Swallowing a Potion . . . Later

[Time's Memory]

Here is a question for the rules lawyers (and rules paralegals).

Under the description of potions, it says in the core book that they are about 1 oz. of liquid, or 2 tablespoons.

Is it possible for a character to put the liquid in his/her mouth and swallow it later?

For example, a group listens at a door and hears several voices speaking goblin. The group's fighter pours a potion of cure light wounds into his mouth, but doesn't swallow it. The group rushes the room. On rough 3 of the combat, the fighter takes a big hit and decides to swallow the potion he is holding in his mouth.

If this is possible, what kind of action would it be to swallow the potion? Free, swift, immediate?

I'm not trying to push my GM to the edge -- just wondering if there is any way to get some economy of action into drawing/drinking a potion.

[Chris Kenney]

Absent a rule...probably not. Two reasons.

1) I believe there was a recent ruling that Cure potions in particular work like oils - on contact. So you put the potion in your mouth, the magic's expended right away.

2) For other potions that still need to be swallowed, still no. Fighting is an intense activity. One glancing hit and your orc's wearing whatever potion it is, even if the hit wasn't solid enough to do damage.

If you really want to step up your action economy with potions, there's the Accelerated Drinker Barbarian rage power, and something similar for Drunken Monks.

EDIT: I also believe there's a trait for it in various places.

[Lemmy]

Huh... I believe that'd be one of those cases not predicted by rules, so it ends up being GM fiat.

Personally, I'd allow it. I'd even say it's a free action to swallow the potion.

Sure you get a nice boost to action economy, but you impose a bunch of restrictions on yourself.

1- You can't speak (this can be really problematic)
2- You can't drink any other potion without first swallowing or spitting the one in your mouth
3- You can't cast spells with verbal components.
4- You can't use any Bite attack you may have
5- You can't "not use" the potion after you put it in your mouth. Either you swallow it or you spit it out and it's wasted even if you spit it on a bottle. That means that you just spent that potion even if you didn't need it in the end. This could be a serious problem, considering potions tend to be considerably costly.

[Time's Memory]

I certainly agree that the potion would be "used" even if you didn't swallow it -- no spitting it back in the bottle.

Part of the problem is retrieving an item is one AoO and drinking the potion is a second. Even if you have accelerated drinker or drunken brute archetype, you're still taking an AoO.

I can see it might be asking a bit a GM to allow this. I was curious what other people thought -- or if there are any rules I hadn't seen to cover it.

[Derek Vande Brake]

I agree with Lemmy, with the added caveat that if you do speak, the potion is wasted. I'd also have some kind of probability that you let out an involuntary pain noise when you get hit - thus wasting it. Like, whatever percentage of your max hp the hit deals, rounded down to the nearest 1%.

[kmal2t]

Time's Memory wrote:

Here is a question for the rules lawyers (and rules paralegals).

Under the description of potions, it says in the core book that they are about 1 oz. of liquid, or 2 tablespoons.

Is it possible for a character to put the liquid in his/her mouth and swallow it later?

For example, a group listens at a door and hears several voices speaking goblin. The group's fighter pours a potion of cure light wounds into his mouth, but doesn't swallow it. The group rushes the room. On rough 3 of the combat, the fighter takes a big hit and decides to swallow the potion he is holding in his mouth.

If this is possible, what kind of action would it be to swallow the potion? Free, swift, immediate?

I'm not trying to push my GM to the edge -- just wondering if there is any way to get some economy of action into drawing/drinking a potion.

People hold water in their mouth while running to practice good running...but holding something in your mouth while in combat? That's a stretch and you'd likely reflex swallow at some point or spit it out when hit etc. This just seems like a way to break the rules.

Consider this as well if we want to get silly and technical. You have enzymes and things in your mouth to start digesting food. When carbohydrates go into your mouth, amylase begins breaking it down. Also consider that people have dip and chew in their mouth and they absorb the nicotene. If they put the potion in their mouth I'd think you'd get maybe 2-3 rounds before you would start absorbing it.

[FrodoOf9Fingers]

Go with the modern day!

Grab an aluminum can
Poke a hole in the bottom, insert straw.
put other end of straw in mouth with a small easy to suck off stopper, and tie the aluminum can to your head. Problem solved?

[Rocky Williams 530]

I would probably allow it myself, because I think it's clever. I like clever. But I would impose a concentration check or something every time he was hit at least. Possibly even if it's a miss close enough that it's armor/shield stopping it and not him dodging.

[Claxon]

I wouldn't be inclined to allow this, and if I did it would be subject to all the issues that Lemmy mentioned.

As a general rule allowing people to subvert the normal action economy can have bad results, especially when its free (i.e. no feat)

[Durngrun Stonebreaker]

I had a 3.5 (epic) Barbarian who would just keep the potion vial in his mouth. When needed, just bite down and let DR 10/- and Fast Healing 6 take care of the broken glass!

[havoc xiii]

Sipping jacket and done.

[Tortilla]

FrodoOf9Fingers wrote:

Go with the modern day!

Grab an aluminum can
Poke a hole in the bottom, insert straw.
put other end of straw in mouth with a small easy to suck off stopper, and tie the aluminum can to your head. Problem solved?

I love it!

[Martiln]

Time's Memory wrote:

I certainly agree that the potion would be "used" even if you didn't swallow it -- no spitting it back in the bottle.

Only Alchemists can do it

[Avatar-1]

Seems that it would work, especially considering Sipping Jacket. Swift action to swallow it.

Keep in mind that the player would be unable to talk in character. If they start talking tactics through combat for things that would need to be communicated in character for other characters to know about, then, oops, there goes the potion (probably more likely swallowed early rather than accidentally spat out - unless it was dramatic).

By that I mean, the player could talk about "my character is carrying a greatsword" fine, because his party members can see that, but he still has to tell them because it's his character, not theirs. The player can't answer a question that the party members wouldn't know "do you need me to come over there?" because he can't tell them.

And I think it's fine to say a "contaminated" spat out potion has a great chance of no longer working (maybe 50% if spat out once; 20% of working if spat out twice, 0% after that).

[Owly]

Perhaps an Alchemist could devise something similar to a "beer hat", but for potions.

[VonZrucker]

Delay Potion
( Complete Mage, p. 41)

[General]

You can drink a potion and postpone its effects.
Prerequisite

Knowledge (arcana) 1 ranks,
Benefit

You can drink a potion and delay its effects for a number of hours equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum 1 hour). At any time during this period, you can activate the potion's effect as a swift action. If the duration expires before you activate the potion, it is wasted. You can delay only one potion at a time. You must activate a delayed potion before you can choose to delay another one.

[Kolokotroni]

given there is a 5000 gold magic item that allows the user to do this. I wouldnt allow it as a clever ploy without some serious drawbacks like a high %chance to accidentally spit the potion out when struck in combat.

[Lamontius]

if you have a mouthful of potion
I am pretty sure you are not going to keep your mouth shut
when some dude or dudette hits you with an axe

disallow

[Jubal Breakbottle]

To play devil's advocate, how is the OP any different than fighting underwater holding your breath? All of these posts saying you can't keep your mouth shut would fail the holding your breath underwater test, right?
At least in the OP, one could argue that you can breath through your nose, but at worst case it would handled like holding your breath underwater.

[Time's Memory]

havoc xiii wrote:

Sipping jacket and done.

Thanks for the info about sipping jackets. I'd never heard of that item before.

Drunken brute seems a little useless -- you get around the AoO for drinking the potion, but still take one from retrieving a stored item.