Dividing Potions

[bibliophile20]

Question: Is it possible to divide and dilute down potions to get more uses out of them, at the cost of the potion's Strength?  Harry does it in Changes with a levitation potion, so I'm trying to figure out how it might work. 

[Tsunami]

You can trade in shifts of item strength to get more uses on enchanted items, i don't see why you shouldn't be able to do that with potions as well.

So someone with lore +5 could make a potion with strength 5/1 use, or strength 4/2 uses… etc.

[Imp]

if you take the crafting special in Tham with the  (someone help me with rules please) more uses part you can make full strength potions that have 2 uses a day.

[bibliophile20]

Alright; so it's legit for a kitbashing enchanter (a pregen I'm building for convention one-shots) to have a bunch of vials of low strength superglue and acid, even with only two slots committed for potion use?

[Imp]

OS Page 280 on the spec you get for taking tham... this is if you use that spec for crafting.

Crafting specializations for items and potions
aren’t used for control or complexity; they
usually affect frequency or strength without
making you spend an extra slot to do it. A
frequency specialization allows you one more use
per session. A strength specialization increases
the effect strength of your basic enchanted items
by 1 (note, any increases to the basic strength
are applied before cutting it in half for an alwayson
item). In the case of potions, this can create
stronger potions, or ones that you can get two
uses out of. Alternatively, a crafting specialization
may be applied to increase the limit on how
many bonuses may be placed on a single focus
item (a focus specialization).

[devonapple]

Alright; so it's legit for a kitbashing enchanter (a pregen I'm building for convention one-shots) to have a bunch of vials of low strength superglue and acid, even with only two slots committed for potion use?

It's also in the fiction and in the rulesbook that Harry shared the Escape potion with Susan, which in that case lowered the duration of the effect, but did not dilute the strength. But we can no doubt shift duration around with relation to item strength, so I'm assuming some flexibility there. So, as with other enchanted items (as folks noted above) you should be able to lower the effect down to the minimum of 1 shift of power, and each shift sacrificed is another use of the potion or item.

If the kitbasher only has Rituals, then the Specialization bonus wouldn't apply, so that would be:
Lore +5
2 focus item slots from the Rituals ability become 4 enchanted item slots.
Base complexity of a potion is 5.
Which means that for 1 potion slot, the kitbasher can have an Average 1-shift effect, 5 uses.

The rules as written indicate that sacrificing a second enchanted item slot only grants another use, so the kitbasher would be better off making another batch of an Average 1-shift potion with 5 uses.

So theoretically, that kitbasher, assuming no specialization, could have 20 total uses of an Average-strength 1-shift potion. The kitbasher could have 10 uses each of two different potions (10 of superglue, 10 of acid), or mix it up in other increments of 5.

Edit: this seems to be getting potentially abusive - what do other folks think?

[Tsunami]

It's also in the fiction and in the rulesbook that Harry shared the Escape potion with Susan, which in that case lowered the duration of the effect, but did not dilute the strength. But we can no doubt shift duration around with relation to item strength, so I'm assuming some flexibility there. So, as with other enchanted items (as folks noted above) you should be able to lower the effect down to the minimum of 1 shift of power, and each shift sacrificed is another use of the potion or item.

If the kitbasher only has Rituals, then the Specialization bonus wouldn't apply, so that would be:
Lore +5
2 focus item slots from the Rituals ability become 4 enchanted item slots.
Base complexity of a potion is 5.
Which means that for 1 potion slot, the kitbasher can have an Average 1-shift effect, 5 uses.

The rules as written indicate that sacrificing a second enchanted item slot only grants another use, so the kitbasher would be better off making another batch of an Average 1-shift potion with 5 uses.

So theoretically, that kitbasher, assuming no specialization, could have 20 total uses of an Average-strength 1-shift potion. The kitbasher could have 10 uses each of two different potions (10 of superglue, 10 of acid), or mix it up in other increments of 5.

Edit: this seems to be getting potentially abusive - what do other folks think?

Twenty 1-Shift effects are nothing like abusive. 1-Shift isn't even enough for most unopposed maneuvers... it's actually mostly useless.
And twenty times mostly useless... is still mostly useless.

The Basic potion configuration for the presented crafter would be four 5-shift effects, which is way more useful than twenty 1-Shift effects.

The other extreme would be One 8-shift effect which, depending on circumstances, is even more useful.

So, no... not abusive.

[bibliophile20]

*dryly* I take it I should post the character build for the kitbasher here when I'm done?