abyssalbrews

Alchemicowl

Added 2022-04-14 12:58:08 +0000 UTC

Greetings everyone!

Continuing with our April is for Alchemist theme, we’ve left behind the wondrous flask and journeyed into quite an odd place indeed. An intersection of alchemy and artificing bringing together the best of both worlds to create something truly special for that potion addi… er aficionado in your party. We hope you’ll love it.

Our patrons get early access to all of these items as well as additional formats that are easily usable in both physical and online play. Additionally they get high-res art exports, easy to use text exports, behind the scenes updates, and a lot more.

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Design notes from Matthew:

Alright, this one… This one was a weird one to conceptualize and make. Initially I wanted something that would make potions last a longer amount of time and would be able to be turned on and off. I set on creating that and had a working sample pretty early, but in reading it I realized that no one in their right mind would want the task of keeping track of how many minutes and hours were left on a partially used potion.

Sometimes when designing an item, the best thing I can do is just stop focusing on my initial idea and pull back to see what would actually be fun to manage and play with. I realized that what I wanted in the beginning was just “longer lasting potions”, but not just that, I wanted more convenient access to them. So with that new purpose in mind I set about writing the second version.

I will admit that I usually use a homebrew rule that allows drinking potions to be a bonus action, but that’s not a core rule. With that in mind, I wanted to give the opportunity to make it a core rule with use of this item for those that like their sessions to be “rules as written”. Also, I saw that this gave the opportunity to activate two potions at once and extend the duration a bit.

These might seem like simple effects, but thematically they tie together well and offer a good bit of quality of life for those that have this item. Also the advantage on saves vs cloud type effects is nothing to sneeze at. Literally, please don’t sneeze inside the Alchemicowl.

Illustration notes from Fernando:

I wanted to do a fantasy gas mask and I tried several concepts but nothing was clicking, I also really wanted to stay away from the plague doctor mask/look because it’s been done so many times, but nothing was working. I think the problem is that gas masks are a modern invention and no matter how “fantasy” I tried to make them they still looked like something out of WWI at best.

Eventually I just gave up and went the plague doctor route and of course it worked perfectly, we are giving it a twist by allowing it to place the potions directly on the mask, and I went with a hood instead of the typical hat, plus I added some belts and buckles for no reason other than make it look cooler. I ended up turning it more into a cowl than a mask and I guess that was enough for my brain to call it “different” and “my own” without feeling like a hack for doing the same thing other artists have done a million times XD

We’re not done with our alchemical journeys yet. We’ve got another great idea lined up that we think will make for some fun role play next week. We’ve also got a supplement coming at the end of the month that promises to make your brewing a bit more interesting. That will be our “One More Thing” for the month. I hope you enjoy it!

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