Alchemy - lacking in mogic?

[MarkInMKUK]

(Mogic? ... try Magic or Logic - no idea where my fingers were when I typoed that heading!)

 

I spent a little time with a new character grinding out some potions - and while I did so, I got to thinking about how Alchemy didn't really make sense in Oblivion. Let me give an example...

Let's assume a character wants to make a potion to restore health, and is limited to cheap / easy to find ingredients. In and around the tutorial, the likely ingredients to be used are Cairn Bolete Cap, and possibly Venison if you are lucky with a shot, plus a few items from the local alchemy shop such as Boar Meat, Lady's Mantle Leaves & Mugwort Seeds.

OK - these ingredients have the following effects (if we list ALL effects) - Primary effect in Bold, negative effects in Italics:

Cairn Bolete Cap:Restore Health, Damage Intelligence, Resist Paralysis, Shock Damage

Boar Meat: Restore Health, Damage Speed, Fortify Health, Burden

Lady's Mantle Leaves: Restore Health, Damage Endurance, Night-Eye, Feather

Mugwort Seeds: Restore Health

Venison: Restore Health, Feather, Damage Health, Chameleon

Now, the general rule in real life is: The amateur is likely to fail to produce a clean result, so one would expect whatever is produced at first to have the most possible adverse effects, as well as the desired one.

 

Taking the ingredients above, it's obvious that they all have Restore Health as a primary result. But in "real" life, you'd also get negative effects, whether you knew about their details or not - it's how you would learn. So, a potion brewed from (for example) Cairn Bolete Cap and Boar Meat might produce a potion with Restore Health as a Primary effect, but also slight Damage intelligence and Damage Speed effects, maybe also Shock Damage & Burden. A true Master Alchemist should know what else to add to the potion to counteract these effects, adding ingredients such as Lady's Mantle Leaves which SHOULD boost the primary Restore Health effect, and adds Feather to counter the Burden, but instead brings in another unwanted effect of Damage Endurance. Venison might be a better choice, as its only negative effect is Damage Health which should be counteracted by its own Restore Health effect leaving the Restore Health values unchanged compared with the original potion, rather than boosted.

 

The Alembic should also reduce negative effects, but until it's Master level should not remove them entirely

By applying the principle that unwanted effects must be cancelled out by an opposing effect, Alchemy would become far more interesting, and the increase in rankings and quality of equipment should lead to better, "purer" potions worth more money and with less drawbacks.

Comments?

Edited May 26, 2014 by MarkInMKUK