24 Illuminating Items of Interest

Weaponized Animals

Always a popular category.

1 - Ripper Eggs

Rippers are fierce little things.  A bit like gaudy red raptors (the lizard kind, not the feather kind) with a row of black spikes running down their spine.  They imprint very quickly when they hatch, and are exceptionally easy to train.

They are popular pets, due to their intense loyalty (starting morale = 20) but they are hyperaggressive.  Whenever they see something that is red, loud, or even vaguely threatening, their owner must succeed on a loyalty check to keep them from attacking.

They abhor being left alone.  Each time you leave your pet Ripper alone, it loses 4 points of loyalty, in addition to all the things that stress out a pet.

Just stat them up like little raptors/lizards.  They eat an incredible amount: about 1 days worth of food per HD.

2 - Throwing Snakes

HD 1.  Str 8.  Will try to strangle anything you throw them at.  A well-trained snake can can tie itself into very strong knots (useful as part of a self-releasing rope mechanism).  And the best snakes are capable of the "suicide knot", where the snake knots itself to death and creates an incredibly strong loop.

Popular among the people of the Fog Caverns in Outer Basharna.

3 - Acid Slug

Transported in glass vials.  Thrown from glass-bucketed slings.  As acid arrow.  Will also crawl inside locks and melt them.  Single use.

Can also be fed in order to grow them larger.  This is a bad idea, but I'm sure adventurers will do it anyway.

4 - Murder Urchins

When taken out of their oil-filled sacks, they die within 24 hours.  They grow 1' in diameter for every sentient creature killed within 1 km of them.  They eat corpses telekinetically.  When they're large enough, they eat people the old-fashioned way.

A scattering of these urchins in a city's streets during a battle will quickly fill the streets with rapidly growing urchins.

5 - Termite Swarm

A 1 oz vial holds 500 lbs of termites.  Will devour a cabin's worth of wood in 1 hour, and then disperse outwards to terrorize more distant climes.

6 - Giant Zombie Hand

A proper mount for necromancers. The wrist functions as a back rest.  The necromancers of Kel Dravonis also use them as scribes, for all those times you need your message clawed into the side of a castle.

7 - Horse Train

Just take a bunch of horses and sew them together into a caterpillar thing.  Zombie horses are notoriously stupid, and this way you only have to keep track of one of them.  Popular among vapor-maddened wizards.

8 - Proxy Mouse

If you breathe into this mouse's mouth, you exchange all wounds with it, up to a mouse's capacity to absorb damage, which ends up being about the same as a normal healing potion.

Magic Items

The eternal engine of our hobby.

1. Dawn Tent

Can only be used once.  Anything inside this silken tent when it is sealed is sent forward in time until the next dawn.  For someone inside the tent, it is as if dawn arrived suddenly.  Effect ends immediately if someone destroys the integrity of the tent.

2. Spinal Bow

Made by the bone-and-metal worshippers of the Ashen Archipelago from your own spine (which is then replaced with a piece of metal that was once part of a ship's mast).  Your spinal bow is a bow +1.  If you sleep with an animal spine beneath you, the spine will turn into an arrow +3 that is functional against the same species.  Usable 1/night, but the arrows it creates are permanent.

3. Black Sheep's Wool Cloak

Whenever you sleep in this cloak, you are safely entombed 4' beneath the ground.  This is true for both magical and non-magical sleep.  As soon as you wake up, you return safely to the surface of the ground.

4. Nostalgia Poison

Causes creatures to reminisce.  Once combat has died down, they are compelled to immediately return home and/or seek out a loved one they haven't seen in a while and/or seek out their grave.  As suggestion.  Intelligent creatures will take time to pack, inform people of their decision, but they will not be halted.

5. Crown of Chaos

All spell's cast within/into 100' of you have their targets randomized.  The crown is actually an especially lazy slaad.

6. White Lotus Powder

Kills the drinker, no save.  Exactly 13 hours later, they wake up at full health and without diseases (as long as their body hasn't been  mangled during that time).

Oddly enough, the powder is black, as are the flowers it is made from.  (It's just a play on black lotus powder, of course.)

7. Alternate Self Ring

When this ring is put on the finger, you are replaced with a version of yourself from an alternate dimension.  This effect is reversible, and ends as soon as the ring is removed.  The effect is consistent with each person--that is, each person who wears the ring will turn into the same alternate universe self each time.  If the ring turns you into a corpse (from a timeline where you are dead), you will always turn into that particular corpse when you put on the ring.  For someone else, the ring might switch their gender.

Whenever a new character tries on the ring, roll a d6 and a d4 together.  (You're probably going to ignore the d4 roll.)

1. Minor difference, such as a facial scar or a goatee.
2. Different gender.
3. Different class.  (Roll randomly.)
4. Inverted stats.  (18s become 3s.)
5. Corpse.
6. Actually an evil twin that will reveal themselves only at the worst possible time (basically turning into an NPC at that point, but let the player play them as normal until then, and don't even tell them).  Roll a d4 to see what alternate version they seem to be.

Alternate selves, although basically the same character under the control of the same player, still notice things that are different from their home timeline.  As in: "Whoa, the sky is blue here!  Weird!"

8. Demon Blood

You get +1 Attack and deal +1 Damage each turn.  This stacks.  Make a Con check at the start of each round.  After you fail two checks, or after 6 rounds (whichever comes first), you are paralyzed as all of your muscles attempt to clench at the same time.

9. Shacklebolt

Struck targets take nonlethal damage from this arrow and must then make a Str check or be wrapped in a full set of manacles.  Only binds 4 limbs.

10. Choodoo Doll

Perfectly imitates the actions of the person whose lock of hair is affixed to it.  Mostly used to spy on people, since you can see what actions the person is performing at any given time.  If you build a model of their house, you can see what part of the house they are in at any given time.  If you give them a miniature pencil, you can see what they are writing as they write it.

11. Mountain Maker

Looks like a propeller attached to a chain.  When bolted to the ground, will immediately fly up, pulling the ground with it and creating a hill.  The resultant hill is 10' tall for every maker used, and 40' wide for every maker used.  Chance of toppling a castle, if used adjacent to a castle = X in 20, where X is the number of makers used.

12. Blood of Luroc

If poured on the ground of a building, will cause it to grow 1d3-1 hallways and 1d6 new rooms, riddling the structure like a cancer.  Will spread outwards from your current location, distorting the position of current rooms) until it reaches an outer area where it can grow rooms there.  Each room has a 50% chance of containing a creature (equal chance NPC or monster), 50% chance of containing a treasure, and a 2-in-6 chance of containing a trap.  These creatures are drawn from the Halls of Luroc (a living, moving, sentient dungeon that is obsessed with collecting history, as recorded by architecture.  Expect mad librarians, living gates, and collections of keystones, keys, and/or bricks that hold thumbprints).

13. Skeevu Stingers

Heal you similar to a healing potion, but your HP total decreases by 2 points each time.

14. Sacred Cake

Heals you like a healing potion, but it makes you fat.  Fat takes up inventory slots, the same as items do, and you can't just throw it away.  Every 2 weeks of adventuring will remove 1 inventory slot's worth of fat.  This can be accelerated if you are starving in a desert, or halted if you are feasting in a city.

15. Stoneweaver's Needles

Basically allows you to cast a version of the stone shape spell, except it's much more dramatic--you're drawing out strings of stone from the earth and weaving them into shapes.  It's actually a version of a crochet needle.  You can control the hard and soft parts of your stoneweave, so you aren't limited to only shapes that you could knit.

24. Blood Pillow

When this small hand pillow is drenched in a creature's blood and then wrung out, the blood will begin flowing in the direction of that creature's home.  If the creature knew the way to get back home, so will the blood.

The GLOG: Alchemy and Oozes

Here's an 18-page PDF about alchemy and oozes.  It's a lot longer than I originally intended, and yet, there are still things that I could add.

>GET IT HERE<

I tried to make a super-usable d100 table of potions.  They all have details on potion appearance and taste, which I'm not sure I've seen before.  I tried to make all the details give strong enough clues that players would have a strong hunch what the potion did (or at least when they should drink it) without giving it away 100%.  That's more fun than some fucking identify spell, methinks.

In terms of the d100 potion list, I'm not 100% happy with it, but I think I did a good job of hitting all my goals.

There's also a bunch of lore fluff (alchemical oblates) and random shit that is ripe for importing into your game (alternatives to potions, sludge vampires).  Actually, I hope all of this stuff is easily adaptable to your game.

Most of the stuff in here is not new stuff.  It's old stuff that has been organized and touched up.

If you've read all of my blog posts ever, here are the things in this document that you haven't seen before:

-Potion Appearances, Scents, and Tastes
-Alternatives to Potions
-Alchemical Oblates

by Svetlin Velinov

Potion Rules + Some Oozes

So I wrote a list of potions, but there's still a lot more that needs to be said.

Falling Damage Rule

Whenever you take falling damage, each of your potions has a 50% chance to break open (rolled individually). If any of the potions react with objects, apply it to another random object.  For example, sovereign grease could spill on your stowed rope, or a potion of invisibility could spill on your spellbook.  Both are hilarious.

If multiple potions in the same pack break open, pair them off and roll on the potion miscibility table (below).

Potions are normally bundled (3 per Inventory Slot) but it is possible to wrap them up carefully so that they are not at risk of breaking. Wrapped potions take up 1 inventory slot each.

There's a complement to this rule involving fire damage and scrolls.

Potion Miscibility

This is what happens when two potions are mixed, or what happens when you drink one potion while still under the effects of another. Roll a [d6]:

1. Deadly poison (2d6). 1-in-6 chance it becomes gaseous, affecting everyone in 20' with inhaled poison (1d6).
2. A cursed potion is created. (Contains a random curse.) 1-in-6 chance of becoming gaseous, in which case everyone in 20' must save or contract the curse.
3. A random potion is formed. Roll d100 on the Potion Table.
4. Potions are blended together. The DM determines the precise effects.
5. One potion is subsumed by the other, which is enhanced. Roll on the Spell Mutation Table, and ignore the Random Drawbacks Table. If you get 18-20, ignore the Spell Mutation Table result; the potion effect is now permanent.
6. An alchemical ooze is formed. It has the powers of both potions used in its creation (see below).  An alchemical ooze in your stomach is fatal unless you quickly vomit it out (Con check or die).

by Cryptcrawler

Hashing Potions

Sometimes a player will pick up a potion in a dungeon and won't identify it until later. At that point, you've forgotten what potion it was.

The solution to this problem is that there is no problem. Just roll the potion's identity when it is identified, and not when it is found. This fits with the philosophy of Just-in-time Resolution.

But sometimes you will give out a known potion and want to keep track of it. Perhaps because it wouldn't make sense to find a potion of zombie blood in a druid's root-grave (or would it make perfect sense?). You don't want to have to keep track of this potion's secret identify. You're a DM; you're already keeping track of a million things. So here's my advice, just use a hash function.

A hash function, which is some way of secretly modifying the number so that you can recover the original number, but your player has no idea what the original number was.

When you put a potion into a player's inventory, identify it by a number that is the hashed result of whatever number it was on the d100 potion table. Here are some sample hash functions:

• Add a nonsense number to the left of the original number. #07 becomes #307 or #707 or whatever.
• Add nonsense numbers on both sides and in the middle. #07 becomes #10171 or #30179 or whatever.
• If the number is odd, double it. If it is even, subtract 1. #07 becomes #14. #08 becomes #07.
• A complicated one: reverse the order. Double odds, reduce evens by 1. Add a nonsense number in the first and last places. #07 becomes #7693 or #9690.

You can make it as simple or as complex as you want. The point is just to hide a potion's identity in its description so that you know what it is, but your player doesn't. And so these potions will sit in your player's inventory, described as “potion #9690” until they are identified.

Alternatively, you can use this method:

• Give each potion a description. The first few letters of the description also refer to the first few letters of the potion's name.
• “Potion of HEAling” becomes “HEAvier than it should be” or “HEAdy aroma of cinnamon”.
• You can also hide the potion's/scroll's name further on in the description, maybe starting it on the second or third letter. Or reverse it and put it at the end of the description.
• “Potion of SOLipcism” becomes “potion labeled telLOS” or “dusty liquid with internal haLOS”.

Just make sure that they write down the whole description.

By Der-Reiko

Alchemical Oozes

Alchemical oozes are formed by alchemy, whether intentionally or accidentally.  How else could a green slime devour so much, so quickly?  It may very well be that all oozes have their ultimate genesis in an alchemist's laboratory or boiling ponds of sulfurous sludge.

Here are the stats for a full-grown alchemical ooze.  (Alchemical oozes are just first-generation oozes.  They may not all breed true, and most are singular creatures.)

Level 7 Armor none Psuedopod 1d8 + engulf

Move 6 Int 1 Mor 12

*Split – When this ooze takes slashing damage, it splits into two smaller oozes, each with half the remaining HP. Left alone, the pieces will rejoin.

*Potion Abilities – Each alchemical ooze enjoys the effects of the potions that created it. The ooze permanently enjoys the effects of beneficial potions, while negative potions are applied to its enemies when hit by a psuedopod.

Oozes that have a potion related to language have Int 10. Oozes that have “transformation” effects have the intelligence of the creature, and will transform one part of their body at a time unless a full transformation is really necessary. Elementally aligned oozes will deal an extra +1d6 damage of that element on a strike.

Some oozes will be more deadly than others (flight + invulnerability) and this is okay.  You may have to take some liberties in interpreting your results.

Here are some proof-of-concept oozes, freshly rolled:

• The Great Gambler + Transformation: Bees = Swarm of tiny, flying slimes.  Attacks against them are either crits or misses.
• Time Hack + Grandeur = Magnificent, kingly slime.  If it is at full HP, creatures must succeed on a save to attack it.  Once per day, it is able to undo all damage done to it in a single turn and teleport back to where it was last turn.  It uses this immediately to return to full health.
• Water Breathing + Transposition = Looks exactly like water.  The first person to see it must save or switch places with it (works 1/hour).  When it comes after you it makes Darth Vader breathing sounds.
• Acid Resistance + Darkvision = Ooze does an extra +1d6 acid damage.  Ooze is cloaked in darkness out to a distance of 20'.

Copper Ooze Attenuator

This is a magic item.

All copper within 20' turns into coppery ooze.  This process takes about 8 hours.  These oozes rush over to cover the copper ooze attenuator.  Once they've done this, the whole mass behaves like a normal ooze.  It has 1 HP for every hundred copper coins (or equivalent) that went into it's manufacture.

Treat it like a normal ooze (see above) except that copper will continue to join up with it, making it larger.  When it is below half HP, it begins generating electricity, shocking anyone who hits it when a metal weapon.

When killed, it turns into a crumbling pile of lead and asbestos.

Helmet Ooze

It has a shell, like Arcellinida.  Increase its AC by 4 points.  Engulfed creatures who fail a Strength check have their spines broken as the helmet ooze pulls them sideways into its shell.

Velvet Ooze

This rare ooze is kept in small boxes in their bedside tables.  Like the name implies, it is soft and velvety.  It is harmless and is only capable of eating milk and sugar.  It's about the size of a fist.  It's mostly used for masturbation.

Larger ones are used for orgies, but you have to be careful--it is still instinctively trying to kill you.  A bit like a toothless, boneless lion.

by Fyreant

Alchemical Resurrection

Reviving the dead is possible. There are many ways, but they are rare, difficult, and always come at a great cost. The sacrifice of a hundred to save one. An infernal contract, with only the abyss yawning before you next and final death. Or perhaps the thing that returns is not you, but instead some wretched, half-formed shade of yourself.

Regardless, the success of the process has less to do with the method of resurrection and more to do with the method of death.

There are some who die alchemical deaths: devoured by an acid, digested by an ooze, transformed into stone and then shattered, or with an alchemical poison that turned your veins into dust.

Those that die through alchemy are best resurrected through alchemy.

If you die through alchemical means, you may be resurrected by an alchemist. This requires the alchemical element that destroyed you. For example, f you were devoured by an ooze, then the entire ooze must be brought to the alchemist. Incomplete remains result in incomplete resurrections.

Then, if the need is great, the alchemist is puissant, and the pockets are deep, it is possible to develop a recipe to resurrect your dead friend. A quest may be involved for some trivial thing, such as the air from a freshly dead dragon's lungs. And then the alchemist will present to you a case of resurrection elixir.

Dead characters can continue playing as long as the supply of resurrection elixir holds out.

Resurrection Elixir

You turn into the person who was resurrected into these potions. Lasts until the next day. Efficacy is lost with age, and loses duration while the resurrection person eventually loses their memories.

DM's Note:

I normally make resurrection a difficult, shitty process because I don't want players to come back from the dead without having earned it twice over.

But, resurrection elixir is so interesting that I think I would make it a lot easier, just because (a) it's so fucking interesting, and (b) it's not really resurrection anyway.

How would a player handle it, I wonder, playing a dead character who is only alive for one day at a time, and only through a dwindling supply of elixirs.

It's like playing as Mr. Hyde when you know that Dr. Jekyll has run out of reagents to make more potions.  Is it death or homeostasis that will greet you?

The Perfect Potion List

I did something a little different today.  I tried to write out the potion tables for my fantasy heartbreaker, the GLOG.

Usually I just try to pump out as much fresh brain juice as possible, which is fun because I just write about whatever is interesting.  But today I was trying to answer the question of "what is the best possible potion list to have in a game"?  Which is a surprisingly different process.

I wrote a list of potions, nearly 200.  A lot of them were crappy and I deleted them, but it was clear that the best potion list is not the longest potion list.  You want to distill the good stuff down and discard the chaff.

Sure, a bloated potion list is good for DMs to steal ideas for their own adaptations.  But a system's core potion list should be as high quality as possible.  It also needs to be large enough to feel like there's a good variety there.

Anyway, most games have potion lists with about 20 entries, which seems thin to me.

Or they'll have potion lists that are just adapted straight from the spell list.  Which is fine, but it makes it seem that potions are just liquid spells, and I want them to be more than that.  I want potions to have their own feeling and their own lore.

Besides, spells have to be (sort of) balanced.  Potions are things that you find randomly or at the DM's discretion--there's no need to make them psuedo-equivalent in power level.  You can go pig wild when writing them.

I had a few goals when I wrote up my potion list:

• Make a list of 20 old-school potions for people who want a more retro potion list, and who want to avoid the weird stuff.
• Make more potions that were useful for exploration, not just combat.  (Spells are prepared with an expectation in mind.  Potions are just found.  Therefore potions can afford to be more situational than spells.)
• Make potions that are good for solving (and creating) OSR-style challenges (especially of the dungeoncrawling variety).
• Make potions that had multiple (but intuitive) uses.  Unlike spells, potions are a known substance (liquid) with known properties (liquidity).  It has a context and a known behavior (we already know what we can do with 1oz of liquid).  Potions should have uses other than just drinking.  For example, if a potion of invisibility is poured out on the floor, it should make a small section of the floor invisible, creating a window.
• Make a list of 100 potions.

I failed miserably at the last bullet-point.  That's where you come in.

I wrote too many potions.  Please comment on which potions you think are crappiest.  Either because they're boring, or you've seen them too many times, or because they wouldn't lead to good gameplay.

by Alexander Fedosov

Too Many Potions

Note: Potions descriptions start with a description of what happens when you drink the potion.  ("You heal 1d8+1 HP".)  Other uses of the potion are detailed later on in the paragraph.

1. Clairvoyance

By designating a location within 100', you can see that location as if you were there. You can look at a different location each round. Lasts 1d6 rounds.

2. Deadly Poison

Created by feeding a chain of poisonous animals to each other. Poison (2d6).

3. Flight

You gain a fly speed of 24. Lasts 1d6 rounds.

4. Fire Resistance

All incoming fire damage is reduced by 6 points. Lasts 30 minutes.

5. Gaseous Form

As the spell gaseous form. Lasts 30 minutes.

6. Giant Size

You triple in size. Your physical attacks deal double damage and you take half damage from physical sources. When making Strength checks, treat your Strength at 24. Lasts 1d6 rounds.

Alternatively, it can be poured on an object or part of an object to make it triple in size. Lasts 30 minutes.

7. Healing

You recover 1d8+1 hit points.

8. Heroism

You get +4 to all d20 rolls. Lasts 1d6 rounds.

9. Invisibility

You are invisible. If poured on a wall or floor, creates a psuedo-window that you can see through. Lasts 1d6 rounds.

10. Invincibility

You are immune to damage. Lasts 1 round.

11. Nondetection

All magical attempts to learn about you fail. People forget you exist as soon as they stop looking at you. Lasts 30 minutes.

12. Petrification

Turns you into stone. If poured on stone, turns it into flesh.

13. Polymorph

A piece of a creature must be added to this potion before it can be used. You transform into an exact copy of that creature. Multiple donors creates chimeras. Lasts 30 minutes if same species or 1d6 rounds if different species.

14. Purge

Any poisons in your body are vomited out intact. You can vomit the poison into the (now empty) potion bottle if you wish.

15. Shrink

You shrink to a twelfth of your normal size. (Feet becomes inches.) Your Strength is 1, all of your attacks deal a single point of damage, and you take double damage from physical sources. Lasts 30 minutes.

Alternatively, it can be poured on an object or part of an object to make it shrink down. Anything smaller than a couch can fit in your pocket. Lasts 30 minutes.

16. Sovereign Glue

Elemental stickiness. Glues anything to anything, forever. Very difficult to see if spread on a surface.

17. Spider Climb

As the spell spider climb. Lasts 30 minutes.

18. Universal Solvent

Dissolves any adhesive. Neutralizes sovereign glue and sovereign grease. Causes hard materials to become softer. (Stone becomes like clay, adamantine becomes as soft as normal steel.) Don't get it on your hands.

19. Water Breathing

You can breath underwater. Lasts 30 minutes.

20. Zombie Blood

You appear to be a cold, rotting corpse but can still act normally. Unintelligent undead will ignore you as long as you ignore them. You count as undead. Lasts 30 minutes.

Acid Resistance

All incoming acid damage is reduced by 6 points. Lasts 30 minutes.

Adulthood

Plants and animals instantly grow to their adult size and form.

Alternate Self

You die and a version of yourself from an alternate reality is permanently summoned to your location to be your new replacement PC. This character is exactly like your previous character except they [d4]: 1 = are a different gender, 2 = are a different class, 3 = have opposite values and Convictions, 4 = are a different age.

Anchoring

You cannot be moved from your location. If poured on an object, it cannot be moved from its location. If poured on a creature, it cannot move from its location if it fails a save. Lasts 30 minutes.

Animate Object

You turn into an inanimate piece of furniture appropriate to the environment; this lasts until the following morning. If poured on an inanimate object, that object permanently wakes up as the spell animate object.

Banishment

You return to the location of your birth. No save. If poured on a creature (instead of consumed) a save is allowed.

Beauty

When making Charisma checks to impress people or get them to like you, treat your Charisma as if it were 18. Creatures that might be sexually attracted to you must make a Save or be fascinated by you, unable to look away, as long as no one takes any overtly hostile actions.

Bottle Imp: Black

Answers one question truthfully. Knows everything that Hell knows (which is damn near everything). If you eat it, or if it crawls down the throat of an intact corpse, it can possess that body for 30 minutes. Dies quickly upon contact with air. Can only answer questions that start with “what”.

Bottle Imp: Blue

Answers one question truthfully. Knows everything that Hell knows (which is damn near everything). If you eat it, or if it crawls down the throat of an intact corpse, it can possess that body for 30 minutes. Dies quickly upon contact with air. Can only answer questions that start with “why” or “how”.

Bottle Imp: Green

Answers one question truthfully. Knows everything that Hell knows (which is damn near everything). If you eat it, or if it crawls down the throat of an intact corpse, it can possess that body for 30 minutes. Dies quickly upon contact with air. Can only answer questions that start with “when” or “where”.

Bottle Imp: Red

Answers one question truthfully. Knows everything that Hell knows (which is damn near everything). If you eat it, or if it crawls down the throat of an intact corpse, it can possess that body for 30 minutes. Dies quickly upon contact with air. Can only answer questions that start with “who”.

Bottomless Puddle

Nothing you swallow will affect you in any way. If poured on a ground, creates a bottomless hole about 5' in diameter. Lasts 30 minutes.

Bounty

You gain 50 pounds. If poured on food, it erupts into 3d6 more servings of that food. Copies are delicious, fancy, and have none of the magical properties of the original food (if any). “Food” is limited to human food.

Breathlessness

You no longer need to breathe. You cannot speak or cast spells. Lasts 30 minutes.

Breathstealer

If you are caught in a breath attack, you can choose to inhale the breath attack, thereby negating it. You can hold it in you for as long as you can hold your breath, then breath out the breath attack normally. Also works on strong wings and gases. You are immune to any negative effects of inhaled things. If you can kiss someone, you can suck out their breath, and they take 3d6 non-lethal damage. Lasts 30 minutes, or until used.

Bubble Breath

You breath out a 20' cone of sticky pink bubbles. Creatures caught in this area are covered with bubbles, and get -2 Attack, +2 Defense, and move at half speed. No save. These effects last until successfully scrape off the bubbles, which takes a standard action and a successful Dex check. The bubbles remain on the ground for 30 minutes, and behave like a big, sticky pile of mattresses.

Burrow

You gain a Burrow speed of 6 in dirt (not stone). Lasts 30 minutes. Alternatively, if this potion is poured on the ground, will excavate a burrow large enough for 6 people to sit inside comfortably. Only works on dirt, not stone.

Cloudkill

If you drink this, you die (no save). If this potion is broken or poured out, it creates a noxious yellow cloud 20' in diameter. Creatures inside this cloud take 1d6 Con and HP damage each round (Save for half). Creatures with 1 HD or less must also Save or die. Vermin die automatically.

Cold Resistance

All incoming cold damage is reduced by 6 points. Lasts 30 minutes.

Comprehension

You comprehend all written languages. You are mute. Lasts 30 minutes.

Contagious Laughter

Whenever you spend a standard action laughing, all creatures that can hear you must save or spend their next standard action laughing as well. Once a creature saves against this ability, they are immune to it. Lasts 30 minutes.

Courage

You are immune to fear. If you would normally roll a save vs fear, you instead gain +2 Attack vs the source of that fear (non-stacking).

Darkvision

You can see in the dark. Range 30'. You cannot see colors, just shapes. Lasts 30 minutes.

Deep Sleep

You sleep for 30 minutes and cannot be awoken by any means. This refreshes you as if it were a full night's sleep.

Doom Treading

You receive 1d6 visions of death. Your DM describes different ways that you might die in the near future, beginning with more likely deaths. If you are in a dungeon, this can be as simple as describing the monsters (briefly but accurately) and how they kill you, as well as some traps.

Drunkenness

You immediately gain 5 points of drunkenness. You must make a Con check every 10 minutes or fall asleep. Lasts 30 minutes.

Duo-Dimensionality

You become flat and two-dimensional. You can walk through cracks, behind bookshelves, and most closed doors. If you turn your body so that you are facing someone edge-on, they cannot see you. You weigh one pound. You take double damage from piercing and slashing. Lasts 30 minutes.

Echolocation

You gain echolocation 50'. You are blind. Lasts 30 minutes.

Ethereality

You become ethereal (basically an invisible ghost). Roll a random encounter check for ethero-pelagic fauna and demons. Lasts 1d6 rounds.

Exit

You teleport out of the building or dungeon, arriving near the main entrance. If poured on an object, teleports it out of the building or dungeon. Teleported objects have a 50% chance to end up somewhere awkward, such as in a tree of beside a band of bandits. No effect outdoors.

Extra Arm

You grow an extra arm. It is awkwardly placed. If you use it to attack, it gets -4 to hit and deal half damage. Otherwise, it can do anything an extra arm could do.

False Life

You gain 2d8+2 HP, exceeding your maximum HP, if applicable. Your HP cannot be restored by any means for the rest of the day. Multiple uses of this potion stack (both HP increases and duration of no healing).

Fleeting Journey

You teleport to a point within sight. At the end of your next turn, you teleport back.

Fire Breath

You can breath out a 30' cone of fire that deals 3d6 points of damage (save for half). If the potion is not drank but instead contacts air, it explodes, dealing 2d6 points of damage in a 20' diameter (save for half).--

Fusion

You fuse with the next creature you touch.

Ghost Form

You appear to be a ghost. Additionally, you may be incorporeal for 1 round at any point during this duration. Lasts 30 minutes.

Glibness

The next thing you say will be believed by the creature you are talking to. No save. This effect ends as soon as the creature sees or learns something which contradicts your statement. (So “I am a pterodactyl” wouldn't be believed, because you don't have huge leathery wings. But “Your house is on fire” would be believed, unless your target was currently looking at their house and could see that it was not on fire.)

Golden Dreams

You have a brief vision of all of the treasure hoards in the dungeon, with all of the major items described briefly but accurately.  If poured out on the floor, it creates an illusion of a small pile of treasure, which lasts for 30 minutes.

Green Slime

Don't fucking drink it.

Grandeur

Your clothing, armor, and weapons are instantly repaired and polished. You are instantly cleaned and styled. You get +2 when attempting to impress people. If you are at full HP and not doing anything undignified, creatures with fewer HD than you must succeed on a save whenever they wish to harm you.

by Alexander Fedosov

Haste

You take an extra round at the end of every round (after everyone else's initiative count). Lasts 1d6 rounds. You age 1 year for every round that Haste lasts.

Hate

You hate the first person you see after drinking this potion. You must succeed on a Cha check to avoid attacking them whenever you see them. When you attack them, you fly into a Rage (as barbarian). Permanent.

Hide From Animals

Animals cannot see you, hear you, or notice you by any means. Lasts 30 minutes or until you do something (except movement).

Hide From Dragons

Dragons cannot see you, hear you, or notice you by any means. Lasts 30 minutes or until you do something (except movement).

Hide From Undead

Undead cannot see you, hear you, or notice you by any means. Lasts 30 minutes or until you do something (except movement).

Hope

Dispels any negative emotions. You automatically succeed on your next save.

Ice Seed

As a poison (2d6) except the damage is cold. If poured out into a body of water, it will freeze the surface of the water a foot thick, 50' in diameter. If poured out on a creature, treat is as a poison (1d6) except the damage is cold.

Iron Seed

Your skin becomes metal. Reduce all incoming physical damage by 3 points. If poured on an object, turns it to metal. Lasts 30 minutes.

Jaunt

Teleports you to a random room (if in a dungeon/building), a random building (if in a city), or a random location (if on the overworld). If poured on an object, does the same thing.

Lantern Eyes

Your eyes emit light as if they were a bullseye lantern (narrow cone 60'). At one point during this potion's duration, you can choose to have X-ray vision for 1 round. Lasts 30 minutes.

Levitation

You can a Fly speed of 1, but only when you concentrate, and only vertically (up and down). Flying horizontally requires a flat surface to push off from. If poured on an object, the object becomes weightless. Lasts 30 minutes.

Lightning Resistance

All incoming cold damage is reduced by 6 points. Lasts 30 minutes.

Liquid Boat

You turn into a boat. The type of boat is relative to your size and cultural maritime history. You are sentient, but have no way of communicating or doing anything. No save, permanent. If this potion touches water, it immediately expands into a full-size sailboat. If rationed out in dribbles, can also be used to create 4 small rowboats.

Love

You fall in love with the first person you see after drinking this potion. As charm, except romantic. No save.

Lycanthropy

You contract lycanthropy.

Magic Weapon

Your punches and kicks count as magic weapons +1. If applied to a weapon, it becomes a magic weapon +1. Lasts 30 minutes.

Magpie Charm

All silver objects within eyesight are teleported into your backpack. All local birds are enraged and will convene at your location to attack you (4-in-6 chance of a hostile swarm of birds arriving in 10 minutes, 100% chance of aggressive poop-bombing campaign for the week to come). This also works on very large silver objects, with potentially disastrous results.

Mapping

You learn the number of floors in the dungeon, the number of secret doors, and how many rooms/hallways are connected to your current room. If poured out, the potion will turn into ink and attempt to make an accurate map of the surrounding countryside. The map uses pictograms, not words.

Mirror Image

1d4+1 mirror images of yourself appear beside you. They mirror your movements perfectly. When an enemy makes an attack against you, they strike a random target (possibly you, but probably one of your images). Images vanish after being targetted.

Mutate Spell

One of your memorized spells mutates.

Mutation

You gain a random mutation. Alternatively, can be poured on a mutation to cure it.

Pause

You pause time for 3 rounds. During this time, you cannot move from your location or interact with anything except yourself. After these three rounds, you must return your limbs to their exact position, or you will die.

Postpone

While this potion is active, HP damage that you take is postponed until after the potion elapses. Lasts 1d6 rounds.

Rage

As the barbarian ability.

Raise Dead

You die. You will return to life unharmed after 30 minutes. If poured in the mouth of a corpse, it permanently returns an a zombie. It is not under anyone's control.

Recapture Spell

You remember one of the spells that you have cast earlier today.

Repulsion

Nothing, not even inanimate objects, want to be near you. Creatures must succeed on a morale (or Cha) check in order to approach you. If they fail this check, they will not approach you for the rest of the potion's duration. You get +2 Defense against small ranged attacks (such as arrows). If poured on an object, it has the same effect. Lasts 30 minutes.

Reverse Gravity

Gravity is reversed for you and all of your inventory. If poured on an object, it has the same effect. Lasts 30 minutes.

Seal Soul

You lock away your soul in the prisons of your limbic system. You are effectively soulless. You are immune to emotions, level drain, and necromantic death effects. You feel no kindness nor compassion, but you know what your soul wants you to do, so you generally act the same as you would when you had a soul. You will have no memory of this afterwards. Lasts 30 minutes.

Silver Dust

Cannot be drank; it is literal silver dust. Contains enough silver dust to spread across a doorway. (Demons cannot cross lines of silver.)

Simulcrum

You vomit out a tiny fetus, which quickly grows into a clone of yourself. Your clone has a 50% chance to have a random mutation. Your clone will live for 1d6 minutes, but if you roll a 6 on this your clone is instead permanent. Your clone knows that it is a clone and that it will probably die soon (chest pains). Your clone has a morale score of 1d20. Unlike normal hirelings, you clone can sometimes be persuaded to do suicidal tasks. It has no clothing, gear, or memorized spells.

Smoke

You can see through smoke and fog perfectly. If broken or poured out, creates a prodigious amount of fog—a 100' sphere, or enough to fill approximately 5 dungeon rooms.

Snake Arm

Your arm turns into a python. If you attack with it, it has Attack 14, Strength 14, and deals 1d8+1 damage + grab. Lasts 1d6 rounds.

Snake Conjuring

You can shoot vipers out of your fingertips. You can shoot one per round. Treat this as attacking with a bow, except the arrows are poisoned (1d6) and leave angry vipers where they land. The snakes and the shooting ability last 1d6 rounds.

Solipcism

If you believe something is true, it is true for you. This allows you to walk across a chasm by imagining a bridge, or open a locked door by imagining that it is unlocked. This only works if you fail an Int check, and only works on environments and local objects. Lasts 30 minutes, or until you use it once.

Sound Bubble

Creates an invisible, intangible bubble around you with a 10' diameter. Sound cannot pass through this bubble..

Sovereign Acid

Elemental acid. Will melt through anything except glass and adamantine, and will eventually melt a hole all the way down to Hell. If poured on a stone floor, hole is 1' wide and narrows as it goes down. Lethal (and messily so) if drank.

Sovereign Grease

Elemental Slipperiness. Surfaces coated with this become perfectly frictionless. Coats an area about 5' in diameter. Nearly invisible when spread thin. If drank, negates the effects of anything you ingest for the rest of the day; food, edible poisons, and potions will have no effect—they just pass right through you.

Spell Ward

The next spell that targets you fails. Lasts until you go to sleep.

Speak With Beasts

You can speak with all non-swimming, non-flying, non-crawling, animals for 3 minutes (use a timer). Smaller animals tend to be smarter. Carnivores tend to be demanding.

Speak With Birds

You can speak with all flying animals for 3 minutes (use a timer). Birds are usually very smart, very stupid, or very smart and pretending to be stupid. Migrating birds are the primary source of gossip in the world, especially modern gossip.

Speak With Crawling Things

You can speak with all crawling things (such as lizards and slugs) for 3 minutes (use a timer). Reptiles tend to be careful, pragmatic, and stubborn. They usually know the deep history of a place. Insects know many useful things, but they struggle with human concepts of time and identity.

Speak With Dead

You can speak with a corpse as long as it has an intact mouth (or if you reattach the jawbone) for 3 minutes (use a timer). They tend to be incoherent, obtuse, and prone to reminiscing.

Speak With Fish

You can speak with swimming things for 3 minutes (use a timer). Cetaceans want to know all about you so they can fit you into their theories and stories. Fish tend to be amazed by everything, forgetful, and a little awkward. Sharks talk of nothing else except eating things, often times you.

Speak With God

You can speak with a god of your choice, who will answer one question, and optionally a follow-up question. But gods also ask questions of the querent (mostly pertaining to morality or their domains) and will not help you if they don't like your answer. Greater gods tend to be more accurate, but are also more likely to convert you to their religion.

If a god converts you to its religion, you must change one of your Convictions to reflect this. If you would be converted but already worship that god, you are instead compelled to donate to their cult or perform a small quest at that god's behalf at the earliest opportunity. Gods don't speak with words, just crystal-clear impressions, like ideas that someone else plants in your mind.

• Dead gods that dwell in the ashes of the earth are accurate 50% of the time. They are beyond caring about your moralities. You must be underground to speak with them.
• Lesser Slave-gods (such as Briga, the goddess of shoes) and great souls (popular heroes from folklore) are accurate 70% of the time, and have a 10% chance of converting you.
• Greater Slave-gods (such as Brigadoon, the most powerful of the many competing harvest gods), saints, and dead popes are accurate 85% of the time, and have a 30% chance of converting you.
• Zulin, Prince of the Upper Air, is accurate 100% of the time and has a 50% chance of converting you. However, he only speaks to royalty, since he is royalty himself (king of the gods).

Speak With Metal

You can speak with metal for 3 minutes (use a timer). Metal tends to have a pretty good knowledge of everything that has directly happened to it since it was forged, but not things that happened to it. Weapons speak of their kills; locks speak of what they guard. Cursed and trapped metal objects tend to be liars.

Speak With Plants

You can speak with plants for 3 minutes (use a timer). Plants often have either a deep-seated hatred towards things that eat them and cut them down, or resignation. Trees tend towards the hateful side of things, and sigh a lot. Flowers tend to be optimistic idiots and/or sexually graphic. Grasses are nearly impossible to talk to because they all shout at once.

Suggestion

The next thing you say is a suggestion, as the spell of the same name.

The Hero

You are possessed by the spirit of Braddon the Breaker, a legendary hero who was eventually devoured by an alchemical ooze. He is honorable, cheerful, and boastful. Your Attack becomes 14 and you replace all of your class abilities with those of a level 6 Fighter. This lasts 30 minutes of until you fail to roleplay Braddon.

The Great Gambler

You are possessed by the spirit of Amashak the Evergreen, the greatest gambler who ever lived, and who was eventually devoured by an alchemical ooze. She is pragmatic, calculating, and flirtatious. Your d20 rolls are instead handled by coin flips. On a heads, treat it like a natural 1. On a tails, treat it like a natural 20. Lasts 30 minutes or until you fail to roleplay Amashak.

The Poltergeist

You are paralyzed. During that time you can use telekinesis once every 1d4 rounds. You cannot use telekinesis to move your body. Lasts 30 minutes or until something ends your paralysis.

The Scoundrel

You are possessed by the spirit of Mingola the Thrice-Vanished, a legendary villain who was eventually devoured by an alchemical ooze. She is sarcastic, quippy, and despises heroics. Your Attack becomes 14 and you replace all of your class abilities with those of a level 6 Thief. Lasts 30 minutes or until you fail to roleplay Mingola.

The Spook

Your eyes glow blue. Glass objects vibrate near you. Your voice becomes a hollow reverb. Dogs flee from you. Cats are attracted to you. You can convince domesticated animals to kill themselves by succeeding on a Charisma check (once per target). Lasts 30 minutes.

Transformation: Bees

You turn into a swarm of bees. You can speak with insects and flowers (who adore you). Your gear transforms with you. Lasts 30 minutes.

Transformation: Cat

You turn into a cat. You can speak with felines. Your gear transforms with you. Lasts 30 minutes.

Transformation: Dolphin

You turn into a dolphin. You can speak with air-breathing, swimming animals. Your gear transforms with you. Lasts 30 minutes.

Transformation: Gecko

You turn into a tiny gecko, 2” long. You can climb on walls and speak with reptiles. Your gear transforms with you. Lasts 30 minutes.

Transformation: Seagull

You turn into a seagull. You can speak with flying animals. Your gear transforms with you. Lasts 30 minutes.

Transformation: Troll

You turn into a troll (including all its special powers: regeneration, darkvision, multiple attacks). You can shout any language you know, poorly. Your gear transforms with you. Regenerated HP remains after you transform back. Lasts 1d6 rounds.

Transposition

You switch places with the object that you are staring at. Creatures get a save to resist.

Telepathy

You have two-way telepathy, 200'. Lasts 30 minutes.

Time Hack

You jump 6 seconds backwards in time. If used in combat, this potion can only be used to redo your turn (but remember that drinking a potion counts as your action for the turn); you cannot use this potion to redo other people's turns. Outside of combat, you can use this to undo everything that happened in the last 6 seconds.

Time Skip

You leap exactly 24 hours forward in time, reappearing in the exact same place.

Tongues

You can speak all languages spoken by people (but not read them). This potion also makes you voluble, and when you speak to someone, you have a 1-in-6 chance of saying something you'll regret. If there is something you don't want the other party to know, you'll say that. Otherwise, you'll merely insult them.

True Seeing

You can see through all illusions and disguises. You can see the true form of transformed objects and creatures. Lasts 1d6 rounds.

Void Metal

Metal becomes intangible to you. If poured on an object, it becomes intangible to metal. This potion passes right through metal objects. Lasts 30 minutes.

Void Wood

Wood becomes intangible to you. If poured on an object, it becomes intangible to wood. This potion passes right through wood objects. Lasts 30 minutes.

Water Walk

You treat water as if it were solid ground. Lasts 30 minutes.

Ventriloquism

You can make your voice emerge from any point within 50'. You must still move your lips. Lasts 30 minutes.

by Alexander Fedosov

Closing Thoughts

Use more potions.

They're situational tools with lots of different applications.  Lots of them encourage lateral thinking.  They're (a) usable by anyone, and (b) all single-use.

(These are basically the features that define Monte Cook's cyphers in Numenera, and everyone loves those.  With good reason.)

They fact that anyone can use them leads to more tactical thinking.  If you find a scroll you give it to the wizard.  If you find a potion, you need to think about who gets it.

And because they're single use, you don't need to worry about balancing them so much.  A potion is never going to break your game.  Who cares if they use a potion to finish your boss battle in a single round?  It probably took some clever thinking, and there will be more boss battles when they don't have the perfect potion at the perfect time.

Let me know which potions you think are the weakest links.  I appreciate it.