Dungeons & Dragons is a game filled to the brim with mechanical complexity and rules that can easily be missed by new players. One of the most common roles that a party aims to fill is that of a healer. While healers most often replenish their allies hit points through the use of healing spells, adventurers are also capable of healing themselves through the use of potions.
Plus, it’s very possible to make your own healing potions if your party is in short supply. Beyond just healing potions, you can craft a variety of different types of potions to help get your fellow adventurers out of sticky situations. Here’s everything you need to craft potions in D&D 5E.
Updated January 7th, 2025 by Jack Filsinger: With the release of the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide, some rules have been changed when it comes to brewing potions. We’ve updated this guide to reflect these changes and added some additional info regarding the time and materials needed to brew your very own potions.
What You Need To Start Brewing Potions
Before you start making your own health potions, it’s important to know that not every character is capable of crafting potions from the get-go. While characters of any class are capable of brewing potions, to create one’s own potions, a character must have proficiency with either Herbalism Kits or Alchemist’s Supplies.
You can gain these proficiencies through character backgrounds. Proficiency with herbalism kits can easily be gained during character creation by taking the Hermit background. You can gain proficiency with Alchemist’s Supplies by choosing the Artisan background and choosing Alchemist’s Supplies as your Artisan’s Tools proficiency.
Craft Your Own Healing Potions
Once a character is ready, there are two things they’ll need: time and money. Depending on the strength of the potion a character is looking to brew, they’ll need to spend additional time and money in order to craft more potent potions.
Below, you can see how much time and money for materials a character is required to expend in order to brew healing potions.
|
Potion Type |
Healing Done |
Time and Materials |
|---|---|---|
|
Potion of Healing |
2d4+2 HP |
One day of work to brew, requiring 25 gold worth of materials. |
|
Potion of Greater Healing |
4d4+4 HP |
One workweek to brew, requiring 100 gold worth of materials. |
|
Potion of Superior Healing |
8d4+8 HP |
Three workweeks to brew, requiring 1,000 gold worth of materials. |
|
Potion of Supreme Healing |
10d4+20 HP |
Four workweeks to brew, requiring 10,000 gold worth of materials. |
While the more potent potions may seem rather costly, it should be noted that making one’s own potions is still incredibly economical, costing a mere fraction of the standard prices of these items.
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How To Craft Other Types Of Potions
The 2024 Player’s Handbook only offers rules for creating healing potions, but the 2024 DM’s Guide offers rules for creating your own magic items. Since potions are magic items, we can apply these rules to crafting other types of potions in 5E through the use of a Herbalism Kit or Alchemist’s Supplies.
What Do You Need To Craft Other Potions?
Firstly it should be noted that, unlike healing potions, magic items will require key ingredients, which are specified by a DM. Also, unlike Healing Potions, these items can only be created if a character knows the correct recipe, dictating which ingredients are required to brew the potion at hand, as well as the steps needed to prepare the item.
These ingredients are most often either obtained from or are parts of various monsters. The higher the strength of the item (or in this case, potion) that a character is trying to create, the more deadly the monster. This means that creating anything other than Healing Potions is often a much more involved experience, as key resources must be obtained and brewed in a specific manner.
Determine Time And Money Needed
Once a character has obtained the ingredients dictated by the recipe, they must spend an amount of time and money dictated by the potion’s rarity in order to brew it.
For example, a Potion of Growth will require less time and resources to brew than a Potion of Strom Giant Strength.
Below, you can see how much time and money a character is required to spend on materials in order to brew potions of various rarities.
|
Rarity |
Time and Materials |
|---|---|
|
Common |
5 days, 50 GP |
|
Uncommon |
10 days, 200 GP |
|
Rare |
50 days, 2,000 GP |
|
Very Rare |
125 day, 20,000 GP |
|
Legendary |
250 days, 100,000 GP |
How To Homebrew Potions
Homebrew Existing Potions
One of the common complaints about potion brewing is just how long it can take to brew a potion. An entire day’s work to make one Potion of Healing seems like a lot for something that should reasonably take an afternoon at best, and taking almost a month to craft a Supreme Healing Potion is just ridiculous.
A good homebrew solution to this issue is to shorten the time required to make potions to be something that fits better with the pace of your campaign. Working with the DM, you could establish a revised timeline that might require a full day for a Supreme Potion of Healing, but a regular Potion of Healing might take a single short rest.
You can also tweak the gold requirements for the ingredients, or possibly even add a skill check to determine how long and how costly brewing your potion turns out to be.
Craft Brand New Potions
You can also craft entirely new potions in Dungeons & Dragons through homebrew. There are just a few quick steps necessary to make up your very own custom potion.
- Decide Potion Effects – Work with your DM or player to determine what the effects of the potion should be. Make sure there aren’t other potions that already achieve the same effect!
- Determine Rarity – Compare the effects of the potion to others in the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide to determine the rarity of your homebrew potion. This will determine crafting time and the materials needed.
- Get Brewing! – Once you’ve determined the rarity of the potion at play, you can now brew the potion for yourself provided you have the materials and the time needed.
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