So, my friend had this idea, and I'm going to steal it for PFS because it's super interesting. Sadly PFS kind of knee caps the archetype by tossing craft out the window, making the alchemist lose throw anything and brew potion for skill focus(alchemy)...
But other than that, here's the idea:
Apply all my GM credit until I am level 4 or 5 to keep character. At that point, get Fox Shape. The homunculus will be medium sized by then and from there on will be disguised as "the alchemist" while the actual alchemist will be disguised as a "familiar".
Now comes the real problems... How do I get this whole thing to work well? A lot of the discoveries are not useful to the fox shape and are primarily unusable by the companion. Feats are in a similar boat. I'm thinking of making the companion primarily use a bow for attacks, has a longspear for flanks and whatnot.
The fox will primarily be a skill monkey, passing as much information as possible through the link. I also plan on creating poisons for the companion to use in combat (out of sight so hopefully no one sees through the charade), opening up a few discoveries.
Otherwise, anyone know of any good discoveries, feats, or gear I should look into?
On a side note, I noticed this in the FAQ for organized play:
Some familiars, such as the homunculus and clockwork familiar, have a listed crafting cost in their statistics. How can I create these familars in the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild?
When selecting one of these familiars, you may assume that you or an NPC crafts the familiar without paying the cost listed in the creature's entry. You need only pay the price of any augmentations that you add to your construct familiar, such as additional Hit Dice for your homunculus. You cannot upgrade your homunculus to have more Hit Dice than your character level.
and wondered if it worked with the companion:
The means for creating this special homunculus are more exotic than normal and require investiture of the promethean alchemist’s own life essence into the homunculus. This construct generally resembles a small humanoid or child when first created; the specific appearance is up to its creator, though a homunculus is always humanoid in shape and obviously unnatural on close inspection.
A homunculus with more than 2 Hit Dice can be created, but each additional Hit Die adds +2,000 gp to the cost to create.
Could I add other augmentations assuming I rebuild the companion from scratch paying the costs appropriate?