism check. Remember, a player can use a Herbalism Kit to increase their total modifier by their proficiency bonus if they are proficient with the kit as well.

Gathering During Downtime and Travel

During periods in between sessions, also known as Downtime, a player can perform an Herbalism check as well. As a general rule, a party can roll once for gathering ingredients per day of travel during downtime, or for every day in game time if the party isn’t going to be traveling. Gathering from the same location, or in a major city, may yield diminished or no results.

A successful gathering check results in the same fashion as if gathering during the session.

Preservation

Ingredients used in alchemical potion-making are at the very least slightly magical. As such, their effects begin to wane shortly after picking. Most ingredients only last about a day in game time before losing their full potential. If used past this time period, the concoction can have slightly altered effects, or not work at all.

A good way to preserve ingredients from expiring too early is to use an Ingredient Pouch (25 gp, 1 lb). Every pouch operates differently, but costs the same. Some of these pouches keep the ingredients dry, while others merely remove oxygen from the container. Any style of these pouches extends the ingredient life of floral ingredients to a week, and ingredients of animal or monstrous origin to a month.

Many House and private alchemists maintain home-grown stocks of floral ingredients so that they always have a supply on hand when they need it. Players with five of the same type of floral ingredient may combine them with a Fahrric Pot (250 gp, 10 lbs) to grow small supply of their own. Rather than producing a measured quantity, these pots (assuming they are kept watered and lit), grant the player access to a single reagent of that type each day that cannot be stockpiled.

Alchemy

Alchemy Modifier = INT or WIS Modifier + Proficiency Bonus if using a valid tool you’re proficient with.

Crafting Potions

Players can perform Alchemy Attempts, which are the equivalent to Rituals. This process takes 10 minutes to complete and results in a single dose of your concoction.

To start a basic Alchemy Attempt, select an ingredient to work with. 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 up to 3 other ingredients that have the Modifier term in front of the description. Total up the DC adjustment values for the ingredients to find the difficulty of the Alchemy attempt.

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.

Alchemical Theory

Alchemists in Zantaashi classify ingredients into one of seven categories, depending on their Base Effect. These are, in order from most debilitating to most vitalizing: Staticizing, Ruining, Decaying, Enduring, Incorporating, Expanding, and Innovating. In addition to providing a clue as to their usage, it also aids in quickly determining the most effective antidote and relevant Revector ingredients.

Revector Effects

When two potions combine, frequently when the second is given as an antidote to the first, the ingredients inside may react with each other to cause new, dramatic effects to take place. When an Uncommon or higher rarity ingredient is used in a brew and that potion is ingested during the effect of another potion, the second brew's Revector effect may trigger.

Each ingredient has a Revector (though it takes a skilled herbalist to discover it). This denotes the Family of the ingredient that must be in the first potion to trigger the Revector effect. The type of effect is determined by the Family of the Base Effect and the Family and Rarity of the Revector. See the example in the next section.

Common ingredients do not have new Revector effects. Instead, they act as antidotes, allowing the imbiber to make an immediate Constitution Save with advantage against the effect of their Revector.

When multiple different Revector Effects would trigger at the same time (if, for instance, both potions have two Base Effects), randomly determine which Revector triggers.

Revector Effects are often used by wealthy Zantaashi over the course of an expensive dinner party to demonstrate both their skill at poisoncraft and provide entertainment for their erudite or high-society guests. For large, important gatherings guests can expect to be imbibing several largely-harmless effects during the dishes of the evening, and often check in with an alchemist employed by the host's estate beforehand if they have concerns.

Transmutation

Life: Shift 1 ↑ Death: Shift 1 ↓ Chance: Shift random Change: Shift ↑ or ↓ to the middle Time: Tag allows other tags to pick which activates

Ingredients

Ingredients
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