D&D 5e – Questionable Arcana – Crafting: Alchemist’s Supplies

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Although this crafting system leverages many existing mechanics published under the 5e SRD and OGL, the final product is completely home-brewed. The finer details of this system are still being revised, and those changes will slowly be introduced into this document. However, the system as a whole is totally functional and ready to be used in any campaign. Furthermore, the rules and concepts discussed are intended to work in-tandem with the expanded artisan's tools rules found in Xanathar's Guide to Everything. If nothing else I hope this document and its siblings can be used as a source of guidance and inspiration for whatever crafting system you decide to go with.

Now that we’ve finally finished going through some of the more obscure toolkits, it is time to wrap this series up by going through some of the greatest hits.

When it comes to fantastical story telling, I am hard pressed to find a more universally accepted craft than alchemy. Potions have been an integral part of literature since before the Tragedy of Macbeth. They are famed to have the ability to cure any ailment or give the imbiber super-human strength. The process of creating these potions is typically referred to as alchemy.

The full definition of alchemy actually involves more than creating potions. According to the Cambridge Dictionary alchemy has the following definition:

• A type of chemistry, especially in the Middle Ages, that dealt with trying to find a way to change ordinary metals into gold and with trying to find a medicine that would cure any disease.

However, before we jump into talking about how to create the philospher’s stone in your campaign, I want to step back a minute and discuss the history of alchemy.

Gold Foil and Snake Oil – A History of Alchemy

Although alchemy hit its peak during the middle ages, there is evidence of alchemy in ancient Chinese and Egyptian documents. Unfortunately much of this documentation was destroyed as rulers rose and fell through the region, but the ones that survived reference the fabled “elixir of life”. This trend continued on into the middle ages when many European alchemical texts were destroyed during the Crusades and Spanish Inquisition.

Starting around the 12th century there were several famed alchemists that allegedly could create potions to extend life, or turn metal to gold. These alchemical forefathers were purported to have acquired great wealth practicing their craft, however around the fourteenth century the science of alchemy fell into disrepute. All manner of tricksters and charlatans posed as alchemists promising riches to the desperate the greedy alike, only to disappear into the night with the up-front payments they demanded for their work.

By the time the 16th century rolled around the alchemist’s in Europe had separated into two groups. The first group switched their focus over to the discovery of new compounds and their reactions, eventually leading to the modern science of chemistry. However the second group continued their search for fabled works such as the Elixir of Life and The Philosopher’s Stone.

Unnatural Enhancement

Fortunately for us we are operating in a fantasy world, so we don’t need to worry about petty things like scientific accuracy. What this means mechanically is that we should allow an alchemist to do all manner of transmutations, potion making, and scientific work.

Using this triple dipped definition a player with alchemist’s supplies proficiency can craft the following pieces of adventuring gear:

You may have noticed that I omitted the potion of healing from the list above. This is because according to sage advice(and page 153 of the PHB) a potion of healing is considered a magical item.

Speaking of magical items, the alchemist’s supplies is one of the strongest kits in the game when it comes to creating them. This is because much like the calligrapher’s supplies, there is already a RAW precedent set in the rules around the creation of potions.

This is important because this means that most DMs have at least been introduced to the concept of potion crafting, making it much more likely they will allow a player to craft them in their campaign. Beyond potions an alchemist could also create a number of items that involve either the creation of chemicals, or the transmutation of metals or minerals.

The rule of thumb used here is that if the item was made of a metal or mineral, and didn’t require much further assembly, it could hypothetically be crafted or transmuted by an alchemist.

The most difficult task for DMs when it comes to alchemy will be to determine which ingredients are needed to create an item. For common potions of healing you can probably just allow the player to craft them without special ingredients. In some cases such as the Potion of Hill Giant’s Strength the materials needed are implied in the item description.

However in most cases there are not obvious examples of what materials are needed to create the potion. In those instances you will have to put your home-brew hat on and get a little creative.

One straight-forward way to determine which ingredient is needed is to find a monster of an appropriate difficulty who has a property that is similar to the potions effect. Once the monster is killed the party can roll a DC 20 Nature check(much like how poisons are extracted) to harvest the relevant body part.

This concept can be applied to create brand new potions as well. If flipping through pages isn’t your thing then I recommend using the D&D Beyond Monster List Utility to quickly find a creature with the desired effect and challenge rating.

Below are a handful of examples pulled from the monster list utility:

If you don’t want to go the monster route, then you can make it any manner of home-brewed plants or substances that fit the bill. At the end of the day the important thing is to make sure that you choose a substance that is both a challenge to acquire, and too scarce to easily mass produced.

The Takeway: The Alchemist’s Supplies are able to create a decent number of relevant adventuring gear items. They can also craft a strong list of magic items composed of metals and minerals that do not require any type of expert assembly. Last but not least they can create all manner of potions using both material and creature-based components at the DM’s discretion.

Alchemical Artwork

Anybody who has ever read a Harry Potter book knows that potions don’t always have to be serious. If magic is commonplace in your campaign, then I think it is completely valid to allow for the creation of “artistic” potions.

An artistic potion can be any potion that creates a (relatively) harmless, but interesting effect. For example a potion that allows a non-magic user to cast a form of prestidigitation for an hour, or makes someone’s flatulence smell like cinnamon could be considered artistic.

If you decide to allow for this type of item in your campaign, I recommend using our Questionable Arcana Artwork Crafting System or similar to assign a value to the potion.

Typically in our system I assign a bonus to most kits, but in the case of potions I am going to recommend you stick to the basic crafting rules. This is because depending on how scarce magic is in any given world, the DM could potentially restrict this activity.

The Takeaway: Campaigns where magic is commonplace could allow for the creation of “artistic” potions. Artistic potions are relatively harmless potions with interesting effects that are intended to entertain as opposed to enhance.

Adventuring Utility

Beyond crafting potions alchemist’s supplies proficiency grants a number of benefits.

The first is the ability to apply their vast knowledge of potions and their ingredients to a number of situations. An obvious example of this is being able to quickly identify potions found while adventuring. I would recommend allowing the player to add their alchemist’s supplies proficiency to any check made when identifying a potion.

Another more straight-forward bonus is the ability to add your proficiency bonus when attacking with alchemical adventuring gear. Typically when a player uses an item such as alchemist’s fire it is treated as an improvised weapon. I would argue that someone who intimately familiar with how the substance is created and contained would be more effective when attacking with it.

Lastly any time a player is in a situation where alchemy was obviously involved they should be able to add their proficiency bonus to any checks involved in uncovering that information. For example if the party finds a pile of raw gold in an alchemy lab, the player can add their alchemist’s supplies proficiency to any check used to determine whether or not the gold was magically transmuted.

The Takeaway: Player’s with alchemist’s supplies proficiency can add their proficiency bonus to all manner of checks centered around potions or alchemical materials. Further-more they can add their proficiency bonus when attacking with an alchemical adventuring gear such as acid or alchemist’s fire.

Conclusion

It is not terribly surprising that the alchemist’s supplies are an extremely strong artisan’s toolkit. Alchemy is a concept that has been utilized in role playing games for ages, and most Dungeon Masters will put in the extra effort required to make it useful.

If you are starting a campaign, it would be silly to not have at least one character with alchemist’s supplies proficiency. Crafting aside, the adventuring utility around identifying potions is worth the price of admission. If nothing else the ability to turn GP into HP via healing potions is something that every party can benefit from as well.

I walked into this article expecting the alchemist’s supplies to be one of the strongest kits in the game, and walked out of it with the same opinion

This kit is great, pick it up.

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