It is written in the Winds of Magic that Gold Wizards are able to brew potions and elixirs and I wonder how - they don't even have a proper skill. Am I missing something?

Winds of Magic p.44:

"Gold Wizards use the hidden properties of metal to craft their spells. Battle Wizards of the Gold Order can turn their opponents’ armour into lead or turn a silver coin into a silver missile. They are also able to brew potions and elixirs to aid their allies."

Cheers!

Armoks said:

Badly done indeed...

Apothecaries do not have Tradecraft as a career skill either... if I remember correctly.

I guess you have to tie potion making either to Education, Spellcraft or Nature Lore, depending on the potion.

I got a replay from FFG:

There aren't currently any rules for brewing potions or elixirs in WFRP.

Remember that you can always work with your GM and the Cantrip rules to handle a magical effect that's not covered by the rules.

Enjoy the game!

~Dan Clark

I wouldn't have thought of using Cantrip to create potions - a good idea, IMO.

Armoks said:

True, I haven't really considered cantrip, because I have no Wizard players, but now that I think about it, Cantrip is really the magical equivalent of "Perform a Stunt". The rules don't state how to rule a specific PC action? Just use Perform A Stunt. Same with Cantrip for magic.

The 2nd edition Realms of Sorcery book had an awesome section on potions. If you have that book it I'm sure you could adapt it to your game. But in a nutshell, brewing of potions required 3 things in 2nd edition.

1. you had to be able to cast spells

2. you needed the Trade (apothecary skill). In 3rd edition you could make a Tradecraft (apothecary) speciality skill to cover this.

3. be able to read and write

You also needed an alchemical lab (80 gold for a poor quality one!!!). So it's not cheap.

You also had to go out and search for the ingredients or buy them, both options were pretty tough to do, and the ingredients would spoil after a month so you had to do it quickly. Then if you botch the potion roll you'd potentially have disasters to deal with like your lab exploding or getting a completely opposite effect for your potion.

There's nothing that stops the academy from providing the service cross-training its wizards with Tradecraft (Brewing). They provide the service (as a roleplay source of training), but as it is not in the core curriculum, it is only offered to members willing to train the out-of-career advanced skill.