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Hi, I'm Troy McLure. You might remember me from such alchemical related guides like the Sceptical Chymist and PubAlchem.
I've recently gone through the newly released items, and while the reviews there are better followed elsewhere, I wanted to give my two cents to Paizo about a few that I found either confusing, conflicting, or just slightly off.
The definite:
Living leaf wave doesn't define its bonus value; breathtaking vapor doesn’t have a stage duration; choleric contagion says “the first time during per round the victim succeeds at an attack roll”, which reads jumbled.
The maybes:
A few items (egg cream fizz, soothing toddy, warding punch, diplomat's charcuterie, phantom roll, sprite apple, mender's soup, tracker's stew, cinnamon seers, ginger chew, and scholar's drop) all provide nonscaling +1 item bonuses, making them quickly irrelevant. For some, like Phantom Roll, that can be fine... but for many of these, it feels like they were meant to be circumstance bonuses (like the Colorful Coatings). Usually, when I read “a bonus to saves against a specific school of magic” or “a bonus to checks made for this specific action subtype” I expect to see it as a circumstance bonus, at least in previously published material. Especially at higher levels, when you're expected to have that bonus already. Could be worth a review, just to make sure you guys meant it this way.
The "probably fine but just checking":
Lv4 Mournful and Wyrmhide Fury Cocktails feel a little underpowered, but the higher level versions are amazing. Bone dreadnought is similarly a very good lv10 item, but requires a lv12 item as fuel to be used, which could be an issue.
The "please stop":
Can't help but see new incapacitation items. It’s a great trait for balancing spells and I am all in favour of it, but these items have static level and no success effect, so there is no positive benefit to it in this context. Even on items with multiple level stages, like gearbinder oil, the large level gaps wrecks the item hard.
All in all not that many issues considering the size of the chapter, and love the book. Thank you for all the good work!