I've got to say that I love the Alchemist Toxicant Archetype.
However in order to save my GM some headaches I thought there were a few question marks that needed to be straightened out before we continue playing.
1. For the first 3 levels my poison only last for one round as far as I can tell. Does stacking doses do anything at all since I technically don't have a duration to prolong? I'm curious as I will be having 3 attacks on level 3 and pretty good attack rolls.
2. Toxic Secretion states that it activates when the Toxicant is hit with a "natural attack or unarmed strike". Would this include grapple checks and touch attacks as well?
3. Are Swarms affected by this Toxic Secretion? It does makes saves as it was just one creature after all.
4. I've heard that you can "Stack" inhaled poisons from several sources but never seen how you actually use them mechanically. Can you just store several doses of poison in a big jar and throw it at the enemy and then have them suffer 5, 10 or 50 dozes at once? Heck maybe you don't even need a big jar, a small bottle might be enough considering that I can't find anything on the subject. FAQ?
5.Can the poison that you gather as a swift action be thrown on its own, sort of like flicking water at someone? The Alchemist does have the Throw Anything feat after all.
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1. I don't think stacking would help at all. Like you said, the doses only last for 1 round, even if you spend more actions applying doses it doesn't increase the potency, nor the duration.
2. I'd say yes, considering the venom secretion is 'contact-based' anyone grappling or making touch attacks against the alchemist is affected by the secretion since those actions require skin-contact. (usually)
3. This is a bit tricky and I'd say it's up to GM discretion.
A swarm acts like a single creature, saves like a single creature and has a collective hit point pool.
Personally, I'd rule that Swarms are affected since the alchemist's secretion acts almost like a bug repellant. Depending on the -creature type- of swarm however, they might have poison immunity which renders the secretion moot.
4. No idea, I haven't actively played an alchemist.
Mechanically I don't think it's very sound to assume you can unleash all your doses/charges at once. It would be very heavy and difficult to throw (at least of there are 50 doses), it would be very difficult for enemies to save that many times and suffer compounding effects from all of them (thus unbalancing the core damage format).
What you're describing is very much like the "Paladin Reckoning Bomb" from World of Warcraft. http://wowwiki.wikia.com/wiki/Reckoning_Bomb
In short, it wouldn't be balanced at all and I claim stacking doses shouldn't be allowed.
5.GM discretion, I'd say it would be possible but you'd have to be adjacent to the target, risk an AoO and it would count to the alchemist "/day" quota at the bottom of the secretion.
I've got to say that I love the Alchemist Toxicant Archetype.
However in order to save my GM some headaches I thought there were a few question marks that needed to be straightened out before we continue playing.
1. For the first 3 levels my poison only last for one round as far as I can tell. Does stacking doses do anything at all since I technically don't have a duration to prolong? I'm curious as I will be having 3 attacks on level 3 and pretty good attack rolls.
2. Toxic Secretion states that it activates when the Toxicant is hit with a "natural attack or unarmed strike". Would this include grapple checks and touch attacks as well?
3. Are Swarms affected by this Toxic Secretion? It does makes saves as it was just one creature after all.
4. I've heard that you can "Stack" inhaled poisons from several sources but never seen how you actually use them mechanically. Can you just store several doses of poison in a big jar and throw it at the enemy and then have them suffer 5, 10 or 50 dozes at once? Heck maybe you don't even need a big jar, a small bottle might be enough considering that I can't find anything on the subject. FAQ?
5.Can the poison that you gather as a swift action be thrown on its own, sort of like flicking water at someone? The Alchemist does have the Throw Anything feat after all.
1. 3 attacks on level 3? Are you going to be going feral mutagen? In which case you would need the mutagen discovery, and the feral mutagen discovery. As far as stacking, you can concentrate your poison for A Touch attack, or onto a weapon. So while your body is naturally poisonous to monks, and animals who would full round attack you, your poison could only be applied to 1 blade or 1 natural attack(touch attack). Please elaborate how you would use your poison use 3 times in a row on poison that only lasts for 1 attack.
2. I would imagine the initial grapple check would not cause them to be afflicted, only because grappling is presented in such a vague term that they aren't going "50 shades of gray" on you, rather, they are grabbing your scruff, or clothes, or something. Mind you while being grappled you can still perform actions such as full attacks.
However, if they tried to damage you while grappling that would be different because "You can inflict damage to your target equal to your unarmed strike, a natural attack, or an attack made with armor spikes or a light or one-handed weapon. This damage can be either lethal or nonlethal."
Alternatively, a full plated grappler could be inflicting his damage on you with his armor spikes, and not making contact with you.
3."A swarm is immune to any spell or effect that targets a specific number of creatures (including single-target spells such as disintegrate). You can't poison your dagger, thrust it into a swarm of flies, and effectively poison all of them.
I would rule however that if you were being attacked by a swarm, they would indeed take damage as they are munching away at your sweet sweet flesh. Damaging a swarm is effectively reducing it in size and power, so whichever bugs succumb to poison damage hurt the swarm as a whole.
4. There is already an alchemist discovery that deals with combining multiple doses. its called Concentrate poison.
"The alchemist can combine two doses of the same poison to increase their effects. This requires two doses of the poison and 1 minute of concentration. When completed, the alchemist has one dose of poison. The poison’s frequency is extended by 50% and the save DC increases by +2. This poison must be used within 1 hour of its creation or it is ruined."
Imagine you dip your knife into a bottle of jelly. You take it out and decide you want to add more jelly. so you dip it again. and take it out. Effectively, unless you are fighting with some sort of ladel, there is only so much limited surface area to cover a weapon with multiple doses of poison.
Now lets take your throwing poison idea. You fill a water balloon. you throw it at someone. They get wet. Woo.
You take a catapult, and you catapult a barrage of water balloons. They get wet. Woo. Success if getting them wet only depends if they arent wet already. Same with poison. A jar of poison would actually be fairly expensive since I would imagine doses are minute by themselves. After all, they are rolling once to see if their body saves against the initial splash of poison.
5. No. You arent creating enough poison to make a range touch attack. You are only creating enough for 1 dose. When they say "throw anything" I do no think they had flicking liquids off your hand. You could poison a shruiken and then throw it, but you cant throw poison by itself. Maybe if you were a Nagaji and if you brought it up to your GM. But the Nagaji can only spit poison as a full round action and at only 10feet. Also this is a feat.
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Read the general notes on poison stacking if you haven't.
1. As far as I can tell, your poison actually initially has an instantaneous duration - you make one save immediately, take damage once, and then take no more damage (the effect ends). This would mean that multiple exposures have no effect. At level 4, each dose the target is affected by increases the DC for their next save before the end of the round increases by 2. The duration doesn't increase because half of 1 round is less than 1 round. At level 8 when your duration is 2 rounds, you get an extra round of duration from stacking doses.
2. Grapple checks and touch attacks are not natural attacks or unarmed strikes, so they aren't by RAW affected. Reasonable house-rule though.
3. I think so, not sure. Fernn's ruling that you can't actively poison them but that they're affected by the defensive poison seems reasonable.
4. Yes, putting multiple doses in a jar should be enough. Concentrate Poison is useful for the more common injury or contact poisons - inhaled or ingested poisons work differently:
6. If a character is exposed to multiple doses of inhaled and ingested poisons simultaneously, only one save is made at the higher DC. If the save fails, the character is subject to all of the doses, but still only takes the effect once for the failed saving throw. If the save succeeds, the character avoids all of the doses.
Note that this is slightly less effective than multiple successive doses, and keep in mind that inhaled poisons are pricey unless you're using poison conversion.
5. An improvised weapon is described as a singular object, so the poison doesn't qualify - you'd have to bottle it or smear it on something to throw. However, I personally would allow it to be flicked as a touch attack with a range of 10ft using a standard action.