Elexir of Hypnotic Suggestion

[the shape]

I got this schematic and ... since it brings me great joy in crafting stuff I don't usually use... I was wondering of the following phenomenon that stroke me while I was at it:

Firstly the "substance" appears in my inventory like a small black dot - no texture for this little techy fellow?

And second ... the description points I can use it on friends and foes. I'm not actually too sure what it does to foes, but I couldn't use it on my party members either... not that I couldn't it just didn't seem to work - turned them both hostile. Anyway... do I need TA(Technical Aptitude) to use this thing? My guess is that simply because I am a mage with 100 MA( Do not ask how many manuals I had to buy and how I could keep them in my inventory to craft the damn thing).

One more thing that is not related - The Caladon Crusading Chain doesn't seem to increase my maximum followers by 1 as it is described. :?

[Darkstone]

Firstly the "substance" appears in my inventory like a small black dot - no texture for this little techy fellow?

That's a bug.

And second ... the description points I can use it on friends and foes. I'm not actually too sure what it does to foes, but I couldn't use it on my party members either... not that I couldn't it just didn't seem to work - turned them both hostile. Anyway... do I need TA(Technical Aptitude) to use this thing? My guess is that simply because I am a mage with 100 MA

That'd be my guess.

( Do not ask how many manuals I had to buy and how I could keep them in my inventory to craft the damn thing).

Oh, yeah. I've been there.

One more thing that is not related - The Caladon Crusading Chain doesn't seem to increase my maximum followers by 1 as it is described. :?

Another bug.

Supposedly there's a unofficial patch that fixes these two bugs and some others but I've never been able to find it.

[Mr. Pastorius]

For official and unofficial patches and fixes, check Terra Arcanum and Dimensions of Arcanum. I believe those two sites contain every available fix that has been released for Arcanum.