Herbs

[Cinniuint]

Topic sidestep, now looking for ideas for herbal recipes.

Well, more Hero System write ups of herbs and potions.

 

Original post:

Am looking at a character class that works mostly with herbs. A bit like a more specifically focused druid.

 

This "Herbalist" will probably work with primarily herbs that must be prepared extensively before they can be used. Occasionally, he might find herbs that need to be used while they are fresh. The herbs that keep might also be available in shops.

 

So, for this discussion, I would like to address the problem of dealing with consumable foci that are a major portion of a characters' powers, and also available on the market to characters with lots of money.

 

Had been considering a multipower, with increasing recipes, increasing potency with more experience, and SLOW recovery of charges. Am seeing problems down this path.

 

Issue: what's to prevent a major build up of herbs?

Issue: what's to prevent a major build up of money?

Issue: how can I keep this character viable?

 

Had wanted to address herbs in a separate discussion, but that may not be feasible. Issues here include assortment and rarity of herbs in recipes, difficulty of recipes, some herbs may be cultivated, others may be common only along leylines, some may lose potency quickly after harvest or even after brewing, etc,etc.

 

After all this, am beginning to suspect I am being picky, narrow and generally ridiculous. Still, herbs are a fun subject, I hope, so here we go...

[assault]

Basically it's potion based magic.

 

Assembling the ingredients takes time, effort and/or money.

 

Mostly this can be handled as abstract "preparation time", possibly leading to the odd quest. Don't get caught up in boring details.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Issue: what's to prevent a major build up of herbs?

Rarity, difficulty of gathering, skill required to prepare them, and spoilage are the primary means to deal with them.  Some of the very best herbs in my campaign are addictive - once you're hooked they stop having magical effect, too.  All the easy-to-gather herbs already have been, and that leaves you with the ones that grow in dangerous, wild, and difficult to reach places.

Issue: what's to prevent a major build up of money?

The same stuff as above.  The market might be pretty limited too.  In a medieval economy, the only people with any real disposable income are nobility and people in the upper ranks of the church, so you can carry that over to your game as well.  That makes your customer base smaller.

[Cinniuint]

Hmm, really, this is the same problem as with every character. All that power could easily be used to make a powerful and/or wealthy character. But not by adventure.

 

I have mostly played in superheroic campaigns. There, this kind of thing is a justification for buying wealth if the player chooses.

 

And there is usually a player who wants to know the boring details. If only so they can be abused.

 

Cinn

[assault]

Actually, it's a fine leash to drag the character around by. "You're almost out of blargwort root". It grows in the forest, but you might be able to buy some at the local apothecary....

 

You've a perfect railroad junction right there.

 

It's quite likely the character would try to establish a garden of some description at some point. That's great. It gives him something to lose.

[Old Man]

Issue: what's to prevent a major build up of herbs?

 

Issue: what's to prevent a major build up of money?

 

Issue: how can I keep this character viable?

I think the trick here is going to be modulating rarity, spoilage, and encumbrance in order to achieve the right level of inconvenience while preventing obvious means of abuse.

 

Rarity: You're probably going to have to carefully consider the "available on the market" aspect here. It's a great way to separate the character from excess gold, but too much gold could lead to trash bags full of "rare" herbs. So the materials here will either need to be like endangered-species rare, or have something else about them that makes them rare. For example, mistletoe is a weed, it's everywhere--mistletoe harvested by moonlight with a golden sickle is not. A long ingredients list for each spell can accomplish the same thing, like when you go to the market and they have everything you need for your mom's spaghetti sauce recipe except parsley. I hate that.

 

Spoilage: I can't even keep salad in the fridge for more than a couple of weeks before it goes bad. This is a good way to limit the character's overall hoard of herbs. I think you'll have to allow the character to carry at least a couple weeks' supply of herbs, but you can further limit usage by requiring daily preparation. So your mandrake root will keep pretty well, but it's useless unless you grind it into a powder, and the powder will only last a day or so before losing its potency.

 

Encumbrance: I imagine we're trying to avoid the character dragging a trash bag full of leaves or carrying a bandolier of herb pouches. You might want to penalize the character for either behavior. If you think about it, carrying a ready supply of 20+ different herbs is going to be inconvenient. A bottle of 5-hour energy doesn't seem like much, but two dozen of them is certainly unwieldy if not heavy, and if you wade into melee with them they're likely to get broken. Similarly your druid spell probably requires an intact stick of mistletoe.

 

Lastly, I'll tell your GM to set the campaign in a desert or on board ship.

[bluesguy]

Best way too keep from hoarding:

• Cost
• Availability
• Fragile
• Spoilage
• Difficult to prepare into something useful
• Time to prepare into something useful
• Bulk/weight/mass

[Mzimwi]

This is my take on the Herbalist, which is actually more of a Pharmacopeist, as they use plenty of animal parts. You might find useful the idea of a trigger ingredient - :

 

Magic Herbalism Ungaka

Herbal magic uses the powers of the natural world to make potions, medicine and fetishes. This extends beyond curing disease to treating all kinds of problems - there are herbal cures for those who suffer from thieves. In the modern world of Ubantu, there is a tendency towards specialization, and herbalists are seen as having more power in the area of diseases and ailments than other magics, but this doesn't stop them from trying. The one ailment they do not treat is spirit possession, which is known to require an Ngoma mganga, those they do over several diagnostics that will determine whether such a course will be necessary.

Herbalism is more than just compounding various plant products. For one, there are specific rituals for harvesting the products.  The plants themselves must be appeased with praise songs and tended with certain sacrifices (specifically, certain trees must be watered with specially brewed beers). When the medicines are compounded, they must be introduced to each other in a certain way. Also, 'herbalism' is a misnomer as it includes many animal products. Glands and organs from certain animals, bird eggs and special insects are very important.

Dawa/madawa are magical remedies. In Ubantu, the word has come to refer to treatments for illness, whereas in kiSwahili the word can refer to a remedy for thieves, a love potion or any number of things (kiKoka uses 'ushombwe' to refer to a magic potion for nonmedical use). There are several Madawa Societies that make both standard and custom medicines. Madawa can be oral, topical (which can be incised) or smoke-based, but they are always consumable (as opposed to various charms and amulets that ward off disease, but don't cure it). Madawa typically have a secret ingredient, a kizimba, that is the activating agent. The rest of the dawa can be prepared and even bottled, but the kizimba must be added near the time of administration and typically requires certain words or ritual actions to empower it.

In the modern Empire, all herbalists are human/!Tsharg partnerships. !Tshargs' elevated senses and attention to the natural world make them apothecarists bar none. In particular, they can smell diseases and know insect medicine far beyond what humans do. !Tsharg taste bugs to determine their properties and are famous for discovering the bee-sting treatment for joint-pain.

Although herbalists concoct various standard remedies, to make them truly efficacious they must be specific to a certain person which involves adding ingredients that either come from the person (spit or blood) or that relate to the person's totem. This is the trigger, the secret ingredient, a kizimba, that is the activating agent. The rest of the dawa can be prepared and even bottled, but the kizimba must be added near the time of administration and typically requires certain words or ritual actions to empower it. One must also be careful with these remedies that they don't contain taboo ingredients. In general, taking a medicine from anyone other than the person who mixed it is very dangerous. [rules - some generic potions are possible, but they work better is compounded specifically for one person. advanced potions require this]

 

Madawa can be oral, topical (which can be incised) or smoke-based, but they are always consumable (as opposed to various charms and amulets that ward off disease, but don't cure it).

Mngaka function in many ways like alchemists, with serious greenthumbs. Rather than a formulary, they have Plant Teachers, allies in the plant world. He knows how to speak to the plant spirits and how to honor them, and they teach him the spells to empower their herbs. The herbalist finds the kizimba from his own knowledge. He combines the herbs and the kizimba and uses the spell the plant teachers taught him. To make a medicine truly powerful, it must be bonded to the user in particular.

[Cinniuint]

Seems like limitations are well covered now. I shudder at the notion of playing an herbalist in a spell jammer campaign.

 

Notion of herbalist as largely a healer with lots of other abilities mostly more difficult is what I was going for. So JK's Gilly Weed would be moderately difficult. It doesn't heal,but it is consumed and enhances the body. Herbs that are mixed to create an effect out of the body should be less common yet. Something like epoxy might still be not to difficult to make, but smoke or a bang should be very difficult and an actual boom is probably impossible.

 

Let's look at specific herbs now. Anybody have an idea on how to write up King's Foil from LOTR?

[Outsider]

I'd write King's Foil up as a necessary expendable focus for a power than Aragorn and maybe (maybe) certain others of Earendil's lineage have.  

 

Not in the hands of the right lineage, it is just another weed, no matter how much lore one might possess.

 

 

YMMV, if you are of the opinion that Aragorn's knowledge of it and its use were simply 'lost lore' retained by his lineage, that anyone could use once shown how.