I've always thought alchemy didn't get enough love in D&D. At low levels it could be pretty useful, but it was also rather expensive and, if your character isn't particularly strong/doesn't have an extradimensional space, it could be rather heavy to carry around all those flasks/bags/stones. Then at mid-to-high levels alchemy lost most of its usefulness; static save DCs, low damage, generally not worth using. Pathfinder hasn't changed this much so far, and even the alchemist (going just by the playtest, of course) can't really do anything special with alchemy other than make it really quickly.
I've thought that there should be ways of enhancing alchemy (not to mention having more variety of alchemy), through the use of feats/high skill/class features (and not counting the worthless Epic-level feat from the EPH... It would have been useful if you could take it at 6th level, not 21st). With the addition of the alchemist core class, it seems like the APG would be the perfect place to include such rules/feats/etc.
Anyone know if there are any plans for anything to make alchemy a bit more useful, for a bit longer? Anyone have any thoughts on the subject?
I personally guarantee there will be more alchemical items in the APG. There's a class called the Alchemist, and one of its class features deals with making alchemical items. That would be a waste of space if it only dealt with tanglefoot bags and alchemist's fire.
Assuming they keep the section on new alchemical items I wrote...
Magic 8-ball?
All signs point to yes :)
Assuming they keep the section on new alchemical items I wrote...
Magic 8-ball?
All signs point to yes :)
Yay!
Anything about feats or alchemist discoveries (or just high-skill uses) to enhance alchemy? New alchemical items is awesome, but unless some of those items are more powerful than current ones, or unless there's some way to enhance alchemy somehow, I imagine they may get overshadowed along with the rest at mid-to-high levels.
Anyway, I'm glad to hear about new alchemical stuff, high-level or not.