Husband and I have recently taken up with the local PFS group. He normally DM's and is not very experienced with generating PC's so it has fallen to me to create our characters. We have a crit-fisher/heavy-hitter duo that is working out famously and we're about to start a new pair this weekend, a Druid and Wizard husband and wife team that I hope will be as much fun.
At any rate, in the spirit of always being prepared, we are working on a third duo. Husband has asked for a melee-focused Alchemist but the only Alchemist I have ever played was a Mindchemist who filled the face role in the party. I'm thinking of going Beastmorph but HeroLab seems to think it's not a PFS legal archetype. Is this true? I can't find anything saying that it is not legal but my search-fu is very weak.
Other than pondering archetype legality, I've only gotten as far as deciding that it will be a half-orc female with all the cheesy goodness available to half-orcs: sacred tattoo, shaman apprentice and fate's favoured along with the Orc Weapon Proficiencies. Any suggestions on how to flesh this character out further? We don't need to be super-optimized but I'd rather not make a chump for husband to bring to the table if I can help it.
Ugh. HeroLab strikes again, and is wrong again. Beastmorph is quite legal. Vivisectionist(the other half of the melee alchemist equation) is not.
Beastmorph is still rather doable by itself and I'd highly recommend it if going melee. The bombs will be much less useful without all the needed feats to hit, but will add some versatility at least, and help deal with all the dang swarms.
Half orc seems fine, maybe even good with their weapon selection. Falchion is the clear winner, and since you loose SA the natural attack build isn't as strong.
Feral Mutagen is usually taken, though if 2 handing all it adds is a bite.
It'd probably still be worth taking precise bomb.
I like preserve organs and mummification.
Vestigal armor can hold a shield for you.
Tentacle can be used in a natural attack build.
Helm of the Mammoth Lord grants a gore attack.
Just focus on killing things with the most abandon and it should be fine. Build up for pounce at level 10.
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I suggest Beastmorph Alchemist with a 1 level dip in Barbarian at 1st level.
A friend has played this type of character in PFS for 9 levels and so far it's great fun.
If you have the Cheliax book, you can give it Accelerated Drinker too. Then, if you walk around with an infusion of Shield/Enlarge Person in your hand, in one round you can drink your mutagen, rage, and double-buff yourself. It's nasty.
EDIT: I forgot that infusions are not the same as potions for that trait. Still works almost as well with a potion of Enlarge Person though.
Grab a two-handed weapon and go to town.
Drunken Rager or Drunken Brute Barbarian might be interesting too.
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You can't use accelerated drinker with extracts, infusion or otherwise. Doable with potions however.
A natural attack build that splashes in unarmed strike would have a large number of attacks by the time you can pounce. Grab a tumor familiar and improve it to something that can drink your extracts (monstrous physique for example), and then you've got a flanking buddy.
You can't use accelerated drinker with extracts, infusion or otherwise. Doable with potions however.
A natural attack build that splashes in unarmed strike would have a large number of attacks by the time you can pounce. Grab a tumor familiar and improve it to something that can drink your extracts (monstrous physique for example), and then you've got a flanking buddy.
Ugh...not really advisable if you aren't a vivisectionist (which is not PFS legal anyway).
If I remember correctly, unarmed strike cause the natural attacks to become secondary, which pretty much removes all their usefulness (-5 attack penalty, 1/2 str and power attack damage) unless you have some way to add damage to each hit so that you benefit as long as it hits. Sneak attack would be the usual method...but c'est la vie.
Just getting normal 2 handed attacks with pounce seems awesome enough.
Anyway, while you certainly have a solid idea (who doesn't love falchions?), I'll just throw another one out there- how about a reach build using longspears?
Reach allows you to become a 25' across circle of pain on the battlefield. That is useful for becoming a living obstacle on the battlefield. That can certainly give you an important role in battle other than being a beatstick with the occasional buff
Alchemists also have a useful way to deal with the problem of enemies that try to escape into adjacent square- the tentacle discovery. If you only have 1 natural attack (and don't use mix it into a full attack with weapons), then it become primary and deals 1.5x str and power attack damage. While half-orcs have the option to skip this discovery and go toothy, that would interfere with the sacred tattoos trait... plus, the tentacle has the odd ability of grab (free action to grapple when you hit with the tentacle, and a +4 to the grapple checks involved). It is always nice to have options, and the bonuses you get (along with mutagen's STR boost and buffs) means you can do fine as a grappler without much more investment. Well enough to take at least take care of any pesky 1/2 BAB, str dumping magical girls (or guys- I don't judge).
Admittedly, you could probably skip a lot of this build by just keeping enlarge person prepared. Turning into a 30' circle of pain with a 18-20/x2 threat range is nice too.