My friend is creating an alchemist and is picking his one and only trait. Any suggestions? We have come across two that he really likes please let me know what you think of his choices. 1) Second Chance. 2) Defensive Strategist. The group consists of a Samurai, melee cleric, invoker witch and himself a vanilla alchemist.
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I like accelerated drinker. Walk aroumd with a vial in hand. Usually enlarge or reduce person, this make for good action economy.
Second change is great but it does have a deity associated with, if your game cares about that. Anything to help the poor will save is a good choice.
My bombers tend to have high initiative and are in back so less good for them.
I would also consider clever word play or student of philosophy. Though many of the character in the group could be a face none are obvious faces. This would round out the group very well.
For a vanilla alchemist, Accelerated Drinker is pretty good because you don't trade away your potion-brewing as many archetypes do. Gets even better once Alchemical Allocation comes online, letting you use a potion without actually using it up.
I think "face" traits are usually not a great choice for alchemists who have little use for Charisma to begin with, their only Charisma-based class skill being Use Magic Device.
Use Magic Device is really good, though, so I personally like Pragmatic Activator, making UMD based off of your high Intelligence score rather than Charisma. However, you can probably do without a super high UMD bonus 'cause your spell list covers most cases where you'd want to activate a magic item.
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My Alchemist has the Fire-Bug trait
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/traits/combat-traits/firebug/
and Student of Philosophy http://www.d20pfsrd.com/traits/social-traits/student-of-philosophy/
Lessons of Chaldira doesn't care if you are Halfling and Defensive Strategist doesn't care if you are dwarven just have to follow the gods.
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Indomitable Faith isn't the most exciting trait, but that boosted Will Save is a great investment for any chatacter with a high potential damage output. It's especially great for bombers who don't want to get Dominated into attacking their allies.
Armor Expert reduces check penalties for wearing armor. It knocks a Mithral Breastplate down to 0 ACP, so you can wear it without penalty even if you aren't proficient. Coupling with a Bodyguard Tumor Familiar went a far way to making my melee alchemist much more survivable.
I like accelerated drinker. Walk aroumd with a vial in hand. Usually enlarge or reduce person, this make for good action economy.
Cool idea, but Accelerated Drinker doesn't work for Extracts unless the GM houserules otherwise.
There's a trait that allows you you learn spells from potions and add them to your books. I've always liked that one. It's for Suli though
Given that you can literally buy that ability for a mere song, that seems like a huge waste of a trait.
Also, Accelerated Drinker doesn't work for extracts, sure, but a vanilla Alchemist can brew potions and you get Alchemical Allocation at level 4, making potions extremely good.
There's a trait that allows you you learn spells from potions and add them to your books. I've always liked that one. It's for Suli thoughGiven that you can literally buy that ability for a mere song, that seems like a huge waste of a trait.
Also, Accelerated Drinker doesn't work for extracts, sure, but a vanilla Alchemist can brew potions and you get Alchemical Allocation at level 4, making potions extremely good.
cool not really sure how that alchemical allocation works :S could you give me an example of how it could be used effectively please, sounds cool
cool not really sure how that alchemical allocation works :S could you give me an example of how it could be used effectively please, sounds cool
Ah, hmm, looks like I didn't quite read it correctly. Alchemical Allocation specifically states that the potion has to be consumed on the round after drinking the extract, so you can't drink both the extract and a potion in the same round.
It's pretty great outside of combat, though, because you could essentially create (or buy) a powerful potion and reuse it over and over. You're essentially spending an extract to save any potion. There's a lot of ways to improve potions, too, like Amplify Elixir, Enhance Potion and Extend Potion. And once you can craft level 3 potions, you can spend a level 2 extract to get a level 3 effect.
Count me as another vote in the accelerated drinker or pragmatic activator crowd.
Accelerated drinker is especially nice if he grows a tentacle or third arm.
Armor expert is always useful, if you are willing to go for a bit of cheese for mid level benefits.
This trait reduces your armor check penalty by 1. Which usually doesn't amount to much. But the armor check penalty of a mithril breastplate is 1.
And for most classes, the only real penalty you get from using a set of armor you aren't trained for is that you apply the armor check penalty to attack.
So you can get +2 AC over other similar alchemists.