QUESTION: Can a potion of sweet water be used to kill a water weird, say if it is in a small, confined pool? Can it be used to detoxify poison in food, drink, or in a wound?

OPINION: This particular magical potion is one of the few listed in the DMG which is not meant to be directly consumed by a character. As the description says, when added to other liquids it will change them to "pure, drinkable water." This includes any type of liquid, such as sea water, alkali, vinegar, wine, alcohol, etc., up to 100,000 cubic feet, or if the solution is an acid, 1,000 cubic feet. This translates to roughly 748,050 or 7,480 gallons, respectively -- a huge volume in either case.

Since a water weird is susceptible to a spell of purify water (actually purify food & drink is the only such spell like it listed in the PHB), which is a 1st-level clerical spell, and potions are often compared to lower level spell effects, the potion of sweet water should be able to kill any water weirds within such a volume of water. Of course, to pour it in the PC must get close to the water's edge and thus may be freely attacked by the creature. The water weird would not get a saving throw.

It should be noted that if there is some way for the water, after being purified, to be circulated clear of its current confinement or if something outside the system acts against it, the magically purified liquid may become contaminated again. Thus, if a besieged castle monarch was to purify the water in the moat with such a potion so the men within had fresh drinking water, and 5c14 rounds afterward the besieging force poured sewage into it, the moat's water would become nonpotable once again.

This potion will detoxify poison in a bleeding wound, turning both the poison and blood to pure, drinkable water, but would not circulate into the person's bloodstream to complete detoxify his internal vascular system, so it can not be used in place of neutralize poison magic. (If it did circulate freely in the bloodstream, the person's entire blood volume would become drinkable water, and thus the body functions would cease and the character would die). Since solid food is not a liquid, the potion could not cletoxify poisoned food.

QUESTION: Can the Massmorph spell be used to change people into any size of tree? Do such changelings actually become trees, or are illusioned to appear as trees?

OPINION: Recently in one of my games, Jeff Young's wizardess Myrion used this spell to transport a group of wounded dwarf children and women out from the ruins of their underground homeland to safety, having to do so since the party of PCs were too few to adequately keep track of all the refugees and carry the scores of wounded dwarves.

I ruled then that the spell did in fact change the people into real trees of the spellcaster's choice, since the spell's base is in the alteration school. They were not simply illusioned to look like trees, in my opinion, due to this school listing.

But then I wavered when reading the spell description, which says "willing creatures of man-size or smaller... can be magically altered to appear as trees of any sort." There is a conflict in wording here which seems to indicate that the transformed people appear (i.e. an illusion) as trees, yet then contradicts itself by saying that they are "magically altered" (i.e. alteration magic). I finally ruled firmly that an alteration, not an illusion, occurred, based on a further description which stated that such transformed people are "subject to insects, weather, disease, fire, and other natural hazards," which would not be of a concern if the people were merely concealed in an illusion.

Jeff ingeniously chose to make the wounded dwarves into tiny saplings so that they could be bundled together and placed in a back pack for easy transport. The description states that the alteration creates "trees of any sort," so it was logical to allow this.

This spell had been used by me and a number of other players of mine in the past to hide themselves in a forest to fool pursuers, or to lay in wait to attack foes by surprise. This was the first time I have seen it used to solve a transportation problem, however, and so I've given credit where it was due.

QUESTION: Does carrying weapons, especially magical, glowing ones, preclude any cloaking protection afforded by a Cloak of Elveiikind? Does the cloak need to have the hood up and be actively held around one's body for the character to benefit from the near-invisibility? Does the magic of Boots of Elvenkind silence snoring, clanking of gear, shouting, or any other purposeful noise made by the wearer? How do magical items, which provide the same sort of benefits, but are not similar in design, work?

OPINION: According to the DMG description, "when it is worn, with the hood drawn up around the head, it enables the wearer to be nearly invisible -- the cloak has chameleon-like powers." It is my opinion that, for the cloak to operate and hide the wearer according to the percentages listed in the DMG, then the wearer must have both hands free to keep the front of the cloak drawn around him, and the hood must be up over the head. Holding a light source, a glowing sword, a continual light source, or the like, would negate the cloaking effect even in concealed beneath, since the light would shine down around the legs and pool on the ground at the wearer's feet. The wearer could sit down and conceal a light source, however.

Note that the protection afforded is not invisibility like the magic-user spell or a magical device function, but is concealment magic. Indeed, "the wearer is easily seen if violently or hastily moving, regardless of the surroundings," according to the DMG. I would consider violent or hasty motion as anything over one-fourth a PCs' movement rate, swinging a sword or other object around or before himself, or holding a light source exposed. At movement rates at or below one-fourth of a PCs' movement rate, I would reduce the percentages listed for concealment by 20%, so that in heavy growth outdoors the chance for non-detection while moving at onefourth movement rate would be 80%; in a underground area lit by bright light spell, the chance while moving would be reduced to 30%. Under no circumstances does the cloak provide any concealment if the wearer is in melee or is spell casting.

The Boots of Elvenkind allow the wearer "to move without sound of footfall in virtually any surroundings." It further states that the wearer "can walk across a patch of dry leaves or over a creaky wooden-floor and make only a whisper of noise: 95% chance of silence in the worst conditions, 100% in the best." The boots do not function as a selective spell of silence 15' radius for the wearer; all other nonwalking noises he might make of his own accord are detectable. Since walking often produces the soft jingle of gear mashing together, I would allow this to be magically muffled by the boots, but if the wearer shouted, shot a bow, drew a weapon, clapped his hands, etc., the noise would not be magically muffled.

I have several magic items of my own design in games that emulate these devices' functions, such as the Illain, which appeared in Chain-Mail #11. In such cases it is up to the DM to rule on the powers supported by such devices that are similar to others listed in the DMG. In the case of the Illain, the Cloak of Elvenkind function works without restriction according to the percentages listed in the DMG; the Boots function provides 100% silence when the wearer is moving at any speed and the magic silences most sounds produced by the bearer save for speech or sounds of melee.

QUESTION: When does a roll for potion immiscibility have to be made by a GM? Will a potion of polymorph self restore hit points as the spell of the same name, and upon which the potion is based?

OPINION: Potion immiscibility (referred to as "potion compatibility" in the DMG 2nd edition, Table 111, page 141) rolIs,are made at any time when a character currently is under the influence of a potion's magical powers and then consumes additional potion(s). As the description states, "the compatibility of potions is tested whenever two potions are actually intermingled, or a potion is consumed by a creatures while another such liquid, already consumed, is in effect." Note that " permanent potions" have an effective duration of one turn for mixing purposes (i.e. potion of delusion, elixir of health, potion of healing, potion of longevity, etc.), while other potions with limited duration have their calculated duration considered when determining compatibility.

For example, Rand the thief drinks a potion of healing after pulling a city watchman's crossbow bolt from his side -- he was shot while burgling a second story apartment and fled out the window onto the rooftops. Eight minutes later, caught on all sides by the city watch in a dark alley, he drinks a potion of gaseous form to escape being captured. Since the first potion was a "permanent potion" with a 10 minute mixing duration, and Rand is drinking a second one within this time, a compatibility check must be made by the DM. A secret roll is made, with the effect thus determined recorded secretly by the DM. On the round following the consumption of the second potion, the DM decides what affects, if any, are made manifest to the character.

There is no indication what mixing more than two potions might do, but there are basically two schools of thought.

First, the DM could treat each additional potion consumed while another is in effect separately, rolling to see what each additional potion would do: in the example given, a roll is made with a result of "17", meaning that one of the two potions is negated while the other works normally. In this case, since one of the two is permanent in effect, the potion of gaseous form must be the one cancelled. (If both were "permanent" in nature, then the newly consumed one would be the one negated.) If then, realizing that it wasn't working, Rand drank a potion of flying, another roll would be made by the DM: this time a 38 is rolled, which indicates that both work normally and can be mixed, though contradictory effects will simply cancel one another (such as an elixir of health and an elixir of madness). This would go on as long as one of the potions consumed still had a duration in effect while additional ones were being consumed.

The second school of thought is that the probability of something going wrong is dramatically increased with each mixing of a potion, like a chemical company which constantly dumps toxic waste into the same pit, making a mix with totally unpredictable qualities and effects. In such a case, each additional potion consumed after the second would be rolled for on Table 111 with increasing penalties to the percentile roll. I would suggest -10% upon consuming the third potion, -25% on the fourth, -50% on the fifth, and -75% on the sixth or more. Chances are that by the sixth consecutive round of drinking a potion something disastrous would happen to the creature, a logical assumption given the fact that he is pumping his body full of magical energy that was meant to be used sparingly, one potion at a time. Such problems will probably not be encountered, since most PCs seldom have more than three potions in their possession at lower or mid-level, but the idea is an attractive one for handling higher level characters and NPCs.

In terms of potions that mimic spells, unless otherwise stated, I would say that the results from the spell and potion should be identical. In the case of the potion of polymorph self, the description states that the "potion duplicates the effects of the 4th-level wizard spell of the same name." Thus the restoration of hit points at the potion's duration-end should be allowed.

In this case the potion's polymorphing effects are not permanent, but the restoration of hits points would be once the potion's duration was up. A strict DM might rule that a potion consumed after the restoration of hit points in this case would be considered a "Permanent Potion" effect and require a waiting period of 10 minutes before another potion could be consumed without a check on Table 111 being necessary, but in my opinion that is not a correct approach. The healing is done at the end of the duration when the person's molecular structure is reforming to its normal state, using some of the polymorphing power to repair damage, and thus is really a side effect of the potion's purpose.

QUESTION: During an adventure, a group came upon a large, green dragon which seriously wounded two of the five PCs in the ensuing combat. The mage cast a fireball at it two melee rounds after it had breathed its chlorine gas attack and the gas cloud was still lingering around the group. What effect would the fireball have on the gas cloud, if any? Would it blow everyone up? I wasn't sure how to handle it. (Submitted by Sean O'Connor)

OPINION: Whether you wanted to create a "realistic" result from this meeting of chlorine and fire or were simply unsure about how to handle such an interesting combination, the result should be the same. Fire and chlorine do not cause any extra explosions, extra damage, or effects greater than the damage they would do normally for game purposes. Thus, if the fireball was properly cast at the dragon and its area of effect didn't infringe on the group's location, then the dragon should have taken damage if applicable. The chlorine gas cloud it breathes is considered an attack form that lasts one round, just like a sword blow or a fireball. Thus, though "logic" and "realism" might suggest that the chlorine cloud would hang around the area for a while, after the first round of damage taken from it, the cloud is ignored for damage or movement purposes, and dissipates by the beginning of the second round after which it was issued from the dragon's mouth.

If you're interested in real-life chemistry, chlorine can act as an oxidizer, making combustion occur more rapidly, but it in itself is not a fuel; therefore, it being exposed to fire would not create any extra detonation. Chlorine gas is denser than air, and so would find the lowest points along any given terrain, and tends to hang together unless there is wind to dissipate it.

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