D&D Healing Potion Props

I have been playing Dungeons and Dragons for over thirty years now. Over the past few months I have been DMing a game for my kids, their cousins, and a few of their friends.

My Players really like to have physical representations of items to make the game more immersive. It started with coins and gems for the money.

I have been using my 3D printer to make other game items. Miniatures of various monsters they have had to fight, inspiration tokens, Magic Items.

Since they were having trouble staying on top of the healing potions that they had I decided to make healing potions to hand out to them when the get them.

Step 1: Tools and Ingredients

A large quantity of D4s

Some small Jars

2 part clear resin

Food Coloring

A Heat Source

Old Wax (optional)

Grater (optional)

Wax Seal Kit (optional)

Step 2: Preparing the Resin

The resin kit I got was a simple 1:1 by volume kit so I measured out equal parts of A and B.

It turns out that one liquid is much thicker than the other so keep that in mind if you are using the whole bottle in one go. I would recommend measuring out the thicker liquid first so that if there is some of the liquid that you did not get out of the bottle you can measure out an equal part of the thinner liquid so you maintain the 1:1 proportions and your resin will cure correctly.

For an 8oz batch of resin I added 5 drops of red food coloring to match the shade of red that the dice have.

Mix the resin for 2-3 minutes and then begin to pour.

Step 3: Adding the Resin to the Jars

I lined up the jars to add the resin, then I pinched the edge of the paper cup to make a pour spout.

when you pour resin you want as thin of a stream as possible to limit the amount of bubbles that are introduced into the resin.

Ideally you want to use either a vacuum chamber or pressure pot (depending on the project) to get all the air out of the resin, but I don't have either of those tools. Since I didn't have the tools needed for removing the air from the resin I used the only other method that I knew of to remove the bubbles. Heat.

I have seen people use a heat gun or a propane torch to get bubbles out of resin. Since this was a small job I was able to use a lighter to remove the bubbles at the surface of the resin.

Step 4: Waiting for the Resin to Cure

Now comes the hard part for me. Waiting 24-48 hours while the resin cures before you get to finish the project.

If your ratio is not right then your resin will take longer to cure.

Step 5: Adding the Dice

Once the resin has cured you can add the dice and cork the bottle.

I made 2 different types of healing potions.

The cylindrical jars are regular healing potions 2D4+2.

The square jars are greater healing potions 4D4+4.

At this point you can use these as fully functional healing potions. Give the jar a good shake and read the dice to figure out how many hit points your potion restores. (don't forget to add the +2 or +4 to your roll)

Step 6: 3D Printed Tags

The jar came with a hank of sisal twine and cardboard tags. Originally I was going to use those cardboard tags, but I wanted something a little more substantial, so I made a pattern in tinkercad and 3D printed my tags.

Since the Tags are a bit on the deep side I decided to add wood filler to make the tags flush so they would have a inlaid look.

Step 7: Painting the Tags

I tried to paint the wood filler to look like wood, but all attempts failed miserably.

So I opted to go for a high contrast look and painted the filler black and I painted the lettering and casing a bright brassy color.

Step 8: Adding the Tags to the Bottles

Using the twine that came with the bottles, I tied the tags onto the bottles.

Step 9: Preparing the Wax for Sealing the Bottles

Since I decided to go all out and make the deluxe healing potions I decided to seal the stoppers with a little wax.

I have a large red candle that never did anything except collect dust.

Using a dollar store cheese grater I shredded a bit of the candle to make it easier to melt. To melt the wax I used a tin can in a pot of boiling water. It is best to go to a thrift store and get a pot for this purpose so you are not getting wax residue in the pan you cook your food with.

Once the wax was melted, I dipped each jar several times into the wax and covered the cork and top of the jar in a nice red wax.

Step 10: Adding a Bit of Flair

To add the final touch to the jars, I grabbed my wax seal set and added assorted stamps to the soft wax so they look like they come from several different makers.

I dry brushed the stamped wax with a bit of golden paint to make the seal stand out from the wax.