Herbalism

Herbalists treat a variety of physical conditions, illnesses and allergies through the holistic use of plants in conjunction with medical knowledge. Herbalists treat patients using plant-based remedies and other treatments. They can quickly find special ingredients to create poultices, salves and cures, some even rising to the status of of a magical item.

Tools

Main Article: Herbalism Kit

Using Herbalism Kits

Proficiency with an herbalism kit allows you to identify both magical and nonmagical plants and safely collect their useful elements, and to create healing salves, potions, tinctures, pills and even poisons.

Collecting Herbs

If you have a Herbalism Kit on hand, you're ready to begin foraging for herbs. You can find herbs of differing values and rarities anywhere!
Each herb you try to find takes at least one hour to collect. Each hour you spend collecting herbs will give you enough to make one dose of your finds' most effective medicine or poison.
When you begin your search, you make a Intelligence (Nature) or Wisdom (Survival) check to determine what you're able to find. This will vary based on the season and Biome you are currently in. The rarity of each herb will determine what you are able to find.

Crafting Salves, Potions, Poisons, & Tinctures

To make a concoction with the herbs you have found, you must use the Herbalism Kit and spend 1 Hour and 1 Full Dose of the herbs to attempt to make your desired medicine.
In some cases, what you collected may have multiple healing properties. If your plant's Leaves have one healing property and its Flowers another, you can spend 2 Hours to collect both and then another 2 to make both types of medicine.
After an hour, make a DC 15 Wisdom (Medicine) Check. With a success, you will have created a dose of medicine that holds the properties you intend. With a failure, you produce a useless vial of greenish-brown water.

Skill Checks

If you have proficiency in herbalism, you can use your proficiency to give yourself advantage on certain skill checks.

Arcana. Your knowledge of nature and uses of herbs can add insight to your magical studies that deal with plant creatures and your attempts to identify potions.

Investigation. When you inspect an area overgrown with plants, your proficiency bonus can help you pick out details and clues that others might miss.

Medicine. Your mastery of herbalism improves your ability to treat illnesses and wounds by augmenting your methods of care with medicinal plants.

Nature and Survival. You can identify most plants with a quick inspection of their appearance, smell, and their surrounding environment.

Biomes

Before you can start searching for herbs, you need to make sure you are in the right location to find what you're looking for. Herbs will note where they're available. When you are in an area where two biomes overlap, you might find items from both.

Coasts. Coastal regions are where the land meets saltwater seas and oceans. Beaches are full of unique plants and animals.

Forests. Forest biomes are made up of trees and other woody plants. There are many types of forests, but for the purposes of this book, forests are a combination of deciduous and coniferous trees.

Grasslands. Grassland biomes consist of large open areas of grass. Trees can be present, but they are infrequent.

Mountains. They are topographic features that are defined by a high relief, and their most general features are that they encompass a certain elevational range, have steep slopes, and converge toward small summit areas.

Swamps. A swamp is a wetland that contains trees like a forest. Swamps can most commonly be found where forests line rivers.

Tundra. For most of the year, the tundra biome is a cold, frozen landscape. This biome has a short growing season, followed by harsh conditions that the plants and animals in the region need special adaptations to survive.

Caves. Tunnels under the earth which has become a vast forest of fungi, moulds and other twisted plants occupying a system of caves.

Settlements. Perhaps the biome an adventurer spends most of their time in, the biome of a settlement is any area where people have settled.

Types of Herbs

Herbs generally fall into the following catigories: Healing Herbs, Poisonous Herbs, and Herbs that Harm and Heal. Many of these plants also have qualites that make them valuable and Spices and Cooking Herbs, but proficiency with Cook’s Utensils are needed to make the most of these qualities. Others have qualities that make them considered especially beautiful or fregrant. These flowers arranged by a talented Gardener can also fetch a high price.

Healing Herbs of the Realm

Article: Healing Herbs of the Realm
The healing herbs available to you differ based on your biome and the season. These articles are intended to teach you how to identify each herb available.

Poisonous Herbs of the Realm

Article: Poisonous Herbs of the Realm
Poisons are brewed in the exact same way as Healing Herbs. However, when utilizing the poison, the creature targeted by the poison must succeed at a Constitution check at a DC that is equal to the DC used harvest the herb. +1 for each additional hour spent making the poison.
If the target succeeds at its check, any immediate damage is halved. The target does not suffer any other effects, whether immediate or ongoing. If the target fails its check and the damage is per round or ongoing they continue to make a save on every turn until they are incapacitated. If they have the Poisoned condition, they are at disadvantage for their saving throws. Their death saving throws are at disadvantage.
Weapons coated in a poison must still succeed on a hit before the effects will apply to the target (after a save). Each dose will only activate once per application. You can apply multiple doses to a weapon and each dose will activate on a separate hit.
The saving throw for all poisons made this way is always constitution, regardless of whether the effect may call for a different save.

Herbs that Harm and Heal

Article: Herbs that Harm and Heal
Like people, not all herbs are just one thing. Some herbs heal, others hurt, but the very special herbs in this section both heal and hurt, depending on how you brew them. Take care to brew the proper parts of the plant to get the intended result. The rules laid out in the Healing Herbs and Poisonous Herbs apply to all of these herbs.

Recipes

When you come across a new recipe, you add it to your recipes known.