Healing potions are a cornerstone of D&D and have been since the 1970s when the game was first produced. They allow a battered party to refresh themselves and press on during an adventure when the Cleric is pressed for spells. In parties lacking the healing prowess of a Cleric (or even a Druid, Bard, or Paladin, for that matter), healing potions are an essential safety-net that makes the inherent risks of dungeon-crawling, treasure-seeking, swash-buckling, and evil-vanquishing more feasible.

The Iron Kingdoms campaign world is rich in Clerical tradition, and its priests and Paladins are afforded great respect everywhere you go in Western Immoren. However, the responsibilities of a Cleric of Morrow or Menoth are many and varied, and an adventuring party cannot always avail of one to accompany them in their travels (or perhaps their quest is contrary to the goals of the local church). Traditionally any magic potion in D&D is effectively a spell-effect in liquid form (this doesn’t hold true with a handful of special-use potions, but is generally the case). Healing potions traditionally act as a Cure Light Wounds, Cure Serious Wounds, or directly analogous spell taken orally. A potion is made by somebody with adequate class levels to cast the given spell.

But since when did a Morrowan Chaplain have time to brew up magical soft-drinks for sale from behind the pulpit? The demand for anything greater than a Potion of Cure Light Wounds is likely extremely small, and would likely be the only ones available without custom-ordering them for a hefty “donation” to the church in question. So where does an intrepid adventurer go to get his over-the-counter meds?

The alchemist. That’s right, I propose the introduction of alchemical healing potions. As with other health-influencing alchemical substances (namely poisons), these will be available for purchase in any major city wealthy enough to support a well-trained apothecary. Unlike magical healing potions, which literally contain a divine spell effect, alchemical healing potions are slow-acting and inexpensive. But they have side effects. In my upcoming Iron Kingdoms campaign (in which I will finally act as DM in this setting), alchemical healing potions will be available and have the following characteristics:

1. Upon consumption, roughly 1/3rd of the potion’s benefit will kick in
2. As with a poison, one minute (10 rounds) after consumption, the imbiber of the potion will wil subject to a Fortitude save against poison. Difficulty varies with the potency of the item.
3. If the Fortitude save is unsuccessful, a negative side effect will kick in (as a poison effect) affecting Constitution, Intelligence, and/or Wisdom. Which attribute is affected, and the amount of ability damage done will vary depending upon the strength of the item. Ability damage from multiple potions is cumulative.
4. Regardless of the outcome of the Fortitude save, the remaining 2/3rds of the potion benefit kicks in immediately after the saving throw.

An example would be a Alchemical Healing Potion, which cures for 1d4+1 / DC12(Wis 1) 2d4+2, market price 50 Crowns. This potion is, in the long-haul, more valuable than a Potion of Cure Light Wounds (which heals for 1d8+1 hit points as opposed to 3d4+3) but takes 10 rounds for full effect, with the possibility of 1 wisdom damage.

Matt Wilson, the captain of the good ship Privateer Press has made some recent gestures for the Iron Kingdoms fanbase late last week. In addition to some rather substantial contributions to the Iron Kingdoms Yahoo Group, he has pledged to place some more emphasis on keeping the ever-hungering IK fanbase sated through more frequent web updates.

His sacrificial offering before the rabid hordes of fandom is an early peek at the Gunmage character class. From earlier readings of WARMACHINE: Prime, I had guessed that the Gunmage would be a prestige class available for Cygnaran wizarsd, under the tutelage of the Fraternal Order of Wizardry (in conjunction with the Cygnar royal armed forces). This appears to be one of the minor differances between the d20 system Iron Kingdoms and the miniatures/skirmishing game. All is well however. The Gunmage information made available yesterday on the Iron Kingdoms website includes everything there is to know about the new class, with the notable exceptions of the spell list and the stats on their fabled magelock pistols. These stats will be available within the week, per Captain Wilson.

The new class is interesting in that is appears to have rather limited arcane spellcasting ability (how limited depends upon the spell list, of course), that basically acts as a very specialized Sorceror. They have Simple weapons and pistol proficiency, d6 hit points, two favorable saving throw progressions, and a rather poor amount of skill points per level. Their pistol-related class abilities are about as cool as it gets, though: this is definately a great “tough & cool” character class. If you want to make a PC that swaggers through town like his owns the place, smacks down fools that run off at the mouth at him, and generally oozes pimpness from every pore, the Gunmage may be worth a go. They will also make a great NPC class in urban encounters for player character parties who have self-confidence disproportionate to their abilities.

I know that the publishing world isn’t a democracy, but some thoughts about the IKCG sneak peek have been percolating in my head since I first read it:

1. The book will be starting on what is, for me, a low point: character creation excesses. By this I mean there will be additional Prestige Classes, variant class versions (such as the Fellcaller adaptation of the Bard class) and my personal favorite, more feats. Prestige Classes and additional feats have padded d20 material since the inception of the OGL, and I can only hope that the folks at Privateer Press were able to keep it in their pants.

   Considering that the Lock & Load Character Primer already details much of the Iron Kingdoms variations from D&D canon, so this section should be mercifully brief.

2. The second section is to be a “tour of Western Immoren,” exactly the kind of information a Campaign Guide needs. They promise “everything a manky git should know…” about a variety of places and ethnicities of the IK. I very much look forward to this content, as this is the kind of data a DM really needs in a pre-fab gameworld. Without information such as this, why run another person’s campaign setting at all?

3. Continuing on this line, the third section entails daily life in the Iron Kingdoms. I am a bit concerned that this will ammount to a big equipment listing, but every campaign setting has a place for such things. If this turns out to be 30 pages of equipment tables, I certainly hope that it is exhaustive and I won’t have to go flipping through multiple books to determine the market price of a Scimitar vs. a Greatsword vs. a Military Pistol.

4. The fourth section again is a great cause for hope: details on the Enkheiridion, creation myths, and other religious details that’ll make running a Cleric more productive (both from a roleplaying and a roll-playing perspective). In the Iron Kingdoms game I presently participate in, the details of Morrowan religious observation are possibly the biggest hangup around.

   I just hope that Cyriss doesn’t get shorted. I see that cult as having huge possibilities.

5. Additional information about Cryx, Rhul, and Ios will be welcome additions, and more details about each individual kingdom will be in there. Just some basic information about the political structures of Khador, Ord, Llael, and Cygnar will be very welcome. Although direct participation in political mischeif may not be every player’s cup of tea, it is always good to have a firm understanding of the foundations of whatever the current political (and thereby military) situation is.

   Good info on the Protectorate of Menoth, Cryx, Cygnar, and Khador can be found in the Warmachine: Prime book as they relate to purely military matters, though some interesting insight can be found in Cygnar’s political structure there as well. Though as a rule I don’t care for lots of repetition between sourcebooks, I look forward to the IKCG having a solid, coherant picture of each kingdom and Western Immoren as a whole.

6. Then they will be moving on to History. If you don’t know where you’ve been, you’ll have a heck of a time telling where you’re going. A good grounding in what lead to what over the years can provide additional insight into the mindset of typical NPCs from most areas (you’ll never understand how the French and English feel about each other without some solid history lessons, and it probably holds true in the IK as well).

   I fear that if equipment, feats, and prestige classes are out of hand elsewhere in this book, the history is most likely to receive the brown end of the stick.

7. The book will wrap up with the part I’ve really been waiting for before launching my own Iron Kingdoms campaign: Magic. I don’t particularly care about the 20 new clerical domains, 15 tweaked domains, and so forth: unless they’ve really pulled a rabbit out of their collective hat I’ll read that part last after a quick skim

   The real meat of the magic changes that I look forward to revolve around how, at least among Humans, arcane magic is new and in serveral ways untested. Knowledge of an Astral or Ethereal plane are non-existant (there may not even be such things, but no mortal knows). Planar travel is limited to a generally-accepted one-way trip to Urcaen (upon death, no return flights available). How severely do the Privateers think this should affect arcane spells? How do summoning spells work? Has any wizard even bothered creating the “dimensional anchor” spell? Do Gates, Dimension Door, or Teleport work? How about Blink? Inquiring minds want to know.

   Additionally, we’ve been told that magic item creation is a bit more difficult in the IK than other gameworlds, but have had no hard and fast rules to rely upon. The addition of mechanikal elements supposedly facilitates the process, and we’ll finally have some more complete explanations and guidelines to this effect. I personally envision of a more magic-poor realm than that depicted in Warmachine (I figure some dramatic liscense was in order for a tactical wargame), but having some solid guidelines for when a character wants to “trick out” his rifle or whatnaught would come in handy.

Overall I’m quite looking forward to this book, and will certainly be purchasing a copy for myself. With no solid assurances that this 300+ page tome will have its content properly distributed (light on feats, heavy on campaing setting), and with no solid credibility in the publication timeline (they’re only human, but it is about 2 years overdue now), I see this as a great opportunity for Privateer Press to really come into its own, and with our support, they may be able to quit their day jobs.