Creating alchemical items by batch


Homebrew and House Rules


I've always wondered why there are no rules for creating large batches of alchemical items rather than 1 at a time. Does anyone know of rules regarding batch alchemy? Ie. Instead of creating a vial of alchemist fire, making a small cauldron of it, say 10 vials worth. With some things I can see how it would be difficult to do so, but for others I see no reason why not. Am I missing something?


Creating 10 vials worth takes the same time and money as creating 10 vials (since time is based on cost), so just fluff it as a batch if you like.


But why would it take the same amount of time? Creating 10 vials worth should be more difficult, but shouldn't take that much more time than a single one.

Silver Crusade

Rules answer: Because the rules don't let you
Personal fluff reason: because when you're dealing with a highly volatile chemical reaction, you're either going to be VERY careful, which takes longer, or there's something about the reagents that makes it to where bulk crafting it will ruin it.


CoI wrote:
But why would it take the same amount of time? Creating 10 vials worth should be more difficult, but shouldn't take that much more time than a single one.

In real-life chemical synthesis, scaling up an operation is a lot harder than simply pouring more goop into a bigger bucket. Especially when we're talking about something semi-magical to begin with, it's not unreasonable that each "vial" requires a certain degree of personal attention.

At any rate, you should be able to make bigger batches if you do what real chemists do. Hire more chemists that report to you, and supervise their work.

If you need ten vials in the time it takes to make one vial ordinarily, hire nine more alchemists.


If you want to craft a batch faster, give it a higher DC, say +10, compared to a single vial. Then you'll craft the batch 50% faster.

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