Alchemy Artisan's Shop and firearm alchemical cartidges

[SCPRedMage]

Currently, my gnomish alchemist has the Artisan's Shop vanity for use with his Craft (alchemy) Day Job, and I've been using it for the 5% discount on components for my alchemical items (since they would quite clearly fall under "nonmagical merchandise in [my] area of expertise".

That being said, as soon as he hits level five, I'm going to be giving him a level of gunslinger, so he can take advantage of Alchemical Weapon (Grenadier archetype) and Explosive Missile (discovery) without having to target normal AC. To help with reload times, I'm going to use a pistol, take Rapid Reload as my fifth level feat, and exclusively use alchemical cartridges for ammo, so I can reload as a free action.

So here's my question: since you need at least one rank of Craft (alchemy) in order to make them, would alchemical cartridges benefit from the discount from my Artisan's Shop? I'm thinking yes, but there's also the fact that the base components of the cartridge (black powder and a bullet) almost certainly wouldn't...

As a side question I don't really care about but suddenly find myself pondering, could an Alchemist with the Gunsmithing feat actually CRAFT alchemical cartridges in PFS? I don't see it really coming up in play much, but there IS the theoretical idea of using it to "upgrade" a dose of black powder and a bullet to a paper cartridge for 4.9gp (combine the powder and bullet with the miscellaneous materials (costing the difference in cost of the paper cartridge and the powder+bullet) as the materials to make the cartridge).

On this one I'd lean towards saying no, as the FAQ entry that allows Alchemists to craft says you follow the rules listed under the Craft skill in the Core Rulebook and the Alchemy class feature rules, which don't cover the creation of alchemical cartridges (which is part of the Gunsmithing feat, and doesn't actually require a skill check, meaning the Craft skill rules don't apply).

[Jeffrey Fox]

I'm not sure that raw materials even count as merchandise for the purpose of the vanity, but that's probably because I thought the vanity's discount was meant to offset the fact that you can't actually craft in PFS [with a few exceptions that I don't know if they existed when the vanity was published.]

I don't think you'd get a discount on the ammunition because they keep those items separate from the alchemical items in the books.

Though I am probably wrong since these are just what my ample gut tells me.

[Dylos]

As the Gunslinger in PFS does not actually craft their bullets, but simply gets a discount, I'm not sure if you could discount the discount.

I do not think being an Alchemist would allow you to craft the alchemical cartridges, which would cost the same in raw materials as the Gunslinger's discounted price from Gunsmithing.

I'm leaning towards not being able to discount a discounted price, which would put the cartridges at 50% price. If you are able to discount a discounted price, it'd be 5 gp 4 sp per paper if you apply both discounts together as a 55% discount, or 5 gp 7 sp if you treat the 50% price as full price and then discount it. There's not really a big difference in paper from the 5% discount, but I'm still leaning towards it not stacking.

[Erosthenes]

But for several PP, what good is the vanity purchase?

My ignorance is legion, and I am a bear of little brain. No offense is intended or implied in anything I may say, type, text, or communicate in any way.

[SCPRedMage]

Jeffrey Fox wrote:

I'm not sure that raw materials even count as merchandise for the purpose of the vanity, but that's probably because I thought the vanity's discount was meant to offset the fact that you can't actually craft in PFS [with a few exceptions that I don't know if they existed when the vanity was published.]

You'd have to use a strict definition of "merchandise" for it not to apply; a more general definition would be "the stock of goods in a store". Materials to make alchemical items are DEFINITELY "goods in a store", seeing as you can buy them (along with spell components) in any decently sized settlement without any problems, and they fall under my shop's "area of expertise", so I'm having trouble seeing how

Dylos wrote:

I'm leaning towards not being able to discount a discounted price, which would put the cartridges at 50% price. If you are able to discount a discounted price, it'd be 5 gp 4 sp per paper if you apply both discounts together as a 55% discount, or 5 gp 7 sp if you treat the 50% price as full price and then discount it. There's not really a big difference in paper from the 5% discount, but I'm still leaning towards it not stacking.

Actually, the Artisan's Shop vanity states that you round the discounted price to the nearest GP, so really this would only matter for dragon's breath and entangling shot cartridges, as everything else would round up to the original price...

Erosthenes wrote:

But for several PP, what good is the vanity purchase?

My ignorance is legion, and I am a bear of little brain. No offense is intended or implied in anything I may say, type, text, or communicate in any way.

+1 to Day Job checks, minor discount to the numerous consumables I chew through on the alchemist... Oh, and something to actually spend PP on.