Artisan Tools Revisited: Alchemy
The artisan tools in D&D 5e are often treated as nothing more than little roleplay prompts. Many classes and backgrounds grant proficiency with them, but it’s likely you’ve forgotten about them at one point or another. After all, what are brewer’s tools or leather working tools going to do for you other than offer some mundane downtime activities? Well, with the Artificer class being released officially in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, and my incredible bias for wacky scientist archetypes, I found myself checking out all the tools you can use. And you know what? Some of them sound so fun to use more regularly. However, unless you’re using them as a spellcasting focus as an artificer, you probably haven’t touched these tools much.
And that’s not okay, Weavers - having proficiency should mean something! It’s worth noting the Xanathar’s Guide to Everything expands on tool proficiencies on page 78, though doesn’t elaborate too much further than the PHB does. So, we’re going to make some new rules for tools, if you will, starting with alchemy.
D&D, in particular, has all sorts of existing potions that an expanded alchemy skill could lead to the creation of. Problem is, like many things in 5th edition, these processes are particularly robust. At least, it’s muddled and shoved into just a downtime activity that you can passively complete without much expansion. Plenty of players may prefer this, but if you’re someone who really wants to focus on alchemy as a trade (especially with the Artificer’s Alchemist subclass) you may be attracted to something more rewarding. In fact, my motivation for this came from one of my players’ next character being an extremely active alchemist.
It’s very likely you’ve seen some homebrew for Alchemy in particular. Truly, it’s one of the easiest tools to expand on, since we have so many fantasy sources to pull from. Some of these homebrewed systems are extremely expansive, and perfect for a particularly persnickety player. For my guide below, I aim for something more meaningful and interactive, but also very easy to drop into your game without it becoming so time-consuming that it takes up a full session to make a potion.
I’m actually expanding on three tools in this article: the Alchemist’s Supplies, Herbalism Kit, and Poisoner’s Kit. They all contribute to very similar purposes, but have their own, unique offerings. Let’s break down the basics:
A Herbalism Kit consists of plant guides, gardening tools, and vials to help identify and contain foraged herbs, as well as create natural remedies. Herbalism kits are used solely for medicinal creations, like healing potions, salves, and editable remedies. Unlike Alchemy, herbalism practices can be used anywhere, and is meant to create on the fly survival healing. Associated skills: nature, survival.
Alchemist’s Supplies consist of beakers, burners, vials, tubes, and stands required for brewing potions. These supplies are a portable kit, so they can be utilized while adventuring, though it is always advised to have a larger set up in a permanent home or dorm for more intense experiments. Alchemy tools are used for brewing potions, powders, and bombs. Associated skills: slight of hand, arcana.
A Poisoner’s Kit is very similar to alchemy supplies, but also has tools for extracting venom from poisonous creatures and some tools you’d find in an herbalism kit. A poisoner’s kit, as the name implies, has the tools necessary to safely create potent poisons and acids. Associated skills: slight of hand, nature.
Xanathar’s Guide to Everything expands on downtime activities. In those expansions, it talks about how to craft magic items. Of course this process takes an obscene amount of time if you’re making anything higher than a common rarity item, but I’m going to be using the same basic principles for using these tools. Naturally, it will first require a creature to have proficiency in the tool in question. Let’s start with the simplest one.
Herbalism Kit
It’s worth noting this doesn’t technically count as a ‘tool kit’ in 5e, but I, personally, count it as one. This kit is one you can have a lot of fun with in terms of expanding on the flora of your world. After all, you’re not limited to plants you find in real life. However, if you’re like me, you’ll at least be inspired by what you find in blog posts about flowers and their meanings. Vegetation can be found in most parts of your world, most likely, but even if it isn’t, you can consider things like root flora, soil, and even some minerals like salt. I do use some real-life plants, but honestly, I make a lot of stuff up. Can you imagine the kind of weird things that grow in a magical world?
Now, Herbalism Kits can be as helpful as you want them to be. For my games, I generally have them capable of crafting minor medicines, none of which are considered magical, but also capable of making some common magic consumables. Here’s a basic breakdown I follow for utilizing an Herbalism Kit:
A creature proficient in the Herbalism kit can add their proficiency bonus to Intelligence (Nature) checks to identify herbs, flowers, and soft minerals in the wilderness
The creature adds their proficiency bonus when crafting something with the Herbalism Kit.
A creature can craft a single use of an item with 10 minutes of dedicated effort. Alternatively, they can spend a short rest to attempt to make multiple uses of the item, provided they have enough ingredients.
Cosmetic items do not require a check to craft. Items that provide a magical benefit require a check depending on the complexity of the item being made + how many uses are being created.
If you’re like me, you don’t want it to just copy existing items, so I’ve added some unique aspects to this kit. Herbalism kits can be used to make lotions, soaps, and salves.
Lotions take 1 minute to apply to an exposed part of the body, generally smelling nice and sometimes are coupled with an extra, minor effect.
Soaps are applied while bathing for at least 10 minutes. Other than making you very clean, they can also provide a passive benefit.
Salves have restorative properties that scale depending on how much time you dedicate to nursing the wound they’re curing.
It’s kind of a joke that the only thing the alchemy kit really says you can make in the printed guides is soap, but I don’t see why it has to be boring. Lotions and soaps sound like mundane items, and in many ways they are, but think about how they help you in everyday life. With a touch of magic and the right plants, Weavers, you can create something great for a pinch. Or, something you can sell for a few extra gold. I lump the two in the same category, though lotions can be applied quicker than soap. I usually have them grant a small bonus that must be used in a certain amount of time. You could also flavor lotions as perfumes!
You set the DC for each item made. I tend to scale it based on the power of the enchantment, and lower the DC each subsequent time the player makes it successfully, demonstrating their mastery. Here’s some examples:
Soothing Lotion. This lotion has a calming scent that keeps your nerves in check. The next saving throw you make against an effect that would frighten you is made with advantage.
Clearing Lotion. This lotion provides a strong scent to keep your mind your own. The next saving throw you make against an effect that would charm you is made with advantage.
Motivating Lotion. This lotion has an energetic scent to keep you on your toes. Your movement is uninhibited by difficult terrain for the next 10 minutes.
Motivating Soap. You bathe with a poppy scent that fills you with energy. Your movement increases by 10 ft. for the next hour.
Repelling Soap. This soap coats you in a slight, reflective sheen. You gain resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, OR slashing damage for the next hour.
Imbuing Soap. This soap toughens your resolve. You gain 2d6 + the creator’s proficiency bonus in temporary hit points.
Salves are the most helpful, and are essentially slower but effective medicines. Restorative Ointment is a magic item I use as a base for salves, though, I scale them in such a way where the more time you take to apply them, the more effective they are. They’re also something that can be applied by one creature to another should one be incapacitated. Unlike soaps and lotions, these salves are mostly for curative properties, as opposed to buffs.
Antidotal Salve. If you use an action to apply this salve, it cures the poisoned condition. If you spend a minute applying the salve, it also, in addition, protects you from the poisoned condition for 1 hour.
Unbinding Salve. This salve must be applied over a minute to gain its effects, which unbinds a creature from a cursed item. If the item has a particularly powerful curse, the DM may decide to add a check or save to see if the salve is successful.
Dispelling Salve. If applied as an action, this salve ends an effect on the applier caused by a spell of 3rd level or lower, similar to Dispel Magic. If they spend 1 minute applying it, it ends a spell of 5th level or lower.
Alchemist’s Supplies
Now, with Alchemist’s Supplies, you have much more to work with in terms of ability. Chances are you’ve had a player ask if they can make a specific potion with this tool set, or to maybe make up their own concoctions. Unlike other tool sets, this one actually has some meat to the description of what you can do with it, as per pg. 154 of the Player’s Handbook. You probably noticed I moved three of the things it says you can make to the Herbalism kit (soap, perfume, oil), but you can play what you require by ear.
Here’s a breakdown of what can be done with Alchemist’s Supplies, some rulings per the PHB:
You have advantage on Intelligence (Arcana) checks to identify magical potions and chemicals. Additionally, you can have advantage on Intelligence (Investigation) checks to find used chemicals and/or poisons in an area.
You can create Alchemic Recipes either from your own design, or discovered by examining an already created concoction.
If you successfully create a potion 10 times, you can create an Alchemic Recipe. Doing so allows you to make single uses of that potion for half the gold and components, and you do not have to make a check to make them.
You can attempt to learn the components of an existing potion. Depending on the rarity, the DC may rise or fall for the check. If you succeed at the check, you can determine some of the ingredients necessary to make the potion yourself. You’ll still have to write the recipe yourself, but it will speed up the process.
DM Discretion: You can find Alchemic Recipes throughout the world, or buy them from shops and traders.
You can craft potions, bombs, and powders with proficiency in these supplies. The skill required for specific items depends on the rarity of the creation, as well as the rarity and power of the ingredients used. All three types take 1 hour to craft, and a general cost in gold for ingredients, unless you gather them yourself.
Naturally, potions are already in the game, and there’s a plethora to choose from in the Dungeon Master’s Guide and other official supplements. Just as naturally, none of them actually come with recipes, so that’s where your fantastic, creative mind comes in! As displayed above, the recipes I craft for players with the formula of one to two plants/herbs + one monster/creature part. Additionally, some potions may require a special brewing method, such as leaving the mixture in direct sunlight, boiling it, or freezing it solid.
Other than that? I just throw together what sounds cool and could semi-logically make a magic potion. Don’t sweat it making any scientific sense or you’ll be there all day. Feel free to pull from real-life examples if that makes it easier, but I encourage you to come up with your own plants and creature parts!
When a player attempts to make a potion, set a DC based on the rarity of the potion. I don’t require checks for potions of a Common rarity, but set one for all other rarities. Just as I mentioned above, I generally lower the DC the more times the player makes a potion, to the point where they can make it without fail as long as they have the correct ingredients.
Here’s a couple example recipes in my game:
Potion of Water Form (Rare, Homebrew). Requires barnacles or coral from the sea, water from an elemental, and the scales of deep water fish. A potion colored a blue as deep as the sea. It smells and tastes like saltwater.
Drinking this potion allows a creature to take on a watery form for 10 minutes. While in this form, the creature has resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks. Additionally, the creature can enter a hostile creature's space and stay there, and can move through spaces as narrow as 1 inch. While in this form, if the creature takes Cold damage, they partially freeze. Their speed is reduced by 20 ft. until the end of their next turn. The form ends early if the creature is incapacitated.
Potion of Catnap (Rare, Homebrew). Requires sprigs of lavender and vanilla, the breath of a will-o-wisp, and a dying dandelion. A glass bottle filled with a misty, light blue substance. It smells of lavender, immediately relaxing the muscles.
This potion can be shattered on the ground, causing a blast of soothing fog to explode in a 10 ft. radius. All creatures in range must succeed a DC 15 Constitution save or fall unconscious for 1 minute. The effect lasts for the duration, until the creature takes damage, or someone takes an action to slap the creature awake. While unconscious in this way, the creature is incapacitated. The potion can also be consumed. If it is, the creature who consumed it has disadvantage on the save. They must drink the full contents to feel it's effects.
Potion of Climbing (Common, Basic Rules). Requires the leg of a spider or hair of a monkey and a shiitake mushroom. The potion is separated into brown, silver, and gray layers resembling bands of stone. Shaking the bottle fails to mix the colors.
When you drink this potion, you gain a climbing speed equal to your walking speed for 1 hour. During this time, you have advantage on Strength (Athletics) checks you make to climb.
Potion of Resistance (Uncommon, Basic Rules). Requires pure water, melted iron, and the saliva, hair, or blood of a creature with the resistance you’re making the potion for.
When you drink this potion, you gain resistance to one type of damage for 1 hour.
I have two other options available to players for Alchemist’s Supplies: the powders and the bombs. These aren’t official types of potions, so all the ones I’ve made are homebrew. However, you could make existing potions into these forms, with just some changes in mechanics.
Powders are just a different form for potions to take, which allows them to be thrown in the air and applied to multiple people as opposed to just one person. The disadvantage is they can’t be used in high winds or inclement weather, and they require twice the amount of ingredients to make. Many potions can also be made into a powder, but they require a bit more skill to make, so the DC may be higher. Powders can have buffs for allies or debuffs for enemies, the latter requiring saves on the part of the enemies. They’re a lot more subtle than bombs, as one could imagine.
Bombs, on the other hand, are exactly how they sound. I use the Alchemist’s Fire as a base for homebrewed bombs, as in I treat them as improvised weapons, and they can only be thrown up to 20 ft (though I may increase the throw range for a stronger creature.) These flasks shatter on impact and cause some sort of explosive effect, be it fire, smoke, or even stored spells. These concoctions can also be timed to explode, allowing them to be placed secretively and set off later. The main feature is something needs to trigger the explosion, the most common methods being ignition or sudden impact causing the bottle to shatter. Bombs are fragile, and there’s a chance they can be used against the creator if they fail to explode or they’re holding them when they take fire damage. Unlike powders, bombs can really only deliver negative effects.
Here’s a couple examples of powders and bombs I’ve made. Remember, these are just examples of recipes - you can surely change them to fit your world:
Fire Bomb (Uncommon, Homebrew). Requires gunpowder (sulfur, brimstone, and charcoal), fire crickets, and dried birch bark. This flask is highly sensitive to heat, and causes a fiery explosion if ignited.
This flask can either be lit with a fuse, or thrown. If you light a fuse, roll a d4. The number indicates the number of seconds x 10 it takes to explode. Alternatively, you can throw the bomb up to 20 ft from you with a ranged attack roll. The flask is treated as an improvised weapon. When the bomb impacts an object or the fuse ignites it, creatures within 15 ft. must make a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw or take 4d6 fire damage, half as much on a success.
Smoke Bomb (Uncommon, Homebrew). Requires brimstone and sugar, and/or the smoke glands of a fire-breathing creature, such as a dragon or chimera. The flask’s white mixture smokes slightly when agitated.
This bomb can only be thrown. Shattering the flask causes a massive cloud of harmless smoke to explode out into a 20 ft. radius of the impact point. For 1 minute, the area is heavily obscured. A wind of at least 10 miles an hour disperses the smoke early.
Wound Closure Powder (Varies, Homebrew). Requires camomile, ginger, and sage, all dried in the sunlight for 1 hour, and diamond dust worth 10 gp. This powder has a warmth to it, and smells medicinal, like a long-brewed tea.
You and up to two other creatures within 5 ft. of you regain 1d8 hit points when this powder is spread. The power of this powder can be increased if more expensive or rare ingredients are used. The healing increases by 1d8 for every increase in rarity level. The changes in the recipe are at the discretion of the DM.
Elusive Movement Powder (Rare, Homebrew). Requires the saliva and scales of a reptilian or aquatic creature of CR 5 or higher, wind in a bottle, sakura petals. This powder slips out of the hands like sand if not handled carefully.
You and up to two other creatures within 5 ft. of you become much harder to wrangle. For the next minute, affected creatures do not provoke attacks of opportunity when they move out of reach of a creature, and they have advantage on checks to escape being grappled.
Poisoner’s Kit
Now this kit is very similar to alchemist’s supplies, but flavored differently and still having a very different purpose. In order to make proper Poisons, a creature needs to be proficient in this kit, which also allows them to extract venom from creatures, and also identify poisons. Here’s the breakdown of what proficiency allows:
You have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to determine if a weapon, food, or drink is poisoned.
You can add your proficiency bonus to Intelligence (Nature) checks made to attempt and extract poison from a creature, such as a Wyvern or Purple Worm, as long as you’re using this kit for the extraction.
You can craft Poisons with this kit. Poisons come in four forms: ingested (must be eaten or drunk), inhaled (must be breathed in - holding your breath is ineffective to stop them), injury (applied to a weapon), and contact (must be touched). Certain poisons can only take on certain forms. A creature can also create acids with a poisoner’s kit.
The Dungeon Master’s Guide has a lot more guidelines for how to use poisons in game, which I quite like. I mostly follow the same rules for how I determine poisons in my games, so this will be the least homebrewed explanation. Poisons are unique in that they often don’t have to be brewed, but instead extracted from creatures or from plants. Some poisons require a little extra oomph to make effective, which require the same crafting checks as potions, but overall they’re a lot less labor intensive. There are two caveats: 1.) poisonous ingredients are much harder to just buy for obvious reasons and 2.) they are much more restrictive in the forms they come in. Poisons can only really be one way, and only have negative effects.
Chapter 8 of the DMG goes over poisons, including how to extract poisons from creatures. As per page 257, “The creature must be incapacitated or dead, and the harvesting requires 1d6 minutes followed by a DC 20 Intelligence (Nature) check. On a successful check, the character harvests enough poison for a single dose. On a failed check, the character is unable to extract any poison. If the character fails the check by 5 or more, the character is subjected to the creature’s poison.”
Now I actually increase or decrease the check’s DC depending on the strength of the creature, but you can follow the basic rules for this if it works out better. Also, poisons are a bit of a point of contention if a PC is found with them on their person. They can be easily confiscated by the town guard if they aren’t careful. Poisons can have very brutal effects, but it’s also one of the most resisted damage types/conditions in the game, so the balancing act isn’t too terrible. The difficulty in obtaining good poison is the main obstacle players should face when crafting them.
Also, because I think it’s horribly underutilized, players can make acids with the poisoner’s kit. They are very delicate to make, but can allow players to subtly corrode locks or cause some nasty burns to an enemy. Acids only really do one thing, so you can adjust damage and materials they’re capable of corroading based on the creatures they come from / the ingredients used.
Optional Feats
To combine with the options above, below I have some homebrew feats as well!
Alchemic Arsonist. You have a knack for making explosions. You gain the following benefits:
You gain proficiency in Alchemist’s Supplies, if you don’t have it already.
Crafting bombs takes half the time it normally does, and you can double your proficiency bonus when making them.
The effective radius of your bombs increases by 10 ft.
You can throw a bomb as a bonus action, as opposed to an action.
Alchemic Healer. The healing effects of your crafted potions become more potent. You gain the following benefits:
You gain proficiency in Alchemist’s Supplies or an Herbalism Kit if you don’t already have it.
Healing potions you make can be used twice, as opposed to once.
Healing potions, powders, and salves you craft heal the maximum number of hit points when administered to a creature at zero hit points.
Potions Master (must have proficiency in Alchemist’s Supplies or a Poisoner’s Kit.) You are highly proficient to the alchemic craft, you gain the following benefits:
You gain resistance to poison and acid damage.
You have advantage against effects that would poison you.
You gain expertise in Alchemist’s Supplies and/or Poisoner’s Kit.
When you fail a check with your Alchemist’s Supplies or Poisoner’s Kit, you can choose to succeed it instead. Once you do this, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest.
Natural Overlap
You’ve probably noticed that there’s a lot of crossover that seems possible with these tools, and that is correct. Some concoctions, like acids and powders, could reasonably be created with any of the three kits. Healing potions are one of the main things you can make with a Herbalism Kit, yet it would be silly if you couldn’t also make them with Alchemist’s Supplies. So, as a DM, you may decide to allow some wiggle room between the kits, especially when they’re so similar. Just keep in mind to ensure each kit has their own identity, so each player feels unique with their proficiencies and feels like they can contribute something special.
