Help with a PFS Alchemist Tank


Advice

Dark Archive

Good Morning

I need some help making a tank alchemist for PFS, we have a party of magic users/university as the theme of the group. It’s looking life a master summoner, gnome pyromancer, inquisitor of knowledge (whip based), Spell Slinger and a Oracle Seer.

So the general idea is I will be the front liner hopefully receiving flanking from the master summoners minions. I took the two armour feats in order to increase my AC to starve of as many hits as possible. The idea behind the Vestigial discovery is to allow the character to keep using his long spear in the first round of combat will imbuing his mutagen. I did consider half orc to get the best of staying up with negative hit points but I did not think it would work.

Str:17
Dex:12
Con:12
Int:14
Wis:10
Cha:8

Traits: Accelerated Drinker & ??

Race: Human

1st: Alchemist/Beastmorph/Vivisectionist 1: Alchemy, Sneak Attack 1d6, Brew Potion, Mutagen, Throw Anything, Feat: Medium Armour Proficiency Human Feat: Heavy Armour Proficiency
2nd: Alchemist 2: Discovery: Feral Mutagen, Poison Resistance +2, Poison Use,
3rd: Alchemist 3: Sneak Attack 2d6, Beastform Mutagen, Feat: Extra Discovery: Spontaneous Healing (Ex)
4th: Alchemist 4: Discovery: Vestigial Arm, Str +1
5th: Alchemist 5: Sneak Attack 3d6, Poison Resistance +4 Feat: Improved unarmed strike
6th: Alchemist 6: Discovery: Lingering Spirit, Improved Beastform Mutagen,
7th: Alchemist 7: Sneak Attack 4d6, Feat: Powerattack
8th: Master Chymist 1: Bomb-Thrower, Mutagenic Form, Mutate 2/day, Str +1
9th: Master Chymist 2: Advanced Mutagen: Extended Mutagen, Bomb 1d6, Feat: Unarmed Strike
10th: Master Chymist 3: Brutality +2
11th: Master Chymist 4: Advanced Mutagen: Furious Mutagen, Bomb 2d6, Feat: Weapon Focus Claws

Edit: Totally forgot about combat expertise needed for Gangup, swapped it for earlier improved unarmed strike


Hi, I am a very devout player of the alchemist class and I don't normally play a tank but if you want to maximise your damage output, take feats like 'Improved Unarmed Strike ' if you are going to be striking unarmed.
To make better use of the sneak attack from the rogue class, take the bomb discovery 'Force Bomb' when you can and with a bit of teamwork, you can keep the enemy on the ground drink a mutagen, then beat it into the ground doing extra damage.

Dark Archive

Warboss666 wrote:
To make better use of the sneak attack from the rogue class, take the bomb discovery 'Force Bomb' when you can and with a bit of teamwork, you can keep the enemy on the ground drink a mutagen, then beat it into the ground doing extra damage.

Thanks Warboss, I am getting the sneak attack from Vivisectionist which gives up my bombs not from the Rogue class. Actually I do get them with 2nd Master chymist which is 8 levels away. But assumed as they are quiet weak they would not be very useful.


As the proposed alchemist is a vivisectionist, he will not receive any bombs, much less the option to use bomb-related discoveries. I can see how one could gain bombs later from Master Chymist, but for a home game I would as likely allow continued sneak attack progression. Thanks to the feral mutagen, unarmed striking is likely irrelevant.

Just be aware that the Accelerated Drinker trait does not help with extracts - only potions. I recall this being an early clarification when alchemists were still in Beta testing.

If you're interested in tanking, you may also want to consider Combat Expertise, which would open up some interesting feats down the line while also giving you an extra AC boost when needed.


In addition to Accelerated Drinker you could take:
Armour Expert, Bullied or Reactionary.

Armour Expert allows you to reduce penalties so that you can wear heavier armour more and be more protected.
Bullied will increase your ability to just do some damage while in your mutagen form against incoming enemies.
Reactionary will give you a slight edge over other players and enemies, giving you time to drink a mutagen before you go into combat.

Sovereign Court

Largely-irrelavent Side note: The Spellslinger Archetype is not PFS-legal.

But, on-topic. Getting Diehard works quite well with the Lingering Spirit and Spontaneous Healing discoveries. Having that extra 10 dying health can be a nice boost at the loss of either a 1 level dip into Unbreakable Fighter (which can also net you heavy armour proficency and all those nice Martial profencies) or 2 feats. I'm running an Alchemist now built around this concept (feat-use, not the fighter dip) and I only took 3 damage from enemies. I did 70-some to myself, but a Vicious Amulet of Mighty Fists will do that with Feral Mutagen.

Dark Archive

Warboss666 wrote:

In addition to Accelerated Drinker you could take:

Armour Expert, Bullied or Reactionary.

Unfortunately all four are combat perks (including Accelerated Drinker) and you can only have one of each type. I though about Soul Drinker but it takes an immediate action and likely to be only 1 or 2 hp early on.

El Baron de los Banditos wrote:
Largely-irrelavent Side note: The Spellslinger Archetype is not PFS-legal.

Can you advise why so I can pass it onto my mate.

Yeah I am hoping to go single class to keep the theme, so I might consider either dropping power attack, and replacing it and improved unarmed strike with die hard and endurance.

Sczarni

Grab a Heavy Darkwood Shield. Use that in your vestigial arm. Its a +2 AC right off the rip before you even enchant it and I think its only like 250g. It will work 100% of the time since its your extra arm, AND no armor check penalty so it won't hurt you at all to use it.


Personally, I'd start with a 16 in Str (before racial modifier), and bump Con up to 14. Looks pretty good otherwise, though.

Dark Archive

Things which are important: Your will save and your constitution modifier.

I would truly consider starting with a level of fighter, and with this array:

Str 17, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 8.

If you start as a fighter, awesome. You get to have three feats, and you get medium and heavy armour proficiencies free. Celebrate by grabbing Power Attack, Iron Will, and your choice of Improved Initiative, Improved Unarmed Strike, Toughness, and Step-Up.

If you choose to go single class, I would grab Medium Armour Proficiency, but skip out on Heavy; instead go for Iron Will to further supplement your only weak save. Remember that 'tanking' (and I abhor the term for Pathfinder) is not just going to involve taking physical hits from enemies. Too often it's the will save that will kill a group.

Oh, and Spontaneous Healing is bad. Like really bad. You want something good, go for Preserve Organs.

Liberty's Edge

My suggestion would be 1st lvl gunslinger/guntank. You get full martial proficiencies, a gun which would allow for a ranged touch sneak attack, full armor & shield proficiencies and a chance to at least once per day allow you to act as if your armor had the fortified ability. Spend a feat on opening volley, so your first round in each combat, which a moderate dex + reactionary + improved iniative should nearly ensure and by level 2 start alchemist/ vivisectionist/ Beastmorph. Originally, I was going to recommend against it, but I can't see anything else that would assist your build that isn't already covered by your fellow party members. Maybe Chirgeon, as you can never have too many healers, but you should be fine. The advantage to opening volley would be to allow you to get a +4 to your next round of attacks, which hopefully by that point your summoner or wizard has dropped something on the board for you to flank with.
The only problem I think you should be aware of in your group is that I don't believe that the spellslinger archetype is allowed in PFS play currently.

Dark Archive

Zephyre Al'dran wrote:

My suggestion would be 1st lvl gunslinger/guntank. You get full martial proficiencies, a gun which would allow for a ranged touch sneak attack, full armor & shield proficiencies and a chance to at least once per day allow you to act as if your armor had the fortified ability. Spend a feat on opening volley, so your first round in each combat, which a moderate dex + reactionary + improved iniative should nearly ensure and by level 2 start alchemist/ vivisectionist/ Beastmorph. Originally, I was going to recommend against it, but I can't see anything else that would assist your build that isn't already covered by your fellow party members. Maybe Chirgeon, as you can never have too many healers, but you should be fine. The advantage to opening volley would be to allow you to get a +4 to your next round of attacks, which hopefully by that point your summoner or wizard has dropped something on the board for you to flank with.

The only problem I think you should be aware of in your group is that I don't believe that the spellslinger archetype is allowed in PFS play currently.

This is a pretty nifty idea. Also, with a third arm, you won't even have to worry about keeping your claw hand occupied. With a fourth arm, you'll have pistol, heavy shield, and claws.


Make sure your GM is prepared for such a party to ensure you dont bog down during combats (keep up the pace of combat rounds, ensure everyone has spell cards for their spell effects to keep book reviewing to a minimum), as with all casters a 6 person party and several summons things could slow down unless you all take steps to ensure a smooth flow during the game.

Is this a home game party or for actual PFS events and cons?

Dark Archive

Michael Foster 989 wrote:


Is this a home game party or for actual PFS events and cons?

There is a series of PFS games at a local con we are hoping to do the run through about 6 or 7 of them.

Great idea about the spell cards, I will make sure we all have them as it will definitely save a lot of time.

I like the gunslinger/gun tank option, unfortunately doesn't fit the theme, which also makes the first level of fighter (which would normally make perfect sense in this build) not an option. If it was not starting a first level I think I definitely would have taken one of those options.

Silver Crusade

Wyldfire wrote:
Warboss666 wrote:

In addition to Accelerated Drinker you could take:

Armour Expert, Bullied or Reactionary.

Unfortunately all four are combat perks (including Accelerated Drinker) and you can only have one of each type. I.

If you start with 1 level of a Barbarian Archetype (Drunken Brute I think) you get accelerated drinker. starting with a Barbarian dip also has other benefits.

Liberty's Edge

Beastmorph gives up the poison resistance so you need to remove that.

Dark Archive

Wyldfire wrote:
Michael Foster 989 wrote:


Is this a home game party or for actual PFS events and cons?

There is a series of PFS games at a local con we are hoping to do the run through about 6 or 7 of them.

Great idea about the spell cards, I will make sure we all have them as it will definitely save a lot of time.

I like the gunslinger/gun tank option, unfortunately doesn't fit the theme, which also makes the first level of fighter (which would normally make perfect sense in this build) not an option. If it was not starting a first level I think I definitely would have taken one of those options.

If you're not willing to multiclass, I would still stick with only medium armour. Going with Iron Will and Medium Armour Proficiency as your first two feats, and upping constitution over intelligence, will make you musch more of a tank.

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