I think the point people are trying to make about the Fighter vs Alchemist protection is that while they do things differently, neither of them actually do anything to the Wizard himself.
They have different ways of dealing with damage and with dealing damage or screwing the enemy up.. however they don't have Cure Light Wounds, Restoration, Raise Dead, Buffs in general, and most importantly, the Shield Other spell.
The Cleric protects the Wizard. The most a Fighter can do with his abilities is survive hits and try to be something of a nuisance. Neither of which is far different from the Alchemist (who simply does it differently).
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Not to say that I would play the Alchemist like a Fighter (trying to take hits, etc). However, I would play him with a different mindset than a utility or blasting Wizard. And that's the point.
I think the point people are trying to make about the Fighter vs Alchemist protection is that while they do things differently, neither of them actually do anything to the Wizard himself.
They have different ways of dealing with damage and with dealing damage or screwing the enemy up.. however they don't have Cure Light Wounds, Restoration, Raise Dead, Buffs in general, and most importantly, the Shield Other spell.
The Cleric protects the Wizard. The most a Fighter can do with his abilities is survive hits and try to be something of a nuisance. Neither of which is far different from the Alchemist (who simply does it differently).
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Not to say that I would play the Alchemist like a Fighter (trying to take hits, etc). However, I would play him with a different mindset than a utility or blasting Wizard. And that's the point.
Actually the Alchemist does have cure light wounds, Restoration, buffs in general, and can get true resurrection at levels 16 and 20, in addition to the heal spell at level 16, and can give that heal spell to the wizard to use as a move action on his own discretion too if he takes the infusion ability.
I would say that is useful to protecting the wizard.
Honestly my biggest problem with infusion being required to be a party player is that there just aren't enough discoveries available to players.
I'd bump it up to one every two levels, to be perfectly honest, and then set hard-and-fast rules in there. Discoveries are basically Alchemy Feats, but they improve upon standard class features that -should've- improved with level -anyhow- (I'm looking at you mutagen).
As it stands, you get 7 at level 20 (4, 8, 12, 16, 20, +2 from Grand Discovery). You should get (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, +2 from Grand Discovery), so that you can spread out over multiple trees and keep your class features up to par or specialize in one of the myriad trees of research.
It's like playing Starcraft. Don't you want to get all the tech trees?
Actually, it's worse - it's like playing Starcraft, but everybody else in the game gets their full tech tree without research time, and you have to pick just one branch.
Actually the Alchemist does have cure light wounds, Restoration, buffs in general, and can get true resurrection at levels 16 and 20, in addition to the heal spell at level 16, and can give that heal spell to the wizard to use as a move action on his own discretion too if he takes the infusion ability.
I would say that is useful to protecting the wizard.
All of those things is assuming he picks the Infusion or Elixir of Life discoveries.
The point was that an Alchemist without the Infusion discovery is "broken" in some way, because he *must* use his abilities to buff others to be a team player.
Jason (and others here) are suggesting that the Alchemist can be a self buffer and still be useful to the team. A Fighter doesn't have anything that would normally boost another person (such as a Wizard), unless there's some rare Combat Feat that would specifically do so (a normal feat doesn't count as the Fighter class benefits only grant combat feats).
The Alchemist who specifically buffs himself, and thus not using Infusion/Elixir of Life is equivocal to the way a Fighter plays.
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This is an argument against saying that the Alchemist *must* have Infusion to be a team player. It is not an argument against the Alchemist *ever* being able to buff others (clearly he can, with the right discoveries).
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It interesting to note the alchemist, like all the spellcasting classes presented from the advanced players guide except the oracle. use a bardlike spellcasting progression - more spells known, fewer times per day, and a lower maximum spell level (with a number of spells having a lower effective level for the new class) as compared to the core classes. is this a pattern that the developers are moving towards?
To specific points, the alchemist has some strengths (I like the bombs) and weaknesses (infusion being almost required as a discovery, and the slow progression of the discoveries).
I tend to agree with kerian that discoveries should be faster paces in acquisition. Either that or you make some discoveries into feats that the player can take to augment discoveries they have already taken. That would be more balanced to what I see, allowing a player to just make discoveries and have X level of power, or augment discoveries with feats to have X+ level of power.
One thing i do like is that the Alchemist has, to me, some core similarities to the Artificer class from 3.5 Eberron. or, at least, it can. The class can take on that role if you are trying to modify pathfinder classes for Eberron use (which I may be) as the 'item maker'. Maybe some alteration to the class could be made to allow for 'off camera' potion making thats easier for this class, to offset some of the slower discovery rates? (unless I missed something in the class itself that already accounts for this)
I feel it should really be pointed out that the alchemist is not a spell caster. He can't create magical items without the mastercrafter feat, and he doesn't suffer arcane spell failure, concentration check issues, or any other of the host of casting problems that spell casters have.
He is more closely aligned to the monk in terms of abilities (not what those abilities do, just having abilities that aren't spells), Bard, Barbarian, Rogue or the paladin mechanically. Each have abilities that aren't spells, but have spell like effects and weird rules loopholes (not a good term but that's what they amount to).
Comparisons to actual casters will fall up short, and fruitless if we continue to try and shoehorn this class where it doesn't really belong.
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It interesting to note the alchemist, like all the spellcasting classes presented from the advanced players guide except the oracle. use a bardlike spellcasting progression - more spells known, fewer times per day, and a lower maximum spell level (with a number of spells having a lower effective level for the new class) as compared to the core classes. is this a pattern that the developers are moving towards?
To specific points, the alchemist has some strengths (I like the bombs) and weaknesses (infusion being almost required as a discovery, and the slow progression of the discoveries).
I tend to agree with kerian that discoveries should be faster paces in acquisition. Either that or you make some discoveries into feats that the player can take to augment discoveries they have already taken. That would be more balanced to what I see, allowing a player to just make discoveries and have X level of power, or augment discoveries with feats to have X+ level of power.
One thing i do like is that the Alchemist has, to me, some core similarities to the Artificer class from 3.5 Eberron. or, at least, it can. The class can take on that role if you are trying to modify pathfinder classes for Eberron use (which I may be) as the 'item maker'. Maybe some alteration to the class could be made to allow for 'off camera' potion making thats easier for this class, to offset some of the slower discovery rates? (unless I missed something in the class itself that already accounts for this)
The witch does not use the bard spellcasting progression.
Why not include a feat, "Extra Discovery"? If a player wants to focus more on discoveries, they can just purchase the feat. Each time they purchase the feat it applies to a different discovery.
Based on my test-run, I see Alchemists as having undergone a conditioning which allows them to convert otherwise inert or poisonous concoctions into magical effects. Their own magical reserves are the catalyst for these effects, which could be counted off like a spell caster's mental spell slots.
Let them create as many mutagens as they like, considering they put the time and money into them, but limit their frequency of use based on internal capacities. Make the Infuse discovery inherent and without arbitrary drawbacks. Level could determine how many times an Alchemist can imbibe a mutagen until he either receives no effect, or begins to suffer penalties from overuse.
Maintaining the selfish nature of their abilities is fine, but they should be easier to employ.