I have a player who wanted to play a nonmagical support character (kinda doesn't work. Closest is a bard and we already had one), so I told him he should try using items like tanglefoot bags and thunderstones. Of course, this is fine at low levels, but if he wanted to do this later on, it'd end up being pointless. Is there some way we can get more alchemical items/scaling DCs based on skill in alchemy? Better yet, how about the DCs on these items being based in ranks in alchemy? Instead of a straight 15, it could be 10+1/2 ranks in Alchemy+INT mod?
The same character was also interested in playing a bomber-ranger, which I thought was a cool idea, but the damage on alchemist's fire and acid are lame. Can we get some kind of scaling system for this as well?
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I made an Alchemist class using Unearthed Arcana's Expert Class and their new crafting rules.
It allowed a character who could craft stuff in a hurry and have all kinds of cool toys. And since the PC was making I allowed variants to be made, so Tanglefoot Bags could not only immobilize someone but maybe also do damage or sicken them or put them to sleep, by raising the Crafting CR slightly. Magic items could be made as well under those rules (gotta watch for too much abuse here) but crafting points had a definitive maximum quantity available per level and over the lifetime of the class.
Now, we have never seen it in play, but it's wide range of skill selection, wide range of skill points and sheer versatility LOOKS like it should be fun to play.
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Tanglefoot Bags are arguably as good as they should be, if not better than they should be...
Alchemist's Fire could use beefing up at higher craft DCs, as could Acid. I'd prefer that Acid be beefed up by giving it an extra round of damage first. Alchemist's Fire could do an extra dice of damage upfront (but remain only 1d6 in the subsequent round) for a +10 DC, perhaps.
(Alchemist's Frost is also available from the OGL equipment chapter of Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed / Evolved, which is handy. I have yet to find an OGL source for Alchemist's Spark, from Eberron, but there is Lethene's Kiss, a very similar product, available in one of the Scarred Lands books, Relics & Rituals II, IIRC.)
I had a Halfling Ranger based on throwing alchemist's fire, acid, holy water, etc. for a Xendrik Expeditions game (consumable items cost 5x as much, but 'recharged' at the end of every play session, so you could buy 5 flasks of acid, and were assumed to have 5 flasks of acid at the start of every 4 hour module). Combining a Rangers Rapid Shot with a Halflings thrown weapons bonus (and size bonus, and high Dex) meant he had a +10 to hit with a ranged touch attack at 4th level. Fun! Adding in the Grenadier feat (PHB2) and the Shaped Splash feat (Races of Eberron), he did extra damage with these weapons, and could 'shape splash' to affect a second adjacent target with each such projectile (and also choose to not inflict splash damage in any adjacent squares, if allies where in them!). He also took the PHB2 option of Distracting Attack rather than an Animal Companion, so that anyone he hit with a missile weapon counted as flanked for the purposes of his allies attacks. Of course, his sole magic item was a Handy Haversack. Can't be wasting actions trying to fish out the right flask, after all!
I joked that my character's special ability was to kill people by throwing money at them (since alchemy stuff was so expensive, compared to arrows).
Tanglefoot Bags are arguably as good as they should be, if not better than they should be...
I actually completely disagree with this. I think it's lame that they become useless after about level 5. I think having a static save is almost always a bad idea.
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BOOOOO to static DCs
YEAH! to shaped charge and grenadier. Are those in PRPG yet? A variation should be put in.
BTW just cause it isn't OGL doesn't mean you can't use the idea. You just can't copy the idea exactly, that is plagiarism. Put it in your own words, and adjust the specifics just a bit and it is yours to use as you wish.