Forgive me if this has been answered elsewhere or is obvious, but I wanted to double check. :) I looked at the errata but don't see anything there yet.
The new "bottled monsters" from Treasure Vault all have the "Craft Requirement: The corpse of (insert creature)" line in them, or something similar.
Alchemist's Advanced/Quick Alchemy features say, "...and you ignore both the number of days typically required to create the items and any alchemical reagent requirements."
Is the corpse covered by "any alchemical reagent requirements?" Or is it a specific requirement that overrides it (requiring the corpse always)?
It doesn't seem OP to me for an alchemist to be able to Advanced/Quick Alchemy, but maybe I'm missing something. Thoughts?
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Forgive me if this has been answered elsewhere or is obvious, but I wanted to double check. :) I looked at the errata but don't see anything there yet.
The new "bottled monsters" from Treasure Vault all have the "Craft Requirement: The corpse of (insert creature)" line in them, or something similar.
Alchemist's Advanced/Quick Alchemy features say, "...and you ignore both the number of days typically required to create the items and any alchemical reagent requirements."
Is the corpse covered by "any alchemical reagent requirements?" Or is it a specific requirement that overrides it (requiring the corpse always)?
It doesn't seem OP to me for an alchemist to be able to Advanced/Quick Alchemy, but maybe I'm missing something. Thoughts?
The alchemy section intro more or less leaves it as GM call. "Bottled monstrosities in particular bear special mention, as most include a line like, “Craft Requirements Supply the corpse of a roc.” While these crafting requirements can be ignored for the sake of the story being told, they can also be a potent storytelling tool, enabling your players to directly convert their triumphs on the battlefield into new tools for adventuring."
But I think you'd be a bit hard-pressed to call "one entire roc corpse" an "alchemical reagent" if you want to ignore the intro, or feel like it's not applicable to the question.
or one could go the way and say you roll alchemy after killing the roc and gain [x] ingredients [feathers, claws, blood vials, whatever is fitting]to use for bottled monster
Forgive me if this has been answered elsewhere or is obvious, but I wanted to double check. :) I looked at the errata but don't see anything there yet.
The new "bottled monsters" from Treasure Vault all have the "Craft Requirement: The corpse of (insert creature)" line in them, or something similar.
Alchemist's Advanced/Quick Alchemy features say, "...and you ignore both the number of days typically required to create the items and any alchemical reagent requirements."
Is the corpse covered by "any alchemical reagent requirements?" Or is it a specific requirement that overrides it (requiring the corpse always)?
It doesn't seem OP to me for an alchemist to be able to Advanced/Quick Alchemy, but maybe I'm missing something. Thoughts?
The alchemy section intro more or less leaves it as GM call. "Bottled monstrosities in particular bear special mention, as most include a line like, “Craft Requirements Supply the corpse of a roc.” While these crafting requirements can be ignored for the sake of the story being told, they can also be a potent storytelling tool, enabling your players to directly convert their triumphs on the battlefield into new tools for adventuring."
But I think you'd be a bit hard-pressed to call "one entire roc corpse" an "alchemical reagent" if you want to ignore the intro, or feel like it's not applicable to the question.
Ah, I only glanced through a friend's copy and didn't see the intro section, but that makes sense that it's a GM call.
And yeah, I totally agree that it's a bit of a stretch on reality to call an entire monster corpse an "alchemical reagent," but it's not all that much more of a stretch than it already is, IMO. Alchemists already just "get" reagents every day that can be combined into literally any alchemical item. It's already pretty fantastical lol.
I can see the pros and cons for both arguments. But having looked at the items, I don't think it would be game breaking for an alchemist to be able to make them with Advanced Alchemy without corpses of the beasts. They're still only infused items, and expensive to use in terms of action economy. But if making a *permanent* one, needing to have the corpse on hand would make sense.
Actually, only the Advanced Alchemy feature says it ignores all requirements. The Quick Alchemy feature states it ignores monetary requirements. This also means there's no way to increase the DC as an alchemist.
It makes me think that some clarification could help here as well. I don't think 30+ breath weapon attacks through Mukradi Jars at level 15 is intended, for example. Doubly so that the DC can't increase, meaning this big power jump becomes unimpressive as you level beyond it.
Actually, only the Advanced Alchemy feature says it ignores all requirements. The Quick Alchemy feature states it ignores monetary requirements. This also means there's no way to increase the DC as an alchemist.
It makes me think that some clarification could help here as well. I don't think 30+ breath weapon attacks through Mukradi Jars at level 15 is intended, for example. Doubly so that the DC can't increase, meaning this big power jump becomes unimpressive as you level beyond it.
Hmm that might be so. As far as anything that has alchemical reagent costs *other* than the normal monetary costs, I can't think of anything off the top of my head except bottled monstrosities requiring corpses.
Even if the alchemist were to make 30 Mukradi Jars at Level 15, the action economy required to use them is high (generally 1 action to draw if not already held, 2 actions to use), plus all of the monstrosities have the Expandable trait. If there's not enough space for the Gargantuan Mukradi shell, it fails to activate. So I think there's probably not many situations that having 30 of them is really going to break an encounter, or even be all that helpful. And like you said, the usefulness is going to start falling off as DC won't increase if Quick Alchemy can't be used.
If they can't be made with Quick Alchemy, it's such a bummer for such interesting items. Hard to craft normally if you need a corpse for each one, plus downtime and costs. And if the DC can't be increased, most of them become irrelevant after just a few levels.
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I agree there's some awkwardness, but at the same time if you don't completely waive the corpse requirement for alchemists, these turn into once per campaign or less items and they're not... that amazing really.