| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Your mastery of alchemical secrets enables you to replicate effects most believe can be achieved only via magic. Select a number of potions equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum 1) of 9th level or lower. You gain formulas to create these potions as alchemical items with the elixir trait. When making these alchemical elixirs, you can substitute alchemical reagents for an equal value of magical components, and you can use alchemist’s tools (for Quick Alchemy) or an alchemist’s lab (for the Craft activity) instead of any other required tool kits. Other than that, the formula does not change. Once you’ve chosen the potion formulas, they can’t be changed.
Both in the fluff and in the crunch, it appears that your new Improbable Elixir:
- is an alchemical item- has the alchemical and elixir traits
- replaces magic with alchemy
I think it is clear that it would have the alchemical and elixir traits. I think it is heavily implied (though not explicitly stated RAW) it would *not* have magical or potion traits.
|
Let's break this down, as the feat doesn't do an amazing job of spelling out its implications.
Taking Improbable Elixirs as our starting point.
Your mastery of alchemical secrets enables you to replicate effects most believe can be achieved only via magic. Select a number of potions equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum 1) of 9th level or lower. You gain formulas to create these potions as alchemical items with the elixir trait. When making these alchemical elixirs, you can substitute alchemical reagents for an equal value of magical components, and you can use alchemist’s tools (for Quick Alchemy) or an alchemist’s lab (for the Craft activity) instead of any other required tool kits. Other than that, the formula does not change. Once you’ve chosen the potion formulas, they can’t be changed.
Now let's take a look at some of the traits that would involved here.
Something with the magical trait is imbued with magical energies not tied to a specific tradition of magic. A magical item radiates a magic aura infused with its dominant school of magic.
A potion is a magical liquid activated when you drink it.
Alchemical items are powered by reactions of alchemical reagents. Alchemical items aren’t magical and don’t radiate a magical aura.
Elixirs are alchemical liquids that are used by drinking them
Okay well, from the above we can some important distinctions.
Both Potion and Elixir are basically child-traits of their respective parents, whose only real purpose is to let you know the activation of these particular items is to drink them. Apart from some small wording differences, they are just mirrored traits.
The parents of these child traits are Alchemical and Magical. Magical items are magical, Alchemical are not magical.
Taking the 8th level potion, Potion of Flying, it would normally have the "Consumable", "Magical", "Potion" and "Transmutation" traits.
Since this is becoming an Alchemical item, it would swap out Magical for Alchemical, since its no longer a magical item. Again, since its no longer magical, it would no longer be a Potion and so loses the potion trait, but it instead gains the Elixir trait instead.
What about its other traits? They stay unchanged, even if it does not make an awful lot of sense in the new context. In our Potion of Flying example, its new trait list would read: "Consumable", "Alchemical", "Elixir" and "Transmutation".
Transmutation huh?
Effects and magic items with this trait are associated with the transmutation school of magic, typically changing something’s form.
Should the Transmutation trait drop off? Probably, does it? I don't think so. Since Improbable Elixir tells us that outside of its specifically mentioned effects the formula does not change, we can infer that it would still have the Transmutation trait even though it's no longer a magical item and would not radiate magic nor be detectable by Read Aura or Detect Magic.
Kinda weird, but it's not really doing anything harmful.
What about other traits?
Well since you gain the formula as an Alchemical ones, and can make it as such, it means that you can use both Advanced and Quick Alchemy to make them. This in turn grants them the "Infused" Trait, which is important for many Alchemist feats.
Taking our Potion of Flying again, which we should call our Elixir of Flying, but whatever. It would now meet the requirements for both Extended and Eternal Elixir.
Your body readily accepts and retains minor changes. When you drink one of your alchemical items that has the elixir and infused traits and a duration of 1 minute or more, you can make the elixir’s duration indefinite. You can do so only if the elixir’s level is half your level or lower. If you later consume a different elixir and make it indefinite, the effect of the previous indefinite elixir ends.
So there you go!