Potions of Nap and Mana

We’ve been running a weekly collaborative D&D campaign since January using the Roll 20 system, and it’s been a great experience. The game is set in Oldstone, a crossroads city in a desert region that was once the seat of a great necromantically focused empire.  The city fell into ruin centuries ago as a result of wars with its neighbors but was resettled over the last century by enterprising travelers.  A variety of colonial powers have fought over the reborn city and its surroundings, including an important trade route, only reaching an armistice just as the campaign began. It’s a region of political tensions, ancient tombs inhabited by a plethora of undead, and unhospitable surroundings that are home to some very tough and challenging creatures and not a few bandits.

While running some game sessions with extended fight sequences that sometimes turned into a series of skirmishes, we became dissatisfied with the resting system in D&D.  While I think 5^th edition features a significant improvement with the short rest option, the fact that those still take an hour to complete can sometimes really mess up the pacing of a game. If a fight was a little tougher than you thought it was going to be and the players aren’t quite sure about the resources they have left, they may well decide to take the extra time to complete a short rest rather than push ahead, even if that really throws a crimp in your narrative. Chase sequences or other scenarios that use a sense of urgency to build tension can particularly fall victim to this sort of issue. If the party decides to just give up and let the cultists sacrifice the victim because they don’t feel ready to take on another fight, then that might be an issue that could use a fix.

As a sort of patch for this issue, I turned to something that is quite common in the gaming genre, particularly in computer and online games, the “stamina” potion.  The genre of LitRPG in particular seems to make frequent use of this notion of a restorative elixir that allows a battered hero to push on past exhaustion. Since the potion is itself a resource, it still feels like there is a limit and a cost for its use, even as it allows for the maintenance of narrative tension.  It also has the advantage of creating a cash sink for the characters, something that seems to be increasingly important to provide as play reaches the middle levels and money has fewer uses even as it begins to scale.

My solution? Potions of “Nap.” These elixers enable characters to gain the advantage of a short rest in only a minute’s time span.  So far they’ve been popular with the players and have allowed for some good narratively tense encounter strings without seeming to unbalance the game.

While I was doing this, I also added in another staple of MMO games, the “Mana” potion, which enable casters to gain back spell levels.  Since only the wizard can get spell levels back with a short rest, and a limited number at that, this was also necessary as lack of spells was the second leading cause for characters to give up and take a rest (first place going to low hit points). The need to take a long rest was, if anything, even more debilitating, so I think the mana potion may be even more critical for facilitating the kind of fast-paced play that I was looking for and which is such a staple of the genre in general.

You may be wondering how such potions could be abused. I anticipated a few, and created some mechanics to prevent them. First, the potions don’t take effect immediately. You need a full minute. Second, the potions leave the imbiber a bit vulnerable during that period. Third, there’s an increasing and cumulative likelihood of becoming exhausted each time one drinks a potion after the first, that likelihood only resetting with an actual long rest. As a result, PCs can’t benefit from chugging rest and mana potions in the middle of a fight, and there’s a limit to how long they can push their resources in any given day.

Altogether, these potions seem to have really helped make more complex narratives with tense timelines and pacing much easier to run.  Any tweak that helps make the game more fun and interesting and enables more flexible storytelling is good in my book.  I hope you find these two items as useful as we have.

Magic Items of Oldstone

Located at a crossroads among several cultures with distinct magical traditions and amid the ruins of the Purn Necromancers, Oldstone is home to a diverse and significant assortment of magical items.  Several common items are of particular use to adventurers and produced in significant quantities in the region.  Perhaps the most pedestrian but also utilitarian of these are an assortment of potions that speed up the recovery rates for adventurers. 

Potion of Nap

This potion provides the effects of a short rest for the imbiber.  The character may spend hit dice and recover any abilities that regenerate after a short rest. Magic items used by the character are not affected.

It takes one minute for the potion of nap to take effect.  During that period of time a character who has imbibed the potion has the condition poisoned, though the process is actually comfortable and relaxing rather than painful. Mostly, they are spacey and woozy. Imbibers are advised not to swing swords or operate heavy machinery.

If a character imbibes more than one potion of nap before a long rest, he or she must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 10 or gain a level of exhaustion.  Subsequent potions of nap before a long rest increase the DC of the saving throw by 5 each time.  A character who imbibes three potions of nap before a long rest must make a Constitution save with a DC of 15 or gain a level of exhaustion. For the fourth, the DC is 20, and so on.

Alchemists in the Oldstone region sell these potions for 100 gp, though the price has been known to vary with adventurer and mercenary demand and the scarcity of materials.

Potion of Mana

This potion restores spell levels to the imbiber. The imbiber can choose how those regained spell levels are distributed.  For instance, a character drinking a potion of lesser mana regains 4 spell levels, and could accordingly restore 4 first level spell slots (if they had that many), 2 second level spell slots, 1 second level spell slot and 2 first level spell slots, 1 third level spell slot and 1 first level spell slot, or 1 singular fourth level spell slot. If the imbiber does not have enough spell slots to regain, any excess is wasted.

It takes one minute for the potion of manato take effect.  During that period of time a character who has imbibed the potion has the condition poisoned, though the process is actually comfortable and relaxing rather than painful. Mostly, they are spacey and woozy. Imbibers are advised not to swing swords or operate heavy machinery.

If a character imbibes more than one potion of mana before a long rest, he or she must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 10 or gain a level of exhaustion.  Subsequent potions of mana before a long rest increase the DC of the saving throw by 5 each time.  A character who imbibes three potions of mana before a long rest must make a Constitution save with a DC of 15 or gain a level of exhaustion. For the fourth, the DC is 20, and so on.

Potion of	Rarity	Spell Levels Regained
Lesser Mana	Common	1d4+1
Greater Mana	Uncommon	2d4 + 2
Superior Mana	Rare	3d4 + 3
Supreme Mana	Very rare	4d4 + 4

Alchemists in the Oldstone region often lesser mana potions, but the availabilities and prices of the other kinds are less reliable. Lesser mana potions generally cost about 100 gp. When they can be found, greater mana potions go for about 250 gp. The rare superior mana potion runs 750 gp, or more, if one can be found at all.  Supreme mana potions, exceedingly rare, almost never appear on the market because the people who brew them typically do so for personal use. However, on the rare occasion that one has reached bidders, it has auctioned for a minimum of 1,500 gp.