Ian Groombridge's page

To every action, there is a consequence. Drink too much grog, wake up without your coin purse. Have a one-night stand with a flirtatious young sailor, become pregnant. Cut an artery, watch as life ebbs away. Such is how the gods made the world. -Andross Haid

Alright, I'm creating a Vivisectionist Alchemist and I'm fully embracing the flavor! My character is a young ship's doctor (playing in the Skulls and Shackles AP), but he has been molded by his experiences growing up in Cheliax and by his mentor, another Vivisectionist.

The character believes in natural laws that govern the way the world works, only he thinks they build beyond simple things like gravity and electricity. He believes he can discover these laws, and that the discovery of these laws is worth any sacrifice. The best way to figure out how the body works, for example, is to experiment on it, to find new ideas about how to make it better - or to make it stop working.

His aim through his research is to learn how to enhance himself. He's kind of a worshiper of Irori, in that he believes there is a path to godhood by understanding the world, but he believes its more through intellect than through enlightenment.

So, what alignment would this be? I'm thinking he could be LE, but I can see arguments for NE and LN as well.

The campaign that I am about to start playing in is down to two players. Since we are running the Skull and Shackles AP, and we wanted to keep things easy for the GM, we decided to add a third "cooperative" PC that the other player and I will run together, so that the combat is more balanced.

So far, I am playing a Beastmorph/Vivisectionist Alchemist, and the other player is playing an Oracle of some sort (not sure what build, but I would expect something melee and not focused on healing). What would be a good third character? I've already built a level 1 Sorcerer and Warpriest, but I'm open to another class as well.

I'm going to be playing Pathfinder for the first time tomorrow, and I just want to ask a few noobish questions. I've played 3.5 awhile ago, so not entirely new, but I need a refresher course.

Is the alchemist class, taking the Vivisectionist/Beastmorph archetypes viable as a mid-to-high tier melee attacker? I really like the flavor, but I've been reading tier lists and I'm not sure if this is a good starting point. I like magic using classes and I thought I'd try a sort of gish character, but I'm worried that it won't hold up well.

While we are starting at level 1, I'm not sure of how to build the character as he advances in level. I've got a decent idea about order of feats and discoveries, but I'm not sure how to spend character wealth (assuming GM doesn't just give us specific items). Is there any good guide to what kind of bonuses I should have at approximately what level?