What was your favorite Alchemist that you played, had an idea for, or saw played?

[Merellin]

So, I love Alchemists. I absolutely love them, They are by far my favorite class, and thus I love reading about peoples alchemists. So I wanted to ask people here on the mighty Pathfinder boards, What was your favorite Alchemist character that you played or saw played, Or what is your favorite alchemist idea you had or heard?

My favorite Alchemist I played was Lee, He was the third child of a minor noble and feelt left in the shadows of his older siblings, So he turned to alchemy much to his fathers annoyance, And upon being told to stop with the alchemy, He ended up running away from home to work on his alchemy and show it could be good and help him get out of his siblings shadow.

He was primarily a ranged alchemist, Who after spending some time with a drow noblewoman had his research turn into a new path, To try and get storng he started experimenting with mutagen and ended up developing a split personality, And became a Master Chymist. So sometimes he was Lee, The normaly calm bomb throwing alchemist, But sometimes he would turn into the slightly crazy and wild Raven, Who liked to charge into melee and maul people.

They where great fun to play!

I also have an idea of a "Feral Alchemist", Basicaly a alchemist who turned to alchemy to try and become like the great and mighty beasts of the wild, Using Vivisectionist and Beastmorph and Feral Mutagen to maul enemies real good, But also using things like the Form Extracts to turn into beasts and stuff!

[MrCharisma]

The only Alchemist I've got to actually play was WINSTON THIRNBERRY - based on a great character from a fun game.

He was a old Gnome Chirurgeon who had spent most of his life as a "traveling vendor of exotic elixirs". While the elixirs he made were in fact quite potent, he wasn't above diluting them - or even selling "extras" - to increase profits. He had a high bluff and the Breadth of Experience feat, so he could roll on any knowledge check and would pretend he knew even if he failed.

I had a ball playing him and the rest of the players loved him too. Playing Winston really put my improv skills to the test. Sadly he died in our first ever TPK at level 3, but I was going to give him all the support discoveries I could find.

[Scott Wilhelm]

I consider levels in Alchemist to be essential for a Grappler. The Tentacle gives you a +4 on Grapple Checks. The King Crab (Tumor) Familiar gives you a +2.

Plus, when you run into a creature that can't be Grappled, Exploding Arrows.

[Dragonchess Player]

A "necromancer" alchemist for Skull & Shackles: preservationist and reanimator archetypes, plus Planar Preservationist, Spell Focus (Necromancy), and Skeleton Summoner feats. Instant skeletons in a bottle!

[Heather 540]

I haven't been able to play either of them, but I do have 2 alchemist characters. One is basically the Hulk. I went 8 levels of Alchemist with the Feral Mutagen, 2 levels of Barbarian, and the rest is Master Chymist. It's fairly straight forward but it should get the job done.

The second is based on DC's Captain Cold. I only built him to level 12, but half of his levels are the Gun Chemist archetype. I took Frost Bullet at level 2 to emulate his cold gun. His second discovery was Tanglefoot Bullet to emulate him icing people's feet to the ground. I also threw in 3 levels of Trench Fighter for Dex to Damage with his gun, one level of Musketeer Cavalier for Rapid Reload and Friendly Fire Maneuvers, and 2 levels of Phantom Thief Rogue for flavor. I used the Rogue Talent to get him Improved Steal since it just fit his character.

[Quixote]

Dr. Ziggmund Howle: chirurgeon, demolitionist and technomancer.

He was a horribly burned and disfigured goblin who built himself a steam- oil- and clockwork-powered exoskeleton and fused himself into it.

Mechanically, he was a fairly standard goblin alchemist with a little focus on bombs and a little on melee with feral mutagen. The DM allowed him to stack two enlarged person-type effects from different sources (one extract and one item), since it ate up an extra turn and going from small to medium is a pretty useless effect in and of itself.

The character came to life with a total reskinning of all of his abilities and items. Everything was part of the exoskeleton; several mechanical arms ended in jackhammers, bone saws, drills and syringes. One was equipped with a pot-bellied cannon to fire his bombs, another was an oversized crossbow to launch miscellaneous alchemical devices. That +1 chain shirt and cloak of resistance? Armor plating. The handy haversack, tent and alchemicy lab? That's bivouac mode.

In combat he'd either lob shrapnel bombs at his foes or, if he had a moment to prepare, he would unfold the exoskeleton to its true size, until he was a 9ft mechanized monstrosity, all whirling blades, hissing steam and mad, lunatic cackling.

[Firebug]

My first character past level 2 was an alchemist. Grenadier, had 3 dips into other classes by 11(at one point barbarian, hunter and sleepless detective), and retrained to full alchemist by 12. Was going more of a feral natural attacks route, but by 12 I moved into more of a tank role. Mithral Hellknight Plate (of comfort and the two traits to reduce ACP) without proficiency or penalties, composite longbow with tangleshot arrows for long range bomb delivery and this was back when tumor familiars could still be the protector archetype.

Also, when alchemical allocation applied to any elixir or potion (I thought there was some change to this in the last couple years, but can't find it), so used allocation on Elixir of Life (preventatively) for both myself and my familiar. At one point in a certain adventure path/module at 17, I am pretty sure I ended up the fight at the top of a mile high staircase with less than 10 hp remaining(started with over 300, and had some fast healing) and my familiar had already contingently resurrected. I had also used a scroll of Mass Heal... but on the rest of the party (I was out of range clogging up the front line). Of course, that adventure ended with a Disjunction-off followed by an offensive Wish that the party was on different elemental planes (I was the only one who saved).

Now-a-days I am considering an Alchemist/Rogue who applies like 4-8 debuffs during his turn to lock down a single opponent.

One of my friends had an Alchemist/Barbarian/fighter/can't remember who was an old man with a giant sword and would buff up and furious finish with a "I am getting to old for this s***" and a third hand for tower shield.

[Lucy_Valentine]

I had an idea I have never yet got around to playing. I had an elf PFS character who was/is a multiclass wizard gish with an ECB, and also very grumpy, prepared, and professional. But then the EBS came out and I kind of loved it, and I thought it would be fun to play her sister or cousin or something who had a totally different demeanour: cheerful, happy-go-lucky, and massively less professional.

Sooo... alchemist seemed fun. Take Grenadier alchemist, use the EBS as her signature weapon, grab an extra arm for the lols, and maaaaybe do the elven battle style feat chain just to see if it could be made to work.
Alternative: one level of fighter and maybe be a Mindchymist instead.

Be cheerful, be happy, be friendly in a "way too friendly" way, and make everything explode because explosions are fun!

[VoodistMonk]

Something that has popped up on here a few times is the Beastmorph/Vivisectionist...

It all hinges on being a Ratfolk with the Scurrying Swarmer feat, and a Mauler familiar...

The rest writes itself, really. You ride your familiar, share Teamwork feats with it, flanking gives you Sneak Attack, natural attack builds give you a lot of attacks...

I haven't played it, but it sounds fun.

[Ryze Kuja]

Gun chemist with Spy (or Ninja/Rogue) levels for SnA and a merciful-enchanted revolver and Sap Adept and Sap Master. There's a guy in my group who's playing one right now and it's pretty impressive. He hits like a truck, but it's non-lethal so they can interrogate them afterwards. He can switch it to lethal whenever he wants because of the Merciful enchant though, but he won't be doing the Sap Master shenanigans.

[Cole Deschain]

I absolutely despised Mutagen, so I rocked a lot of Cryptbreakers and Alchemical Sappers.

I had one guy who was this mercenary whackjob from the River Kingdoms who had gotten addicted to the adrenaline high of combat (and high-stress situations in general), and who therefore went looking for trouble (mechanically, the guy was an Alchemical Sapper with a level dip into fighter to let him use more varied weapons).

Almost a pure bomber, his extracts mostly took the form of healing potions because I wasn't that wild about extracts either...

[Quentin Coldwater]

I have a PFS Bramble Brewer with 1 level in Barbarian (Savage Technologist). She accidentally turned out to be an amazing tank. At first I wanted to be main Barbarian, and a few Alchemist levels for support, but Alchemists get so many goodies, it went the other way around. Anyway, the combination of Bard and Alchemist meant that I had good weapon proficiencies and a good damage output, while also having a lot of tricks up my sleeve. Took extra arms so I could wield a two-handed weapon and a shield at the same time, and an extra head for when I failed a Will save. The bramble bombs really get out of hand as well, they cover such a big area at later levels, it's insane.
Also, I threw Beastmorph on top of it, because why not.

[EldonGuyre]

If one level of alchemist in a build counts here my little ratfolk Vivisectionist/Wizard/Arcane Trickster should end up being a blast. Using the mutagen for Dex, he's mostly about the ranged touch attack.

[MrCharisma]

Cole Deschain wrote:

I absolutely despised Mutagen, so I rocked a lot of Cryptbreakers and Alchemical Sappers.

I love Mutagen. By default it's a bit bland, but adding discoveries to your Mutagen and/or going Beastmorph has a real appeal to me. It can end up quite powerrul and/or versatile, and it's really asking for some good flavourful roleplay.

I do understand everyone's different though, so it's great that there are options for both of us =)

[VoodistMonk]

Cole Deschain wrote:

I absolutely despised Mutagen, ... I wasn't that wild about extracts either...

Do you understand Alchemist...?

Why not play any of the multitude of classes and archetypes that offer "Alchemist" stuffs...?

[Cole Deschain]

VoodistMonk wrote:

Do you understand Alchemist...?

I understand it just fine, thanks for the thinly-veiled insult.

I hate mutagen, so I played archetypes that got rid of my absolute least favorite element of the class.
What makes you think that means I don't understand the class?

Quote:

Why not play any of the multitude of classes and archetypes that offer "Alchemist" stuffs...?

You find me a PF1 class that skill monkeys AND bombs like an Alchemist, I'm all ears.

[VoodistMonk]

There isn't one, you got me, it was a d!ck move to be so sarcastic in my response...

The closest I can find is a gestalt of the Underground Chemist Rogue and the Opportunist Fighter...

[Cole Deschain]

Apology accepted, and.... yeah.

If they'd just made me a Rogue that traded something for bombs, I could have embraced it so readily...