So I'm drawing up an alchemist for a Kingmaker game (no spoilers, please!), and I was looking for a few suggestions.
Just a bit on my ideas thus far: I'm planning on choosing half-elf and using the Ancestral Arms racial trait to gain proficiency in the fauchard: I really like the idea of utilizing a reach weapon. Of the archetypes, I'm pretty certain I'm going to go vivisectionist: yes, the trade off between bombs and sneak attack is debatable, but I want to focus on melee, so I'm going to choose sneak attack. Because of the reach weapon focus, I'm not planning on taking/focusing on feral mutagen (which could change, but I'm currently not too into it for this character).
Also, it's for a PbP game, and I don't know what the rest of the party will be (and don't have any way of finding out).
- I was considering picking up a trait to give another knowledge skill as a class skill: a) would this be worthwhile? (I'd be trading out the Anatomist trait, which would give me +1 to confirm crits with my 18-20 fauchard), and b) which would you suggest? (I was leaning towards Know (Local), with Know (nobility or geography) in second place). I had also considered choosing a craft skill instead: maybe craft (alchemy) and craft (weapons)?
- I had originally thought about choosing the Preservationist archetype, but I'm currently leaning towards the Chirurgeon. I like the idea of summoning, but since I'll be devoting my feats to my melee prowess (weapon focus and power attack will by taken at levels 3 and 5), I'm starting to feel like I won't be able to summon particularly well anyway (in part b/c of the low spell slots), so I'm not sure if it'll be even worth it. The chirurgeon takes the pressure of needing to take the Infusion discovery a bit, which is nice, if somewhat minor. What's everyone think?
- The player's guide seemed to suggest a strong presence of fey, so I'm planning on starting with cold iron weapons. Yay/Nay?
- Edit to add: My preference of a reach weapon over Feral Mutagen is mostly because I would prefer to capitalize on AoOs over relying on full attacks. Any thoughts here? I know Beastmorph gives you access to pounce eventually, but as this is a PbP game, it will be a year or two before I get that high in levels, which doesn't really make that route a viable one for me.
Think those are the big ones; any help would be much appreciated.
You won't need a cold iron weapon until later. I've just finished the first book, and there's not much in the way of fey killin', IIRC.
Honestly, my gut feeling is that Feral Mutagen is the way to go, especially as a half-orc. 3 attacks at Full BAB is enough to make any fighter cry out that it's unfair. I wonder how Feral Combat Training and Dragon Style would work for a feral alchemist...
I think the choice of chirugeon is great.
I'm not sure that alchemist's can make magical weapons, so I don't see a huge use of craft (weapons). Craft Alchemy is decent though. Everybody loves tanglefoot bags.
Thanks for the input, Cheapy. I'll continue to muse on feral mutagen vs a reach weapon (obviously, they're not necessarily mutually exclusive - it's just that I like to specialize). Glad to get a vote in favor of Chirurgeon - it's not the sexiest archetype out there, so I wasn't sure what public opinion would be of it.
Just a little early-morning bump.