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I don't know right away what could be done for these, but all the conscious minds that don't work with the system. Unbound Step, Tangible Dream, Oscillating Wave, and Distant Grasp all had basically only the ability to attack vs AC with Amps. With the remaster, Oscillating Wave now has a save option in frostbite. Infinite Eye doesn't have any offensive amp and doesn't interact with unleash psyche. Silent whisper is carried by Shatter Mind. Daze, Unbound Step, Tangible Dream, and Infinite Eye still have big system problems, and Distant Grasp to a lesser degree.

For a lot of Minds the core tool in their kit is big single target ranged damage against AC as a caster.

Just listing things that I think could be done, amp feats could be opened up for use with all your spells, like spellshapes are.

Unleash psyche could have less restrictions. Activation, spells that benefit, how spells benefit, duration, or penalties.

Psyche actions, especially from subconscious mind, could have their action changed.

Interaction with focus points can be modified.

Number of spell slots.

I hope a number of the spells get some clarification or fixes too. Poltergeist's Fury really bothers me.

The first thing I'd fix on mutagens is actually the duration. Same for the Ablative gadgets. 1 minute, 10 minutes, 1 hour isn't scaling, because 1 minute duration is worthless. You can't use 1 minute of cognitive, silvertongue, or serene mutagen. Even 10 minutes on an exploration buff is just enough to apply to one segment. That can be one check.

The Alchemist class's number of Advanced Alchemy items and maximum number of ready Versatile Vials both reference the character's intelligence modifier. Such an important number as "how many times you get to use your class ability" should really be set at the class writing level and not left up to individual attribute choices, like whether someone chooses an Intelligence Apex item or not.

Examples: Barbarian rage duration, Cleric Font of Power uses, anyone's spells per day.

The spell Poltergeist's Fury can be sustained for 1 minute, and sustaining increases the radius, but the spell never says when creatures in the area take damage, leading to the appearance that it only does its rather low damage when cast.

The solution seems obvious to me. It should not be a bomb, and it should work on any elixir. Just call it, I don't know, reach spell or something. Topical solution. Throw anything. It's an additive, so it's allowed to have a benefit. You can base the mechanic on the toss rule, if you must roll a d20. I'm pretty sure that's not an attack even though you make a ranged roll.

On the subject of contact poisons, the remaster changed the rogue Poison Weapon feat in a couple notable ways. First change is that the poison is just applied to the weapon like normal. There's no longer any clause about the poison having to be delivered quickly or expiring early. The second change is that the strike no longer specially exposes the target to contact poison, even though that's still an option to apply to the weapon. Are you supposed to apply contact poison then hope the enemy picks it up?

Just a general reminder that both Advanced Alchemy and Quick Alchemy now only allow the alchemist to create consumables. So you cannot create an infused sun dazzler after all.

letting them ride on your shoulders is pretty fine since even the devs themselves in their playthroughs and in their presentations have done so, and it's even half-referenced in the rules about pcs riding pcs (that those follow different rules than simpyl having a tiny familiar riding you and etc)

I can't speak about actual play examples, but the rules for riding PCs are only written about PCs. They don't seem to mention companions, minions, or familiars at all.

From GM Core pg 29, Mounted Combat I see "The mount rules are for common cases: humanoids riding quadrupedal animals. However, you might allow someone to ride a beast or other type of creature by making a few adjustments." ... "If one of your PCs is Tiny, they might want to ride on another PC's shoulder. In this case, the two PCs should both roll initiative and act together on the lower count, and they gain only two actions at the start of their turns instead of three since the larger PC must spend one action keeping the smaller PC balanced, and the smaller PC must spend one action holding on."

So you may allow a familiar to ride for free, or you may stick to the rules example of costing one action from each, or maybe the result is that the familiar and PC each get two actions per turn, or something else.

There's also the Pet Cache spell in Player Core, the Familiar Satchel in Pathfinder Society, the Familiar Tattoo from Secrets of Magic, and the Absorb Familiar ability (expanded from Grand Bazaar's Tattoo Transformation?) that all let you carry your familiar on your person in more or less safety, at the cost of the familiar being able to act freely. The satchel suggests your familiar could ride in a normal pouch or pocket and only have to spend one action to enter or exit, as a common PFS ruling. As a Tiny creature, you could also just carry it in one hand.

The mismatch between the rules and the way people actually play is why I hate familiars.

They should also write alchemists the feats that just do whatever these pet abilities are supposed to accomplish. Instead, they could shut down Lab Assistant by making it a Command, like Valet.

Does everyone interested in familiars just never move? The action savings of any of the proposed options is easily lost if you ever have to command your familiar just to keep up with you in battle. Familiars are tiny, with default 25 speed and 0 reach. It's easy for a familiar to get left behind, even if it can be Independent. It must be in your space to use lab assistant, and must start in your space for item delivery. Item delivery then requires it to reach the target's space as well. It sounds like spell delivery for items. It's nothing to get excited over. It's not a substitute for real QoL options for the alchemist.

If I poison weapons before a fight, and I should, then it only lasts 10 minutes. It doesn't have to be my weapons. And I don't know why I can apply poison as one action instead of two.

I'm trying to think of some way that the alchemist gets to use alchemy in combat instead of before combat. The bomber is doing it. Why not everyone else.

The problem with toxicologist is that they didn't make poisoning weapons in combat functional. How is the blowgun poisoner feat supposed to work?
Create poison. Apply poison. Strike. Next turn.
Create poison. Apply poison. Reload. Next turn.
Strike. Create poison. Apply poison. Next turn.
Reload. Strike. Reload. Next turn.
Create poison. Apply poison. Strike. Next turn.
You don't hide. You don't move. You strike with a blowgun on 3 turns out of 4. You used 3 poisons.

Compare this to having darts already poisoned.
Strike. Reload. Strike. Next turn.
Reload. Strike. Reload. Next turn.
You strike 6 times in 4 rounds. You use the agile trait. You used 6 poisons. You can try to hide, or move, or use quick alchemy instead of those two-strike rounds.

If you're down to Quick Vials, it seems better to just throw them as bombs rather than apply them as poison to one of your ranged weapons.

I hate familiars. But, a Lab Assistant has to be in your space. It uses one of its actions on the quick alchemy. Familiars cannot activate items, so it then gives that item to you, or to another ally. I think it could even throw the item (10' ranged increment) if it can make the DC 15 ranged attack. Then whoever receives the item can activate it. So it still takes at least two actions.

For a lot of builds, the fact that you are passively always regaining 2-3 VVs even when doing other things basically translates to also "you can be permanetly under 2-3 things by taking that hit on your maximum VV stash)

So, as a Mutagenist as an example, you can be permanently under Bestial from level 3 and onwards and instead of having 6 VVs for the fight you are starting the fight with 5.

Add in stuff like Collar of shifting spider and retrieval belts, and suddenly you are even better action conomy wise.

For the toxicologist, you can have 3 poisoned weapons up all the time, and instead of starting with 7 VVs at level 10, you are starting with 4.

and etc

That's imo is an acceptable loss for the massive action economy boost.

And that's not accounting for all those times you either have the leisure to have an extra round, or you're simply waiting for the enemies to rush towards you and not the other way around. A single round of prebuffing, with Double brew, means that you can have up to 5 effects ongoing from round 2 and thereafter, and still have VVs left for emergencies, and still have all your Advanced Alchemy things that you can use for either longer duration buffs, or stuff like Elixirs of Health to get in a pinch, or for extra bombs, extra poisons, and etc depending on your Field.

Ok. That completely agrees with what I'm talking about. The best plan for a non-bomber is to use versatile vial buffs pre-combat. Bombers have a tool to use versatile vials in battle, as their means of battle. Others don't. Toxicologist can't apply a new poison to their weapon for one action. like a rogue. There's no Reach Elixir. There's no Alchemical Combat to activate an elixir while you fight, not even to just avoid reactive strike. Everything points to the Alchemist is a non-combatant. Or the combatant is a non-alchemist. You'll have versatile vials to use for every fight, but there's no good reason to use versatile vials **in a fight**. I can see maximized elixirs of healing being worth using, but otherwise, am I wrong?

For Quick Alchemy, yes. but wouldn’t that same language technically allow a toxicologist to use 1 action to draw and apply their field vial poison, as well as a churigeon or mutagenist to to spend 1 action to draw and drink their own field vial elixirs?

Wouldn't that same language allow a bomber to use one action to draw and strike with their field vial bomb, but Quick Bomber says "You Interact to draw a bomb, draw a versatile vial, or use Quick Alchemy to create a bomb, then Strike with the bomb." So, it looks pretty confirmed that versatile vials are a thing you draw when you want to use them.

As for the Quick Vials, you need to see them for what they are:

free, no resource, cantrips.

You won't use them when an ally is down any more that you'd use Rousing Splash when an ally is down. But if you have leftover actions remaining, tossing a free 3d6 healing at 12 is not that terrible.
Furthermore, there are feats that make this healing atually do decent stuff, like fully rerolling any kind of mental effect an ally is suffering, which is amazing benefit for a level 1 feat to have on a cantrip.

Rousing splash is a great point of comparison. At level 12, it grants 6d4 temp hp and washes away one fire or acid as appropriate assistance, for two actions at 60' range. The target is then immune for 10 minutes.

The Chirurgeon Field vial heals the target for 3d6 at 20' range, or for 3d6 and grants +int (5?) temp hp at melee range, also for two actions. The target is then immune to only the healing for 10 minutes. Then there's a 1st level feat that adds an additional will save against a mental effect. There's a level 2 feat that adds appropriate assistance against bleeding to the melee use, and as well as the rest of your infused healing elixirs.

So the class specific option with a class feat and an attribute requirement compares to the primal/divine cantrip, minus all the range. This Field Vial has little to recommend it in combat.

You can't use additives with quick vials. Granting an improved recovery check against bleeding is normally two actions. If you're doing this with first aid, it requires a healer's toolkit and a medicine check. The gunslinger's Cauterize is one action, but you also have to reload the gun. If you do it with Clotting Elixirs it comes alongside any of your infused healing elixirs.

Healing bomb has the problem of needing to hit your ally to get the full effect, and it doesn't even give the elixir the normal bomb bonuses to attack rolls. You have to be using another item for those. Additives are supposed to be benefits. This looks more like a desperation move you'd try on a dying ally, and accept the splash healing as an acceptable cost.

The Field Discovery (level 5) for Chirurgeon works for touch range field vials, but not the thrown version. It does appear to work if you hit with a healing bomb, its issues notwithstanding, but it looks like the chirurgeon is encouraged to be a melee combatant for some reason. There is no boost that only works for chirurgeon's field vials.

Quick bomber works with healing bombs, but I haven't seen similar action compression for poisons, mutagens, or elixirs. It looks like those are all going to remain best used pre-and-post combat, so non-bomber (strength) alchemists will still just strike with simple weapons as their battle plan? A mutagenist can get some temp hp if they use the mutagen close enough to combat starting, or mid-combat, but that's a poor consolation for spending two-actions to engage bestial mutagen. You aren't given any action compression to claw back these action costs later.

Combine Elixirs definitely only costs 1 additional vial. Compare it to the old version. It's really clear. Again, additives are supposed to be benefits.

I thought alchemist kinda has the resource plan of a wave caster, if alchemical items are ~half a spell. So I expected they'd have an activity or action to make using those items also be like half a spell. Soothe is two actions to heal an ally up to 30 feet away. IF an alchemist wants to do that, it takes three actions.

Chirurgeon definitely can use quick Vials as a healing elixir. That's been previewed. Here's hoping just that specific use has the 10 minute cooldown because that's the only one that's otherwise at will.

I've done thinking about what could go wrong, but followed by how to avoid those problems. For Versatile Vials, wrong would be taking the Quick Tincture feature from Alchemical Sciences Investigator and swapping the word Elixir or Tool for Healing, Poison, Mutagen, or Bomb. This is because current Quick Alchemy can make any formula you know. The right way would be to keep Quick Alchemy, and also make new effect(s) specific to each field.

For the example of throwing a vial like an acid bomb, the wrong way would be "As a ranged splash weapon with an increment of X ft," or "Treat the vial as an Acid Flask (lesser). As your alchemist level increases..." This is wrong because some current medium armored alchemists would have a difficult time making use of a weapon that uses Dexterity for its attacks. The right way would be for the acid to attack using your key ability, or require the target to save against your class DC.

For the example Mutant Physique feat, that adds an extra effect when under Juggernaut, Bestial, or Quicksilver Mutagen. The wrong way is to combine the three physical mutagen feats (Invincible, Elastic and Feral) into one feat. The right way to do it is to write a boosted effect for as many mutagens as possible and allow a character to unlock those effects by taking the feat. Alternatively, write one benefit for the feat to give under any mutagen, like how revivifying mutagen works with any mutagen. This is called future proofing, except the future is now, because books with non-core mutagens already exist.

For Additive feats, the wrong way to do them is to restrict them to a very narrow selection or creation method of alchemical items. The right way to do them is like spellshape actions where one can be applied wherever the effect makes sense, to advanced alchemy or quick alchemy alike, with whatever action cost makes sense for the ability. Healing Bomb would be Elixir Bomb, for instance. This is like how Spellshape feats mostly work for all spellcasters but psychic Amp feats mostly don't work for psychics. It sucks having a bunch of daily-use abilities that don't interact with your class feats at all. Also, just improve the power level of some of the existing feats. Healing Bomb is probably not intended to be 1d6 healing until level 7. Revivifying Mutagen is probably not expected to be mostly 1d6 healing until level 11.

Not all rogues are theives, and there's examples of rogues in fiction that can fit in an heroic party. The literal concept of the "rogue" in D&D and TTRPGs is likely derived from LoTR's Bilbo. Han Solo is also another common inspiration for the scoundrel trope, which is covered by rogues.

Many players cite LotR for inspiration in early D&D, but Gygax usually avoids it, and might actively deny it (for legal reasons if nothing else). In this case, the Grey Mouser is probably a primary inspiration.

Gygax writes the thief class after talking to some early D&D players making a burglar class for a dwarf henchman in their own game, so they at least might've thought about Bilbo. Gygax's final version is far from the Hobbit's portrayal.

In a similar fashion, the word Ranger appears in LotR, but the D&D class isn't primarily interested in being Aragorn.

Vorthos is also happy when mechanics fit the game's story well, or feel like they tell a story. Flavor text appeals to vorthos, as well as particularly evocative mechanics. The name of roughly every inventor feat, and a bunch of psychic feats are for vorthos.