Herbal remedies

Potions, herbs and mushrooms have been part of D&D random tables since day one. So what’s one more table going to change?

I find that many of the tables tend to match herbs with an effect. Sometimes, the effect is narrative, sometimes mechanic. I have used such herbs and fungal tables in my current campaign, and with some care it has turned out ok. I guess this is a “wilderness” companion table to the simple alchemy table I made a while ago.

Looking at real life, no substance neatly matches with an “effect”: first of all – it is the dosage that makes the poison, and second, almost no compound, no matter how wondrous, is free of side effects or additional ramifications. Some herbs may ve very similar in appearance, and have completely different effects! Perhaps a failed forage check leads a character to misidentify a critical ingredient…

So, here’s a table of herbs, mushrooms, and plants that may be used as active ingredients of preparations. The effects are on a medium creature. The DM should scale the effects on gnomes and half-orcs accordingly, if he or she chooses to.

Roll 1d8 and read across rows, or 1d8 per column to fully randomize.

Dice	Aspect	Preparation	Effect at low dose	Effect at high dose	Side effect
1	Thicket of thin, long brown mushrooms with small flat caps	Twist and squeeze to release juice	clarity of perception (improve chance of finding traps/secret rooms)	easily spooked: even distant noises will appear close	Mild drowsiness (-1 to attack rolls) for 1d4 hours upon smelling vapour
2	Dry, hay-like herbs growing out of the bark of trees	tie tightly with a cloth to apply directly on the skin	feel a more powerful connection with nature	speak sylvan or a similar language for 1d6 hours	Complete color blindness starting 1d6 hours after ingestion lasting 1d4 days
3	Dark yellow, soft fruits growing for 1 month a year from sentient trees	Macerate under the sun and chew it dried	Overcome physical injury with an incredible amount of pain, causing psychological damage	Overcome a psychological trauma, at the cost of physical injury	Iron and armor in contact with the skin will cause a burning sensation
4	Purple moss growing on rocks that have been touched by a licanthrope.	Bake into a pie	Resistance to cold, nightvision	Attunement to the hunt: smell and follow tracks like a wolf	5% chance to contract lycanthropy
5	Long, thin blades of grass growing upside down in caves.	Break it down with mortar and pestle, release oils by adding something greasy	overcome fatigue, heat, or cold	can power through one day without sleeping, but weakening the character	more likely to take on reckless risks for 2d6 hours
6	Dark grey algae that gather at the bottom of undisturbed ponds.	Garble everything away from the stem. Rub the stem against an iron bar to extract the residue.	in your dreams, see the last event the plant witnessed	once only: appear in a dream of the last person who took the plant. If tried again: be permanently observable when sleeping.	Drowsy: drift in and out of conciousness 1d4 times at random over the next 4 days.
8	Spikey leafed bush with small green berries. Can retract and hide the spikes.	Infuse in a solution of beer, dry and distil	sound very persuasive to strangers over beer or mead (NOT wine or water).	be very easily persuaded by others if having drunk beer or mead.	Gambler’s fallacy: the character will do ANYTHING to find some dice.

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