It sucks when players don’t like their loot, doesn’t it? As Dungeons and Dragons players adventure and quest, they invariably gain more magical gear. It’s exciting! Eventually, though, they’ll get something nobody’s interested in having. Maybe that’s just how things turned out? Maybe you thought it’d be neat for them to find a magic pick ax, but nobody liked it. It sucks. It isn’t the end of the world (most of the time), but can it be avoided? Yes! Use potions! Potions are expendable, so their effects won’t upend your game. What’s more, potions take far less time to create than any other magic item. In a fantasy world, it makes total sense for creatures to spend their time brewing things. So take a page from my book, consider these 10 potions when dolling out treasure.
- Potion of Animal Friendship
The potion of animal friendship is a wonderful little drink. Chug it down and for an hour, the drinker can cast the spell animal friendship as much as they like. This is a handy spell to have on hand. Beasts are more prevalent than one might think. Turning a goblin’s rats or wolves against them is fun. Getting a bear to understand you mean it (and her cubs) no harm is great. Riding a giant ape or t-rex into a final battle is priceless. It’s never a bad idea to have one or two on hand. - Potion of Growth
The potion of growth is very fun item. It’s strength is in its simplicity: drink the potion, grow big. More specifically, you gain the “enlarge” portion of the enlarge/reduce spell. The main selling point here, though is that you don’t need to concentrate. Getting a handful of these for your weapon oriented characters is a swell way to make them feel stronger and put more of them between you and the monsters. And the more attacks they make, the more their damage adds up. - Potion of Resistance
The potion of resistance is an item the party might not appreciate only having one of, but a variety of. This potion simply confers resistance to a certain damage type to its drinker. You might have a potion of fire resistance or a potion of cold resistance or a potion of necrotic resistance. The important thing to remember is to use it as a feature of your adventures. What I mean by that is if you plan on throwing shocker lizards, behirs, and blue dragons at your party soon, then them finding potions of lightning resistance is their clue as to what’s ahead. - Potion of Fire Breath
Now we’re getting into my personal favorite potion. The potion of fire breath! This potion does just what it says on the tin. You drink it and, up to three times within an hour, you can breath fire as a bonus action. The damage is 4d6 fire damage vs the target’s Dexterity saving throw for half damage. That’s a fair bit, especially when you’re low level. And, sure, it is fire damage, which has a plethora of creatures resistant to it (later on). But it’s still a great item, and literally a blast to use! - Potion of Healing
Potions of healing are arguably the best potion in the game. The lowest level is of common rarity and they’re the easiest to make. The stronger ones scale well and can shore up lost health and spent spell slots in the middle of a dungeon. You can almost never go wrong with a potion of healing. Just don’t mistake it for a potion of poison, since the two appear identical. But, then again, that’s kind of the point of the potion of poison: fool you into drinking it. - Potion of Invulnerability
The potion of invulnerability really sounds too good to be true. For one minute, the drinker gains resistance to all damage. All damage. You can survive falls from the loftiest of heights. You can stand up to a dragon’s breath, bite, claws, and tail. You can’t get eaten by a Tarrasque, though. You’re going be stuck in there for more than a minute and get melted by stomach acid. But still, that’s a lot of other great stuff! - Potion of Speed
Next up, we have one of the absolute best potions in the game. The potion of speed. Like the potion of animal friendship and the potion of growth, the potion of speed is a spell in liquid form. Haste. Haste is one of the best spells in the whole game and gets to be even more fun as a potion. Like it’s counterparts, it doesn’t require concentration. Chug it and gain doubled speed, +2 to AC, advantage on Dexterity saving throws, and an extra action every turn! Granted, there’s some limitations on the action, but you can still do a lot including make one Attack. That adds up very quickly. And who doesn’t love running all over the place? - Potion of Invisibility
This potion makes you invisible for an hour. Making your way around a dungeon totally invisibly allows for a lot of information gathering. This potion is less useful for prolonged combat, as it ends when you attack or cast a spell. However, for ambushes or quick escapes, it’s a great choice. - Potion of Flying
Folks, the stronger your characters get, the more important it is to have many ways of moving about. If you can’t fly, then a dragon, in the open, can swoop in, strafe with its breath weapon, and fly back off. You’re basically a sitting duck. There are other ways of flying. Some much more accessible than a potion of this rarity. Those things, however, can burn. I’d rather not have my broom turn to ash as I fly on it while the dragon breaths at me. No, I think I’m going to drink this potion and enjoy chasing after it without worrying about falling to my death. Because if a dragon drops me to 0 hit points, I’m already dead anyway. - Potion of Giant Strength
The various potions of giant strength are easily some of the best items in the game. With but one good gulp, you gain inhuman, monstrous, nearly unrivaled levels of strength. Albeit temporarily. Suddenly, you can wrestle a demon into submission. Suddenly, you can crush coal into diamonds. Suddenly, you can kick a can all the way around the world and catch it yourself. Well, maybe not that last one, but I wouldn’t rule it out. This is fantasy after all. And best of all, the varieties are of different rarities and strength, so it’s very satisfying to have a bunch.
And that, folks, is the list. They’re in no particular order and by no means should you limit yourself to just these. Your party might enjoy some of the others too. These are just fantastic choices to round out your treasure with. So take a page from my book, fill your adventures with more potions.
-The Clark Side