"And so the Alchemist wished to take a subclass and I said..."

[Ravarius the 3rd]

Hello everyone.

I am currently a player within an Inner Sea set campaign. I decided to start off as a half-elf alchemist because a bomb-throwing maniac who can enhance his form, as well as brew interesting mixtures from bits of his own magic sounded fun. So far it has been a blast, I've put two levels into Alchemist so far and have enjoyed what I've got out of it.

After our last play session I had actually gained enough experience to gain two levels, (I was just short of leveling up the session before this last one,) so I now have to make decisions on what to do with those two levels. I could go pure alchemist, which in the long run sounds appealing, but then I started to mull over the idea of taking a second or third class. When creating the character I had thought about going Inquisitor as my second class, and so I labeled that as my favorite mentally.

Anyways, long story short, I'm looking for some opinions or advice on secondary class choices. I'm trying to create a half-elf who has a wide range of knowledge, including outside of the magical field (huzzah for knowledge arcana,) but is also useful to the party as a whole. I've thought over the following options:

*Inquisitor
*Ranger
*Rogue
*Sorcerer
*Wizard

Please enlighten me.

[Dark_Mistress]

It depends on what your stats are partially. Also how melee based you have made him so far. Any of them could work but if you are looking for more skills, then the Inquis might be what works best. They get a fair amount of skill points. Plus can focus on being ranged to go along with the bomb throwing.

[BigNorseWolf]

Nothing really multiclasses well with a bomb chucker. Stay alchemist

[nosig]

I would have said Witch or Wizard, depending on your stats. these two would both give you cantrips, which can be very handy.
That said, I've found in PF that every time I multi-class, I hate myself later. (except this last time, and my Rogue just took a dip into Wizard Diviner to get forsight.... but he's still young.)

[Jon Otaguro 428]

I would second staying alchemist. It's a great class and 4th level is a big uptick in power with 2nd level spells - alchemical allocation being THE KILLER spell. That spell is probably the best spell on the entire alchemist list.

[Maerimydra]

Make an Alchemist 2/Barbarian 1/Transmuter 1 and take the Enhancement School from the APG as your Transmuter Archetype. This combo will allow you to send your Strength score into the sky! :D

If you want to be a bomb thrower, just stick with Alchemist.

[nosig]

what's your alchemist like? that way we might be better able to suggest something

[hgsolo]

Maerimydra wrote:

Make an Alchemist 2/Barbarian 1/Transmuter 1 and take the Enhancement School from the APG as your Transmuter Archetype. This combo will allow you to send your Strength score into the sky! :D

If you want to be a bomb thrower, just stick with Alchemist.

I've toyed with the idea of a barbarian/alchemist. Though I wanted to go for a hulking hurler. Take the extra arm discovery so you can still wield a weapon while hurling stuff. Could be really funny if you take it to barbarian 6 to get hurling charge. That transmuter is an interesting addition, but since it is an enhancement bonus it wouldn't stack with bull's strength, which an alchemist is more likely to use.

[Ravarius the 3rd]

nosig wrote:

what's your alchemist like? that way we might be better able to suggest something

I'll post the info in this reply.

Ravarius Hoodlin the 3rd, Level 2 Alchemist, with the current stats of:

STR: 12
DEX: 16
CON: 13
INT: 18
WIS: 10
CHA: 10

Current Weapon is a Sword Breaker Dagger.

6 in Appraise with all bonuses.
6 in Craft Alchemy with all bonuses.
6 in Knowledge Arcana with all bonuses.
6 in Knowledge Nature with all bonuses.
10 in Linguistics with all bonuses.
5 in Sleight of Hand with all bonuses.
5 in Spellcraft with all bonuses.
2 in Survival with all bonuses.

Feats:

Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Sword Breaker Dagger,) (which I got from Ancestral Arms.)
Extra Bombs, which I picked myself.
Brew Potion (Came with the class.)
Throw Anything (Came with the class.)

Discovery: Feral Mutagen

1st Level Formulae I know are:

Cure Light Wounds, Detect Secret Door, Disguise Self, Illusion of Calm, Polypurpose Panacea, Shield, and True Strike.

That's the current information for my first two levels, I have two more I can play around with currently though.

[brreitz]

I would stay stick with Alchemist, maybe pick up an Archetype that seems interesting. Mindchemist is great if you want to play a character who knows everything (they brew cognatogens that increase mental stats and double their Int bonus to Knowledge skills, and the cognatogen's bonus to Int ups their bomb damage).

Thematically, I've always been a fan of the Reanimator(move your dead bones) and Preservationist (I choose you!), and Psychonaught (goggles and tiny doors).

If you absolutely, positively HAD to go with one of the classes listed in your opening post, I would suggest a single level of ranger (there's some useful abilities there, and if you take an archetype like Guide, you may not need to worry about the frequency of your favored enemy).

Hope that helps.

[brreitz]

Just now noticing that you took Feral Mutagen. If you think you might want to focus more on melee attacks and bestial abilities, a few more levels of ranger and the natural weapon combat style could pay off(the shapeshifter archetype may be a boon here!).

[Dark_Mistress]

I would say stay Alchemist with that set up. But if you really want to go another class i would either go ranger for combat abilities or rogue for the skill points.

[Caeristhiona]

It's unfortunate that your Strength is low, since I've always liked the Feral Mutagen with Barbarian rage abilities. The high INT and DEX makes me think Rogue - unless you want to do wizard or witch, but I don't think that they would stack well as caster classes.