Ah ok, it sounded like he was quoting some book from memory.
@Allia Thren - see was just suggesting possible homebrew rules to make potions a little more worthwhile, he wasn't quoting RAW.
Yep, this.
OT and apologies, but where IS this FAQ? I keep trying to find it, but all I can find is the main FAQ in the Pathfinder page, which is just a basic description of Pathfinder and why they decided not to do 4E material.
OT and apologies, but where IS this FAQ? I keep trying to find it, but all I can find is the main FAQ in the Pathfinder page, which is just a basic description of Pathfinder and why they decided not to do 4E material.
If you go to the upper right hand corner of this page, all the way up, you'll see a link: Help/FAQ. It'll take you to a page where you can see the various books that have FAQ pages. They're on the right hand side, in a box, at the top. You've probably seen them and just missed them at some point :)
An alchemist may reverse-engineer a recipe from a potion by making a Spellcraft check (DC 20 + the spell’s level) to decipher its recipe (expending the potion in the process), and recording the recipe in her potion book at the normal cost.Great idea, and fits the flavor of the class very well.
I like the idea, but I think alchemical analysis should take the same amount of time as brewing the potion in the first place and also require a full alchemy lab. I don't like the idea of an alchemist just popping a potion, swishing it around in his mouth for a minute, then scribbling a formula into his formulary. Sampling or wafting a potion is fine for identifying it, but there's a difference between identification and carefully reverse-engineering the recipe.
I admit that I never bought into the interpretation that let alchemists (who are pretty tough anyway) just make any spell in the universe without regard to caster level, spell list, etc.
However, rather than screaming about how nasty this nerf is (and, really, Brew Potion is a free feat for the alchie), couldn't we just have a discovery that allows alchemists to (with some well-defined limits) do what it seems many (most?) people were doing anyway?
[Though, yes, a huge +1 on the suggestion for a full crafting rules rebuild]
I don't like the idea of an alchemist just popping a potion, swishing it around in his mouth for a minute, then scribbling a formula into his formulary.
My intent, although I'll admit my writing was not explicitly clear, was that the alchemist reverse-engineering a potion used the same procedure for potion-to-book analysis as "Spells Copied from Another's Spellbook or Scroll" does for scroll-to-spellbook. That is, first the alchemist makes the (DC 20 + spell level) Spellcraft check to "decipher" the potion, then spends one hour studying it, and then must make a Spellcraft check (DC 15 + spell's level) to scribe in the recipe (taking one hour per spell level to write it in the potion book).
(And I use "potion book" and "recipe" simply to maintain a terminological difference between my potion-specific, class-universal system and the alchemist's established "formula book" and "alchemical formulae".)
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I admit that I never bought into the interpretation that let alchemists (who are pretty tough anyway) just make any spell in the universe without regard to caster level, spell list, etc.
I've never even read such a thing! Where is this from - do you have a reference?
I do like the idea of an Alchemist being able to use Potions to add extracts to his formula book, just as a Wizard, Witch, or Magus can use a Scroll to add spells to their (walking in the case of the Witch) spellbooks. In fact, I'd like it if this method of adding formulas to the Alchemist's formula book replaced his ability to add formulas by copying (without deciphering even!) spells from a Wizard's spellbook - which always seemed really clunky to me. It'd also be an actual reason to nerf Brew Potion (to prevent such Alchemists just adding every single formula to their books by brewing all the related potions one at a time with the +5 to DC rule, then adding the formulas) instead of the lack of explaination we have now...