First off, the original Chirurgeon archetype, renamed Medic, will be retained as is, except instead of the ability to make cure infusions it just gets the Infusion discovery for free. So, what we have now will still be playable.
Chirurgeon will be either an archetype or an alternate class, depending on how many changes have to be made, that is designed to be a primary healer, instead of a secondary healer like other Alchemists. This is because my campaign setting has the Alchemist as both the most common magic using class (in the setting as a whole, not in PC parties) and the most common healer for NPCs. Divine magic exists (and all the divine casters are playable classes), but it's pretty rare and it is well known that the gods are dead, so a commoner who needs medical attention isn't going to go to a temple. They will go to an Alchemist, who will examine their problem and either create a potion to address it or perform surgery (Surgery is what you use to address ongoing Constitution damage or negative hit points. HP is vitality, non-threatening wounds, and luck, -HP and Constitution damage represent serious wounds [Hitting -HP equal to their Constitution score causes patients to start racking up Constitution damage, which is what eventually kills them, rather than the HP loss.]. Magical healing can close wounds, but it takes a very long time [It will not stabilize a negative HP patient or act fast enough to save the life of a mortally wounded patient. The Heal skill can stabilize HP bleed, and surgery can stop the Constitution damage from continuing.], so if life is at risk you use surgery, then use magic to remove the scars and replace any lost body parts.). This is a magitech setting with pretty good infrastructure, so people have access to Alchemists (except the poor). All this fluff means there should be an Alchemist option that makes them really good at healing.
I've been toying with a few different approaches. One was to either remove mutagen or weaken bombs in exchange for more extracts per day, so they can make more Cures. Another was to make the Chirurgeon into an alternate class that has 1/2 or 3/4 BAB, 1-9 level extracts, and a lot of support abilities (not just healing, but also buffing and debuffing, mind effecting magics, magical defenses, Necromancy [including stuff that can rip an enemy apart from the inside], and the ability to use alchemical ammunitions, syringes/darts, and thrown contact potions so the other PCs don't have to take an action to drink Cures and buffs or to inject an enemy at range). Not sure which route I want to go with, or if there is another that might work.
Okay, I think I have it. Approach chosen is to make the Chirurgeon an alternate class of the Cleric that uses alchemy instead of divine spellcasting. The Chirurgeon is a modified version of the Merciful Healer that uses Int instead of Wis for magic, uses extracts instead of spells, gets brew potion free at level 1, gets the Infusion and Injection abilities free at level 1 and can use contact potions (meaning they can use extracts that require a ranged touch attack or apply extracts without the subject having to drink them), uses the Cleric spell list as an extract list, and uses a cloud of painkillers as a refluffed version of Channel Energy. If they multiclass with Alchemist, their Chirurgeon and Alchemist levels stack for the purpose of determining Chirurgeon/Alchemist caster level (but not spell progression). They can take the Extra Discovery feat and use their Chirurgeon level in place of Alchemist level.
Also, Heal should be an Int skill, because most people using it frequently have very high levels of training.
This is sounding less and less like an archetype, and more like a new class. Are you going to post something? Its hard to critique brainstorming.
This is sounding less and less like an archetype, and more like a new class. Are you going to post something? Its hard to critique brainstorming.
I wrote up what the Cleric version has in my second post.