"B" is for Botanical remedies and poisons (aka Herbalism)

The herbalism non-weapon proficiency, found in the 2e PHB, is terse and to the point. You can read it in the following screenshot.

                                     

 There is a problem though. It suggests the existence of a system, in which a player can do all the listed things. But apart from the bonus to healing per day of bedrest, there are almost no mechanical guidelines or even examples of preparation, that players could use to create their own herbalistic concoctions. The question “Oh mighty Gamemaster, what can I, a player lost in the sauce, actually do with this proficiency” has been asked countless times over the 28 sessions the campaign underwent so far.

To remedy this situation, I wrote the following set of rules. It contains guidelines for the creation of new recipes, a few examples for common and useful remedies and poisons, rules for the gathering of ingredients and the crafting process as well as a list of herbs commonly found in my homebrew world.

Page one covers the basic system, as well as recipes for beneficial remedies:

Page two covers poisons as well as the common herbs I mentioned before: 

My group has used these rules for 15+ sessions and they work quite well, both as an asset to the party as well as a money-sink. For example: The herbal bandages get used frequently, anti-poison is always in demand as soon as someone gets bitten by a poisonous monster and some player created recipes have started to appear. Most notably is the following (somewhat juvenile) concoction by the parties Bard:

Faeces-Flasks: Basic, Batch of 3, CC 5 SP. Clay-flasks filled with distilled faeces and other caustic/stinking materials. Each flask needs about 1lbs of raw faeces to be distilled. When thrown they shatter and splash enemies in a 3ft radius. If affectable by foul stench, they need to succeed on a save vs poison or be off-balance (+2 to be hit) for 1d2 rounds.

Overall, I am quite happy with these rules. They fit nicely in the frequent and required downtime that results from wounded party members, and they help exchange the large amount of wealth the party pulls out of the dungeon, into something with high utility.

One criticism that could be levied is, that some aspects of these rules encroach on the realm of alchemy. For example, if a player character with an animal lore proficiency harvests a spider’s poison sack and wants to craft blade venom, I would allow that, even though it is not strictly “herbalism” anymore. But that is a trade-off I am quite comfortable with at the moment.

 

I hope you, the reader, enjoyed both the rules and the reading of this post.

Next article: “C” is for Campaign recaps and statistics.