GameBanshee Forums

What use is it? Up to this point, I've only used a Retort and an Alembic, but I just 'bought' a Master's Alembic (actually just got it for free or 'Buy low, sell high - how to get everything you want for free' ), and faqs claim it increases the magnitude and duration of all effect - I assume this includes negative effects?

You need pestle and mortar. They are the basics. Without them, you can't do anything.

Once you get them, drop them on yourself, just like any other equipments. Then the alchemy screen shows up.

I know that, I already have a p&m, retort, and alembic.

Sorry, are you asking the benefit of having them rather than only pestle and mortar?

In that case, it increase the quality of the potion, such as strength of effect (ie. Restore Health 60 instead of 20), and the length of it (ie. for 120 secs instead of 50).

I never in need of Restore Health or Fatigue equipment, because of the quality of potions I can make. The levitation is another good potion to make.

The quality of potions depende on followings as well:

-Your alchemy skills
-Quality of your equipments (even though you can use mixture of equipments, like journeyman's p&m with master's alembic)

And, the better quality the more money when you sell. Also, it weighs a lot less if the quality is good.

Hope this'll help you out.

Mortar & Pestle:
The one apparatus that is required is the mortar and pestle. This is the basic apparatus you need to combine two or more ingredients into a potion.
Retort:
The retort is optional and increases the magnitude and duration of all positive effects.
Calcinator:
The calcinator is optional and increases the magnitude and duration of ALL effects, both postive and negative.
Alembic:
The alembic is optional and decreases the magnitude of all negative effects. So if you are planning on creating just positive effect potions, you will not necessarily need this apparatus.
The Skooma Pipe is a very low quality alembic (quality: 0.15)!

This is the site I got it from: http://morrowind.melian.cc/alchemy_faq.php

Negative potions are good for selling.