D&D5e Alchemy Recipes Legendary

There are very few legendary recipes of alchemical lore, and with good reason: no one even knows if these supposed recipes are even actually possible with the alchemist's art alone, and are all probably the province of magic proper. Many of these procedures are not singular recipes, either, instead being made up of cascades of recipes that have to be performed perfectly in a specific order.

The Homonculus Procedures

Easily the best-known of the legendary alchemies, it is possible to find the procedures for performing this work. While such acquisitions are inevitably either perilous or quite expensive, to a great many alchemists, the formation of a homonculus is certainly worth it. Unlike with lesser alchemical efforts, the costs listed must be paid in their entirety for these procedures.

The recipes for this procedure are as follows:

• Conception of the Homonculus: 500 gp • Requires a Greater Alembic • DC 18. Within the cucurbit (the lower chamber of an alembic), the alchemist combines the alchemically unstable materials into a strange roiling brew that must be cultivated over many weeks. At the end of this period, the alchemist must make a DC 18 Alchemist's Supplies check; failure indicates the process was ruined somehow, and the entirety of the effort and materials wasted. Success requires the alchemist move to the next stage of the process immediately. While this procedure is taking place, it is the only thing the greater alembic can be used for.
• Gestation of the Homonculus: 400 gp • 40 weeks • DC 14. With the assistance of an animal healer, the alchemist implants the results of the previous procedure within the womb of an all-black or all-white mare. Over the next 40 weeks, the mare is fed the finest of sustenance, with specific alchemical mixtures added to them. The alchemist need not himself tend to this part of the process once the proto-homonculus is in place, though he must be there for the end of this process, to gently shepherd the rite to its next stage, requiring a DC 14 Alchemist's Supplies check. On a failure, the procedure is a failure; with a success, the alchemist must immediately move into the next procedure, the Feeding of the Homonculus.
• Feeding of the Homonculus: 200 gp • Requires a Greater Alembic • DC 16. At this stage, the alchemist returns the proto-homonculus (which now squirms and moves slightly with developing life) back to the cucurbit of a greater alembic. Through this process, the alchemist must feed the entity in the alembic a mixture of alchemical refined materials mixed with the blood of the one to whom the homonculus will be bound. It does not take much blood each day, but it must be fresh, requiring the homonculus' future master to be present for the entire process. At the end of this process, the alchemist must make a DC 16 Alchemist's Supplies check, or the entity dies, failing to advance to the next stage. Success requires the alchemist to move to the next procedure immediately.
• Formation of the Homonculus: 800 gp. At this point, the proto-homonculus has developed solidity and near-form, and moves quite frequently. For this stage - which can be quite lengthy - it is wrapped in a ball of alchemical clay, providing it with heat and protection while it completes its formation. As this clay dries out, the entity takes form. Toward the end of the procedure, the clay begins to dry and flake away, until the homonculus pushes its way out. There is no check associated with this stage.
• Binding of the Homonculus: 150 gp. With this final stage, the alchemist must use rare and valuable incenses that have been alchemically refined, totalling the cost involved, but the procedure takes only an hour. It must be performed immediately after the "hatching" of the homonculus, and the homonculus' master must be present. It emerges from the clay egg, shiny and stretching new muscles. It immediately seeks out the one whose blood fed it during the Feeding of the Homonculus, and bites its new master, suckling blood to solidify the binding while the alchemist censes the pair (or himself, if he is the homonculus' master). Once this is done, the binding is set, and the homonculus serves its new master. If this procedure is not begun within an hour of the homonculus hatching, it gives a piteous cry before melting into a pool of stinking sludge, the process ruined.

Homonculi Recipes

The creation of a homonculus is rarely the point in and of itself. Rather, homonculi are supremely adaptable through alchemical means. The following are some known recipes that can be used to alter the nature of a homonculus.

• xxx: x gp. x
• xxx: x gp. x
• xxx: x gp. x
• xxx: x gp. x

The Philosopher's Stone

It is said that the philosopher's stone is the secret to many of the great "perfected alchemies," for it contains within it a substance called azoth, which is to the stone what the human soul is to the body. It is the very stuff of alchemical transmutation and attainment of perfection, the means by which glorious great works are wrought solely by the virtues of what is inherent in the natural world, without benefit of magic. It is even thought to lend perfection to the body and spirit of the alchemist, granting immortality.

Though the precise recipes of creation are a great secret, the creation of a philosopher's stone requires four stages of creation, each said to be taxing of the creator, his resources, and his very spirit.

• The Black Procedure (Nigredo): The stage of decomposition, in which the elements to be transmuted into the stone are rendered down, dissolved in their entirety and broken down to their base components.
• The White Procedure (Albedo): The stage of purification, in which the blackened, dissolved matter of the first step are purified by alchemical art, stripped of their base matter, leaving only the alchemically refined pure raw materials.
• The Golden Procedure (Citrinitas): The stage of transmutation, in which the refined elements - now freed of the dross that once limited them - can be alchemically joined into the enlightened materials that make up the philosopher's stone. This is said to impart upon the materials a golden hue, lightly illuminated as though they constantly sat in a pool of sunlight.
• The Scarlet Procedure (Rubedo): The stage of coagulation, in which the transmuted materials are joined together in alchemical fires, the golden materials coagulating and solidifying into a crystalline stone, which is hollow like a geode, save that it contains within it the perfected azoth.

The Aqua Vitae

One of the "perfected alchemies," little to nothing is truly known of the aqua vitae, save that normal alchemical aqua salutem is used as the foundation for it, after a series of alchemical refinements, and that the legendary philosopher's stone may be used in its creation. According to alchemical lore, aqua vitae can actually bring the dead back to life when it is applied.

The Aqua Regia

Where aqual vitae is the perfection of alchemical aqua salutem, the aqua regia (also called the alkahest) is said to be the same principle as applied to alchemical acid. Another of the "perfected alchemies," is the perfect solvent, dissolving whatever it is applied to until nothing whatsoever remains, transmuting the object itself into an acid capable of dissolving the thing it is transmuted from.

The Panacea

Another "perfected alchemy," called the "Sublime Medicament," the panacea is said to be the perfected healing elixir, capable of immediately healing all injuries, diseases, poisonings, and insanities. Precious little is known of it, save that alchemical lore claims that its creation relies on materials gathered from the outer planes of the gods themselves.