How to make an Alchemist?

[Linuo]

Hello everybody,
I want to play an Alchemist in the Serpents Skull AP. It will be a Halfling with great Dexterity and Intelligence.
It should have a Focus on Bombs and Extracts. The Mutagen is only for +Dex and +AC.

But what Discoveries should I take? And what Feats? Later I wanna take a heavy Crossbow with Crossbow Mastery and Focused shot.
And another Question: Should I take the Poison discoveries?

Thanks a lot!

[Andy Griffin]

You probably want to spend most of your discoveries on improving your bombs. Get infusion as soon as you can, most of your spells are buffs that don't lend themselves to a ranged character. Get stink bomb and poison bomb as soon as you can. Precise bombs let you bomb into mlee (combined with precise shot is better). You NEED fast bombs. Many other good discoveries.

Far shot, Rapid Shot and improved precise shot are all good feats for bombs (some will be good for your crossbow as well) you will need to get the prerequisites for all of them to get focused shot.

Iron will and it's improved version will shore up your weak will save. Toughness is good for extra hp. Extra discovery is great, many discoveries are better than feats. Also you will probably want extra bombs. Running out of bombs will be a real problem in mid to high levels.

If your using traits accelerated drinker is great. Even if you can't use it on your extracts, you will likely be a big potion user.

Skip the poison stuff, Sticky poison won't give you anything for ranged combat and there are better discoveries for you than concentrate poison. Poisson is better for melee characters.

Check out ogre's guide especially the strange lob section:

[Muser]

Great that you considering an alchemist! It's a varied class that has a lot of neat abilities. You are never without something to do and capable of so man different types of attacks and support. Poisons, buffing, skillmonkeying, touch attacks and reasonable melee too.

Now, since you are playing SP, I want to give a fair warning: Make sure you have good saves. Reflex and Fortitude are important, but so is Will. Doubly so, since it is so hard to get for the alchemist. Make sure to invest in stats or feats that increase your Will or enchantment saves. Get Iron Will and some Wisdom, which increases the always important Perception too. Should you want to try the Dexterity increasing mutagen, remember that it further stunts your Will saves by decreasing Wisdom(IIRC) In this campaign that may be lethal, but if there's someone in your group that can cast Protection from Evil once in a while you'll be mosty fine in the saves front with the tips I alread gave there.

Moving on to Discoveries then. Well, what do you want to do? You could try the Smoke Bomb-Poison Bomb tree and add Stink bomb there in order to have some battlefield control. Or you could try taking the Feral Mutagen discovery and gain three claw attacks. Those can hit pretty hard, especially if you go Master Chymist. Just chucking regular bombs is a good way to shine as well. Decide what you want to do and then come back. It will be easier to help you.

Poisoning IS nice, but it is also unreliable and not very cheap. You could do it decently for a few levels with just using Poison Potion to make new poisons, but the save DCs don't go high enough for it to stay up to date and then it's anybody's guess whether you'll find a way to acquire poison in the middle of the jungle. Try consulting with your GM. He might have a house rule about extracting poison from toxic monsters and animals. Or he might place poisons for you to find if he knows about your plans upfront.

Finally, a word of warning. While the Crossbow Master+Focuset Shot combo seems powerful, especially with Improved Vital Strike in play, remember three things.
[list]

First, it is very feat intensive and the Alchemist is not getting too many of those to begin with.

Second, the damage tapers off eventually. Instead of enjoying full attacks with Haste(on your spell list) in play, you end up hankering for more and more Intelligence, as it is the only way to boost your damage, while everyone else is just doing another attack.

Third, you are a halfling, so the alternative racial trait "Warslinger" is available. So how about that?

With a sling, you could full attack giving better returns on damage in the long run and you could use mutagens to boost your Strength(since slings get full Str modifiers to damage while the crossbows get nothing). Using Strength Mutagens doesn't leave your mind vulnerable either.

[Linuo]

Thanks for the answer.

The Warslinger Idea is great. I think I'll take that way and forget the crossbow. A Halfling with a sling is nice :), what feats do I need that this Idea works?

And I think I level only the Alchemist, no Chymnist. I wanna throw Bombs, but I dont know if the Smoke bomb and its further Discoveries oder other Bomb Types, like Frost bomb...

But thanks a log for the ogres guide, thats nice!

[0gre]

I'd love to hear how the slinging works out. Seems like it might make a nice backup attack.

FWIW, I kind of like Master Chymst all around for at least a couple levels, the higher BAB, plus the additional uses of mutagenic form and the ability to select what mutation you want on the fly are all quite nice. Brutality works with slings also for a nice damage bonus (not huge but decent).

I was thinking perhaps taking 2 levels of Chyst at 9th and another at 12th would be a good way to work it for a bombing alchemist without totally killing your extract progression. Bombing progression keeps going so it basically costs you a discovery and you get a nice mix of benefits.

The downside is levels 16th+ you don't get access to the nice high level extracts until the very end and no capstone. If your group is like mine and never really gets to 20th it's a non-issue.

[sunbeam]

Jens Schophuis wrote:

Hello everybody,

I want to play an Alchemist in the Serpents Skull AP. It will be a Halfling with great Dexterity and Intelligence.
It should have a Focus on Bombs and Extracts. The Mutagen is only for +Dex and +AC.

But what Discoveries should I take? And what Feats? Later I wanna take a heavy Crossbow with Crossbow Mastery and Focused shot.
And another Question: Should I take the Poison discoveries?

Thanks a lot!

I don't have anything to say about your build, but I think your name should be "Dr. Projectyll."

Maybe with the small size you could have your mutagen form concentrate on dex, with appropriate items, and he could be "Mr. Hide."

[BigNorseWolf]

Jens Schophuis wrote:

Hello everybody,

I want to play an Alchemist in the Serpents Skull AP. It will be a Halfling with great Dexterity and Intelligence.
It should have a Focus on Bombs and Extracts. The Mutagen is only for +Dex and +AC.

But what Discoveries should I take? And what Feats? Later I wanna take a heavy Crossbow with Crossbow Mastery and Focused shot.
And another Question: Should I take the Poison discoveries?

Thanks a lot!

Ok, avoid crossbows. You are an alchemist. You blow stuff up. Once you get rapid shot 20d6 of damage a round, leaving your foe frozen, on fire, and prone in the process isn't far behind. Cross bows are horrible. If you touch one with a 10 foot pole its to put into your backpack to sell it to a peasant, where it will be happier in its natural environment of doing enough damage to kill a rabbit every other round.

What are the other members of your party? Getting infusion might work.. or it might not, depending on who else you have with you.

-You can trade your +2 to climb and acrobatics for the ability to make full attacks with a sling. It's not a bad deal.

1) Point blank shot

3) Precise shot

-You throw things at people. Other party members are always in the way. a -8 to that throw is enough to make you miss even if you are hitting touch acs.

5)Iron will

7) Rapid shot - reaaaly useful because at 8th level you can pick up fast bombs.

9th- extra discovery- Force bomb

Discoveries

2 Precise bomb - your party will kill you if you don't.
4 Explosive bomb
6 Frost bomb
8 Fast bomb
10 Sticky bomb