Silent Saturn
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Is this a worthwhile discovery for an Alchemist?
At first glance, it looks like adding six levels of Summon Monster to your spellbook, except oozes only. Then I noticed a few things.
-You have to be level 6 to take the discovery,
-The extract level is the ooze's CR, and
-The alchemist isn't in control of the ooze.
Remember, alchemists get bard-style spell progression. At level 6, they have 1st- and 2nd-level extracts, and are one level away from getting 3rd-level extracts. That means that next level, they can throw a CR 3 ooze... into a CR ~7 encounter. What's a CR 3 creature going to do against the kind of enemies a 7th-level party would be facing?
The fact that the alchemist doesn't control the ooze means that it can't even be relied on as a flank partner. And since it'll last a minimum of six rounds, summoning an ooze you can't control is putting the entire party at risk of having to fight another enemy.
Is this discovery as much of a trap option as I'm making it sound, or is there an upside I've missed?