Potions: how do they work?

[Gomcse]

We allow players to save each other with potions even when it isn't their turn in the round. This makes it consistent and avoids frustration over dying when the player next to you is willing to save you. Spells are a different matter, and we haven't allowed a player to cast healing unless it's their turn.

[j_dean80]

NA rules are very clear in terms of Hero death and potions:

How A Hero Escapes Death
As a Hero, if your Body Points have been reduced to zero, there are two situations where you can save yourself:

1) If you have a Healing Potion in your possession, you can immediately drink it. The potion will instantly raise your Body Points above zero, restoring you to life.
2) If you are a spellcaster with a Healing Spell, and you have not already performed an action on your turn, you can be healed by casting the spell on yourself.

Important! After your Body Points have reached zero, you can never be saved by a fellow Hero's spell or potion. It will be too late. You will have died by the time it is your fellow Hero's turn--the only time when he can cast a spell or give you a potion.

The EQP/BQPs clarified Hero's passing of items:

*Passing Items: A Hero can pass a potion, artifact, weapon, or any other item to another Hero only if the 2 Heroes are in adjacent squares and neither Hero is adjacent to a monster.

[knightkrawler]

NA rules are very clear in terms of Hero death and potions:

How A Hero Escapes Death
As a Hero, if your Body Points have been reduced to zero, there are two situations where you can save yourself:

1) If you have a Healing Potion in your possession, you can immediately drink it. The potion will instantly raise your Body Points above zero, restoring you to life.
2) If you are a spellcaster with a Healing Spell, and you have not already performed an action on your turn, you can be healed by casting the spell on yourself.

Important! After your Body Points have reached zero, you can never be saved by a fellow Hero's spell or potion. It will be too late. You will have died by the time it is your fellow Hero's turn--the only time when he can cast a spell or give you a potion.

The EQP/BQPs clarified Hero's passing of items:

*Passing Items: A Hero can pass a potion, artifact, weapon, or any other item to another Hero only if the 2 Heroes are in adjacent squares and neither Hero is adjacent to a monster.

So much this.
The point of these rules is for the heroes to "waste" spells and sink money by taking potions at 1 BP when they don'T even know they will need it.
The point is you should avoid losing your last Body point cause that's when you die.
Otherwise you could just give the heroes 9, 8, 7, and 5 BP respectively. Where do you draw the line in being soft?
The Wizard has 4 BP. That means he can lose 3 BP and still be alive, not 4.
I don't see any sense or logic in changing that.

[Gomcse]

Okay, I will revisit this with our group. Per the rules, it looks like you can only save yourself when you reach zero. Thanks for the clarification. If a group member wants to share a potion they'll have to do it on their turn BEFORE there is a need for it. I actually like this better.

[Kurgan]

Agree with kk here... For once the rules are actually clear.
But even if you want to go by "ingame logic", being paralyzed could easily be to a degree that your feeble defenses are useless, but you can still bring a potion to your lips.

Reminds me of this (hit with freeze spray).

[wallydubbs]

I'll admit that I broke the rules in regards to passing Healing potions. On my first playgroup with my brother and cousins: my brother was the Dwarf and in combat with an Orc. I kept rolling 3 skulls every time I attacked him, which dwindled him down to 0BP. However he was standing adjacent to the Wizard, who had a Potion of Healing. I felt bad that this was their first time playing and the Trial is too difficult for newbie heroes, so I allowed it, despite the expansion quest books stating quite to the contrary:
*Passing Items: a hero can pass a potion, weapon, artifact, or any other item to another hero only if the 2 heroes are in adjacent squares and neither hero is adjacent to a monster.
The next time we played I warned them that such an action won't be allowed anymore. Otherwise this practically negates the importance of the Elixir of Life, which is in my Alchemist shop for 800 gold.

However in a different play group, in Quest 8 The Fire Mage, the heroes had cleared out all monsters from the central room except the Fire Mage, who was backed into the corner with the Barbarian. On my turn I played the FireStorm Chaos spell. This proved fatal to the Wizard. However, the Elf was standing adjacent to him and had a Potion of Healing. Since there were no monsters adjacent to either of them, it wasn't really breaking any of the rules, so I allowed it and the Wizard was saved.


On a different note regarding the Potion of Vision, in the Elf Quest Pack, this one allows the Elf to detect all Traps and Secret Doors until he suffers 1BP of damage. Does this mean the Elf can automatically see traps and secret doors without searching even if a monster is present? Or does it just combine the two searches?

[Kurgan]

If memory serves its based on line of sight in that case, not searching, so it's an automatic ability. Pretty nifty!

[Bareheaded Warrior]

I found the EU rules (2nd edition) less than clear, at least in my interpretation (or at least that of my players - they became remarkably creative about rule interpretations on their death bed) so I'm glad I found this thread.

"If you are reduced to zero body points you are immediately eliminated"

"The Healing Potion states that it can be used at any time"

Possibly 'at any time' includes the moment that you realise that you have just been hit with enough Skulls to reduce your Body points to zero...

As a general rule I'm less bothered about differences between versions of the rules unless there is a problem with the version I am using (House Rules based on EU 2nd Edition) in which case I would look in the first instance to other versions for clarity and this below hits the spot

j_dean80 wrote:
NA rules are very clear in terms of Hero death and potions:

How A Hero Escapes Death
As a Hero, if your Body Points have been reduced to zero, there are two situations where you can save yourself:

1) If you have a Healing Potion in your possession, you can immediately drink it. The potion will instantly raise your Body Points above zero, restoring you to life.
2) If you are a spellcaster with a Healing Spell, and you have not already performed an action on your turn, you can be healed by casting the spell on yourself.

Important! After your Body Points have reached zero, you can never be saved by a fellow Hero's spell or potion. It will be too late. You will have died by the time it is your fellow Hero's turn--the only time when he can cast a spell or give you a potion.

The EQP/BQPs clarified Hero's passing of items:

*Passing Items: A Hero can pass a potion, artifact, weapon, or any other item to another Hero only if both Heroes are in adjacent squares and neither Hero is adjacent to a monster.

[Kurgan]

It's Zargon's call. I figured the EU version was harder because Potions can only heal you they can't save you from dying. But both versions have some things that are harder and some that are easier. NA is harder in general so the "last minute save" thing makes more sense, and you might find the Elixir of Life...

The new release "Rogar's Hall" included a very specific exception to the "save after death" rule.

[j_dean80]

So I was re-reading this and noticed something:

2) If you are a spellcaster with a Healing Spell, and you have not already performed an action on your turn, you can be healed by casting the spell on yourself.

This would only work if the Hero gets to perform an Action “out of turn”.