Only one potion per turn?

By shnar, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

I was wondering, do all of you hold true to this ruling in the FAQ? I'm noticing that it's causing a lot of issues with our group, and we're thinking about house-ruling that it's only one potion *type* per turn. For example, you can drink a Fatigue and a Power Potion, but you couldn't drink 2 Fatigue potions in the same turn.

Thoughts?

-shnar

Unless you're playing RtL, power potions suck, but that's mostly an issue with power potions, not with the one-potion-per-turn rule. Letting heroes combine vitality potions with healing or defensive potions could result in heroes being significantly more difficult to kill, especially if you're trying to wear them down over time rather than killing them all at once, and I personally don't want to increase Descent's tendency towards rocket-launcher-tag.

The fix I'm proposing for power potions in the mod I'm working on is as follows:

  • Power potions only cost 25 coins, rather than 50.
  • Power potions don't count for the one-potion-per-turn rule, so you could drink a power potion (or even several power potions) and one other type of potion in the same turn.
  • You can ignore any Daze tokens on yourself when making an attack with a power potion (I was never clear on how they were supposed to interact anyway).
  • I'm not addressing Road to Legend in this mod.

That means that heroes with distributed trait dice (or using an out-of-speciality weapon) may actually want to load up on power potions and drink them for most attacks (especially with some of my other changes). And I'm OK with that.

The reason its in the FAQ is because normal rules alowed you too, and people started noticing it was to hard to kill the heroes.

The reason this rule got implemented was to solve the problem of fatigue potion chains. Heroes would run, spend Fatigue for MP, use the last MP to drink a potion, repeat, repeat, pull three more out of their back back, and so on. A 5 Move 5 Fatigue hero could get over 30 MP in a single turn this way. KevinW had posted several proposed solutions before the change. I think they went with the "one potion per turn" rule because it was simple, solved the problem of multiple fatigue potions, and made it more difficult for the heroes to heal.

Oh, I understand the daisy-chaining of potions is bad, which is why I was thinking one potion type per turn solves that problem, but still allows Heroes to drink a Fatigue and Heal potion the same turn...

-shnar

To answer your original question, I don't think your suggestion is too powerful.

shnar said:

I was wondering, do all of you hold true to this ruling in the FAQ? I'm noticing that it's causing a lot of issues with our group, and we're thinking about house-ruling that it's only one potion *type* per turn. For example, you can drink a Fatigue and a Power Potion, but you couldn't drink 2 Fatigue potions in the same turn.

Thoughts?

-shnar

I think this is definitely too powerful for RtL.

You can pretty much guarantee a 5 gold dice attack whenever you want, even with starting characters. Even a shop Axe is going to do 20+ damage.

It also allows a boosted Powerpot attack on an extreme advance with double fatigue action, so starting characters could advance 12-13 spaces and still get in a big big hit.

Both of these are critical against Lts and real nasty Bosses.

I also think it is overly powerful in non RtL Descent (where potions are plentiful), but not quite as badly so. You'd have a runner dweeb like Lyssa able to advance with 13 spaces then hit with a 5 dice attack with any (gold? possibly picked up on the way?) weapon (not counting the affect of any skills, like say, Skilled, Tiger Tattoo and Able Warrior - advance 18 spaces and have a 5 dice attack and a 1 dice attack). Thats going to ruin a lot of final fights. Maybe it is just as bad...

Agreed. Do NOT allow the heroes to drink 1 potion type per turn. It will shift the game balance in favour of the heroes.

Anyone who plays WoW knows that drinking a potion invokes a 'cool down' timer, until which another potion cannot be drunk. It's a simple case of game balance and it works.

How do potions in RTL work as far as buying from markets go? I have been playing that you are only allowed to go to the alchemist ONE time and buy potions during an entire dungeon. Meaning that, since Tamalir only has a two rating for the alchemist, you can only buy two potions for 3 levels of dungeon. Is this correct because I am running out of potions in the first level of a dungeon and not being able to get any more until I exit the dungeon?

PastorJK said:

How do potions in RTL work as far as buying from markets go? I have been playing that you are only allowed to go to the alchemist ONE time and buy potions during an entire dungeon. Meaning that, since Tamalir only has a two rating for the alchemist, you can only buy two potions for 3 levels of dungeon. Is this correct because I am running out of potions in the first level of a dungeon and not being able to get any more until I exit the dungeon?

I understood the rule to be, you can buy 2 potions per trip to the alchemist. So, if you chose to take a second round in tamalir, you could visit the alchemist again and buy more potions. Or you could go back into the dungeon, fight a bit, then glyph back and continue.

The Alchemist rating is per WEEK. So you can only buy 2 potions in Tamalir per WEEK. Going through a dungeon, all three levels, happens in the same week, so the trick is to stock up on potions before you enter the dungeon.

Page 21 of RtL Rulebook:
The Alchemist
The Alchemist buys and sells potions.

Visit, Train, or Restock
A hero may buy potions for 50 coins each, or sell potions for
25 coins each. A city’s Alchemist rating is a limit on the total
number of potions that all heroes collectively may purchase
there in a given game week
. Remember that invulnerability
potions (introduced in The Altar of Despair) are not used in
the Advanced Campaign, and cannot be purchased at the
Alchemist.

Bold added, but again, only per game-week...

-shnar

P.S. How the *Crap* do you quote in this stoopid forum?!?

shnar said:

The Alchemist rating is per WEEK. So you can only buy 2 potions in Tamalir per WEEK. Going through a dungeon, all three levels, happens in the same week, so the trick is to stock up on potions before you enter the dungeon.

Page 21 of RtL Rulebook:
The Alchemist
The Alchemist buys and sells potions.

Visit, Train, or Restock
A hero may buy potions for 50 coins each, or sell potions for
25 coins each. A city’s Alchemist rating is a limit on the total
number of potions that all heroes collectively may purchase
there in a given game week
. Remember that invulnerability
potions (introduced in The Altar of Despair) are not used in
the Advanced Campaign, and cannot be purchased at the
Alchemist.

Bold added, but again, only per game-week...

-shnar

P.S. How the *Crap* do you quote in this stoopid forum?!?

I just press the quote button. I'm going to have a much easier time taking down heroes now. My heroes were stocking up on potions left and right.