| Kiba Kurokage |
I'm looking at playing my alchemist again after a while of not doing so, so I thought I'd post his build below and ask what people thought. I'll leave notes on each selection for why, and I'll preface any ability with ? to indicate an option I'm unsure about. I am going for a balanced build between flavor and function. I want a character that does what he wants to do well, and isn't 200% optimized for combat damage. Thank you all!
Class: Alchemist (Plague Bringer)
Alchemist as a support crafter, good skill points(8-9/lv at lv 1), inbuilt AoE dmg to deal with swarms and mass mobs and energy damage. Plague bringer for flavor, since as a ratfolk, it's a racial archetype and doesn't change anything I'd really miss.
Race:Ratfolk
Small size, 20ft move speed, Darkvision 60ft, +2 Dex/INT, -2 Str, And plenty of fun racial traits and alternates. I am Taking:
-Cleanliness for rodent empathy(Trade +4 handle animal on rodents, good for riding rat mounts and then rarely in game, for +2 vs diseases and if you succeed a disease save by 5+, treat it as 2 saves.)
-?Cornered fury USUALLY, but swarming is fun too if other party members are ratfolk too. (Cornered fury: +1 melee atk and AC if there's no conscious ally in 30ft. Swarming: You can share your square with another ratfolk with swarming, if you both attack the same creature, you are considered flanking.(way it's worded, you could have 2 archer ratfolk get flanking at 60+ feet out. GREAT for a archer rogue.)
-?Always a hard choice, Tinker or scent.(Tinker: +2 Craft alchemy, Perception & Use Magic Device. Scent: Gain the scent ability, but take a -2 on all sight/sound based perception checks.) Tinker is universally good, especially for my ratfolk alchemist. But Scent leads into some fun flavor(arcane stink ink etc) and also gives scent. Which is useful as a pseudo rogue or if you are forced into a scout kind of role. The downside of course those basically ALWAYS active penalties.
Favored Class bonus:Thought I'd mention, +1/6th of an alchemist discovery. So +3 discoveries by level 18.
Traits:most DM's allow 2 traits, and a drawback for a third, so That's what I'll build here.
-Trait 1: (Magic) Spark of creation: +1 on all crafts and 5% cheaper magic item crafting(+1 on craft alchemy mostly, and the cheaper crafting for potions initially, then Potentially Constructs, wondrous items, and magics arms/armor.)
-Trait 2: (Combat) Firebug: +1 on all attack rolls with splash weapons and alchemist bombs.(Part of the not being dead weight to the party, if hitting your targets, especially when each attack costs a #/day ability or a consumable item.)
-Trait 3: ? This one is usually my free-spot, incase some DM's don't allow a third trait, or if you need to take a campaign trait.
-Drawback: Family Ties: Must comply with family requests of you or take a -2 on Wisdom and Charisma ability/skill checks until you save, or complete the request.(I gave my alchemist a large family, with a backstory. 2 still living parents at home with 2 remaining children at home, and 7 other siblings that have moves out before or after him with a varied personalities and tendencies, giving DM full permission to place them anywhere he might want to use a plothook to get the party to do something. Makes life a good bit easier for the DM and also is a fun way to integrate a backstory to a weakness AND roleplay.)
The background/Flavor:
Jak is a male ratfolk from a large family, 2 parents and 9 siblings. I have a full write up on each of them, but will skip that for brevity. He grew up in a supporting, if overcrowded family, reading books and absorbing knowledge. Though he came to want to study disease after human children repeatedly called him and his siblings "Dirty, diseased rats!". And his interest slowly grew in the area over the years, spreading from disease to generalized care, to how to grow and cultivate those herbs, and finally, where he truely found what he was good at, mixing herbs and chemicals to make medicines and other items. Alchemy. His parents insisted that he study buisness and how to buy and sell goods, to market himself and his wares and skills before he left home, knowing that some wouldn't want to take medical care from a ratfolk. When his time finally came to leave the house, a bit later at 14 thanks to his schooling, he was ready to travel, make connections in cities, open trade routes, and practice his craft. He soon settled in as an adventuring merchant, as adventurers always wanted to buy healing potions and through some convincing, other alchemical supplies as well. His long study of alchemy flourished here, especially after making a kit of essentials for adventurers to use and selling it all in a package deal. Though he would eventually join an adventuring group himself, that brought new challenges, like learning how to actually fight, especially with others.
The Build:
Now to actual ability and feat selections. I have it listed as Source/level. C is class, F is feat, D is Discovery. So F5 would be Feat gained at 5th level.
Class abilities
-C1: Alchemy: +Class lv to craft alchemy checks. (Competence bonus doesn't stack, but there isn't many comp bonuses for this that I've found.)
-C1: Extracts: Liquid "potion" spells but Alchemist is NOT a caster. (Very weird, but basically alchemist makes potion-like abilties for their spells that you prepare ahead of time, and drink to activate, but they only effect you. Leads to Infusion as a discovery tax...)
-C1: Bombs: Class lv+int mod per day, 1d6 per odd level fire damage. It deals rolled damage to direct hits, and minimum damage as splash damage, reflex for 1/2 on splash. (You also get to add your modified throw anything feat bonus to this for +int Mod to damage for direct hit and splash. This is his main combat ability. He augments it with alchemical splash weapons, and early on, a crossbow or other weapons.)
-C1: Brew Potion: Gain the brew potion feat, but you use your Alchemist level as your caster level. (lets you bypass the usual, "Not a caster can't take crafting feats" problem with alchemist, and is inbuilt for letting them contribute low level cure potions and the like early on. Also exceedingly handy later with the "Alchemical Allocation" Spell.)
-C1: Throw Anything: A modified throw anything feat, you get all the usual bonuses, no penalty for improvised ranged weapons, and splash weapons/alchemist bombs get a +1 on the attack roll, you ALSO get to add your intelligence modifier to the damage. (So your 1d6 acid flask, 1 splash damage, just turned to 1d6+5 6 splash in the 8 squares around it. This DRASTICALLY increases the usefulness of otherwise decently pricey alchemical splash weapons.)
-C1 Plague Vial: Swap for Mutagen, Prepared in 1 hour, it infuses your body with a supernatural harvested disease, So anyone hitting you with melee attacks(besides reach) DC 10+ 1/2 class lv +int mod fortitude or be sickened 1 round per Class level. (This helps keep melee attackers off of you, or they stay sickened, helping you with the penalty they receive. It can also be used on weapons with sweat or blood, poisoning them despite this still being a disease effect. So you can poison/disease your own weapons and your allies weapons before going into a tough combat. Sickened isn't as good as nauseated, but it's a decent enough debuff.
-C2: Disease resistance: Replaced poison resist, this gives +2/4/6 then immunity from disease. Thematic for someone working with disease all the time, though arguably poison is more useful to be immune to, I like the flavor.)
-C2: Poison use: Typical "Use poison without poisoning yourself" (You can make poisons with craft alchemy, and while you CAN focus the build on poisoning, poisons aren't a very good player option usually. But this DOES apply to the plague vial, and if you happen to make/use other poisons. Nice to have.)
-C3: Bombs to 2d6 dmg (unfortunately, crit dmg is locked to 1d6 and doesn't include any of the extra damage. A 10d6 crit is just an 11d6, but the INT bonus should be doubled at least?)
-C3: Swift Alchemy: Poison a weapon as a move, It takes 1/2 the time to make an alchemy item. (So the bonus speed for poisoning is great, so while you are stand action throwing bombs, you can still poison allies weapons with your blood if they allow you to do so. Though the faster craft speed is REALLY nice, especially when paired with Signature skill: craft, or the 5th lv feat, Master alchemist.)
-C5: Bombs to 3d6
-C5: Disease resist to +4
-C6: Swift Poisoning: Apply poison as a swift action. (This is kind of nice, because it's "MAY apply" so if you are using your swift or immediate action for something else, you can still poison as a move, or triple poison as 2 moves and a swift.)
-C7: Bombs to 4d6
-C8: Disease resist to +6
-C9: Bombs to 5d6
-C10: Disease immunity (As a paladin, become immune to all diseases, including magical ones. This makes our cleanliness trait useless now, but still was very good flavor for 1/2 of the levels, and from my experience, 95/100 of games.)
-C18: Instant alchemy: If you have the resources on hand, you can craft alchemy items as a full round action with a craft alchemy check. You may also poison weapons as an immediate action. (This ability kinda invalidates a LOT of our previous abilities and feats spent towards crafting, but games almost never got to level 18, and if it does, you can try and ask DM if you can retrain it. (though technically you need a trainer higher level then you if I recall.) So I don't really worry about this ability much.)
C20: Grand Discovery: Pick from the grand discovery list and learn 2 normal discoveries. (there's some fun options in here, but sticking with thematics, I am going with the philosophers stone.
Feats
-F1: Point Blank Shot: +1 on atk dmg for ranged attacks within 30ft. (not a lot of other options this early in, but this and Precise shot are both semi-mandatory until later, when your to hit is higher. And with splash weapons, you WANT to hit the enemy, or your weapon flies off in random directions. Potentially actively hurting your allies. So, early to-hit is a great idea.)
-F3: Precise shot: no -4 for using ranged attacks into a melee. (another bonus to hit more or less to help make sure your attacks go where they are supposed to. Though at this point, you only have targeted bomb admixture as an option to prevent splash damage to allies. Since I play him as a merchant, unused to actual combat, it's a good roleplaying moment to hit enemies near the end of a combat if you think you can safely do so, splash allies, then be apologietic, and offer infusion of cure light wounds to heal the damage they took. Sets up you taking the selective bombs discovery next level.)
-F5: Master Alchemist: +2 craft alchemy, Make Int mod batches of poison, and use and item's gp value instead of it's sp to craft. (FINALLY we can get away from NOT actively hurting our group and get to the flavor of the build, and such a powerful one too. Basically saves time crafting poisons, if you do. And more importantly, increases crafting speed by 10x. Combined with swift alchemy's 2x, that's a marked 20+x crafting speed, since one reduces progress needed to 1/10th the amount, and the other halves the time needed to make it. Since there's also the multiples of progress reduces time to craft mechanic, the crafting rate could be more then 20x. At this point, unless you are making blightburn paste or perfect ice, you should be crafting by the day, or reference my Alchemy calculator post(linked below) for even by the hour, or by the minute crafting.)
-F7:
-F9:
-F11:
-F13:
-F15:
-F17:
-F19:
Potentially once you get the mandatory options and you get a higher to-hit through magic gear and BAB, you can retrain Feats 1/3. Though by Level 7, you will likely either head into Master Craftsman territory to work towards Crafting wondrous items and arms/armor, or look into a healer filler, with Healer's hands(conduit) and Signature Skill(heal). The combo of which allows pretty much LV per day full round action enhanced treat deadly wounds, healing HP equal to Multiples of target's total character level, plus wisdom mods and other bonuses, as well as healing ability damage from each score I believe. I WOULD take this combo earlier to better establish him as a doctor, but not killing your own allies in combats tends to be a bigger priority. Another good thing to look at is "Extra discovery" To grab more of those tasty abilities.
Discoveries
-D2: Infusion: Your extracts can now be used by others. (I've had some arguments in the forums about this, but the text, and James Jacob's own post on the issue, Infusion "The extract created now persists even after the alchemist sets it down. As long as the extract exists, it continues to occupy one of the alchemist's daily extract slots" means that you can prepare an enlarge person extract for the barbarian, and let them keep it on their person without giving out new ones every day until they choose to use it, or it's broken etc. Regardless of that point, this is basically just a tax for playing alchemist to give great, usually personal buffs to fighters, barbarians, etc. )
-D4: Selective Bombs: Your alchemist bombs(only) can ignore 1 square per int mod. (No splash weapons, but this makes you safe to throw your bombs into melee now without actively hurting your group. And at a +4 or 5 to int, you can ignore 1/2 or more of the 8 splash squares now. Though this doesn't apply if you miss your initial target.)
-?D6(2x): Frost bombs/Tanglefoot bombs, Promethean Disciple, Tumor Familiar... (This is where things get much less set in stone, with taxes out of the way, there is a LOT of options to pick from. From diversifying Combat damage and debuffs with frost bombs(cold dmg and fort save or staggered 1 round on direct hit) or Tanglefoot bombs(fire dmg, but all hit including splash save or entangled, direct hit auto entangle, save vs getting stuck to floor as tanglefoot bag) or work on crafting if you feel combat is covered with Promethean disciple(+craft construct, use craft alchemy instead of usual checks) or Tumor familiar(Gain a familiar that sometimes lives in your body, go for valet archetype if you wanna 2x the amount of gold you can craft a day and get bonuses on your craft checks.) There are other options too, mostly game and group dependent, but either way, you get 2 discoveries this level to help pick, 1 from usual even level, 1 from 6 ratfolk FCB.)
-D8: Fast bombs or see D6: Fast bombs turns the standard action to throw a bomb into a normal attack action. (Basically, you benefit from high BAB and haste now. You can also grab some of the previous 4 discoveries mentioned too if you like.)
-D10: See D8 (taking more of those previous abilities. Though by this point, you can really look at other options depending on game. Force bombs to deal with ghosts, or sticky poison to poison ally weapons(includes the plague vial) for Int mod additional hits, instead of just 1. Etc.)
-D12(2x):
-D14:
-D16:
-D18 (2x):
-D20 (2x):
There are a variety of good discoveries to take, combat or support oriented. But I'm more concerned about the first 10-12 levels, as that is the highest I've ever gotten in a game so far. But modifications to bombs typically come with a save or be debuffed ability, and several abilities to work with potions. As mentioned above though, sticky poisons is a potential option, despite both poisons not being very effective for players, expensive to use, AND flavor-wise, it's unlikely for a doctor like him to use poison, but with plague vial, it allows a good use for that negates all those negatives.
Craft: Alchemy
Craft alchemy is the bread and butter of this build, as it gives a NUMBER of items that grant all kinds of bonuses to all sorts of things. I have a spreadsheet I've been working on for this, to help make the process less painful. Please see: https://paizo.com/threads/rzs43rew?Alchemy-Crafting-Calculator-and-Referenc e-help for my recent post about it.
In general, we are looking at Roll+Int mod+Class skill+alchemist class bonus+tools. Though you can easily add in some other bonuses, like Crafter's fortune. Though the highest DC for craft alchemy will be DC 40 for Alchemical blood. +10 to increase crafting speed. So once you hit Take 10(cause there's NO reason why you shouldn't if you can) +30, you are only working on increasing craft speed due to the multiples of progress mechanic. In this case, we prioritize intelligence as the ability to allow more extracts, higher DC's, more Bombs per day, and more splash damage. So We are looking at 10(take 10)+5(int)+1(skill ranks)+3(class skill)+1(alchemist class)+2(alchemy table if affordable)+5(crafter's fortune) for a whopping 27 result at level 1 before the Racial or trait bonuses. In this case +2 for Tinker, and +1 for spark of creation, totaling 30. So as long as you have the full crafting table, and can take 10, you can craft 95% of all alchemy items with enough time. Then you add in Signature skill:Craft, Swift alchemy, Master alchemist, Full pouch, and other feats, abilites, spells etc, you can really pump out items for your group.
Speaking of which, I mentioned in background my "Jak's Attack packs" A kit of gear for adventurers to help them in many situations. I've asked this once or twice before, but the more recent post was here: https://paizo.com/threads/rzs42jna?Alchemists-every-situtation-packs Consisting of 2 bandoliers and 2 spring loaded wrist sheaths. It gives a nice stockpile of always accessible utilities to help in a number of situations.
Other Crafting
Unfortunately, Alchemists are NOT casters, despite having extracts. So they do not qualify for crafting feats normally. The ones I have found besides using other archetypes are below.
Brew potion: Given for free at lv 1.
Craft Construct: Promethean disciple discovery starting lv 6. Uses craft alchemy in place of all usual rolls to make it.
Craft arms/Armor & Craft Wondrous item: Through the "Master Craftsman" feat, which means you need to involve 3 feats to grab them all, but allows you to use your craft alchemy in place of spellcraft, which REALLY helps offset that your extracts don't(without other discoveries) count as spells to make the items, you are facing a LOT of +5 DC's.
Equipment
Nothing finishes a build quite like the gear of your trade. I'll list them in order of slots, and try to list early and late game variations as appropriate.
Armor: Leather or Studded initially, can probably upgrade to mithral chain at some point, though getting any of these with the "Alchemist Suit" bonuses as custom upgraded magic armor is a good idea if possible. (Alchemist suit carries 8 doses of alchemy items/poisons etc, that can break to hit you or the enemy on a melee attack, constriction, swallow hole, etc etc.)
Belts: Belts of physical stats shine here, as usual, focus on dex for AC bonuses, ranged to hits, and skills. There are some fun items to add in for custom rider effects though, like extra carry capacity.
Body: Unfortunatly, body doesn't have a lot of good items itself, and that stays true for Alchemist. Though I do reccomend the robe of infinate twine, as it's cheap, and you always have infinate twine to set traps or rope to tie up enemies or drop into deep holes.
Chest: Apron of the careful chemist is fun here, +2 bonus to dex won't stack with your belt, and the +2 craft alchemy doesn't stack with your Alchemist class bonus to it. It still gives alchemy items you give to yourself or others, a +1 to the saving throws. Like antiplague, +5 on saves vs disease for 1 hour, is now +6 for the party, as long as the Alchemist does it. You COULD also look at the cloud engineer badge if DM allows adventure path items, but all it does is give 1/day each life bubble and reduce person, and a +2 competence bonus on craft alchemy and knowledge engineering, the former won't stack with the alchemist class bonus.
Eyes: We already have darkvision, so there is a couple fun ideas to throw in before opting into true seeing or eyes of the dragon, Though there isn't much special to the alchemist here, due to flavor, I opt for "Physician's spectacles" Which gives a constant detect poison and diagnose disease, and 1/day delay poison.
Feet: Once again, nothing particular here, so regular choices, boots of springing/striding, boots of haste, boots of flying, boots of elvenkind. Whatever you have and can get.
Hands: There are some FUN options for gloves, and while I tend to like the gloves of storing, I have to lean towards "Poisoner's gloves" here, as you can load each glove with a poison, potion, or extract, and give a melee touch to inject that into the creature. Good offensively or defensively, You can load cure potions or extracts in, to heal allies with the touch, or offensively, with poisons, or bad extracts. I remember hearing something about using a combination of this and skinsend previously.
Head:
Headband: Is there any other choice then Headband of intellect? The skills don't MUCH matter, as you are putting your 9-11-ish skill points a level into everything you really want, but maybe a good chance to get a lot of ranks in climb and swim in an emergency!
Neck: I start with a green filter scarf, as a gift from his parents, It's a mundane clothing item that I believe grants +1-2? to saves vs inhaled poisons and the like. But moving to magical gear, there's the typical Amulet of natural armor and the like, though there is also the necklace of bloody incisors early on, that is 10 uses, load the teeth into splash weapons and give then 1d4 slashing damage for each tooth, and 2 more slashing splash damage. But once used 10 times, it is destroyed. But Necklace of Adaptation is far from a bad item either, as it allows you to negate problems breathing. Also thematic for an alchemist working around dangerous chemicals all the time.
Ring (up to two): This is pretty typical, a LARGE selection of good items. Rings of Regeneration, Force shield, Protection, Sustenance... The list goes on. Though as a craft wonderous items maker, you CAN make a custom item for the ring slots, at increased price, that combines some of these features, like A ring of forceshield Protection to give you a shield in your offhand and the deflection bonus. And A ring of regenerating Sustenance for the other hand. Or any other combinations. Though this DOES get VERY expensive. In the end, pick what fits best, though I lean towards Protection and sustenance.
Shield: Masterwork Bucklers are a great thing once you can afford it. As you get the shield bonus when ambushed or otherwise you don't get to do anything, and you can still use your hands for other tasks, you just lose the shield bonus while doing so. And at Masterwork, it provides NO penalty whatsoever. I believe later on, you can also make them of fancy materials like mithral, adamantine, Darkwood etc, and add a "Shield Boss" that makes it harder to destroy, and gives some fun options, like shield bash also hits with a splash weapon, or flipping a little panel on it to reveal a sun rod or torch to see while still using the shield. Though I reccomend ioun Torch sooner rather then later for this problem. A fun enhancement to consider, at a lightly pricey +1 cost, is "rebounding" Which gives a +2 AC vs thrown weapons, applies this and the shield bonus to touch vs splash weapons, and if the splash weapon would miss you, instead of the usual random roll, you get to chose where it lands.
Shoulders: The usual cloak of protection as a default, potentially doing the custom magic creation to add in muleback cords.
Wrists: Spring loaded wrist sheaths for quick, hidden access to emergency items, like swift action to retrieve a cure potion to administer as a full round instead of a move and administer it next round. Otherwise, bracers of armor isn't a bad way to go. As you can give your armor either the +# enhancements, or the special effects, AND give the bracers the other. So you get to wear +5 armor, that also has 2-3 abilities.
Slotless: This is where the MAJORITY of items will be. To keep it brief, I'll give the name and a short what it does below...
-Admixture vial: 1/day combine 2 extracts as the combine extracts discovery.
-Blackwick Cauldron: +5 craft alchemy(doesn't stack) and spellcraft to make potions. Letting you craft 300 instead of 250 gp potions in 20 hours, and 1200 gp per day, instead of 1,000.
-Boro bead: Like Pearls of power, replenish a spell slot of an extract already used.
-Formula Alembic: Can use a potion with 1 hour prep to scribe to your formula book without expending the potion.
-Hybridization funnel: combine 2 alchemical splash weapons so it hits as if they both did, but if not used in 24 hours, it destroys itself.
-Orb of arcane research: +2 to research or add new spells, and 5 times before it breaks, give +5 to craft alchemy, knowledges arcana, nature or spellcraft to research a spell/extract.
-Retort of control: Helps spontaneous alchemy if using that rule set. But also you can designate 1 creature type/subtype to not be effected by the item crafted. (example, a "Human" Designated alchemist fire can be thrown into melee with a human ally and a dire rat enemy, and the human takes no damage from it.)
-Winged bottle: 3 times per day, can be filled with a splash weapon, and can be directed to fly and drop the splash weapon on enemies.
-Vial of Efficacious medicine: An alchemical remedy placed inside deals it's usual effects, but also gives +2 MORE on bonuses to Saves, checks, AC, or CMD, and heals 1d8+5 hp. Can be used 3/day.
-Caduceus rod: Does a LOT, most importantly, +5 insight bonus to craft alchemy, +1 insight to atk/dmg with alchemy items/alchemist bombs, and 5/day pick from 5 abilities.
-Alchemist Atlatl: Doubles splash weapon range(not bombs)
-Focusing flask: You can add 3 doses of the same splash weapon inside, when thrown, it is destroyed, but the target is hit by all doses at the same time, and if there's a save, the DC is increased by 2 for each additional dose inside.
-Preserving flask: While boro beads replenish used extract slots, preserving flasks maintain the extract as a kind of potion, and after 1 day, it no longer costs you an extract slot.
Then there's mundane items that help as well, like flask pike, stormshaft javelin, Bomb chucker etc. But I won't bore you with that here.
Notes
Mythic is a weird point for this, since alchemists mostly fit into trickster, but some archmage abilities are good too. Though I'd more lean into trickster unless DM lets you use the archmage's "Gain all crafting feats" ability and lets you use them.
And as far as spells, there are a few important ones to pay attention to like Crafter's fortune for that +5 to craft. Full pouch to make a copy of alchemy items for 1gp worth of alchemical herbs, good to restock your allies equipment kits. Alchemical allocation to be combined with high level potions or expensive elixirs. My favorite combination for this is preserving flasks with alchemical allocation, and pass around a singular dose of "Spirit rush" elixir when needed. It's active for an hour, and if you would be reduced to 0 or less, you are healed, ethereal for 1 round, and teleported 30? feet away from the source of the damage. A really handy emergency button for the cost of the 2nd level Preserving flask(or boro bead) for each ally, and the single dose of elixir.