Hi guys,
I never built an Alchemist before, so I was looking for advice on how to go about getting it done from scratch. In this particular case the plan would be to mainly play the Scout/Intel gathering role, and also contribute efficiently to combat - I'm not picky here, it could be done either through physical prowess, or ranged, or bombs (I am actually quite curious about bombs to be honest :D).
I have looked at a couple of guides, and there is a LOT of information, which ends up getting me kinda lost, so I would want to start simple - Archetypes - Trap Breaker seems like the obvious choice?
Thank you in advance for helping me along the right path.
You've got two main options: Trap Breaker and Crypt Breaker. Trap Breaker is compatible with some other archetypes if you want, like maybe Vivisectionist if you want to do the sneak attack in melee bit. Not that you have to, Trap Breaker alone is as good as the base alchemist with bombs, which are a solid way to make a mark in some combats. Crypt Breaker largely stands alone, and it's slightly sneakier but weaker in combat.
Alchemical Trapper is another option which gets trapfinding but IMO it's not great even if it didn't require you to be a kobold.
Enough to get you started?
That is enough to get me started avr, thank you :D
So I was looking at both archetypes, and afew questions popped up. For the sake of arguments, let us assume I am going to focus on bombs instead of melee combat:
- How bad is it for the Crypt Breaker to drop the Mutagens?
- The same for Brew Potion, which I always find soooo cool...
- It would seem the Trap Breaker actually drops less of the 'important' features of the Alchemist?
- Assuming I would want to focus on Bomb damage and effects, would there be another archetype that could be combined with Trap Breaker for example?
If you're going to focus on bombs losing the mutagen is annoying but not critical. You might well end up spending a discovery on cognatogen and using that anyway when you expect serious combat - int is arguably more important than dex with bombs.
Brew Potion? Depends how easy it is to buy wands in your game. Bought wands are about the same use-cost as crafted potions. If you personally enjoy making potions go with trap breaker, sure.
Trap Breaker is definitely a smaller change.
The other archetypes you can combine with trap breaker are the weird ones. The ones which give the alchemist a pet, a few others which weaken the bombs, or the ones which mess with poisons. The latter would be a bad idea, you want to keep poison use if you're using poisons... No, if you're using bombs you don't add another archetype to trap breaker.
Taking the tumor familiar discovery might be a good idea for you. Having a tiny animal can help you observe all kinds of things you couldn't otherwise.