Herbalism Kit - v1.1
Exploring out into the forest, a ranger can quickly find special ingredients to create poultices, salves and cures. These powerful concoctions are created through the natural ingredients of their environment, though their potency is quick to fade once acquired.
Herbalism Kit
The following text replaces the text found on pg. 82 of Xanathar's Guide to Everything.
An herbalism kit includes pouches to store herbs, clippers and leather gloves for collecting plants, a mortar and pestle, and several glass jars and vials.
Proficiency with this kit allows you to add your proficiency bonus to any Herbalism Kit checks, and allows you to create any recipes you know.
Foraging and Crafting
In order to create your recipes, you must spend time to forage for the proper ingredients. Before heading off looking for ingredients, you must first choose which recipe you wish to create, and then over the course of an hour, you can forage through whatever terrain you are in, in the search of rare flowers, moss or whatever else the recipe calls for.
At the end of an hour, you then must roll a Herbalism Kit check using your Wisdom modifier, plus your Proficiency bonus, to craft the item. This check determines if you were able to locate any of the herbs you were looking for and the potency of the herbs. There are three potencies when creating your recipes: Minor, Moderate, and Masterwork.
Once you create a Recipe, it will lose its potency after 24 hours and reduces in potency. I.e. If you craft a Masterwork item, in 24 hours, and it has not been used, it will reduce in potency to Moderate. A Minor item that reduces in potency after 24 hours is no longer potent enough to work.
Recipes
By knowing recipes, you know which ingredients are required to craft an Herbal Recipe, where you can find the ingredients and how to substitute items based on what is in the area.
Each recipe features the environment where you can find the correct ingredients, and per the DMs discretion you may be able to find the required ingredients in a different place, though typically with disadvantage.
Each recipe also features different DCs required to craft Minor, Moderate, and Masterwork potent items. Certain recipes may call for highly specialized ingredients that you can not find in the usual manner, this may be something you must go on a quest for or spend weeks, even years, tracking down the ingredients.
Recipes Known
Characters with proficiency in the Herbalism Kit know 3 recipes and may be able to learn new recipes if they can find other herbalist, herbalist notes, or by experimenting with different plants in their environment.
Traveling
While traveling, you can forgo foraging for food and instead forage for ingredients for specific recipes. While doing so, you cannot perform any other task and must pay attention to how far away you travel from your group.
If you are traveling at a Normal Pace, you can gather enough ingredients for one recipe every 3 hours; at a Slow Pace, you can gather enough ingredients for one recipe every 2 hours. At a Fast Pace, you can not gather any ingredients.
So long as a Ranger is in their Favored Terrain, they can make the required Herbalism Kit checks with advantage.
Analyzing Items
If you find a Herbal Recipe, you can use your Herbalism Kit to analyze the item. It takes one hour of work to analyze the item and the item is destroyed in the process. At the end of the hour, roll a Herbalism Kit Check, Wisdom modifier and your Proficiency Bonus. If you meet or exceed the DC required to craft the item at Masterwork potency, you learn the recipe. Otherwise the item is destroyed and you learn nothing.
Purchasing Items
You are able to purchase Herbal Recipes and their items from Herbalists. The cost listed with each Herbal Recipe is the cost to buy an item from a Herbalist. This cost may be more than what is listed depending on a variety of factors, dependent on the GM's discretion. All purchased Herbal Items still expire within 24 hours of purchasing them.
Example of Herbal Recipes
| Item | Minor Potency |
Moderate Potency |
Masterwork Potency |
Environment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burnsoothe Ointment | DC 10 30 gp |
DC 15 40 gp |
DC 20 60 gp |
Forest, Swamp |
| Venomcleanse Tea | DC 13 15 gp |
DC 15 30 gp |
DC 18 45 gp |
Forest, Grasslands |
| Woundbind Poultice | DC 10 20 gp |
DC 13 30 gp |
DC 15 40 gp |
Forest, Grasslands |
Inspiration
This system is heavily inspired by The Angry GM's post on building a herbalism system. Click here to read his post.
Variant Rules
24 Hours Only
Instead of the items losing some of their potency after 24 hours, they instead lose all potencies after 24 hours. This means that items last only 24 hours before they are no longer useful.
Alternate Environments
Some ingredients can be found in other environments, but they appear in different plants or vegetation. A herbalist can select a recipe even if they are in an environment not called for, when they do so they have disadvantage on the check.
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 1d6, 1d6 + 2, or 1d8 + 4 hit points depending on the potency.
- Cost: Minor 30 gp; Moderate 40 gp; Masterwork 60 gp
- Environment: Forest, Swamp
- Potency DC: Minor 10; Moderate 15; Masterwork 20
Contact Poison
General poison that you can either coat your blade with or smear it on an object. When you coat it on an object, or a blade, it lasts for 1 minute, at which point its exposure to oxygen renders it useless. Whenever a creature touches the coated object, or on each successful attack roll against them once per turn, they take 1, 1d4 or 2d4 poison damage, dependent on potency.
- Cost: Minor 15 gp; Moderate 50 gp; Masterwork 100 gp
- Environment: Forest, Swamp
- Potency DC: Minor 18; Moderate 20; Masterwork 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 creates a vile tasting concoction that when ingested causes muscles to weaken and to not respond to commands from the body. When ingested, the target must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or have disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws and ability checks for 1 hour. To force feed someone this mixture, they must be grappled, restrained, or incapacitated in some way. It then requires an action and a successful grapple check to force feed them the concoction.
Save DC is dependent on potency: DC 13, DC 15, or DC 18. They can repeat the saving throw once every 10 minutes to end the effect early.
- Cost: Minor 20 gp; Moderate 50 gp; Masterwork 70 gp
- Environment: High-Altitude Forests, Caves
- Potency DC: Minor 15; Moderate 18; Masterwork 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, you can spend an action to apply and gain 1d4 plus Wisdom modifier, 2d4 plus Wisdom modifier, or 3d4 plus Wisdom modifier temporary hit points. If the temporary hit points exceeds the damage taken, you regain only up to the damage taken, not beyond.
I.e. If you took 5 points of damage, and you rolled 6, you only receive 5 temporary hit points.
- Cost: Minor 10 gp; Moderate 20 gp; Masterwork 30 gp
- Environment: Forest, Swamp
- Potency DC: Minor 10; Moderate 15; Masterwork 20
Ingested Poison
If consumed, target must make a Constitution saving throw, or the target takes poison damage at the start of each of their turns. The target then continues to make Constitution saving throws at the end of their turn, if it fails the saving throw three times in a row, it becomes poisoned and continues to take poison damage until they make a successful saving throw. Upon a successful saving throw, the target ends the poisoned condition and poison damage.
Poison damage and the Constitution saving throw DC is dependent on potency: 1d4 poison damage and DC 10, 1d6 and DC 15, or 2d4 and DC 20.
- Cost: Minor 50 gp; Moderate 105 gp; Masterwork 180 gp
- Environment: Forest, Swamp
- Potency DC: Minor 18; Moderate 20; Masterwork 25
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 potency.
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 depending on potency.
- Cost: Minor 15 gp; Moderate 50 gp; Masterwork 150 gp
- Environment: Forest, Swamp
- Potency DC: Minor 13; Moderate 15; Masterwork 18
Paralyzing Paste
A paste made from roots of old trees and concentrated poison from ivy. When you smear this on an object and a creature makes contact with it or is hit by it, they must make a Constitution saving throw or become stunned in pain for 1 round. The DC is 12, 15 or 18 depending on potency. The paste lasts for 24 hours or until it makes contact with a creature.
- Cost: Minor 20 gp; Moderate 25 gp; Masterwork 30 gp
- Environment: Forest, Swamp
- Potency DC: Minor 13; Moderate 15; Masterwork 18
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 to maintain concentration is decreased based on the potency of the ingredients. This effect lasts for 1 hour.
The Concentration DC is decreased by -1, -2, or -3 depending on potency.
- Cost: Minor 10 gp; Moderate 20 gp; Masterwork 30 gp
- Environment: Forest
- Potency DC: Minor 13; Moderate 15; Masterwork 18
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 10 feet of the smoke find their muscles loosen and their minds relax. Anyone that allows themselves to relax, and take a short rest, for the hour that the bark burns for automatically regains a number of spent hit dice, but they must remain within 10 feet of the smoke for the full hour to gain this benefit. They can only regain hit dice if they spend hit dice during the short rest.
They regain 1, 2 or 3 spent hit dice depending on potency.
- Cost: Minor 30 gp; Moderate 60 gp; Masterwork 90 gp
- Environment: Forest
- Potency DC: Minor 13; Moderate 15; Masterwork 18
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 meat rotted for several years in a pickling solution with a slight hint of berries. To force feed someone this mixture, they must be grappled, restrained, or incapacitated in some way. It then requires an action and a successful grapple check to force feed them the concoction.
The Constitution DC is dependent on potency: DC 15, DC 18, or DC 20. They can repeat the saving throw once every 10 minutes to end the effect early.
- Cost: Minor 30 gp; Moderate 50 gp; Masterwork 80 gp
- Environment: High-Altitude Forests, Caves
- Potency DC: Minor 18; Moderate 20; Masterwork 23
Sleeping Leaf Tea
This tea tastes of cloying honey and sweet flowers. A creature that drinks this mixture must make a Constitution saving throw, if they fail the save, they fall unconscious for 1 minute. They awaken if they take any damage, or if a creature uses an action to shake them awake.
Save DC is dependent on potency: DC 10, DC 13, or DC 15.
- Cost: Minor 30 gp; Moderate 40 gp; Masterwork 50 gp
- Environment: Forest, Grasslands
- Potency DC: Minor 13; Moderate 15; Masterwork 18
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 potency of the tea.
- Cost: Minor 15 gp; Moderate 30 gp; Masterwork 45 gp
- Environment: Forest, Grasslands
- Potency DC: Minor 13; Moderate 15; Masterwork 18
Weakening Muscle
Finely shredded mushrooms that turn to goo when worked with. You can then use that goo to smear it on a weapon and coat the weapon. On your next successful attack roll, 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.
Strength DC is dependent on potency: DC 13, DC 15, or DC 18. They can repeat the saving throw once every 10 minutes to end the effect early.
- Cost: Minor 20 gp; Moderate 50 gp; Masterwork 70 gp
- Environment: Swamps, Bogs
- Potency DC: Minor 15; Moderate 18; Masterwork 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 1d4, 1d4+2, or 1d6+2 hit points depending on the potency.
- Cost: Minor 20 gp; Moderate 30 gp; Masterwork 40 gp
- Environment: Forest, Grasslands
- Potency DC: Minor 10; Moderate 13; Masterwork 15
Energetic Cherry
These plump red cherry has a strange fruity taste with a harsh and bitter aftertaste, by crushing them with blue flowers, it causes a bit of nervous energy that can quickly wear off depending on the potency. When consumed, the recipient increases their movement speed by 5 feet for 1 minute, 10 minutes, or 1 hour. Eating these regularly can cause painful headaches from withdrawal.
- Cost: Minor 20 gp; Moderate 30 gp; Masterwork 40 gp
- Environment: High-Altitude Forests
- Potency DC: Minor 13; Moderate 15; Masterwork 18
Focused Balm
This balm is made from tree sap, mint leaves, and needle-shaped leaves. When mashed together, it creates a beige paste that can be applied under the nose to help the recipient stay awake and be more perception based on potency. The recipient gains a +1, +2, or +3 bonus to their Perception checks for 1 hour.
- Cost: Minor 20 gp; Moderate 30 gp; Masterwork 40 gp
- Environment: Forests, Grasslands
- Potency DC: Minor 13; Moderate 15; Masterwork 18
Poppy Tea
This tea is made from boiled poppy seeds. When ingested, the recipient becomes resistant to pain and gains a modicum of protection against it based on potency. Whenever the recipient takes damage, they can reduce that damage by 1, 2, or 3 points, to a minimum of 0 damage. After 1 hour, the effects wear off and the creature must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, they suffer 2d10 damage as they notice their wounds, this damage can not be reduced.
- Cost: Minor 30 gp; Moderate 40 gp; Masterwork 50 gp
- Environment: Dry Climates, Grasslands
- Potency DC: Minor 13; Moderate 15; Masterwork 18
Vervain
This purple plant has sily, pale-purple flowers that are said to be able to ward off evil spirits. When burned in a fire or censor, it emits smoke in a 20-foot radius centered on the fire for an amount of time based on its potency. While a creature is within the smoke, everything outside the smoke is lightly obscured and they can't be charmed, frightened, or possessed by fiends and undead for 10 minutes, 1 hour, or 4 hours. You can move slowly each round if you are burning this in a censor. If you move faster than 10 feet, the smoke cloud can not keep up and the smoke dissipates. It takes 1 round before the smoke reforms its protective barrier.
- Cost: Minor 20 gp; Moderate 50 gp; Masterwork 90 gp
- Environment: Grasslands
- Potency DC: Minor 13; Moderate 15; Masterwork 18
Errata
Version 1.1
- Fixed grammar, spelling, etc
- Adjusted pricing of recipes where appropriate
- Prices for poisons were matched to the prices found in the Poisoner's Kit by Dump Stat
- Increase burnsoothe healing and prices
- Reduced the potency of contact poison from 1 hour to 1 minute and changed the amount of damage it deals
- Paralyzing Paste now specifies how long it lasts for
- Quickend though DC decrease is reduced to -1, -2, -3; DC is adjusted
- Sickening rot is readjusted to be closer to the others like it, though more powerful (and so has a higher DC)
- All other recipes were adjusted as well with changes in the base cost, the potency DC, etc.
- Added 4 new recipes: Energetic Cherry, Focused Balm, Poppy Tea, & Vervain