Should Alchemy mean making potions, or altering things?
If it's altering things/changing them, then what would be a good name for potion making?
The making of a potion is, by definition, altering things. It is a subset of alchemy, but not the entirety of it,
IRL alchemists had a mysticism about "purifying" matter to change it into "higher" forms.
So transmutation is actually a valid use of fantasy alchemy.
Just potions would be like "Brewing".
I personally like for Alchemy to be a non-magical method of creating change in substances. An alchemist doesn't need to have magical talent, but if they know a few ingredients that have an innate magic to them, they can distill them into a magical potion
>>47634773
Personally, I always saw it as involving magic. Stirring the cauldron just right and chanting the right words under the full moon, double double toil and trouble style.
>>47634670
>>47634672
So have Alchemy be the magic of altering things like turning lead to gold or changing a wall into a cage, and have brewing potions be a subset of this?
I think I can get behind this. the only problem is that would make Alchemy a bit over powered, but besides that, it's a really cool idea.
>>47634849
Same here. Alchemy should be distinct in that rather then dancing around and jazz handing until a fireball pops out of your asshole it's taking two different things that wouldn't normally work under normal circumstances and making them into something that does.
![alchemy+symbols+4[1].png](https://i.imgur.com/x3re6K3.png "alchemy+symbols+4[1].png")
>>47634933
>overpowered
You could always just make alchemy be primative chemistry, and the magic is all ritual and superstition.
>>47635466
>>47634933
Or maybe have it use sigils and symbols that have to be drawn. Potions are effects that effect the user only that can be stored so as to prepare the spell ahead of time.
This would also put a ration limit on how many spells you can have prepared, since large amounts of liquid in thick jars and vials are heavy and could break in large amounts so they wouldn't travel well.
>>47634638
Alchemy involved both. It alters and purifies things. Mixing them with alcohol or water is a way to make substance ingestible by humans.
>>47634638
i know in real history, transmutations were the goal and base of western alchemy, and potions were the creation of eastern alchemy.
so just call them that i suppose?
Which system has the best alchemy rules?
Eon has a fairly good magic system but alchemy is so ass it's unbelievable.
It explains that matter has 9 types of resonance which is really just how it behaves. It doesn't explain why or what will happen if you reduce say density to undefined, nor does it give any uses for any of these magically reduced things. But it tries to look important.
And when it comes to transmuting. Modifying one resonance of one gram will take 36 hours. So transmuting wood into gold will take by default 324 hours and probably cost more than a farmer's cottage. You could reduce the time by making the roll harder but you're likely to blow your lab up then.
Anybody have cool alchemy potions and poisons for d&d5e? Like smokebombs, gas grenades, etc.?
