Herbalism

Chapter 1: Introduction

Welcome dear reader to a brand new series of learning and adventure, brought to you by none other than I, Sir Hamund Holderhek! On the off chance that my published works have yet to reach you, let me say that I am a writer by trade, but an explorer at heart.

Through my many years of wandering these planes of existence, I have seen, done, and conquered just about everything the multiverse has to offer! I have scaled peaks that pierce the heavens, trekked across sands scorched by sun, and plunged into depths that border the Hells themselves, and through all of it I have marvelled at what nature has to show to me each time. For this volume in particular however, I have chosen to focus on nature’s more understated, yet crucial gifts: plants and herbs.

Within this book is the compilation of copious amounts of travel notes, interacting with and consuming every magical plant ranging from the mighty mountain heart ginseng, to the mirthful sillypad. Within these pages you will find not only an exhaustive compendium of useful plants and herbs you may find on your travels, but also instructions on how to forage for them, how to brew them into powerful tinctures, new spells to add to your arsenals, and also my many humorous thoughts and musings. Nature has grown these miracles for us, and after reading this book, you will know how to take them all for yourself!

Good luck, and good foraging.” -Sir Hamund Holderhek, O.B.H. (First class), V.A., N.K.P.*
Herb Categories and Natural Properties

The herbs listed and detailed in this chapter, as well as the herbalism recipes included, have been created for use in any setting, and it is up to the DMs to decide the way they will incorporate them in their game. Kindly note that the plants do not correspond with natural properties, or habitats, but have been designed for ease of use for both the DM and the players. Feel free to use them as you like!

The herbs have been divided into six broad categories according to the plant that can be used. On several descriptions, additional details may be included to specify exactly the part needed, if herbalism tools are needed for gathering or not*, where exactly these herbs usually grow and also the numbers in which they can be encountered, along with the time needed for harvesting enough for 1 use**. Many of the plants described can be used directly as they are, without incorporating them into a herbalism recipe if they are fresh***, and almost all of them have positive or negative properties if used in such a manner.

1. The categories of the herbs are: Tree, Flower, Root, Shrub, Moss, Fungus.

2. The herbs detailed below can have medicinal properties, poisonous properties, or even both on a few occasions, according to the part of the part consumed and methods that are used.

*Herbs that require herbalism tools cannot be harvested without them.

**One use of the herb can be used on one creature only. Splitting up the dosage and using it on more than one creature, has no effects on any of the creatures. The time needed for harvesting may vary from 15 minutes to 2 hours.

***Herbs remain fresh up to 8 hours after gathering them. While the plants themselves may not be useful to consume after they are no longer fresh, they can be artificially dried during a short rest and can then be used in Herbalism recipes, which you will find later in this chapter. With a successful DC 10 Herbalism check you may dry up to 10 herbs during a short rest.

In this section, you can find various herbalism recipes that your character can use to create useful concoctions, which may aid you in your adventurers, or hinder your opponents. Each recipe has its own name, rarity, category, herbal ingredients needed, suggested crafting cost and selling price, and according to rarity some of them may require certain other special conditions or special ingredients. All the recipes can be created in 1 hour per 1 use of the concoction created. The herbalist must make a Herbalism tools proficiency check, and the DC is determined by item rarity. The categories of items that can be created are: Tea, Poultice, Ointment, Vapor. If the check is successful, you spend the appropriate time, ingredients and gold and the item is created. If the check does not succeed, you fail to create the item, you spend the time needed normally, and half of the ingredients and gold required.

Optional Reality Check: If you wish to incorporate a more natural and real feeling to your recipes, you may work with your DM to establish specific durations for the concoctions to retain their potency before going bad, after which they cannot be used. The time of their lifespan should begin after the item has been created, so as not to include crafting time. If you like you can use these suggested lifespans according to category for your creations:

• Poultice (1 day)
• Tea (2 days)
• Vapor (1 week)
• Ointment (1 day)

Herbalism is the art of selecting, preparing, and harnessing the power of natural herbs. The effects of herbs mimic and enhance class features and feats. Herbalists use their crafting slot to preserve the potency of the prepared herb. When you make a Crafting skill check for herbalism, you must subtract gold from your inventory representing the components necessary for crafting.

When you first learn to use the herbalism kit, choose three of the five starting herbs, representing the crafting recipes you learned to develop as you practiced your skills to novice level. You will learn to prepare and preserve additional herbs as you develop your techniques and hone your recipes.

Herbal Toxicity

Herbs have mild toxicity that does not harm creatures in small quantities. If you eat more than one herb, suffer an additional level of exhaustion for each herb beyond the first consumed per long rest.

Class Enhancements

While herbs can mimic class features, they also enhance a class’s existing capabilities. Some herbs have special properties and durations, and can be activated during actions, bonus actions, or reactions. As an example, Mint Sprig you to use a bonus action to recover hit points equal to 1d6 + half of your level rounded down. If you are a fighter that uses Mint Sprig, you may consume Second Wind during the same bonus action. Rageleaf may be used on a bonus action to reduce bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage by 1 for a duration of 1 minute. If you are a barbarian, you may enter a rage when using Rageleaf during the same bonus action.

Using Herbs

Herbs may be used much like any other item, with their description detailing how to use them, how long it takes to use them, and the effects they bestow. A creature may only be under the effect of one herb at a time. If a creature attempts to use a new herb on themselves while still under the effect of another, the first herb’s effects end immediately.

Preparing Herbs

Many herbs are quick and simple to apply, usually just using an action to eat them or spending a bit of time rubbing their juices on one’s equipment. However, other herbs require a much longer and more involved process

needing to be smoked, boiled, peeled, burned, etc.

before they become usable. Herbs that require a process such as this are said to require preparation.

To prepare a herb, a character must have a herbalism kit in their possession and spend an hour during a short or long rest processing the herb appropriately. This is considered a light and non-strenuous activity for the purpose of calculating rest requirements. If done during a short rest, that character may still recover hit points by expending hit die as usual.

Once the rest has been finished, the herb must be used immediately. The character preparing the herb and the character using the herb do not need to be the same - one character can prepare the herb, while another uses it at the end of the rest.

Herbalism is not simply wandering around and picking pretty flowers! Herbalism is a holistic trade with many facets that people can spend lifetimes to master. I present some of these extra facets to you, so you too may devote yourself to them and perhaps one day rival even my own knowledge (I highly doubt it).” -Hamund
Tinctures

While herbs are certainly valuable in the powers they impart, a major hindrance to their usability is the lengthy preparations that some of them require. In these situations, it may be wise to brew that herb into a tincture. A tincture is the essence of an herb, distilled through various processes and designed to apply all the effects of a herb in a much faster timeframe.

Using a tincture

Using a tincture takes an action and results in all the effects specified in the herb’s description. Like herbs, a character may only benefit from the effects of one tincture or herb at a time. Using a new tincture while still under the effects of another tincture or herb, causes the first’s effect to end immediately.

Creating a tincture

Creating a tincture is no easy feat, and requires intricate knowledge alchemy to perform successfully. In order to create a tincture, a character must possess proficiency in and have access to alchemy supplies. In addition, that character must expend an amount of money equal to double the base cost of the herb to buy ingredients and other materials. Creating a tincture requires one work week of labour to produce.

At the end of the process, the herb is destroyed and the character creates a tincture with the name ‘tincture of [consumed herb].’

New background: Herbalist

From even before the discovery of farming, society has relied on the gifts that nature grows from its soil and the herbalists that gather and harness those gifts. Herbalists are naturally close to nature, venturing out into the wilds to gather plants that can heal the sick, lend vigour to the weak, and even create magical effects that would make the most powerful of mages jealous.

Skill Proficiencies: Nature, Survival

Tool Proficiencies: Herbalism Kit

Languages: One of your choice

Equipment: A set of traveller’s clothes, a herbalism kit, a piece of jewellery containing a dried flower, and a belt pouch containing 10 gp.

Feature:Ripe Pickings

As an experienced herbalist, you know the best spots to find ripe plants, and the best techniques to gather them without wasting any of the precious resources inside. Whenever you gather a herb that has charges, that herb always starts with the maximum number of charges possible.

Herbalism Skill
Chapter 2: Rules and Mechanics

Any magical plant (and even some plant adjacent organisms like mushrooms and lichen) are considered herbs. Herbs can be found in virtually every environment, even using their magical nature to survive in places that would be inhospitable to more mundane plants. Their effects vary widely and some are much rarer and more useful than others, but all have their own value in their own ways. The following section details the basic rules for finding herbs and how to use them.

Harvesting Components

During a long or short rest, you can search for exotic plants nearby. Choose a plant from the Potion and Oil table that is in your current region and roll a Survival Check vs the DC of the plant. If you make the check, roll 1d4 to see how many you harvest.

Gathering Herbs

Collecting a herb is known as gathering, which is further broken down into two different methods: foraging and picking.

Foraging

Foraging refers to wandering through one’s environment and simply gathering whatever they may come across. It may be done as a downtime activity, or while the party is travelling at a normal or slower pace. For every 8 hours that a character spends foraging, they may make a Wisdom (Survival) check, with the results determined by the table below. Results are cumulative: each row’s results also earn the foraging character the results of the rows above it.

	Foraging Herb Table
D20 Roll	Result
10-15	Character finds enough food to feed a Medium-sized creature for one day.
16-20	Character finds a common herb. Roll on the appropriate environment’s common herb table to determine the result.
21+	Character finds a rare herb. Roll on the appropriate environment’s rare herb table to determine the result.

Picking

Picking refers to actively searching out a specific herb by tracking through the environment and looking for signs of where the herb may be. This may only be done as a downtime activity.

In order to go picking for a herb, a player must declare which herb they are looking for and then spend the next 8 hours attempting to find it, at the end of which they may make a DC 25 Wisdom (Survival) check. A player may only attempt to pick a herb that is in the same environment table as the environment the player is currently in.

On a success they find the herb they were looking for. On a failure, it is deemed that the herb cannot be found in the local area and they must travel for a full day before they, or anyone in their party, may attempt to pick the same herb again.

Resolving the Locate Animals and Plant Spell

The Locate animals and plant spell allows a player to name a plant and be told where it is so long as it exists within a 5 mile radius of their current location. While this is a rather innocuous spell in the base game, when it comes to finding herbs it can be quite powerful in finding the rare herbs, and potentially cause contention since it would rely on the DEM to decide if that herb is present on not. To avoid this, DMs can use the table below to determine the herb's availability, based on the probability of the herb's rarity in their environment table.

To use this table, the player casting the spell must roll a d100. If they roll equal to or above the number listed next to the herb they are trying to locate's corresponding position on the herb table, then the herb is present and the spell leads them to it.

Herb's Relative Rarity Table
Herb's Rarity	d100 roll
Legendary	90
Very Rare	75
Rare	60
Uncommon	50
Common	Automatic

Roll	Direction
1	N
2	NE
3	E
4	SE
5	S
6	SW
7	W
8	NW

Distance is a d100 roll x 5 miles.

Potions

To brew a potion, you must have the required number of plants as stated in the # to Brew section of the Potion and Oil table. Potions are brewed in towns only. The equipment to brew them can be found in an alchemist, potion, or herbalist shop. Not all potions are created equal. Ask your DM how many potions you can make during your stay in town

Advanced Brewing

The potion brewing system was balanced using the Survival skill, needing an Herbalism Kit, and searching by Region. Players can sell individual plants using the sell price in the descriptions. To further expand the experience of potion brewing, here are some magical items players can buy, find, or quest for.