It's time for some random ALCHEMY!

[PrisonerLizzie]

I was just doing the Wolf Queen quest in Solitude but have noticed it other places....the randomly placed alchemy table. Just wondering if these things get a lot of use or not. I can't say that when I'm in a creepy dungeon or in the middle of a bandit fort (uncleared) that I've ever felt the compulsion to whip up a brew but I could be in the minority.

 

[Squirrel_killer-]

I used to just stop and do random Alchemy in Oblivion, but you could do Alchemy anywhere in that game. However I feel the logic behind the alchemy tables in random dungeons in Skyrim are so you have a chance to make emergency potions of poisons on the go if need be, I've used them once or twice to whip up an emergency poison or a marksman potion to kill something I knew I couldn't kill normally.

 

[Saozig]

No, not really. I have occasionally used the random arcane enchanters you come across, mostly to disenchant items so I don't have to lug them around and or rare occasionally, quickly enchant something for a follower. But with alchemy I like to hoard ingredients and then make up a bunch potions one in a while, which a great variety of ingredients at my disposal, rather than a few potions here and there with whatever I've managed to scrape up in the last hour of gameplay.

Besides, stopping to do alchemy in the middle of dungeon quest or something it too much of break in the flow of things for me.

 

[PrisonerLizzie]

No, not really. I have occasionally used the random arcane enchanters you come across, mostly to disenchant items so I don't have to lug them around and or rare occasionally, quickly enchant something for a follower. But with alchemy I like to hoard ingredients and then make up a bunch potions one in a while, which a great variety of ingredients at my disposal, rather than a few potions here and there with whatever I've managed to scrape up in the last hour of gameplay.

Besides, stopping to do alchemy in the middle of dungeon quest or something it too much of break in the flow of things for me.

I have to agree, we keep a notebook on the table next to us with a list of the ingredients and their effects as well as potions and approx values. To stop creeping and sneaking to bust out the notes...... I'd just rather do that in the privacy of my own home or at another more friendly area and go into the hostile environment prepared.

 

[Wildroses]

I have on occasion used it when I have fallen short on a crucial potion. Also a few times in my early gaming when I was overloaded and thought I'd to some experiments to get rid of some ingredients. This turned out to be a daft decision as frequently crushing things which weighed 0.1 together resulted in a potion weighting 0.5, resulting in a net gain of 0.2-0.3. So I'd smoosh some more together hoping for a failure to get me back to the same weight I had before I started alchemy, only to have it be successful, giving me a net weight gain of 0.7-0.8. I'm embarrassed to admit how long it took me to figure out this was perhaps not helpful.

 

[Saozig]

Yeah, there's the weight issue. Another reason i prefer to do alchemy at my house, so I can store some if I load myself up too much with potions, or store them away until I have one of my "market days" where I go around and sell off excess stuff.

You have to be careful with lugging some ingredients around too. Bone meal and eggs are 0.5, mudcrab chitin are 0.3 (if you collect 2 off a large one, that's 0.6), giant's toes and hearts are 1, for example. It can add up.