Here's how you fix Toxicologist with just 1 feat (and if you like it, I've created 2 more to test in a feat line).

[amalgamemnon]

Feat #1 - Afflict Poison

Afflict Poison - Feat 1 - 1 action activity - Attack - Requirements: you are holding a weapon which can deal piercing or slashing damage which has been coated with a poison with the Infused trait and was created by yourself.

You are particularly adept at delivering their poisons with your weapon, at the expense of the effectiveness of the weapon itself. One target creature within reach of your weapon (or the first range increment if your weapon is ranged or thrown) makes a save vs the poison on the coated weapon, with the following effect:

Critical Success - no effect

Success - Apply the poison at stage 1

Failure - Apply the poison at stage 2

Critical Failure - Apply the poison at stage 3

Your class DC takes a penalty equal to your multiple attack penalty for this activity.

Feat #2 -

Quick Affliction - Feat 6 - 2-action activity - Attack - Prerequisite: Afflict Poison - Requirements: you are holding two weapons, both of which have the Agile trait, can deal piercing or slashing damage, and have been coated with a poison with the Infused trait and was created by yourself.

Afflict Poison on two creatures within reach of your weapons (or the first range increment if your weapon is thrown). This counts as two attacks when calculating your multiple attack penalty.

Feat #3 -

Fan of Toxins - Feat 14 - 3-action activity - Attack - Prerequisite: Quick Affliction - Requirements: you are holding two weapons, both of which have the Agile trait, can deal piercing or slashing damage, and have been coated with a poison with the Infused trait and was created by yourself.

Afflict poison on any number of creatures within reach of your weapons (or the first range increment if your weapon is thrown) which are not currently affected by a poison. This counts as three attacks when calculating your multiple attack penalty.

[Trip.H]

Quick Affliction seems to fall into the same design trap as whomever made the current Alchemist. Way too specific and context restrictive. The mandate of both hands and two weapons is almost a no-go on its own.

However, the biggest issue is that the functionality of the Feat is nearly eclipsed by the prerequisite. Needing to poison two targets simultaneously is a less common scenario than needing to poison one. As such, the *only* benefit of the 2nd Feat is to bypass that MAP -5 penalty. The balance of these two are backwards, with Quick Affliction providing only a small improvement in a specific circumstance, while Afflict Poison is the more generally useful Feat.

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I'm not sure what exactly the effect of Fan of Toxins is. Do you mean to say that the ability automatically places the targets at stage 1 of the poison's affliction? Or does this just force an exposure event? If it just auto-forces them to that affliction stage, does it still trigger the harmful effect/damage of failing the save, or does that get bypassed? Not sure it was intended, but the ability would would with contact poisons, not just injury.

Even in the "most powerful" interpretation, IMO the Feat is still a hard sell. 3 Action activities are *rough* to use in combat, and the weapon/hand requirement is still brutal.

As a comparison, any Alch could pop two inhaled poisons and still have 1 action left w 0 MAP penalty and free hands.

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How would you feel about:

Quote:

Lvl 5 Tox Field progression unlock.

Aerosolizer: Additive 5

Trigger: you create an infused injury poison

Using a new blend of alchemical oils, you have discovered a way to momentarily disperse and suspend injury poisons in the air. The poison looses the injury trait and gains the inhaled trait. Instead of 1 minute, the poison cloud remains potent until the end of your next turn, and the maximum duration of any affliction is cut in half.

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IMO this would be a great way to force exposure events in a non-MAP manner, while also playing into the existing and underutilized mechanics of inhaled poisons. I'm honestly still a little split on that second penalty, and wonder if a -1 to the DC is a better tradeoff than the half affliction duration.

Note that this is a Field progression unlock, not even a Feat (additive 5 is a serious requirement).

There are Feats in this homebrew that would give a small + to all infused item levels (generically appealing to all Alchs who want to use higher # additives) and that Alch's would get a 10-min recharging "reservoir" of their Field's trait that also produces items at a higher level.

[amalgamemnon]

I haven't done the math or tested much beyond the level 1 feat yet, but in doing the math on the level 1 feat... it feels SO good.

Any thoughts from you on it?

[Trip.H]

The minor negatives first. It does need cleaning up, and a tweak to how the ability is presented. IMO, I don't think many players/Paizo would click well with the way the ability is presented as an "it just works" kind of deal.

The base idea of trading the chance to make a damaging Strike to instead force an affliction event is rock solid. Trading the possible benefit of a Strike roll to instead more reliably use injuries poisons seems balanced and desirable for a Tox without being an automatic first combat action.

A good way to give you my thoughts on the idea is just to rewrite it in my own words/style:

Quote:

Venom Strike

Requirement: You are wielding a weapon coated in injury poison that can deliver it.

With a practiced lunge or careful shot, you strike not to rend flesh, but only to deliver your toxins. Make a Strike. This Strike does no weapon damage, but triggers an exposure event to the poison even on a miss, but not a crit miss.

The change from guaranteed --> not crit miss simplifies the Feat,

+ does tweak the balance to allow for possible failure, which is important as to conform to pf2e normal rules, allow big bosses have a chance, ect.

+ incentivizes/rewards other accuracy concerns. Don't usually want players to throw out big chunks of the "combat equation" for certain aspects of their routine. Usually preferable to reinforce them when writing your own exceptions.

+ enables PCs to more easily use the Feat with ranged weapons

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The change from "only self-made infused" --> "applied injury poison"

Is a buff that allows made / found / purchased toxins. IMO, it's rare enough to find a usable poison in-game, and such limitations would only hurt those discoveries. Hard crafting poisons is also expensive enough to make that possibility 100% fine IMO.