Crafting Potions in RPG's Fun or waste of Time?

I was wondering what everyone thinks about gathering items to make potions (alchemy) in Rpg's? Also leave an explanation of your answer. For me in general alchemy is boring and a waste of time Now I usually play a magic user, meaning most potions are useless for me in the first place, I generally have some type of healing spell so I don't use them much and I don't like taking up spell slots for potions. The main reason I hate alchemy in RPG games, is because many of the potions are really disappointing. You spend forever looking for ingredients, forever mixing and experimenting and then you get a health potion that heals 2 hp lol. I'd rather buy potions or find them. Perhaps if the potions were better I'd like it more? Not sure.

Good question. I like it, in principle, for the sake of role playing. However, I rarely like how it is implemented. Take Skyrim as an example - 1) you rarely need the potions for anything. 2) you are drowning in the ingredients needed to make the "main" potion types. The problem is, when this is the case alchemy just becomes busywork. It's just for show given how easy and often meaningless the process is to your game. By contrast, and to stick with the same series - in Morrowind, you needed potions and it was more involved to get the ingredients for them. This made it an actual part of the game instead of a facade.

@arcangelgold: Absolute waste of time and I hate it. I don't want to spend 2 hours searching for tiny little plants and herbs just so I can go back to a crafting bench or whatever the game designer has put up to craft a single potion. I would much rather prefer buying or finding potions which get stronger as your magic points or other upgrade systems improve. That would not take you out of the overall game experience.

I like alchemy in RPGs, so yeah potions are good.

I thought Dragon Age: Inquisition did it all right; you had to hunt down rare ingredients to upgrade your potions, but to make them you need only a couple basic ingredients (for the most part...some more powerful potions had higher requirements). It made it less of a chore and took out a lot of the busywork.

I also like the concept of potions creating permanent stat changes; I forgot what game it was, but if you wanted to you could hunt down rare ingredients or buy them, then you craft a potion and it adds some stats. It was not insanely powerful or anything (like it would add 0.5% to crit rating, and required an hour or two of effort), but it was fun. Might have been Kingdoms of Amalur...

I like crafting elements in games. That's part of fun in RPGs. You go to remote locations to collect rare herbs and other ingredients, so you can make a fine potion, or use those items to craft armor, swords etc. Makes the game world feel more alive IMO and makes exploration more rewarding.

I agree about the way alchemy is implemented. In Skyrim it was a good move to make the alchemy stations, well stationary rather than toting around alchemy equipment in my inventory like in Oblivion but it felt like the process of creating potions was just too confusing and the results were really disappointing. I also agree the way potions were implemented in Dragon Age Inquisition was much better, however my first play through I spent .. get ready... over 200 hours on game play and side quests. now too be fair as a mom I often leave the game dozens of times to do other things not always paused so this may account for a great portion of that time, but as I spent a ridiculous amount of time leveling up and fighting it started to become really hard to gather enough ingredients to make regen and healing mist potions. Also my agents didn't seem to bring back the items they said they were going to gather for me lol so I got tired of trying to find 30 more elfroots and traveling to merchants to find ingredients. That was also before I realized there was a free dlc to add in the Black Emporium but even then money is difficult to earn in that game. I did like how I could level up potions which I think is a better alternative to cluttering up inventory with 20 different healing potions all doing different amounts of healing. As a magic lover I want for alchemy to be more fun and exciting. If I could make great potions for my team of characters it would be more worthwhile especially if I had a team of real life allies, but that's another subject altogether.

Yeah, one of the defining characteristics of RPG-style games it that you spend your time doing more than just running and fighting. Some of the side activities might be mundane, but if the game is well balanced it's up to you to figure out how much time you want to spend doing each thing so you don't get bored.

-Byshop

I don't mind it in MMORPGs. In single player experiences I don't care for it. I'd rather have the ingredients drop from enemies instead of me picking flowers, or being in treasure chests.

Those of you who consider it a waste of time have clearly not played Witcher 3 on Death March difficulty. Without potions, oils or bombs, you can't have a chance. Having better mutagens also help SIGNIFICANTLY.

I am not even talking about the RPG-value of it, which is already quite enough but the practicality is similarly important.

How can this even be a question, I don't understand.