Cooking

Introduction

Cooking allows characters to prepare food and some beverages which can be consumed. Any class build can use cooking. Cooking is a subskill of Herbalism and grants Herbalism XP. Its implementation is similar to the Bartending system.

Getting Started

To become a cook you need to acquire a Cookstove item. There are several NPC food merchants who sell cookstoves. You can do several things with the cookstove:

If you use the cookstove on your PC you will get a message telling you how much Herbalism XP and how many Herbalism levels you have. (You can also get this information by using the chat command /check craftxp)
If you use the cookstove and target a spot on the ground it will spawn a stove placeable there. You will use this stove to prepare food. If you use the cookstove and target another spot on the ground while you have a stove out the original stove will be destroyed and a new one will spawn where you targeted it. When a stove is destroyed, anything inside the stove is spilled onto the ground.
If you use the cookstove on a stove placeable the stove will be destroyed.

Note: The cookstove is not a Plot item.

The stove is a placeable which can hold inventory. It can be destroyed in three ways:

targeting it with your cookstove item
through a conversation option with the stove (see below)
through physical attacks and spells

Destroying the stove always dumps its contents on the ground.

Cooking Experience and Progression

Cooking grants Herbalism XP and has the same level progression as character levels.

Preparing Food

When you close the stove a conversation will begin. You will have the option to prepare food or pack up the stove. The latter option destroys the stove, spilling all of its contents on the ground.

Preparing food is similar to making items in other tradeskills - you put components into the stove and then a roll is made to see whether or not you succeed in preparing food. The difficulty levels and xp gain are similar to other tradeskills. There are two levels of success and failure:

Success: you prepare some food or a beverage and gain Herbalism XP.
Failure: you ruin the preparation and make nothing edible. The components are destroyed and you do not gain Herbalism XP.

Whether you succeed or fail, when you try to prepare food the components used are always destroyed.

Unlike most tradeskills there is no "mass cooking" or "craft 50" option - while you can put as many components into the stove as you like you can only prepare one dish or beverage at a time.

Recipes

The biggest difference between Cooking and most other tradeskills is the way recipes are handled. There is no menu with recipes listed at each level. Recipes don't use specific components - they use groups of components. These can be figured out through experimentation. I will give as examples the four 1st level recipes.

Butter: to make this you simply need milk. Milk can be purchased from some merchants. One bottle of milk can be churned into a stick of butter.

When you succeed in preparing food it will spawn directly into your PC's inventory. It will have a custom name such as "Berry Mistbreeze's Butter". The food's description will include the names of the components the PC used to make it. For example, the Butter description could look like this: "Berry Mistbreeze has churned Milk into this creamy butter."

Multigrain Flour: this is a mixture of two different grains. Grains include such items as Wheat, Barley, Ferrell Corn and Pale Grain. Note that two different grains must be used to make flour; for example you cannot make multigrain flour from two Wheat items.

Ground Coffee: this is a mixture of two different beans, such as Coffee, Vanilla or even Stonebush (Note: As of right now, Vanilla is not yet available in game. This article will be updated once it is available).

Vinegar: this is a mixture of fruit and wine. Fruit items include Apples, Fey Grapes and varous berries which can be picked or purchased. Wines include the standard NWN Wine item as well as custom wines such as Aviviya Piriarn Wine or Yeyin'awl Zaminen.

Spicemix: this is a mixture of two different herbs and spices. Herbs and spices includes such items as Garlic, Basil, Garlic Weed Spice, Ginger Root, Ginseng Root, Oregano, Rosemary Sprig, Sage Leaf, T'Nanshi Chilis, Wintermint, Scallions and Cooking Herb.

Minced Meat: this is a mixture of two different meats. You can buy meats from a tavern merchant or other food merchants, or even go on a hunt!

There are currently 55 recipes across 11 levels. The higher the recipe level of an item the more components needed to make it. Some recipes use food items made at lower levels. Some recipes also require a new component, Baking Soda, which can be purchased at some food merchants.

As mentioned above PCs can only prepare one dish or beverage at a time. When a PC tries to prepare cuisine the stove will examine everything inside it and look to see if any components match a recipe. Higher level recipes take precedence.

Examples of some of the current recipes are below. We encourage you to experiment with components to try and discover ALL of the recipes!

1st Level

Butter
Ground Coffee
Multigrain Flour
Vinegar
Spicemix
Minced Meat

2nd Level

Cheese
Preserved Meats & Mushrooms

3rd Level

Flatbread
Salads

4th Level

Cream of Mushroom Soup
Fruit or Vegetable Preserves
Condiments

5th Level

Even more condiments
Pasta and Meatballs

6th Level

Ice Creams
Fruit Sorbets
Chocolate Chip Cookies

7th Level

Mellow Brownies
Supreme Pizza

8th Level

Pancakes
Stroopwafel

9th Level

Shio Butter Ramen

10th Level

Jelly Donuts

11th Level

Burgers and Hot Dogs
Full Breakfast

Remember, these are just examples - there are many more recipes in game!

Cooking Components

Groups of components used to make food and beverages include but are not limited to:

Milk: as described above

Grains: as described above
Fruit: as described above
Wine: any item with the property Cast Spell: Alcohol, Wine Single Use, as well as Avlis custom wines.
Herbs & Spices: as described above
Meat: includes storebought items as well as meat taken from slain animals. Also includes fish.
Salt
Mushrooms
Butter: can be purchased or made by PCs
Leaves: includes plant leaves and leafy vegetables
Roots
Vegetables

Some components belong to more than one group. Some examples:

Ginger Root counts as both a root and an herb & spice.
Lettuce counts as both a leaf and a vegetable.
Sage Leaf counts as both a leaf and an herb & spice.

Other components include but are not limited to: water, sugar, yeast, egg, baking soda, maple syrup and chocolate.

Food Properties

1st level recipes are for intermediates and cannot be eaten but any food or beverage item of 2nd level or higher can be consumed by using the item. If you are damaged food will heal you a number of hit points equal to its recipe level, up to your maximum hit points. If you are at full hit points food will give you temporary hit points equal to the recipe level of the food; the duration is the recipe level plus 2d4 turns. These temporary hit points can't be dispelled but will go away if you rest. The hit point effects will stack if you eat multiple food items.

Examples:

Berry Mistbreeze has just finished a battle and has taken 20 points of damage. She takes some Cheese from her pack and eats it. Since Cheese is a 2nd level recipe she is healed for 2 points of damage.
Berry is still injured and hungry. She decides to eat three Supreme Pizzas. The first two heal her for 7 points of damage each; her damage is reduced from 18 to 4 points. The third pizza heals her of the remaining 4 points of damage restoring her to full hit points. (She does not get 3 additional hit points from the third pizza.)
Berry is about to go into battle again. She decides to calm her nerves by downing two bowls of Shio Butter Ramen. Each bowl of ramen grants her 9 temporary hit points for 2d4+9 turns. She enters battle with a gnoll wizard who casts Dispel Magic on her; the temporary hit points are not dispelled because they are not a magical effect. Berry defeats the gnoll and decides to rest; having digested her food during her rest the temporary hit points vanish.

One exception: there are some recipes which use meat. Meat taken from slain creatures for the Survivalism system comes in different sizes and qualities; these properties are taken into account in the cooking system as well. Food prepared with larger and higher quality meats receives a bonus to the hit points healed or temporarily granted.

New Recipes

There are currently 55 recipes but there could certainly be more! We welcome suggestions for new recipes from players who have thoroughly used the system and are aware of what recipes are already available. One thing to note about recipes: due to the way the system is designed recipes for specific components cannot be made. For example we can't add a recipe for Carrot Cake because the system doesn't look for carrots specifically, it looks for vegetables. Please keep this in mind when suggesting new recipe ideas.