Thanks! I have these, and the recipes you provided earlier in this discussion, printed and ready to try ...
:read:

Thanks (!) to your suggestion I use these three, plus three that I have created. All ingredients can still be found in Balmora.

Restore Health, Lightning Shield, Cure Paralyzation, Restore Fatigue:
Corkbulb Root, Saltrice, Crab Meat, Willow Anther
NOTES: My first 4-effect potion! But unlike the others above, weighs 0.2.

Restore Health, Cure Poison, Fortify Willpower
Marshmerrow, Scrib Jelly, Black Lichen, Wickwheat
NOTES: Among the four "restore health" potions I carry I can cure blight disease, common disease, paralization, and poison. Just about anything, I would guess.

Restore Magicka, Fire Shield, Frost Shield
Comberry, Frost Salts, Fire Salts, Willow Anther
NOTES: This is an expensive potion. I may choose to make some with fire and some with frost, but not both. But fire/frost/lightning shield effect also does *damage* to those who are near the shield. Thus, drinking potions to get all three effects rolling during a fight where you are being crowded -- just by standing there you will be doing decent damage.

I am not using any tricks to create more powerful potions. But still I am finding that if you are drinking lots of restore health potions you can be rather difficult to kill.
Once you have maxed Alchemy skill and obtained Grandmaster equipment, if you do no fortifying prior to making potions then all your potions are identical. All of your potions then "stack" in your inventory, keeping the inventory menu very clean.

Amen, brother - that is a good day, when your pile of potions reduces to 2 or 3 in inventory. Interestingly, I don't use any of the old above-referenced recipes anymore.... I consolidate Cure Blight/Cure Disease to one single potion, and only carry a few around (and that's only until I do the corprus questline). My current 2 favorites are (restore fatigue, restore health, feather) and (levitate, fortify speed, drain fatigue). The levitate is, obviously, to levitate quickly when required, and the drain fatigue effect is not optimal, but is easily counteracted by my restore health/fatigue potions.

As I encounter golden saints, I'm capturing souls and slowly making an entire constant effect restore fatigue suit of imperial armor. Not much else useful will fit into the measly enchant values, except a few points of night eye where possible. When complete, I'll be able to leave out the restore fatigue effect from all my potions. Sweet.

Well, after venturing into an area of high-level constructs in a particular expansion.... I've determined that I'll have to more-or-less constantly buff my health to survive. Just 2 potent projectiles is enough to kill me (lvl 54, over 500 health), let alone multiple badies simultaneously. I'm thinking the new standard potion will need to be Fortify Health ~1000 pts, and feather ~1000 pts. Shalk resin, vampire dust, heather, scuttle, for a whopping 562 gold. [Will also slightly drain personality, but I'll just have to be OK with being rude whilst in dungeons.] Should last quite a few minutes per potion, at least. Without them, my build would be impossible to beat (at least) this expansion with. Yikes.

Of course, it would be that you now longer use the potions I am being so effortful to craft! :facepalm: :thumbsup:

That sounds like I will need to be careful! I will not likely raise the difficulty level on my first playthrough. Although my character will have health of at least 522 by level 50, so that is encouraging (got endurance to 90 by level 15 but will probably leave it there for a while).

When your character fortifies prior to making potions, what does he do? Drink lots of fortify intelligence potions?

Well, I routinely use my alchemy spreadsheet to optimize my in-game potions. I know you said you don't have software that correctly shows the calculations and drop-down option menus..... I highly recommend giving it a try sometime if possible. You simply pick effects you're interested in, and it lists available restocking ingredients sorted by weight, then cost. Pick your 4 ingredients, and it shows your potion effects. You'd never need ask for alchemy recipe hints again., even though it's fun to share tips. :icecream: If you've got a windows machine at your disposal, you can always try something like LibreOffice, a free MS office replacer: http://portableapps.com/apps/office/libreoffice_portable


Correct, I'll buy a few hundred Bloat and Ash Yam for cheap fortify intelligence, and make & drink until I'm at my desired intelligence. Then, I'll make a couple hundred more fortify intelligence potions, so that they're nice and potent, therefore requiring less make-and-drink for the next few potion making sessions (just throw back 10 or 20 of what's already on hand). The trick is to remember to restock on Bloat and Ash Yam before you exhaust your last batch of potent restore intelligence.