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Potion of Invulnerability 5e: One Minute of Resistance to Everything
A Potion of Invulnerability is a rare potion from the 2024 rules (SRD 5.2.1) that gives you Resistance to all damage for 1 minute after you drink it. Drinking it takes a Bonus Action, so you can still attack or cast on the same turn. Every damage type is halved, including force, psychic and radiant, for 10 rounds. The verdict: save it for the fight you can't afford to lose, and drink it on the first turn, not after the big hit has already landed.
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Potion of Invulnerability Rules Text
Potion of Invulnerability
2024 rules
Potion, Rare
RareNo attunement
For 1 minute after you drink this potion, you have Resistance to all damage.
This potion’s syrupy liquid looks like liquefied iron.
This potion is in SRD 5.2.1 but not in SRD 5.1, so there's no 2014 SRD version to compare. A 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide potion shares the name; it isn't part of the 2014 SRD.
How the Potion of Invulnerability Works
Drinking it
In the 2024 rules, drinking a potion or giving it to another creature takes a Bonus Action. The minute starts as soon as it's drunk: 10 rounds of combat. If you feed it to an ally, they get the Resistance, not you.
The name oversells it. Resistance halves damage, rounded down; it doesn't stop damage, conditions or effects that aren't damage.
What Resistance to all damage does to real numbers
Take an adult red dragon's Fire Breath in the 2024 rules: DC 21 Dexterity save, 17d6 fire damage (59 on average), half on a success.
Failed save
Successful save
Without the potion
59
29
With the potion
29
14
The order of operations comes from the 2024 rules: bonuses, penalties and multipliers apply first, then Resistance, then Vulnerability, rounding down at each halving. Halving a 59 for a successful save and halving again for Resistance leaves 14.
Concentration checks get easier
When you take damage while concentrating, the save DC is 10 or half the damage taken, whichever is higher (maximum 30). Halved damage means lower DCs. That 59-damage breath would ask for a DC 29 Constitution save; at 29 damage it's DC 14. For a caster holding a key concentration spell, that is often the difference between keeping it and losing it.
What it doesn't stack with
Resistance doesn't stack. Multiple instances of Resistance to the same damage type count as one, so a raging barbarian (Resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing) gains nothing extra against those types. What the barbarian does gain is Resistance to fire, cold, poison, necrotic, force, psychic and everything else for a minute.
The same goes for a Potion of Resistance, which gives Resistance to one damage type for an hour, and Armor of Invulnerability, which gives Resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing. Drink this potion on top of either and you get one halving per damage type, never two.
Vulnerability still applies after Resistance. A creature with Vulnerability to fire that drinks the potion takes about normal fire damage: halved and rounded down, then doubled.
Mixing it with another potion
The 2024 SRD warns that drinking one potion while under another's effects, or pouring potions together, can cause unpredictable interactions, and it gives a Potion Miscibility table for mixing two potions. Results run from both potions failing to a 4d10 force explosion. Ask your DM whether they use it before drinking this on top of another potion, and never pour two into one vial.
Who Should Use a Potion of Invulnerability?
Whoever is about to take the most damage, and the earlier in the fight the better.
•The front-line fighter or paladin, if the fight is a big damage race. Halving every hit for 10 rounds can be worth more hit points than several Potions of Healing.
•The concentration caster, if the party's plan rests on one spell staying up.
•A downed ally's rescuer. Drink it, walk into the area of effect, and pull them out.
Compare it with healing: a Potion of Healing restores 2d4 + 2 (7 on average). Against a monster dealing 30 damage a round, the Potion of Invulnerability prevents about 15 a round, 150 over the full minute if the fight lasts that long.
It's wasted on a short fight, a fight against something that controls rather than damages (a lot of Hold Monster and charms), and on anyone who drinks it after the dangerous turn is over.
Potion of Invulnerability for DMs
What it changes. One minute of halved damage is a big swing in a boss fight. Expect a party with one to win a damage race they'd otherwise lose. That's fine for a rare consumable; it's gone after one fight.
Pricing. The SRD 5.2.1 value for a rare item is 4,000 GP, halved for consumables: 2,000 GP. Brewing one takes half the rare crafting time and cost: 25 days and 1,000 GP, with Arcana proficiency and Alchemist's Supplies or a Herbalism Kit. The magic item rarity calculator can help with shop prices.
Identifying it. A small taste is enough to identify a potion in the 2024 rules. The look described in the text (thick, like molten iron) is a fair clue on its own.
Hooks.
•The party finds three vials of thick grey liquid on a dead knight. One is this potion; the others are something else that looks the same until someone tastes them.
•An alchemist will brew one if the party brings back the materials, which are only in a city the party has been banned from.
•A rival adventuring company has one, and everybody knows it. They'll drink it at the start of the one fight they can't afford to lose, and the party is about to be that fight.
Potions get drunk and forgotten. Loreify records the session and keeps track of who used what in the recap.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a Potion of Invulnerability do in 5e?
For 1 minute after you drink it, you have Resistance to all damage, which halves every damage type you take, rounded down. It's a rare potion from the 2024 rules (SRD 5.2.1).
Does Potion of Invulnerability stack with Rage or a Potion of Resistance?
No. Multiple instances of Resistance to the same damage type count as only one. The potion still adds Resistance to every type the other effect doesn't cover.
What action does it take to drink a Potion of Invulnerability?
A Bonus Action in the 2024 rules, which also covers giving it to another creature. You can still take your action on the same turn.
Is the Potion of Invulnerability in the 2014 SRD?
No. It's in SRD 5.2.1 (2024) only. A potion with the same name appears in the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide, which isn't part of the SRD.
How much is a Potion of Invulnerability worth?
2,000 GP under SRD 5.2.1: a rare item's 4,000 GP value, halved because it's a consumable.
Item text: System Reference Document 5.2.1 (2024), Wizards of the Coast, CC-BY-4.0. Analysis, rulings and ideas are Loreify's own.
This page includes material from the System Reference Document 5.1 and 5.2.1 by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Loreify is not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast.