I’m going to be honest with you — for a very long time, I had never given a second thought to Alchemy. Not while I was designing scenarios, not while I was playing them, heck — not even when I was playing Exile III. Still, as I’ve been working on my new scenario, I’ve been using the good ole Alchemy function more and more, and I’ve discovered a few things that might be helpful for all the scenario designers out there.
- Don’t be half-assed about Alchemy:
(“But I’m using my whole ass!” — Homer Simpson)
If you’re going to include Alchemy, include it! Place herbs so the party can find or buy them, same thing with Recipes. If you’re not going to include Alchemy, don’t throw a bone in just for kicks. In Of Good And Evil, I fell victim to this error, placing an assortment of recipes around, but only a splattering of herbs to be found. A minor error, perhaps, but an error nonetheless.
- 2. Place Alchemy appropriate to the scenario:
A low level scenario should have weak potions, and so forth. Don’t put Knowledge Brew in unless A) It’s a very hard and long scenario and B) Even then it’s very difficult to recover.
- 3. Expand the field:
Sure, you could always use the original Ember Flowers/Asptongue Mold and so on ingredients, but why not expand that a bit? The BOE Editor allows you to assign other items Alchemical properties. Play around with it a little — variety is the spice of life, or so they say.
- 4. Realize the limitations in the scenario editor:
- When you play BOE, the library function lists several types of potions as being able to be created with Spider Glands. Spider Glands don’t exist. The property can’t be created. Forget about them! Luckily, all potions requiring Spider Glands can be made with other ingredients, so this isn’t a fatal flaw.
- Attempting to make “Strong Strength” potions won’t trigger a response from the editor, so don’t plan on the party being able to make any.
- In theory, casting resurrect requires a resurrection balm. It’s a nice theory, but it doesn’t occur in practice. You can cast resurrection without such an item, so rewarding the party with knowledge of how to make one isn’t that useful.
- 5. Finally, I couldn’t find any lists that provided what potions required what ingredients except within the BOE Game itself, which proved very annoying when I was trying to design my scenario. Provided for you is a list of potions, with the ingredients required to make them and their level of difficulty.
| 1) |
Weak Curing Potion |
-- |
Holly |
( 1 ) |
| 2) |
Weak Healing Potion |
-- |
Comfrey Root |
( 1 ) |
| 3) |
Weak Poison |
-- |
Holly (or Spider Glands which don't exist) |
( 1 ) |
| 4) |
Weak Speed Potion |
-- |
Comfrey Root and Wormgrass |
( 3 ) |
| 5) |
Medium Poison |
-- |
Wormgrass (or Spider Glands which don't exist) |
( 3 ) |
| 6) |
Strong Curing |
-- |
Glowing Nettle |
( 5 ) |
| 7) |
Medium Speed Potion |
-- |
Glowing Nettle and Wormgrass |
( 5 ) |
| 8) |
Graymold Salve |
-- |
Graymold |
( 7 ) |
| 9) |
Weak Energy Potion |
-- |
Wormgrass and Asptongue Mold |
( 9 ) |
| 10) |
Potion of Clarity |
-- |
Graymold and Holly |
( 9 ) |
| 11) |
Strong Potion |
-- |
Asptongue Mold |
( 10 ) |
| 12) |
Strong Healing Potion |
-- |
Graymold and Comfrey Root |
( 12 ) |
| 13) |
Killer Poison |
-- |
Mandrake Root |
( 12 ) |
| 14) |
Resurrection Balm |
-- |
Ember Flowers |
( 9 ) |
| 15) |
Medium Power Potion |
-- |
Mandrake Root & Asptongue Mold |
( 14 ) |
| 16) |
Knowledge Brew |
-- |
Mandrake Root & Ember Flowers |
( 19 ) |
| 17) |
Strong Strength Potion |
-- |
Ember Flowers & Glowing Nettle (Can't be made) |
( 10 ) |
| 18) |
Bliss Potion |
-- |
Asptongue Mold & Graymold |
( 16 ) |
| 19) |
Strong Energy Potion |
-- |
Ember Flowers & Mandrake Root |
( 20 ) |
|