Hello, I need some advice for my half elf alchemist. It appears my party lacks a proper healer. We have a kensi, negative channeling cleric, and a monk. So, here are my stats.
Str 10
Dex 13
Con 12
Int 15
Wis 10
Cha 8
I just reached lvl 2, and want to make good choices to maximize what little I have to work with. Typically magic items will be available, so I am,looking to bump,my intelligence and probably dex. I fight with my bombs, and javelins and sickle. I usually use my mutagen to boost Dex for better hit. I saw the discussion about infusions to heal, and typically make potions, with my craft skill before we leave. How would you build to heal your party and buff and/or debuff looking ahead. Thank you!!!
I'm not an expert on the Alchemist Class, but here are a few of the basics. Hope it helps.
Discoveries: Infusion (so you can hand out your healing and buff extracts to your party), Healing Bombs (the ability to heal your allies from range can be pretty handy sometimes), Frost Bomb (a good damage type and a great debuff bomb) and Tanglefoot Bomb (another great debuff bomb).
Equipment: Hybridization Funnel (Use this to combine some of your alchemist creations, Acid Flasks, Alchemist's Fire, Holy Water, etc. You even gain a bonus for being a Half-Elf!), Preserving Flask (allows you store more extracts), Admixture Vial (combine some extracts just like the Combine Extracts Discovery, allowing you or your allies to consume multiple buffs with just one extract).
Oof, those are some rough stats! That's a six-point buy, what a bunch of incredibly awful rolls.
For discoveries, I'd say the question is whether you want to go healer, buff or debuff first. If you want to go healer, Healing Bomb is quite good as it allows you to make better use of your healing potions. At level 2, it will heal the directly hit ally for 1d8+2 and everyone nearby for 3 which is quite nice. Be careful not to heal your opponents, though.
If you want to go buffing, you should pick up Infusion. The Alchemist is in the unique position to create potion-like magic items of personal-range spells which potions can not duplicate. Standout level 1 extracts are Heightened Awareness, Endure Elements and Long Arm for your frontline fighters. However, you really don't have many extracts per day, so you can probably stand to wait a bit on the buffing role until you actually have the resources for it.
For debuffing, it's tricky. Precise Bombs is a discovery tax that you absolutely need unless you want your party to hate you. It doesn't really help you with debuffing, though and you might be able to wait with that a bit. For actual debuffing bombs, I'd say the choice is between Frost Bomb, Acid Bomb and Tanglefoot Bomb. Frost Bomb and Acid Bomb are both another damage type for those enemies that resist Fire. Frost Bomb's side effect is much better while Acid Bomb is less often resisted. I'd personally choose Frost first. Tanglefoot Bomb is a disgustingly brutal debuff, especially on low levels, but it's only fire damage.
If you want something to boost your Intelligence, Cognatogen is quite a good discovery. Basically the opposite of Mutagen, as it increases a mental stat and decreases the corresponding physical one. Unfortunately, it actually deals ability damage to the physical stat after it runs out, so definitely wait with that until you can prepare Lesser Restoration or you're going to seriously cripple yourself.
Quite frankly, the Alchemist does not make for a great healer. You only have six levels of extracts, not that many extracts per day and you have to prepare each Cure extract. Handing out Cure infusions before battle is not really a viable solution, especially with such a low Int score. You're an okay emergency healer, but your most reliable out-of-combat healing is still going to be the ubiquitous Wand of Cure Light Wounds. But you will need in-combat healing soon, so I'd probably take Healing Bomb first.
For debuffing, just pick up or craft some alchemical weapons. Acid is cheap, reliable and has a fantastic damage type. Alchemist's Fire is twice as expensive, but basically better than your bombs at your low level. Liquid Ice is your poor man's Frost Bomb, but it's actually a bit expensive, so maybe not a priority. Burst Jar does Sonic damage and guarantees that your opponent is deafened for a few rounds if they don't waste a round scraping off the goo. Ghast Retch Flask is a guaranteed Sickened in a splash radius and a possible Nauseated which is amazing for 50 gp.
But the king of all alchemical weapons is the Tanglefoot Bag. It's heavy, it doesn't do damage, but it's a guaranteed Entangled and a decent chance at making your opponent completely unable to move from their square.
Once you can reliably hit a DC 20 Craft (Alchemy) check, pick up a Hybridization Funnel. It allows you to mix splash weapons, increasing your damage output and debuff potential quite a bit. Ask your GM if the Alchemist's bonus to creating alchemical items would apply to making mixtures from splash weapons. I think it should, but you're not really creating a new item, so it's debatable.
Oh, I just remembered another great extract that you should quite frankly prepare every day.
Reduce Person. Boosts your to-hit on ranged weapons by 2, your reflex save by 1 and your AC by 2. It doesn't reduce your damage with thrown or splash weapons at all and the bonus to Dexterity stacks with Mutagen. Pretty fantastic bonuses for a level 1 extract. Reduces your CMD by 1 and your CMB by 2, so no tripping for you. I think that's a pretty good tradeoff, though.
Pretty much locks you into a ranged build, though. Your melee to-hit will stay the same, but you just do less damage.