Summoner or Alchemist: which would you choose?

[Sayer_of_Nay]

Assuming all other bases have been covered by other players, which class would you choose? Both seem interesting a fun; plenty of power and versatility , along with excellent roleplaying potential.

[LazarX]

I can't make that choice for someone else. These characters do different things depending on class and archetype. Which one of those package of things would you enjoy doing more?

[Mok]

Both of them mechanically are moving into a video game reality in terms of how their abilities work. Between the two I prefer the alchemist, because it is grounded a little bit more thematically, but also because of the Infusion discovery. It lets you do a lot of interesting party buffs, but with that organic quality of needing to drink a potion, kind of like right before the big battle in Big Trouble in Little China.

My graybeard may just get grayer for saying it, but I find the Summoner to be just too anime/pokemonish for my tastes.

[Ironbar]

Mok wrote:

. It lets you do a lot of interesting party buffs, but with that organic quality of needing to drink a potion, kind of like right before the big battle in Big Trouble in Little China.

Man that is awesome. I am so building Egg!

[Sayer_of_Nay]

Ironbar wrote:

Mok wrote:

. It lets you do a lot of interesting party buffs, but with that organic quality of needing to drink a potion, kind of like right before the big battle in Big Trouble in Little China.

Man that is awesome. I am so building Egg!

Wow,I suppose Egg Shen *would* be an alchemist. Possibly with a splash of sorcerer (to emulate his lightening hands).

[Choant]

Mok wrote:

My graybeard may just get grayer for saying it, but I find the Summoner to be just too anime/pokemonish for my tastes.

I choose you celestial dog!!

[Strix]

Mok wrote:

My graybeard may just get grayer for saying it, but I find the Summoner to be just too anime/pokemonish for my tastes.

But that's the best part of the summoner! With master summoner out, all you need is the GM's go-ahead to throw pokéballs in order to cast your summon spells :D Make your last name "Oak" and your first name "Professor" and you're good to go, provided you have a "pokédex" tome handy...

[Mirrel the Marvelous]

If you are going to go that route then the Preservationist Alchemist archetype is even better thematically, as you really do throw bottled creatures at the enemy.

[Qik]

I'm a big fan of both classes myself; currently preparing characters of each for PbP games.

For me, it would really depend on what you wanted. The summoner gives you:
- High survivability (i.e. meatshields with your SLAs and eidolon)
- Melee prowess via eidolon (as long as you don't go master summoner)
- Lots of skill versatility (between the summoner and eidolon), as well as the ability to take two cracks at important rolls.
- High charisma lets you potentially take the roll of the party face, especially when combined with racial traits like the gnome's Gift of Tongues or traits that give you Cha skills as class skills.

The alchemist gives you:
- Lots of versatility to shape your character via archeypes (I think the alchemists are some of the best around).
- Melee prowess/survivability via the mutagen and discoveries like Spontaneous Healing, Lingering Spirit, Feral Mutagen, and Preserve Organs, and sneak attack (via vivisectionist).
- Lets you take the role of skill monkey (not quite at the rogue's level, but fairly close).
- Possibility to play the roll of a secondary healer (via the Chirurgeon archetype and the Healing Touch discovery).
- Ability to be cover the Knowledge skills (you get two as class skills, and can afford the skill points to pick up one or two more via traits).
- Possibility for lots of blasting/battlefield control (although I'm currently more enamored with melee alchemists, for mostly personal reasons).

So yeah, I just think it depends on your desired focus. I think the skills are where some of the more marked differences lie, since the classes are otherwise so versatile.