Herbcraft by The Angry GM
Herbal items include nonmagical medicines, salves, poultices, and concoctions made from plants, roots, berries, and other naturally occurring ingredients using special instruments and processes. Herbal items come in three qualities: Minor, Moderate, and Masterwork. Generally, the higher the quality, the more potent the herbal item. Herbal items also tend to lose their potency if not used within a certain period of being made. Herbal items may be purchased from herbalists during play who will quickly concoct the desired item. However, because herbal items lose their potency, they cannot be purchased between game sessions. Characters who have proficiency with the herbalism kit can craft herbal items if they know the appropriate recipe by gathering the ingredients during their adventures.
The Herbalism Kit
The following text replaces the description of the herbalism kit on PHB 154.
This kit contains a variety of instruments such as clippers, mortar and pestle, and pouches and vials used by herbalists to create remedies and potions. The herbalism kit also contains a small book in which the herbalist can take notes and record recipes. Proficiency with this kit lets you add your proficiency bonus to any checks you make for herbs.
Proficiency with this kit also lets you craft herbal items for which you know the recipe or to analyze herbal items to discover the recipe.
Crafting Herbal Items
To craft an herbal item, you must have proficiency in the use of the herbalism kit and you must know the recipe for the item you wish to craft. After choosing the item to craft, you must gather the required ingredients and then craft the item.
Herbal Recipes
If you know the recipe for a particular item, you know which ingredients are required to craft an herbal item, where those ingredients are likely to be found, and how to prepare them. You even know enough to substitute ingredients based on what’s available in the local area.
Every herbal recipe specifies the DCs required to craft Minor, Moderate, and Masterwork quality versions of that item. It also specifies the terrain or terrains in which the ingredients – or substitute ingredients – can be gathered. Some recipes specify rare or special ingredients that cannot be gathered through normal means. Those ingredients must be acquired through special means, either through purchase or during the course of an adventure.
Gathering Ingredients
After you select the item you wish to craft, you must gather the ingredients for that item. You may only gather the ingredients for one item at a time. And you must be in the appropriate type of terrain specified by the recipe.
To gather the ingredients, you must spend one hour wandering the local area, searching for the ingredients.
During this time, you cannot perform any other tasks, nor can you travel too far and you do not gain the benefits for a short rest.
Alternatively, you can gather ingredients as a travel activity. This is similar to foraging except, instead of gathering food and water during a day of travel, you gather the ingredients required to craft an herbal item.
If you travel at a Regular Pace, gather up to 3 items; Slow Pace, gather up to 6 items; Fast Pace, you gather no ingredients.
At the end of the gathering period, day of travel, or other period as specified by the GM, make a Wisdom check and add your proficiency bonus for your use of the herbalism kit. Compare the result to the DC required to craft the item you were trying to make. If your check result does not meet or exceed the DC required to craft the lowest quality version of the item, you failed to turn up enough useful ingredients. Otherwise, you turned up enough ingredients to produce the desired item at the DC you met or exceeded.
Rangers with natural explorer feature gain advantage.
Crafting the Item
Once you have gathered the appropriate materials, it generally takes only a few minutes of work to craft the item. No further check is needed to construct the item. You may simply add the item to your inventory and use it normally.
When you want to create an item with herbs that are not native to that realm,(I.E. You need items from a forest, but you are on a mountain) you may be able to substitue ingredients to make the items, but you will take disadvantage, per the GM's discretion.
Most items lose their potency after 24 hours, after that, they lose quality. Masterwork becomes Moderate, Moderate becomes Minor, and Minor becomes unusable.
Learning New Recipes
If you are proficient with the herbalism kit, there are a number of ways you can learn new recipes. Herbalists can easily teach each other recipes in just a few minutes. If you discover a herbalist’s notes, you can also learn any recipes they had recorded. Most herbalists keep their notes with their herbalism kits. Learning recipes from another herbalist or from their notes does not require any check.
In addition, if you acquire a herbal item, you can use your herbalism kit to analyze the item. It takes one hour of quiet, careful work to analyze a herbal item and the item is destroyed in the process. At the end of the work period, roll a Wisdom check and add your proficiency bonus for your use of the herbalism kit. If you meet or exceed the DC required to craft the item at Masterwork quality, you learn the recipe. Otherwise, you have learned nothing and destroyed the item.
Example of Crafted Items
| Item | Expire | Cost | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burnsoothe Ointment | 24 hr. | 20/40/50 gp | 1/2lb |
| Venomcleanse Tea | 24 hr. | 15/30/45 gp | - |
| Woundbind Poultice | 24 hr. | 20/40/50 gp | 1/2lb |
Known Recipes
Burnsoothe Ointment
This paste, composed primarily of roots and plant oils, reduces pain and speeds the recovery of burns. If applied to a creature’s wounds within 10 minutes of their taking fire damage from any source or if applied within 10 minutes at the end of an encounter during which they took fire damage from any source, the creature heals 3 (1d6), 5 (1d6+2), or 6 (1d8+2) hit points depending on the quality.
- Cost: Minor 20 gp; Moderate 40 gp; Masterwork 60 gp
- Expires: 24 hours
- Gather Ingredients: Forest, Swamp
- Craft DC: 10/15/20
Venomcleanse Tea
This herbal tea helps cleanse the body of normal toxins. It is normally imbibed but can also be used to clean a poisoned wound. When a creature suffering from the poisoned condition is treated with this remedy, they may roll a new saving throw to end the poisoned condition immediately with Disadvantage, normally, or with Advantage depending on the quality of the tea.
- Cost: Minor 15 gp; Moderate 30 gp; Masterwork 45 gp
- Expires: 24 hours
- Gather Ingredients: Forest, Grasslands
- Craft DC: 10/15/20
Woundbind Poultice
This is a spongy mass of absorbent moss treated with a number of herbs designed to staunch bleeding, cleanse wounds, and dull pain. If bound over a wound, it promotes quick healing. When applied to a wound, the recipient heals 2 (1d4), 4 (1d4+2), or 5 (1d6+2) hit points depending on the quality.
- Cost: Minor 20 gp; Moderate 40 gp; Masterwork 60 gp
- Expires: 24 hours
- Gather Ingredients: Forest, Grasslands
- Craft DC: 10/15/20
Quickened Thought
Target ingests a paste mixed with bitter leaves and bark. Their mind is awakened and they are able to concentrate on spells that require Concentration much easier. When they are hit, the DC is decreased based on the quality of the ingredients. This mixture lasts for 1 hour. The Con Save DC is decreased by 3, 5, or 8 depending on quality.
- Cost: Minor 20 gp; Moderate 40 gp; Masterwork 60 gp
- Expires: 24 hours
- Gather Ingredients: Forest
- Craft DC: 12/15/18
Paralyzing Paste
A paste made from roots of old trees and concentrated poison from ivy. When you smear this on a metal object and someone else touches it or gets hit by it, they must make a Constitution Saving Throw or find themselves Stunned in pain for 1 round. Con DC is 12, 15 or 18 depending on quality.
- Cost: Minor 25 gp; Moderate 50 gp; Masterwork 75 gp
- Expires: 24 hours
- Gather Ingredients: Forest, Swamp
- Craft DC: 10/15/20
Death Sleep
Slow brewed over an hour using certain ivy leaves creates a powerful tea that gives the impression of death. When drunk, the target may fail willingly, or must make a DC 15 Con Save or fall asleep for a certain amount of time. The consumer can make an additional con save with disadvantage every time they take damage or are shaken roughly. The sleep lasts for 10 minutes, 1 hour or 8 hours depending on quality.
- Cost: Minor 30 gp; Moderate 60 gp; Masterwork 90 gp
- Expires: 24 hours
- Gather Ingredients: Forest, Swamp
- Craft DC: 15/20/25
Relaxing Bark
Upon burning a certain type of bark & moss in a censor or by throwing it into the coals of a fire, all those within 5 feet of the smoke find their muscles loosen and their minds relax. Anyone that allows themselves to relax for the hour that the bark burns for automatically regains a certain number of spent hit dice, but they must remain within 5 feet of the smoke for the full hour to gain this benefit. They regain 2, 4 or 6 extra hit dice depending on quality.
- Cost: Minor 10 gp; Moderate 20 gp; Masterwork 30 gp
- Expires: 24 hours
- Gather Ingredients: Forest
- Craft DC: 10/15/20
Night Eyes.
As an action, this thick, greasy gel can be applied to the naked eye, granting darkvision of 60 feet. Duration is dependent on quality. The eyes become extremely sensitive to light for the duration. While exposed to bright light, the user has disadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight. This has no effect on those that already have darkvision.
When applied, Night Eyes lasts for 1 hour, 3 hours or 8 hours dependent on quality.
- Cost: Minor 15 gp; Moderate 30 gp; Masterwork 45 gp
- Expires: 24 hours
- Gather Ingredients: Forest, Swamp
- Craft DC: 10/15/20
Gashglue.
This thick gray glue takes a full minute to apply to the bare skin. The glue temporarily holds damaged tissue together for up to 4 hours, at which point it dries up and flakes off. If applied within 10 minutes of receiving any bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage, up to 1d4 + Wis, 2d4 + Wis, or 3d4 + Wis points of that damage is restored in the form of temporary hit points. If the temporary HP exceeds the damage taken, you regain only up to the damage, not beyond.
I.e. If you took 5 points of damage, and you rolled 6 points of Temporary HP, you only get 5 Temporary HP.
- Cost: Minor 10 gp; Moderate 20 gp; Masterwork 30 gp
- Expires: 24 hours
- Gather Ingredients: Forest, Swamp
- Craft DC: 10/15/20
Contact Poison.
General poison that you can either coat your blade or smear it on an object. When you coat it on an object, or a blade, it lasts for 1 hour, at which point its exposure to oxygen renders it useless. The target takes poison damage from your weapon once per turn, 1d4, 1d6 or 2d4 poison damage, dependent on quality.
- Cost: Minor 20 gp; Moderate 40 gp; Masterwork 60 gp
- Expires: 24 hours
- Gather Ingredients: Forest, Swamp
- Craft DC: 15/20/25
Injested poison.
If consumed, target must make a Constitution saving throw, or target takes poison damage. The target then continues to make Constitution saving throws at the beginning of their turn. If it fails three times in a row, it suffers the poisoned condition and continues to take poison damage until they make their saving throw. Upon a succesful saving throw, the target ends the poisoned condition and damage.
Damage and Constitution DC is dependent on quality: 1d4 and DC 10, 1d6 and DC 15, or 2d4 and DC 20.
- Cost: Minor 20 gp; Moderate 40 gp; Masterwork 60 gp
- Expires: 24 hours
- Gather Ingredients: Forest, Swamp
- Craft DC: 15/20/25
Sleeping Leaf Tea.
Target makes a Constitution Saving Throw, if they fail on their save, they fall unconcious for 1 minute. They awaken if they take any damage, or a creature shakes them awake.
Save DC is dependent on quality: DC 10, DC 13, or DC 15.
- Cost: Minor 10 gp; Moderate 20 gp; Masterwork 30 gp
- Expires: 24 hours
- Gather Ingredients: Forest, Grasslands
- Craft DC: 10/15/20
Weakening Muscle.
Finely shredded mushrooms that turn to goo when worked with, using that goo you can smear it on a weapon and coat the weapon for one successful attack roll. On a hit, the target must make a Strength saving throw or have disadvantage on Strength saving throws and ability checks for the next hour as the goo-like consistency makes the muscles shaky and unsteady.
Save DC is dependent on quality: DC 10, DC 13, or DC 15. They can repeat the saving throw once every 10 minutes to end the effect early.
- Cost: Minor 15 gp; Moderate 25 gp; Masterwork 40 gp
- Expires: 24 hours
- Gather Ingredients: Swamps, Bogs
- Craft DC: 12/18/23
Drunk Legs.
These pine needles are blended with a mixture of algae and muck to create a tonic that will leave muscles twitching. Mixing this with a drink will create a vile tasting concoction that when ingested will cause muscles to weaken and to not respond to commands from the body. When ingested, the target must make a Constitution saving throw or have disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws and ability checks for the next hour. To force feed someone this mixture, you must complete two grapple checks to complete the maneuver, the first one grabs them in place, the second forces the concoction in them.
Save DC is dependent on quality: DC 10, DC 13, or DC 15. They can repeat the saving throw once every 10 minutes to end the effect early.
- Cost: Minor 10 gp; Moderate 20 gp; Masterwork 30 gp
- Expires: 24 hours
- Gather Ingredients: High-Altitude Forests, Caves
- Craft DC: 12/18/23
Sickening Rot.
Mixing rotting flesh with mold growing from dwarven beer creates a bizarre mixture that is delightful as much as it is putrid. When ingested, the target must make a Constitution saving throw or find themselves drunk and incredibly sick at the same time, with disadvantage on Constitution saving throws and ability checks. This mixture tastes like Dwarven meat rotted for several years in a pickling solution with a slight hint of berries. To force feed someone this mixture, you must complete two grapple checks to complete the maneuver, the first one grabs them in place, the second forces the concoction in them.
Save DC is dependent on quality: DC 15, DC 18, or DC 21. They can repeat the saving throw once every 10 minutes to end the effect early.
- Cost: Minor 10 gp; Moderate 20 gp; Masterwork 30 gp
- Expires: 24 hours
- Gather Ingredients: High-Altitude Forests, Caves
- Craft DC: 15/20/25