Alchemist Craftsman

[lexavian]

First off I wanted to say I'm new to both Pathfinder and to this forum and so any and all help would be appreciated. Also, while I may be missing some obvious thing I HAVE tried to research these questions and I am still not sure I understand.

So I'm trying to play an alchemist who came from a merchant background and will likely return to it. As such, one thing I want to pick up along the way is a lot of craft proficiencies. Unfortunately, I made this decision before I realized how complicated crafting is but it's at a point where I want to learn rather than rewrite my character.

One of my first questions is what defines an "alchemical item" as mentioned in Alchemy attribute for alchemists where it says in making them I also gain a "competency bonus equal to my class level"?

Second, as written I know to make any "magic" items other than potions I need Master Craftsman (which would have an Craft(alch) focus) and then Craft Magic Arms and Armor or Craft Wondrous Item to craft said type of object. Now what I don't get is if my character is given a bow to enchant what skills will I use to enchant it? Do I need Craft(bow) to modify a bow? And I'm pretty sure Spellcraft is normally used but does Craft(Alchemy) replace it or even play a part at all?

Third, I want to take the Promethean Disciple discovery. This allows me to craft constructs using Craft(alchemy). When making constructs I don't get what I need to roll when or how these results interplay with each other. I would like to use the following example to illustrate what I think happens:

The Sitch:

I'm a level 9 Alchemist with 9 ranks in Craft(alchemy) and 8 in Spellcraft, both of which are class skills and with a +4 Int modifier. I want to make a standard terracotta soldier. I have cat's grace in my formulae book, the promethean disciple discovery, and however much money/materials it takes. I would roll to craft the physical presence of the construct which is DC 5+ CL of construct (9 in this case) and would normally do so with Craft(Sculpture). However with the PD discovery, I instead use Craft(Alchemy). Since I get a +16 to a craft alchemy roll (9 ranks +3 class skill +4 modifier) I would succeed on anything but a natural 1. This would give me the worst possible scenario which is that I lost half the production cost (250gp) and waste the week crafting. If I somehow failed by less than 5 then I would have made no progress for a week. And if I succeed I use the crafting rules to determine how much of a dent in this sculpture I have made. In this case if I rolled a 11(+16) on a DC 14 sculpture that cost 500gp then I made a 378sp dent in the total time to produce and would effectively spend 13.2 similar weeks to finish crafting just the body.

Then I would have to animate it. I would make a spellcraft check (which would have a +15 total) against the listed DC (14) +5 for every spell I don't have (3 for a +15) and exhaust a extract use for the spells I do have. If the roll fails (roll 13 or lower), I waste the time it would've taken (10 days), the spell/extract slot and thats it. If I succeed, I use up the cost of animating it (10,000gp) the spell/extract slots and spend the next 10 days performing the animation ritual for 8 hours a day.

I'm sorry thats a lot but I figured it's best to keep the questions together since how they work is all interelated.

[_Ozy_]

There are alchemist items:

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment---final/goods-and-services/herbs-oils-oth er-substances

standard crafting is kind of crappy, it takes a long time to make stuff even with a high skill.

As to your second question, it depends on how flexible your GM is. When you take Master Craftsman, you select ONE craft (or profession) skill that you can use to make magic items, so if that skill is craft (bows), it's not going to be very useful for many other magical items.

Some people have argued that something like craft (gemcutting) can work for a lot of stuff as you can add gems to a variety of items. Personally, I rather like the idea of using craft (alchemy) to create magic elixirs that are used to soak items and impart permanent magical ability, but others don't like that idea. It's kind of up to your GM.

One thing you can do to bypass that whole controversy is take Spell Knowledge when you're higher level, that gives you a caster level, so you can use Spellcraft to craft anything, just like any other character with a caster level.

Not sure about constructs.

[Nixitur]

I'd say "alchemical items" are all those which require a Craft (Alchemy) check to craft. So, that includes both what's listed as alchemical creations as well as alchemical weapons. Check both, as the former doesn't list a way to craft, say, Tanglefoot Bags, but the latter does. Even then, there appear to be a few missing, especially from the Alchemy Manual. The Archives of Nethys appear to list far more.
The competency bonus to Craft (Alchemy) is solely for crafting those alchemical items. So, RAW, it does not apply to creating constructs using Promethean Disciple since constructs aren't items. Although I would argue that any reasonable DM would allow that.

By the way, if you want to craft mundane alchemical items (so, nothing magical like constructs or potions), you basically need Master Alchemist or you're bound to only use it during downtime. It cuts down the time to craft from days or even weeks to mere hours.

[Cavall]

I found a very good calculator online for it all a fee years back.

Warning. It's not mine. I just made sure to link it as much as possible

http://viajon.net/pf/crafting/

Now all you do is hit what you're making, what you rolled and if you have some feats to boost it like the aforementioned master alchemist (a real must) and then add in your skill..

Press calculate and see how long it takes!

Don't get discouraged at level 1 that you can't make lead into gold in 10 minutes. Just realize you gain a class bonus every level and should add a skill point every level. Once you get master alchemist (and also likely have swift alchemy) by level 5 you'll be making tangle foot bags in a few moments!

Enjoy the calculator! Have fun.