Selkor's page

I think I would be fine with the Summoner having 4 spells if the Boost & Reinforce Eidolon had a longer duration like 1 minute, and then give the summoner some other kind of action to do. I was thinking of giving Intimidate a try and see how that meshes with a build. I also wouldn't mind them having more focus spells, particularly one that could summon.

It would be nice if some of the Summoner feats gave the Eidolon some kind of martial feats like Lunge or Parry or Attack of Opportunity, they are supposed to be a martial class with some spellcasting but both the Summoner and the Eidolon seems kind of repetitive as mentioned above.

Also all 4 Eidolons feel mostly the same I kinda wish we got to allocated the initial 4 Ability Boosts to the Eidolon to give them a bit more flexibility. Maybe a support ability like Animal Companions have?

Maybe let Act Together allow you and the Eidolon to cast a single two action spell, I mean they are the source of your magic why shouldn't they be able to help you cast a spell (fluffwise?). Although I'm sure that could bring up a host of other issues.

Well if the Summoner is using Act Together (the only thing granting them an action) there would be very visible magic being cast on the Eidolon. So its more like "Look that guy is buffing this monster lets kill him".

It's not magic though? It's literally you two just taking actions at the same time. It doesn't even have the magic trait, just Summoner and Tandem. So unless you're casting a spell (which granted you'd probably be casting a Conduit spell to boost the Eidolon), there isn't any magic.

Yeah, I think they should get either a Focus Spell summon, or a pool of maxed Summon spells ala Channel Divinity on a Cleric. Either could then max out at 10th level.

It's a fairly minor issue balance-wise, but a huge quality of life improvement.

Yeah something that gives them the ability to summon without using precious limited spell slots,, which I think would also relieve some of the pressure on those slots.

Selkor wrote:

Could I get a quick rundown of the Occultism Skill Feats?

Deceptive Worship - Pass yourself off as a member of a religion

Root Magic - Create a token that grants a bonus against a spell or haunt
Schooled in Secrets - Gather Information about secret societies and mystery cults
Disturbing Knowledge - Frighten foes with occult secrets (Basically, you can scare'em with your spooky, Cthulhu knowledge, but a crit lets you confuse them, too.)

All of these only require you to be trained in Occultism, with the exception of Disturbing Knowledge, which requires Mastery.

Oh man I want Disturbing Knowledge so bad, just ramble on about the things in the void and scare people.

Any information on the Familiar Master Archetype would be appreciated, especially if you think it would mesh well with an Alchemist. Thanks for giving us all this preview!

one of the major issues that really hurt is that chirurgeon's ability to substitute Craft for Medicine is practically useless because every single upgrade to Treat wounds from the base skill (increased amount) to the skill feats (more targets and etc) are ALL still tied to Medicine rank.

so, not only you have only 3 skills to upgrade, but as a Chirurgeon, you basically are forced to spend 2 out of the 3 skill increases in medicine and Craft.

I'm pretty sure that the ability should have read "and substitute Craft for all Medicine requirements" in order to actually be useful at all.

secondly:

All alchemists should have (imo) automatic increase in Craft at 3/7/15. Just that one skill would have been ok imo.

I also agree with you the Chirurgeon not just having crafting overwrite the Medicine ability is silly since it doesn't affect any of the other aspects of Medicine the way it was written.

I think I can understand why they don't give the Craft skill the automatic progression. Since it would be tied to all crafting not just Alchemy, which would eventually let them take the Craft Anything feat at 15 without as much of an investment as any of the other classes. Although I am partial to agree with you that I would have liked it as well.

I just think having a total of 9 skill increases and having to use 3 of them to get a single skill to legendary, especially for a class that is focused on crafting and skills is a bit unbalanced.

I kinda feel like Alchemists are a skill class similar to Bard or Rogue, I understand they are supposed to supplement their skills via the items they make. But I feel like they weren't given enough via their class to compensate for the difference. I readily admit I haven't played PF2 yet, not for a lack of trying, so I'm not sure if it just feels like Alchemists are half a step behind other classes or not. You insights would be greatly appreciated!

Bards start with 6+ skills, have spells, and feats that can all improve the usage of their skills. Not to mention their Muses give them a feat as well.

Rogues start with at least 9+ skills, lots of skill increases (19), lots of skill feats, and versatile feats to give them their needed flexibility that is iconic of the rogue class which I think is inline with how they should be.

Alchemists conversely start with 4+ skills granted INT is their prime stat (one of which is central to their concept), their Research Field has no real impact on their skill usage, they have the typical 9 skill increases. The only class feats that can be viewed as affecting their skills at anything are Glib Mutagen (level 14) and Genius Mutagen (level 16).

I feel like combined with the lack of proficiency bumps they get across the board and the lack of skill increases to go with their typically increasing INT, is somewhat stifling for them. I feel the transition for their Class Feats from Playtest to Release took a diversity hit and they narrowed their usefulness down, and over corrected. Combined with the very lackluster Capstone trait of Master for Light & Unarmored. It just seems to be they just didn't make the effort or care for Alchemists that they did for other classes.

Bulk:

After testing out making an alchemist, he had 2 bulk for the required Alchemist's tools (60 sp) , the free but required formula book is 1 bulk, crossbow is 1 bulk (30 sp), bolts are Light, leather armor (15 sp) is 1 Bulk. That 5 bulk and 1 Light object at the end of character creation. That's before making any alchemical items such as bombs or elixirs.
Potential solution: Could be to give the Alchemist a class only Tool set that weighs nothing due to the fluff reasoning of they know how to minimize and store stuff on their person idk. I would also make All alchemical items just 1 Bulk.

RP & Quick Alchemy & Action Economy:

This is kinda meshed with action economy too. You can make some items at the start of the day at the expense of the ability to make them on the spot with QA. I get that and its understandable. My problem with QA is the lost of effect at the end of the round (or next round with lv 4 feat Enduring Alchemy). If you can't manage to use the item that round its a wasted RP. That's fine too until you try to use poison, which in most cases you can't because it takes 3 actions to apply almost all the poisons. So unless you have quick that doesn't work at all. Also handing some items to use fellow players costs them RP to use after you already spent some?
Potential Solution: QA takes 1 or 2 actions and allows you to use whatever item it is you made. So for example you make Black Adder Venom (injury poison) and apply it to your weapon all as one Activation. This still doesn't make contact or ingested poisons viable since they loose effect at the end of your turn. As to the RP, just give Alchemist a class pool like pretty much everyone else. Spell points and ki and channels, its not hard to separate the ability to make alchemical items (which aren't magical) from RP and make it easier.

Money Issues:

The limits on making items and having to constantly fall back on a weapon due to limited RP to make enough bombs for encounters per day isn't bad, but how many bombs do they get per day? And at the cost of their support/utility. Casters get cantrips to fall back on why can't alchemist get a ability of a low 1d4 or 1d6 bomb with splash at will? Also crafting Alchemy items in the down time is a lot of money and don't gain the infused trait. That means they don't get any Alchemist feat benefits for the most part. I could be wrong but that would also mean that the bombs won't scale since they don't benefit from Empower Bombs at 3rd level.
Potential Solution:
This is really just an extension of the RP problems to me. I think they would have the same solution. Giving Alchemists a way to create more items via "spell points" just seems like the easiest way. Otherwise the alchemist will never have enough downtime or money to actually make enough items to carry around so they dont have to constantly rely on making an item via QA in order to meet a demand on the spot. I mean they are alchemist why should it be so hard for them to make stuff in down time?

Mutagens:

I'll be honest I haven't looked at them in the book too closely, but from what I understand they aren't available until level 5 I believe? Then they take 2 rounds after using them to take effect? That seems a bit slow to activate, but maybe that's just me.
Potential Solution:
I don't really have one since I, admittedly, don't know much about them.

I am curious what level the alchemist in your group is and if they have any comments or concerns about the class? Maybe not now but some they see as the character levels up?

I wanted to make a Goblin Alchemist for my groups Doomsday Dawn, but the class is such a mess as it is now. Beyond the massive RP, Bulk, money issues, lack of alchemical items, problematic action economy, issues with poisons and mutagens not being viable, and several issues with feats. It honestly looks like they made it first and then made all the other classes and never came back to bring it up to par. So I'm wondering when you think they will release a fix for it? Or are they just going to leave it an ineffectual mess?

This was one of the main things I was looking for this morning. I was trying to build a goblin alchemists (whose hard of hearing from an explosive accident). I wanted him to have a chalk board around his neck to scribble words or images (since goblins are typically scared of words). Instead I've found that even basic gear is already at max bulk before that and I haven even got to alchemy items beyond the alchemists set. Even a 1 or 2 point bump, or more light items would be great. Or an ability that flavors as improved storage to make alchemy items weightless or somethings.