Crafting and the Potion of Healing

According to the description of the herbalism kit on p. 154 of the PHB, proficiency with that kit is required in crafting potions of healing. Since more than half of my player characters have that proficiency, I figured I'd better learn all about crafting potions before my players got around to asking me if they could do it.

First, I found the crafting rules on p. 187 of the PHB, under Downtime Activities. These rules state that you can craft 5 gp worth of non-magical product per day at a cost of 2.5 gp in raw materials. Okay. That's cool, but it's for non-magical items. Since a potion of healing is clearly a magical item, I'd better keep looking.

In the DMG on p. 129 there are rules for crafting magic items. Cool. According to these rules, since a potion of healing is a common crafting item, it requires a 3rd level character and 100 gp to produce one. It also says on p. 135 of the DMG that consumables are generally half the value of non-consumables. Okay, so 3rd level and 50 gp to produce a potion of healing?

But wait...

In the PHB, the price of buying a potion of healing is 50 gp.

Unless our heroes are in a situation where they couldn't possibly buy a potion off the shelf, why would they consider spending 50 gp to wait two days for their own potions to brew. Are NPC vendors selling potions at cost? And am I really going to make my players wait for 3rd level to make use of their cool-ass herbalism kits?

Screw that.

House Rule: Potions of healing are to be treated as non-magical items for crafting purposes. If you are proficient in the herbalism kit you may craft a single potion for 25 gp worth of herbs. This process takes 10 days. Multiple characters may team up to craft the potion faster if each of them is proficient with the herbalism kit.

For now this house rule will only apply to the common potion of healing.  We will revisit the topic at a later time to discuss the higher level healing potions.