1. Abilities

Alchemy

Alchemy is the art of crafting potions and poisons within the world of Nirn. Proficiency with Alchemy tools is required to make potions accurately. You can try to craft potions without proficiency, but your attempts will suffer for it. Likewise, a Poisoner's Kit proficiency is needed for crafting poisons.

Foods, Herbs, Fungi, Chemicals, and Minerals are used in the crafting of potions and poisons, and each ingredient has its own properties that aid in the crafting of these concoctions. These properties are learnable and expressed upon each item in a table that looks like this:

Alchemical Effects
Effect #1Effect #2
Effect #3
Effect #4

These effects are listed in a specific order. Each potion made requires ingredients with the same properties. Using ingredients with the same properties in the same position in the table results in a weaker state, but pairing ingredients with them in different spots on the table can result in a stronger potion. For example, Wheat and Blue Mountain Flowers have Restore Health in common, and can be used together to make a Healing Potion. Since their common property of Restore Health is in the first spot for both of them, they will always result in a Minor Healing Potion. Instead, if you were to combine either with Blisterwort which has its Restore Health property in its third slot, there is the chance, that a stronger potion is crafted. This manifests in an adjustment to the DC required to craft the potion.

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Crafting Process

Once you have your ingredients in whatever combination you desire, you can put them together and make your skill check to determine how successful you are.

The roll required is an Intelligence Skill Check, with proficiency if you have proficiency with Alchemist's Tools. The DC which you must meet to succeed is decided by the DM, based on what your materials are and what kind of potion you are trying to make. Each potion has a difficulty level, and success is determined by how difficult the potion is to make, and whether or not you have the appropriate ingredients to complete it.

Potion RarityAlchemy Check DCIn Game Time Required
Common101-3 Potions per Day
Uncommon131 Potion per Day
Rare151-3 Potions per Week
Very Rare171 Potion per Week
Beyond Very Rare201 Potion per 2 Weeks

As is displayed in Healing Potion, only two appropriate ingredients are needed to craft a Minor Health Potion, but three are required to make a Greater Health Potion. If you're lucky, you might combine ingredients that fulfill the requirements of multiple potions, and craft some unique potions.

Example: Blue Mountain Flowers has Restore Health at #1 and Fortify Health at #3. Spriggan Wood has Restore Health at #3 and Fortify Health at #4. Barley has Restore Health at #2 and Fortify Health at #1. These three ingredients combine well together, not only to provide a strong Healing Potion but also as a strong Health Fortification Potion. Ultimately, this creates a potion on par with a Superior Healing Potion and a Superior Health Fortification Potion simultaneously, possibly even a Supreme level potion in the end.

Attempted crafting of potions with combination effects will further increase the DC.

Alchemical Properties Key

Alchemical Effect RequirementsPossible Potions/Poisons
Restore Health

Healing Potion

Fortify Health

Health Fortification Potion

Restore Magicka

Mana Potion

Fortify Magicka

Mana Fortification Potion

Restore Stamina

Stamina Potion

Fortify Stamina

Stamina Fortification Potion

Sleep

Dunmer Poison (Injury)

Damage Stamina/Slow

Slow Poison (Injury)

Stun

Stasis Poison (Injury)

Corruption
Paralysis
Haste
Invisibility
Fear
Frenzy
Damage Health

Basic Poison, Stasis Poison (Injury), Frostbite Venom (Injury), Wyvern Venom (Injury)

Lingering Damage HealthPersistent Poison
Ravage HealthNigh Deadly Poison
Damage Magicka
Lingering Damage Magicka
Damage Stamina
Lingering Damage Stamina

Dunmer Poison (Injury), Frostbite Venom (Injury)

Weakness to (Damage Type)

Vulnerability Poison (Ingested)

Resist (Damage Type)

Potions of Resistance

Cure Poison
Cure Disease
Fortify Agility
Fortify Finesse