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With taking the foresight to go ahead an build a whole new niche for Alchemy, why is it that it is being forced to be tied to Arcana?
Why not make it its own branch of magic... if you call it that. Make Alchemy be a skill in and of itself separate from Arcana, and have it also incidentally also separate from crafting. Crafting would be required and key to Alchemists, but so would Alchemy as a skill pertaining to its scope.
They should have enough skill slots so most/average alchemists you encounter may also be very familiar with many aspects of Arcana, but it wouldn't be required, and could easily instead have interest in Occult or other spell disciplines, if they are so inclined. In the end however, I think it would be nice having room for alchemy separate from Arcana, even though aspects of it could also be mixed.
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Or we could move that currently-in-Arcana stuff into Crafting to make the stress lower on alchemists to pick skills. Either way, noted, thanks!
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I think alchemists should be able to get away with just investing in craft and not in arcana. However it might also be fun if there were some feats that gave training in arcane/divine/occult/primal or had trained in one of those as a prerequisite and gave some sort of additional set of formulas or enhancements. Something like better healing potions for divine, better bombs for arcane, better mutagens for nature, better tools I guess for occultisim. That way you could have some mechanics involved with flavoring your alchemist a certain way. Maybe that's better left to archetypes though.
I love the idea of making the alchemy skill related stuff rolled into Crafting, and just letting the player choose the flavor. Many alchemists are probably going to take at least one of arcana or occultism (due to the fact they are int based), but really, I could see any of the magic branches having their own flavor of elixir making to supplement their magic.
Cayden Cailean has his own alchemy themed PrC in Pf 1e, and the alchemist had a number of occult and nature themed archetype, and base alchemist was more generic arcana
Yes, it could completely be based on craft as the skill (and feats and class features unlocking things).
@Bardarok - I agree it would be cool if there could be some aspects that a alchemist could unlock by having the necessary Arcana, or Occult, Religion or Nature prerequisite. But not require it for the primary bulk of their abilities. Instead making it something they can choose to pursue as options.
I love the idea of an alchemist who studies several types of magics so they can at least identify and catalog it. I also however love the idea of one potentially choosing, if it has anything to do with magic, they'd be studying it from an occult perspective.
I will bring up a question...
Guns have been tied in past to alchemy. Here, at present, alchemy, bombs and such are kind of being given an arcane flavor to it, so are guns in Golarion going to then now have an Arcane flavor? I ask in part because Starfinder (a different game, admittedly) seems to imply magic and technology are separate things, which in time will eventually will be discovered can be combined by technomancers, but are otherwise distinct.
There is a degree to, as presently designed, alchemy and technology seems like it is a branch of magic. And that makes me wonder what the gunslinger will be like. [and I'll acknowledge they specifically aren't addressing the details of that yet so they can make sure to get the rules right, first time]
However, do we know their intent, to make guns technology, or will guns be a pseudo-technology pseudo-magic? For instance, at present my best explanation for a gunslingers ability to make gunpowder for so much cheaper, is most easily explained by their personal supply of powder being linked to themselves. [why they can't just sell it for a big profit, yet market price is so high] That is a fine basic explanation, but does make gunpowder a sort of magical extension of the individual. Are we likely to see that? Gunpowder being tied to a resource similar to how alchemists build their own personal stock of free alchemical items using their 'alchemy pool'? Or are you not able to even give a supposition of how you think it would be?
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For what it's worth, I really like the idea of alchemists that study based on the four classes of spells. If it was built like druid orders and had enhancing feats along the way, that'd probably be the A+ answer.
Yoveu's divisions are pretty good (though I'd leave out a non-magical class), though I'd focus the orders around the basic nature of their alchemy. Arcane alchemy would likely be focused on minerals and reactions. Natural alchemy around herbs and natural substances. Occult alchemy around symbolism and significance. Divine alchemy around religious symbols and resonances. Like druids, give it an intro feat and a secondary feat with additional options branching off of those (which lets you pick up multiple chains over your career or focus hard on one).
This structure would achieve a lot better parity with the other classes and allow the class to better cover the ground it did in PF1.
Or we could move that currently-in-Arcana stuff into Crafting to make the stress lower on alchemists to pick skills. Either way, noted, thanks!
I do prefer the idea of alchemy having it's own skill, since it represents a fairly specialized aspect of crafting.
Alchemy should be more related to nature than to the arcane, since almost all the alchemical ingredients derive from nature including poisons.
In theory Druids should also be experts in potions and various concoctions, i like to see druids in the core with "Herbalism Nature Bond Variant" from PF1.