Potency and Essence. Essence is required for every magical meal; it is the factor that decides how powerful the meal’s effects will be. As with crafting, essence dictates the rarity of the magical meal, from uncommon to legendary. Rarity’s effect on magical meals is described in the Edible Component Effects section.

Edible Components. The components in the harvesting chapter marked with a superscript ‘E’ (E) are edible—they all have magical effects if properly prepared. There are 10 types of edible components: blood, bone, brain, egg, eye, fat, flesh, heart, liver, and spice. Not all creature types supply every type of edible component. For a breakdown of each component type’s effects, see Edible Component Effects section. Any unlisted nonmagical ingredients are supplied from a player character’s normal rations, and don’t require detailing.

Difficulty. The more ingredients a recipe has, the more magical effects it imparts to those who consume it, and the higher the DC is to craft it. There are four tiers of difficulty:

Staple Recipes

Omitting Ingredients. A cook can replace a magical ingredient with a nonmagical one. If they choose to do so, they don’t get the associated magical effect of the nonmagical component, but can still attempt to craft the meal. For example, if a creature wants to make a scarlet eye flan, but has no magical blood, they can use the blood of any creature (provided it hasn’t spoiled) to complete the recipe. The DC for the recipe doesn’t change, and the magical meal only imparts the effects of the three magical components used: brain, eye, and fat.