Creating From Scratch Level 6 Alchemist for Abomination Vaults

[Trixleby]

My Barbarian died in Abomination Vaults so I need to make a new character.

The party composition is that of:
- an Inexorable Iron Great Gnoll Magus with a Polearm
- a Greataxe Orc Fighter
- a Monastic Weaponry (Katar) and Ki Strike using Lizardfolk Monk
- a Leshy Summoner with a Strength Plant Eidolon.

I’d like to make a Unbreakable Goblin Chirurgeon Alchemist.

I’ll go ahead and post my build that I have got so far for my Alchemist.

For the most part I am asking about what my daily preparations ought to look like and what my formulas ought to be (if I should make any changes). I have my items from the starting treasure wealth for new characters chart and the items I chose are based on that.

I am hoping for a tailored support experience for my party to enhance their strengths as well as provide decent healing. It should be known 2 characters have lay on hands I believe, the summoner has the heal spell in their repertoire and the monk has wholeness of body.

Without further ado the build as it stands: Mixleby, Goblin Alchemist.

[HumbleGamer]

Healing bomb, along with debilitating bomb, are nice to see, but the suck up too many resources.

Your party is also composed by two handed combatants ( inexorable iron and fighter), that won't be able to drink potions by themselves, and it's still not clear whether the eidolon might drink elixirs on its own or not ( though the summoner could drink the healing ones in their place).

I think you'd probably find easier to rely on the witch archetype, getting life boost to help with healing during every combat, as well as a familiar and a couple of cantrip you could use to deal damage ( to save alchemical items if needed).

You'd also be able to get some spells, and the possibility to use scrolls, staves and wands to heal your team members.

So I'd go this way:

Lvl 2 = witch dedication
Lvl 4 = basic lesson ( life boost)
Lvl 6 = basic witch spellcasting

[Trixleby]

I know at least two of the players have full on buy in because I’ve talked to them and one of them is the Magus. The monk and caster just have free hands because. The only person I’m not sure of is the Orc Fighter but I’m sure once he sees everyone else getting buffed and doing better he’ll want in one it too.

I’ll look into the Witch dedication but I was trying to avoid being a spell caster. Specifically because I’ve heard Alchemist is a great 5th party member and I’ve been excited to play one for a long time because I like support characters.

[SuperBidi]

I second Humblegamer.
If I had to (re)build a Chirurgeon (as I'm already playing one, but I started it before Treasure Vault) I'd go with Choker-Arm Mutagen (and a Collar of the Shifting Spider to be under its effect every fight). With a 10 feet reach, especially in the quite cranked spaces of Abomination Vault, you can deliver Elixirs without having to move every time.
But as Choker-Arm Mutagen reduces weapon damage, I'd go with either Witch or Wizard Dedication to grab Electric Arc.

The low level build would look like:
Alchemical Familiar (Valet + Extra Reagents)
Wizard/Witch Dedication
Enhanced Familiar (Independent + Manual Dexterity)

With all that, you have a Familiar which supports your action economy by handing you Elixirs and the ability to cast Electric Arc as your bread and butter spell.

As daily preparation, I'd take obviously a bunch of Elixirs of Life, coupled with poisons (as it can be applied before the fight it's basically free damage) and the Choker Arm Mutagens.
For attributes, I'd maximize Intelligence and do whatever I want with my other attributes as this build is not really demanding in terms of stats.

[HumbleGamer]

Trixleby wrote:

I’ll look into the Witch dedication but I was trying to avoid being a spell caster. Specifically because I’ve heard Alchemist is a great 5th party member and I’ve been excited to play one for a long time because I like support characters.

I want to add that my concerns are more about trying to play the standard AP map in the way it is meant to be played, which means straight from the start to the end ( without exploiting with daily preparations ).

Assuming a 7/8 fights per map and balanced amount of mutagens, healing elixirs and bombs, it's unlikely that an alchemist might be able to deal with everything ( even with 3x on healing items per batch by lvl 5 ).

You might focus on getting just healing elixirs ( and the reach mutagen ) to just pass rounds after round using them though( stride + draw + activate ).

Perpetual infusion also won't help in any way.

By lvl 7 a character is going to have between 60 and 100 hp, and perpetual infusions would give you a lvl 1 item that could be drinked every 10 minutes.

Imagine during the fight the alchemist wasting 3 actions to stride, quick alchemy ( perpetual infusion ), activate item ( let an ally drink it ), making them recovering 3.5 hp.

If you don't want to be a spellcaster, maybe the medic dedication could come in handy, especially with the alchemist class ( if needed you'd be able to merge the stride with a battle medicine ).

And by lvl 7 you'd be able to use it once per hour on an immune target.

But again, this assuming the party would keep pushing even if the alchemist run out of resources ( you can easily do it with focus spells and scrolls as backup, although not with an alchemist ).

[Trixleby]

Well so far we have gotten through 3 fights then decided to surface and long rest and all of that. So it won’t be 7/8 fights per day it doesn’t seem.

[SuperBidi]

Trixleby wrote:

I know at least two of the players have full on buy in because I’ve talked to them and one of them is the Magus. The monk and caster just have free hands because. The only person I’m not sure of is the Orc Fighter but I’m sure once he sees everyone else getting buffed and doing better he’ll want in one it too.

I’ll look into the Witch dedication but I was trying to avoid being a spell caster. Specifically because I’ve heard Alchemist is a great 5th party member and I’ve been excited to play one for a long time because I like support characters.

You posted while I was writing.

If you really want to avoid playing a caster, then you'd need to grab Doctor's Visitation as it's the other way (with Choker-Arm Mutagen) to be able to deliver Elixirs without being crippled by action economy.
The build would look like:
Alchemical Familiar (Valet + Extra Reagents)
Medic Dedication
Doctor's Visitation
You can still take Familiar Master at level 6 as you can take a skill feat to exit Medic Dedication.

But it's more limited than Choker-Arm as you need to heal every time you want to deliver an Elixir (and Elixirs are not just about healing).

For non healing Elixir, Mistform Elixir is in general considered a staple. The only drawback being that you now have 20% miss chance to heal the affected character (but you can circumvent that with Cat's Eye Elixir if you really want). Cat's Eye Elixir is also very important against invisible enemies, alongside Revealing Mist. You can also give Mutagens to your allies, especially if you equip them with Collars of the Shifting Spider (remember that, as an Alchemical Item, you don't have to buy some you can just produce them in the morning).
Still, be careful as the more Alchemical Items you use and the shorter the adventuring day. Getting above 3 fights a day will be a bit tough with an Alchemist (and Perpetual Infusions won't really help as there's no good choice for a Chirurgeon).

[shroudb]

i personally think Healing bomb is a terrible feat even for a chirurgeon.

in general, before level 13 you don't want to be using Quick alchemy for your Elixirs of life. That makes them cost 3 times as much reagents (1 reagent instead of 1/3rd of a reagent) and has worse action economy if you are already using valet (1 action to get it vs 1/2 action to get it)

if that wasn't enough, now the already weak elixirs are 2 levels lower, and because of wonky level gaps in elixir progression that will be even worse for a large amount of your levels. As an example, at your level, you'd still only be able to make 1d6 healing bombs instead of your normal 3d6+6 elixirs.

If that wasn't enough either, you always risk simply crit failing the attack and completely wasting your healing, which is something that you never want to see.

So it saves you 0.5 an action for all those drawbacks, not worth it imo.

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For my own chirurgeon I had gone the more "battle cleric" route. Using Drakeheart mutagen to get competitive AC and taking Bastion dedication which gives me both a reaction (something that Alchemist inherently lacks) but also the ability to grab and hold my potions in my shield hand by level 6.

This way I was tanky enough to wade into melee range and help the party by being an additional body in the frontlines, provide flanking, and etc, plus, when I got hit instead of another character it meant I didn't have to walk to them to apply the Elixir of life, I could straight up drink it myself.

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per the above posts, I do agree that both witch and medic dedications are also strong. If you don't like casters, grabbing medic is never a bad idea, especially since the early alchemist feats are not that great to begin with.

[HumbleGamer]

Trixleby wrote:

Well so far we have gotten through 3 fights then decided to surface and long rest and all of that. So it won’t be 7/8 fights per day it doesn’t seem.

Oh well, then I suppose you are going to be fine whatever the build.

I mean, if you can afford to use all your elixirs ( by lvl 6 it would be 6 from lvl, +1 from familiar, +4 from int = 11 batches of infused reagents ) every 3 encounters, you'll be able to cover up for everything:

- Mutagens for the whole party
- Healing elixirs for everybody
- Even some bomb to throw at the enemies

The alchemist limited resources won't be an issue at all.

[Trixleby]

I have several editions now:

Witch Edition

Medic Dedication Edition

Modified First Build