I'm playing on an unpatched 360 from the disc, and when I want to create potions and select two ingredients with several effects in common, I can't choose what effect I want to use and thus what potion to create.

For example, ingredient A has "restore health" and "restore magicka". Ingredient B has the same ones. When I select the two, the game automatically chooses "restore magicka", and I can't seem to be able to make a "restore health" potion instead.

Am I missing something?

Thanks!

Any properties the reagents share will end up in the potion I believe, so the potion will restore both health and magicka

This.

This also creates annoying situations, when your potions are 'misnamed' and you don't really care the other effects than the one(s) you're after. For some reason naming potions isn't possible in Skyrim, it was in Oblivion

I don't know, I end up with crazy multi potions/poisons that combine all matching effects good and bad (and worth big gold). There is a perk in the skill tree that removes all bad effects from potions and all good effects from poisions.

Renaming potions should happen. I make the dumbest potions. I just whip them together at breakneck speed and end up with restore magicka potions that protect from fire and cause poison damage... stupid stuff like that.

Oh, I never thought about that, since only one effect is represented in the name. Thanks everybody!

Shouldn't that be a perk or something? A skilled alchemist ought to be able to refine ingredients and get what he wants out of them. But I guess the "Experimenter" perk is sufficient, even though a little customization would've been nice.

The "Experimenter" perk is pointless if you have the "read the wiki" perk.

There's another way? Because you still can't choose what effect to get if the ingredients have more than one in common, right?

I do have that perk, but no matter the knowledge, the game is still the obstacle

I think you need to take a closer look at the effects of the ingredients you're using, and all of the effects of the potion you're brewing. If both ingredients have restore health and restore magicka, it may be called a "Potion of Restore Magicka," but it will restore both health and Magicka. This will be reflected in the potion's description. The name thing is annoying, but it will still work.

The Purity perk for Alchemy will make it so that your potions don't have negative effects on them, and your poisons don't have positive effects on them--that way, you don't have to worry about having a restore health potion that also paralyzes you or something like that. However, in this case, you're just going to have to put up with a potion that restores your health and your Magicka.

Your potion will always have any effect that at least 2 of the ingredients used to make it share.

For example, I will use the following ingredients to make a poison:



They both share the slow and damage health effect. The game names it "Poison of Slow", however it will both slow the target and damage their health. If you go into your inventory and look at the potion it'll tell you all of the effects it has. If you want a potion that only has a certain effect you'll just have to find 2 ingredients who only share that specific one.

You guys do know that you can give your own name to potions you brew, right?

Want to tell us how? Because I'm not even given an option for it.

Sorry, I was wrong. I got my enchanting confused with my alchemy. Brain fart.