How to Use This Guide
This guide was written in order to allow a more detailed method 
of using the Herbalism Non Weapon Proficiency than that 
provided in the PHB. It may be used only by characters with the
Herbalism proficiency. A revised Herbalism proficiency which
can be used in FRPGs, appears below. The description of each
herb contains the following information:

Name: This is what the herb is called. In brackets after each
name is the name of the person who developed the herb for the
guide, and the source of the herb if applicable.
Available: This is the time of year when the herb is available,
and the percentage chance for a person who searches for the
herb for one day finding it.
Climatic Zone: This describes the climatic zone or zones in
which the herb can be found.
Locale: This describes the region or regions in which the
herb can be found.
Preparation: This describes how long a herb needs to be
prepared before it can be used.
Cost: The cost before the / is the cost of the herb in raw
form. The cost after the / is the cost of buying the herb 
ready to use.
Uses: The number of uses indicates how much of the herb can
be found at any one time. 
Ability Check: The ability check is the value that must be
rolled under on a d20 for the use of the herb to be
successful. If the ability check is listed as ‘?’ it means
that the herb may or may not have the powers attributed to
it. If the ability check is listed as ‘-’ then no ability
check is needed for success. The GM should decide what
effects these herbs have if any.
Description: This section describes what the herb can do.
The GM who uses or allows this guide in their games should 
examine it carefully before use, and remove or modify any 
herbs that they wish. This is particularly true for those 
herbs that have quite major powers. 

It will be noted that very few poisons are listed in this
guide. This is for two reasons.
1. I believe that a Herbalist should not use their art for
nefarious purposes. 
2. I believe that allowing players access to too many
poisons can severely effect game balance.

Any GM who wishes to have detailed poisons in their games is
referred to the “Poisons Area”, (author unknown to me) which 
I find to be excellent for the purpose. If you can find it, the
rules for poisons sent to the GMAST-L list by Ron Knight (Modar)
in late October of this year (1996) is also very good. The 
Poisons, revised and expanded by Adrienne Mills, and based on 
the “Netbook: Poisons of the Realm” (mentioned in previous 
editions of this guide) is also very good and very detailed in 
its treatments of poisons.

It should also be noted that I have tried not to include herbs 
that could be classed as “Drugs” with the connotation of illicit 
use. This is because I do not and do not wish to be seen to be 
supporting illicit drug use. Having said that, for anyone who 
wishes to use drugs in their games, I refer them to ‘Appendix A: 
Drugs for Fantasy Role Playing Games’, from the ‘Complete Guide
to Alcohol for Fantasy Role Playing Games’ which has excellent 
rules on all aspects of drug use including addiction and its 
effects. The drugs contained within it could be converted to my 
system fairly easily, although the system contained in that guide
is already excellent for the purpose.

Finally, a note and a request. It has come to my attention, that
people create and develop new herbs for their games and add them
into this guide. I, of course, have no objection to this.
However, I would appreciate it if you sent me a copy of these
herbs. If they work in your games, they would probably work in
other peoples, and should be included in any new edition of the
guide (with full credit to you, of course). Again, people make
changes to the guide, because they find mistakes, or
discrepancies, or just things they don’t like. That’s fine, but
please let me know. If you noticed something wrong, I would like
a chance to fix it.

What you do with the guide in your own game is up to you. You
can change and edit it in any way that you like. But please, if
you distribute the guide, make sure that you distribute it in
unedited form. If you have made any changes or additions, list
them separately from the main guide. My name is on this guide,
and while I’m perfectly happy to take the flak for any errors in
it, I only want to be blamed for my own errors or for those of
contributors, which slipped past me. I have been sent an e-mail
from someone who thought a herb was too powerful. It was, because
someone else had edited the guide and made it more powerful. It
wasn’t a major problem, but it was annoying.

Furthermore, I own the copyright on this guide (except where I
have indicated that it is owned by someone else, and I have their
permission to include the information). I have gone to a lot of
trouble to try and ensure that I don’t violate other peoples
copyright, in order to avoid legal problems. If you add
information into my guide, I may end up being legally responsible
for information that I didn’t want to be. I don’t want that to
happen. Having said that, if I have inadvertently violated
anyone’s copyright, please inform me and I will remove the
material in question.

Finally leave my name, and the name of other contributors on
the guide. A person was distributing the 3rd Edition of my
guide under their name as if it was their work. They have since
apologised to me, and I consider the matter closed, so I won’t
mention their name. The guide costs you nothing, but it
represents a large amount of work on my part and on the parts
of the other contributors. I think we deserve the credit for
our work.

I receive no payment for this guide. It is simply a labour of love.
But I would like to hear what you think of it, any praise or
criticisms that you might have. Hundreds of hours of work have gone
into this guide over the years, and I really like to know what
people think, whether it is good or bad. Please e-mail me with
comments at: drednort@bud.swin.edu.au
 
A special note: I have referred to a variety of diseases in this
work. Some of my descriptions may be inaccurate and for that I
apologise. I have no medical training, and the guide is intended
only for games. It is also possible that some of my descriptions of
diseases may offend some people. Again, I apologise. I have no
intention of causing offence. If you do find any of this guide
offensive, let me know so I can fix the problem.