| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Keep in mind that formulae are cheap, and have the same availability as the actual item. Get some more L3s at the very least. They're only 3gp each! Trust me, you don't want to be throwing Lesser Bombs at L5.
Yes if you have the opportunity try to buy some formulas. If you are in a situation where you cannot buy one but have downtime try to take Inventor feat and make your own formulas.
Once this is a replacement character ask to your GM if you can buy formulas before it enters in the game and after being equiped try to buy to most amount of formulas you can with your money.
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I'll mirror ottdmk here except to state it stronger.
If you're playing an Alchemist you should be spending at the VERY least 25% of your money and available coinage on simply buying new Formulas to add them to your Formula Book whenever possible. Seriously, anytime you're in a town or can access a shop where you can buy new Alchemical Item Formulas you should be doing that unless you're flat broke, and if you are, it is probably even worth begging and pleading with your group for spare change and a loan.
You don't have to play the equipment or Rune treadmill NEARLY as much as other Classes and you don't really have easy access to things like Wands or a Staff so you have a bunch of extra money to blow and there is NO better way to spend it than funneling it into your Formula Book which is a real and measurable increase to your ability to have JUST the right answer exactly when you need it via Quick Alchemy or via careful knowledgable preparation in the morning if you know what you're going up against. Unlike Spellcasters, you don't have to burn a bunch of extra downtime to expand your utility, that is the biggest strength of the Alchemist so asking "Are these Formulas the best ones to pick?' is kind of a moot point because by level 5 you should probably have at least 30-50 different Formulas in your book to work from so the ones you get free for level advancement aren't ACTUALLY that big of a deal with the exception that you'll want to ensure you're getting the highest level ones available as you level up just to save a bit of money.
So, for fun, I went and counted up my L11 Bomber's formulae. After the Treasure Vault binge, and L11 itself which was huge even before Treasure Vault, he now has 175 formulae in two books.
That's with no poisons (irrational but real prejudice) and no bottled monstrosities (it's unclear if they work with Advance Alchemy or Quick Alchemy.)
Which is why I haven't bothered with Bottled Monstrosities, but man, they look fun. Thing is, 2 out of my 3 Alchemists are in PFS, and PFS is not a "Ask your GM" place. I'm hoping the organized play folks at Paizo will release some guidance for Society play of BMs at some point.
Some general Elixirs that I consider core to have in your toolkit regardless of the type of alchemist in addition to those you have are:
Cat's eye
Cat's Eye is fantastic, but I highly recommend just buying or Crafting some. The problem is, you won't need one every day. If you Advance Alchemy a couple, 9 times out of 10 you're just wasting the Batch. However, it's great to spend 28 gold on, have four on hand, just in case they're needed. Happened with my Bomber last time I played, for example.
Eagle eye (you can get moderate at your level)
Eagle-eye, on the other hand, if you can spare a Batch or two it's always worth using a few Eagle-Eyes.
And Darkvision (again moderate)
Moderate Darkvision is good. Greater Darkvision (available at Level 8) is fantastic. Spend a Batch, have Darkvision all day, and give the spare to a friend (if you have any friends without Darkvision.)