Potions and recipes

Potions are drinkable items that imbue the user with certain spell effects. Standard potion effects are very similar to the purchased version of the spell of the same name. Since most spell effects are based on level, you'll get greater benefit from potions at higher levels. You can find potions as treasure, occasionally you can buy them in the higher quality stores or you can make them yourself if you have access to a potion maker.

Potion makers are available to all temple members (except Julianos and Kynareth) and members of the Dark Brotherhood once a certain rank in the guild is achieved. For the Dark Brotherhood it's rank 3. For the temples, it varies between ranks 4 and 6.

To create a potion, the player must access the potion-maker. Once you get access, just click on "Create Potions" to open the screen. All items in inventory under “Ingredients” will be displayed on the left hand side of the screen. Please note that items on your wagon will not appear. Select the ingredients you want to mix by clicking on them and then click the “Mix” button. If you can't remember what ingredients go into a potion, clicking on "Recipes" will bring up a list of all recipes you have found. Clicking the recipe will move the ingredients into the mixer or tell you that you don't have all of the ingredients you need.

What follows is a list of known potions and their recipes. There are effects that are not listed here. Since there are many ingredients that can be combined in several different ways, the player can experiment with different ingredients and see what comes out (save the game before making the potion to conserve ingredients and before drinking the potion to conserve your character).

Recipes in BLACK are recipes that I have verified by finding and trying the recipe in the game. Recipes marked in ITALICS with a question mark (?) are alternative recipes given by other players, but which I have not tested. The change in ingredients may result in a stronger or weaker potion with the same effects as the original. Both "Restore Power" recipes are correct, but your game version determines which one is the right one for you.

In my (not-so) humble opinion, Bethesda goofed (big time) with the potion maker. Because you can mix ingredients in any combination you want, you can come up with some very non-standard potions with some very standard effects. However, you cannot NAME a potion. All non-standard potions are named "Potion of Unknown Powers" or somesuch. This is one of the things that makes the potion maker a major headache (and a major reason why I don't like it). Unless you want to remember each potion's position within your inventory (and it reverses each time you reload a game), you must either stick with one potion or take your chances on grabbing the right potion.

Ingredients

The following is based on the official hint book. It lists the various ingredients and their individual effects.

INGREDIENT	GENERAL EFFECT
Orc Blood	Fortify Strength
Wereboar Tusk	Fortify Strength
Lich Dust	Fortify Intelligence
White Rose	Fortify Intelligence
Daedra Heart	Fortify Willpower
Mercury	Fortify Speed
Yellow Berries	Fortify Personality
Nymph Hair	Fortify Personality
Clover	Fortify Luck
Small Tooth	Resist Poison
Medium Tooth	Resist Poison
Large Tooth	Resist Poison
Snake Venom	Resist Poison
Pearl	Water Breathing
Jade	Water Breathing
Ghoul's Tongue	Resist Fire
Sulphur	Resist Fire
Fig	Resist Fire
Red Berries	Resist Fire
Pine Branch	Resist Fire
Amber	Resist Fire
Diamond	Resist Fire
Ivory	Resist Frost
Turquoise	Resist Frost
Cactus	Resist Magica
Silver	Cure Paralyzation
Basilisk's Eye	Cure Paralyzation
Saint's Hair	Cure Disease
Ginko Leaves	Cure Disease
Werewolf's Blood	Cure Poison
Platinum	Invisibility
Ectoplasm	Invisibility
Yellow Flowers	Chameleon
Emerald	Chameleon
Brass	Jumping
Lodestone	Jumping
Green Leaves	Jumping
Lead	Slowfall
Iron	Slowfall
Twigs	Slowfall
Gryphon's Feather	Slowfall
Palm	Levitate
Aloe	Heal Health
Bamboo	Heal Fatigue
Troll's Blood	Regenerate
Root Bulb	Regenerate
Golden Poppy	Charm
Gold	Charm
Holy Relic	Dispel Magic
Copper	Detect Magic
Red Rose	Detect Magic
Mummy Wrappings	Detect Treasure
Unicorn Horn	Detect Enemy
Ruby	Absorption
Dragon Scales	Absorption
Faity Dragon Scales	Reflection
Small Scorpion Stinger	Damage Health
Large Scorpion Stinger	Damage Health
Green Berries	Damage Health
Wraith Essence	Drain Willpower
Red Poppy	Drain Strength
Black Poppy	Damage Spellpoints
White Poppy	Drain Intelligence
Red Flowers	Damage Fatigue
Black Rose	Silence
Malachite	Silence
Spider Venom	Paralyzation
Yellow Rose	Polymorph
Root Tendrils	Diminution
Giant's Blood	Diminution