Apothecary and Herbalism house rules system

Having proficiency with artisan's tools or speciality tools, like a herbalism kit, allows for a character to ply their trade. The core rule books don't give a lot of guidance for more mundane item creation, like potions, so I've created a heavily house ruled system for characters who want to create potions as apothecaries or herbalists.

I hope the system can be tweaked to be used for other professions as well, and I give an example of using it with painter's tools in the notes.

Potion Crafting System
Potions with magical ability are usually somewhat rare, and can only be distilled by skilled apothecaries and herbalists. Creation of potions requires a herbalism kit, proficiency with a herbalism kit, the character to be somewhere plants and materials are available and a certain amount of time to gather and process the correct raw materials.

A character engaged in the crafting of a magic item makes progress in 25 gp increments, spending that amount for each day of work until the total cost is paid. The character is assumed to work for 8 hours each of those days. Thus, creating potions of greater healing takes 7 days and 175 gp. Examples of potions and amount of time it would take represented with potions of healing on the table below.

Potion Creation Table Multiple characters can combine their efforts to create a potion if each of them meets the level prerequisite. Each character can contribute components as long as everyone participates during the entire crafting process. Each character can contribute 25 gp worth of effort for each day spent helping to craft the potion.

While making potions, a character is considered to be plying their trade as an apothecary or herbalist, perhaps even finding a local herbalist or apothecary to work with. The character briefly consults with patrons and provides them with simple herbal poultices and remedies or helps the herbalist or apothecary they’re working with each day. The character can therefore maintain a modest lifestyle without having to pay the 1 gp per day, or a comfortable lifestyle at half the normal cost (see chapter 5, “Equipment,” of the Player’s Handbook).

Anyone contributing to the creation of potions makes three skill rolls over the course of creating the potion. Any natural 20 gives an advantage on the next roll. These three rolls represent:

Gathering materials - d20 + Nature/Investigation/Survival skill

Processing materials - d20 + Herbalism Kit skill

Distillation and bottling - d20 + Herbalism Kit skill

Add all these rolls together and take the average. A higher total means the potion maker was more successful with using the materials they gathered, and was able to make more potions, as per the following table: