I'm making an Alchemist character and I'm wondering if there are any items I need to give him. Any specific alchemical items and such? And should I buy a ranged weapon? He has the bombs, but those have a short ranged increment.
There's several different ways to make an alchemist. Nothing is useful for all variants except the big six. Can you define anything about what sort of character you want to make?
Natural Attacker, mostly. 8 levels of Alchemist with a 2 level Barbarian dip before going into Master Chymist.
Most likely that means a beastmorph (outside chance of a metamorph), but if you're talking about using bombs then you're probably not looking at taking the vivisectionist archetype as well?
Anyway, you can lug around a sling or crossbow (bow once you have the dip) for extreme ranges but don't be surprised if you never use them. The touch attacks make bombs better out to 50' or more in general.
Boro beads can give you an extra extract. More important, once you have alchemical allocation you can reuse potions and elixirs. Potions of heroism or fly or cure serious wounds or tongues, or a truefrost elixir, or one of the elixirs which give +10 to a skill are worth getting. Note that the extra standard action means that these are for prebuffing, or for non-combat use only.
No, I'm not taking Vivisectionist. Never heard of metamorph as an archetype. I will look up Boro Beads. And I don't really need a ranged weapon, ok.
I think the goblin on our last campaign used allocation. No one else wanted to use the potions though since there were often a tooth floating in them.
Ok, here are the starting items for my alchemist.
Alchemist's Kit: Includes alchemy crafting kit, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, flint & steel, ink, inkpen, iron pot, mess kit, soap, torches (10), trail rations (5 days), and waterskin.
Cold Iron Kunai, Leather Armor, Rope.
Using max starting gold, I have 125 left. Even if the GM makes me take average when I do play him, that's still 50 left. I don't think I need any more regular equipment that all characters would likely need. Should I just save the gold for crafting extracts, bombs, and mutagens?
On that note, do bombs, extracts, and mutagens even have a crafting cost? I know potions do.
None of those three have a crafting cost. Well, some extracts do but not 1st level ones. If you want to make your own alchemist's fire etc. that does have a crafting cost.
It might be worth starting with a couple of flasks of acid in case you run out of bombs.
No, I'm not taking Vivisectionist. Never heard of metamorph as an archetype. I will look up Boro Beads. And I don't really need a ranged weapon, ok.
I think the goblin on our last campaign used allocation. No one else wanted to use the potions though since there were often a tooth floating in them.
Metamorph is pretty neat but neuters the versatility of alchemist pretty hard. On the other hand you can be a real friggin monster built for toughness
No crafting cost, good. Acid flasks, gotcha.
I'm not entirely sure whether I want an archetype or not. Giving up extracts seems a little harsh, even though Metamorph is pretty on theme.
Why would you consider your bombs short range if you plan on primarily using natural attacks?
The number of bombs you get will be fine for a natural attacker. The builds that run out of bombs are the grenadiers.
One should always be able to attack in both melee and ranged. That's why all my melee and magic focused characters have bows while my ranged focused characters have kunai.
And I wasn't worried about the number of bombs, but the range increment for landing a hit. I forgot they were touch attacks.
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Early on craft a few flasks of Acid - it's a low crafting DC (15) and you might be surprised at how effective it is (realizing your bombs splash damage gives a reflex save, but the Acid flash doesn't - it just does 1+INT in damage.) Cost is 10gp per 3 flasks to craft. Range Increment is only 10' - but like you said, you're just trying to hit touch... And it's good to have something to use if you begin to run short of bombs...
Holy Water might be a good choice to pick up if you are going to be fighting undead (what low level PCs don't fight Skeletons/Zombies?) - but at 25gp a shot it can get costly.
Early on I would suggest picking up some way to detect magic... Discerning Wayfinder is the one I often take with my Alchemists in PFS, but you might want to research other ways... Your high Spellcraft makes you a good choice for Identifying magic items, but you can burn all your extracts on IDs and still not check all the things you want to.
Are you looking for suggestions after you pick up a little more money? Things like a Formula Alembic (I think it costs 200gp)?
A few suggestions for items later on would be welcome.
As a natural attacker an amulet of mighty fists is a no brainer, and the standard items (armor, cloak of resistance, ring of protection, belt, headband) are still useful of course. A handy haversack so you can access multiple potions/elixirs easily. If you'll be crafting after hours then a ring of sustenance helps.
It's not until somewhere in the teen levels that you're likely to have significant cash beyond that you spend on the big six anyway.
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Suggestions in no particular order...
- Wand of Cure Light Wounds.
- Take a rank in Disable Device and buy Thieves tools (MW), then remember that Reduce Person Extracts will increase your Dex for picking locks... and give you a +2 to hit with your bombs/flasks.
- Poisoners Gloves for delivering Extracts (or other potable items) as an attack, but if you have Infusion Discovery you can hand these off to the other players and let them buff themselves. (the two weapon fighter needs a shield spell? let him use his action to buff his own AC - you're busy throwing bombs... or just use them to hit the monster with a Detonate Infusion...
- a Wand of Cure Light Wounds.
- Alchemists Lab for crafting at home (don't bother to take this with you, but use it for making the many things you hand out to your Test Subjects-err-Fellow Adventurers).
- Craft Raining Arrows/bolts to hand to your buddies. At 10 GP each (crafting cost) they are cheaper than Holy Water Flasks (which you can't craft).
- Smelling Salts. Crafted it's cheap, and it's great for interrogating the enemy after a fight, or for bringing your cleric back "awake" so he can channel and heal himself.
- Speaking of Healing, a Wand of Cure Light Wounds...
- Alchemical Grease for the front line fighter types to use. Heck, for everyone to use before going into a "dungeon" hazardous area. Crafted it is even cheaper than the already cheap cost and it's long lasting and gives a bonus for when the monster grabs you.
- Darkwood Heavy Shield. Yeah, I know you're not trained to use it. It means you have to take the Armor Check Penalty to a bunch... wait. The ACP is 0. If you have issues with needing both hands free, pick up a masterwork buckler. Whichever you use, later enchant it to boost your AC even more...
- wait, did I mention a Wand of Cure Light Wounds?
- Spiked Gauntlet to always be armed...make it Cold Iron, because it's cheap even at double cost.
- Vermin Repellent (see Alchemical Grease notes above).
- Craft Dwarven beers like Boulder Head Bock and Wyrm's Breath Bitter... great fun can be had with these, and remember to craft them to get them at 1/3 cost.
That's what I can think of off the top of my head...
- wait, I did mention a Wand of Cure Light Wounds, right?
