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Hi all,
I thought about necro'ing the previous thread I made on this, but I figured it's been a while, and this is a BIG update, so why not go with a new thread.
Basically, I think I've finished... at least until Player Core 2 comes out.
So please, if you're so inclined, take a look and let me know what you think.
An Alchemist's Guide to Alchemical Items (Google Drive link)
Your guide is really well organized!
I am personally waiting to see what happens with the Player Core 2 before I am going to look closely at the alchemist again, because the two separate rules about splash damage in the Player Core 1 and the Gamemaster Core are still in conflict and unresolved after the last round of Errata. That was a bit of a surprise to me because one of them (the Player Core 1) no longer has splash damage work on a failure, and that is really going to change how alchemists use bombs if it is the new design we see in PC2.
The only reason I could imagine that change got into the book in the first place is because they are considering the idea of boosting Alchemist weapon proficiency. It is possible they were just considering this idea, or it is possible that they are moving ahead with it (I bet we find out this weekend), and that is why they haven't included the Errata specifying whether the GMC or the PC1 has the right of it. If it does change, I think a lot of player ideas and strategies around bombs is going to change.
I know in our current party, we have 2 kineticists, a wizard and a toxicologist, who acts a lot like a bomber. That is largely because they can throw 3 bombs a turn and do pretty decent damage just with splash (especially when we've identified a weakness). If the alchemist does get an accuracy boost, I think her tactics are probably going to have to change.
Quick notes as I go.
* missed opportunity on Blood + other bleed bombs. Bleed does have a lot more outside interaction than other persistent damage types. This is mostly an important to mention pro in the case of Exsanguinating Ammunition, and a con as it interferes / does not stack with some other spells/effects more than others. Ex Ammo in specific is one of the few genuinely worth an Activate action, if bleed is in play.
* You mention offhand in Goo Bomb the idea of stacking persistent damage, and IMO that ought be pulled out into it's own blurb. Especially after I asked my GM for Blood Bombs, "stacking" persistent damage by throwing a variety of bombs is IMO *the* #1 way for Alchs to contribute to the party's damage. It is also why I've come to appreciate Blight Bombs despite the poison type.
* Steelscour: It looks like this bomb does no damage to flesh, living or dead (and half dmg to non-metal constructs). The guide talks about this as an alternative to acid flask. Amazing tool, but might actually be better off taking this item out of the bomb section and put in into the tools.
* I'll take a sec to advocate for Soothing Tonics. In combat, they can be *better than an El o Lf in situations where overhealing is at play. Maybe this is when you expect the Oracle to hit the target with a Heal, or if you have only taken chip damage but have the Action to spend proactively. The other major combat use that needs mention is that of Dying. Fast Healing means the creature regains consciousness without a single dying check once their turn starts. Often times, this means that they can get themselves out of danger without any incoming assistance. If you have an ally that you know is about to be pancaked Dying, feeding them this instead of a wasted El o Lf can outright save the whole team. Out of combat, Soothing Tonics tend to just be superior to El o Lf due to the non-variable healing. This also means that for 5ish turn combats, Soothing can actually creep up on the expected heal of an El o Lf. As nearly the best out-of-combat heal, plus the very good option in combat, Soothing Tonics are often better than Numbing Tonics. And if a Chiurgeon's 1:3 is at play, all the more so. Not a substitute for El of Lf, but they are in the top shelf of alch items.
* Taking a moment to advocate against Mistform Elixirs. I can only assume that the "among the most requested [by] party" items comes from a lack of rules enforcement. My own experience with them was super optimistic, until that first Heal went out.
Unlike spells, alch item effects cannot be dispelled. And concealment is mutual; RaW, allies are just as likely to whiff a 2A Heal as the foe is a Strike. You need to Btt Md that misty alch? Roll a check.
While the frequency of concealment checks will mean more foe Strikes are whiffed, when you factor the impact of said effects, perma-concealment is usually a net-negative. And while the Cat's Eye combo is there, that is more actions/trouble than popping a big L7 Smoke Ball/Stick or two.
Another note is that monster abilities are much more often square based AoEs, while ally abilities are typically targeted.
And 5 min is really not a significant difference. It's the same "drink before door kick" that works fine with 1-min duration effects.
All together, Mistform rank well below most other "single pre-buff chug" elixirs in my book. Nothing else causes ally-whiff issues like them, and a little THP, Fast Healing, even a climbing speed, all tend to be better picks than "concealed to everyone".
* Another note to tamp-down the gushing on Numbing Tonics a bit. The THP is great, but comparing it to Fast Healing makes the limitations more visible. Any time THP is ignored or not used, it is wasted. In other words; if you *don't* take hits, the THP does nothing, absolutely nothing. If you take one big hit, that THP helped once. So if an alch gets hit 5 times in a fight across 3 turns, you gained the benefit of 3 THP ticks.
Meanwhile, Fast Healing only needs the creature to not be at max HP. For front-liners expecting hits each turn, Numbing can be generally better than Soothing. For anyone else, it is already a toss up. If your Fast H ticks twice, that's roughly the break even with Soothing. Any more gaps, and Soothing pulls ahead.
Party size also matters a lot here. In my 3 PC party, we all tend to get hit more often, while in my 5 PC party, it is really surprising how the number of hits going out does not keep up at all.
This is another place where real RaW vs common rule-break play really matter. I've been told many times that "THP from difference sources stacks" but that is not true. Just like Fast Healing, you can only have 1 THP effect active at a time. The presence of competing ally effects is a wildcard variable for both elixirs, but the RaW is crystal clear that stacking THP is not allowed.
Numbing is a great elixir, but IMO it is actually just below Soothing. The Dying safeguard, post-battle healing w/ remaining duration, out of combat heal, and the rather often times the in-combat FH will exceed THP block, all combine to overcome the "bigger number" of Numbing in my formula book.
That said, the two stack with each other, which is superb.
I'm needing to pause here, and will resume later.
Main thing I'd like to see is more preamble and generalized pop-outs. Blurbs of text that explain concepts common to alch items in a general context to arm readers w/ more insight into evaluating each specific item, not just "this item good/bad, trust me" type listings.
Like an explainer on persistent damage, ect.
I love all the quick click links to AoN.
More as-I-go notes.
* Prey Mutagen: IMO one of the strongest mutagens in the system. The ability to drink to get an evergreen Reaction on a class with no good ones native to it is insane. The general-use of a speed bonus only sweetens the deal, while the lack of an always-painful drawback takes is far over the top. A clear case of "rare OP." If an Alch has access, it should be at the top of their list.
* Stone Body Mutagen: Resistance to damage is the only thing that applies to every single incoming hit. For any Alch that going to intentionally be on the front line (or when that PC goes down), this is actually a very good option to consider. Reducing all s/p hits by 5 is *extremely* good at L5. Heavy armor specialization is typically (2 + rune) of a single type.
- Bludgeoning damage is actually super rare on monsters, typically limited to tails and tentacles. Importantly, Alchs both tend to sit still due to the 20ft bomb increment, and they have access to speed boosting or ~bypassing options like Leaper's Elixir or even Firefoot Popcorn if that's really needed. I do want to say that the drawback is quite real, but contextually so. A whole hecking lot of pf2e is played in tiny rooms, so the chance this mutagen will cost an extra movement action is a big "it depends"
- The real "drawback" of the mutagen is that the scaling may be typoed (my guess is it was supposed to be resistance 3 for the L5 version). Because the L12 version is also 5 resistance, the higher the L beyond that 5 unlock, the worse it will compare to scaling items like Soothing/Numbing, ect. For most Alchs, gameplay does not even reach L10, so this item is quite good (perhaps by mistake).
- a very top-shelf mutagen overall.
* I'd love a brief forward on poisons and their mechanics, and how that can affect the perceptions of their effectiveness. For example, the quirk of repeated exposures only knocking victims down stages lends itself to a quick flurry of exposures, such as one coating on every ally weapon. It also informs the context as to why the virulent trait can make such a difference.
* Sloughing Toxin: Uniquely a near-certain death sentence if it reaches Stage 3. Amb Vlts is a common AP, and I think that 1-hr total duration + Stage duration + no dmg cap needs an explicit mention.
- The duration of that stage means that no more checks are going to happen, and even if a creature flees combat, some GM napkin math reveals that they are likely dead before they can reach their home/lair (assuming they are not guarding it).
- This poison is an outright unique, fight-winning tool. If the party gets the stage 3, they can half-withdraw and enter a 1-hr "bleed them out" phase of harassing the doomed foe while refusing to engage in proper combat, only doing persistence hunting to prevent any standing-still or medicine. Didn't know it was even possible to get for PFS play, that's wild. 3+ Fort fails is still only ever going to happen with dedicated effort, leaving that "win condition" as kinda still balanced in a way.
* Choleric Contagion: It's L18 so this literally may never be used, ever, but. RaW drugs state the user can choose to fail their saves. IMO, that provides precedent for same to apply to poisons. If GM says so, this poison has a unique ability to be used by a Monk / unarmed striker with no need for re-application (nor piercing damage). Due to how important repeat exposures are for any significant use of a poison, this self-poisoning is actually a serious use-case. Preparation for the poison damage would be well-advised, but the "mutually assured poison damage" enabled by adding an exposure every singe hit could be very serious.
* I might put the inhaled tools that use the same cloud mechanic into the inhaled poisons section. Dark Pepper Powder & Sneezing Powder. False Flayleaf & Flayleaf are poison tagged, though I guess the 10min onset is why they are not included? Refined Pesh I suppose should also be mentioned, though most of those would really only be combat-usable as bluffs.
Gah, got to pause again. Might be a while before I get back to this.
Love to see all this work being shared, especially where it is publicly search/findable.
It is safe to assume that no comment on an entry is at least a tacit approval of the provided take, if not outright agreement.
Honestly, 185 pages with no colour makes it hard to get into it. You need some colour based ranking/sorting system. Even if it was colour X = debuff play style and give it up to 5 asterisk to rank it.
As it is set-up I already need to know what is good or bad to use it effectively. Its basically a reference check for already knowledgeable players, whereas it could provide valuable guidance to players of all skill levels with some level of ranking/assessment. You're already doing a "how's it stack up' section, just make it visually distinct in some consistent way so people can parse the content.
Agreed.
A table with jump links to the specific entry in the document would be a big help, that's for sure.
This style is mostly usable if the reader knows what to ctrl-f for, or if they really have some time on their hands.
Hey folks,
Firstly, thank you for giving some feedback. I've been busier then expected, but I will be replying when I can.
Secondly: Until tonight, I'd never used Google Driver's PDF viewer. Wow, does it suck. Please download the PDF and look at it in something like Adobe or EBookDroid. None of my hyperlinks are working in Google Drive... Like the fully hyperlinked Table of Contents.
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A note on the significance of the Ginger Chew, you can't willingly ingest anything while sickened. This makes purging the Sickened condition particularly important in a party that relies on alchemical elixirs.
OK, I still plan on addressing specific posts soon. In the meantime though, I have taken some of the concerns on formatting to heart, and I've updated the version (link in first post.)
Again, please download the PDF and look at it in anything but Drive's PDF viewer. Maybe I should move the hosting to Dropbox...
More comments:
* Colorful Coatings:
- I really want to like these items, and I tried to make it work. Never used a single one. They are too specific to waste reagents to prepare ahead of time, but they require 3 actions to activate. Meaning, you cannot Q-Alch them and have time to use the coating before it collapses into essence.
- Another critical issue is the 1-min duration. That's not really enough time for much of anything. Even pre-battle prep is pushing it, 10min would be the min safe duration for a "spray a square before we fight" use-case.
- All numbers associated with them are static and pathetic, which kills all but the red in most cases. Red's fall damage negation is genuinely unique, but the one single time I thought about it (prepping before a dangerous climb), I just Q-Alched a Spiderfoot elixir instead. Because, again, that 1 min duration completely kills it. It was better to ensure the least athletic party member could climb the whole way than it would be to have a 1-min safety net that would fade halfway up, and that's if the GM hand-waived landing on that single square.
* Glow Rods:
- I'll make a quick note that sturdy player-independent light sources are hard to come by, and that combines with the consumable nature of glow rods to give them a significant amount of non-combat creative use that the Light cantrip cannot. Things like throwing / dropping a lit rod to see -deep-. Setting up a glow rod to act as a decoy, warning, or signal. If the GM lets you work with the "good smack" activation, you can make use of that activation by throwing it down a cave (to avoid the streak of light) or even rig the rod with some form of trap. If the party does not need the rod itself to see (L8 Darkvision Elixirs), then the mechanics and low cost of glow rods opens a lot more possibilities. Even had a GM allow a roll to determine that x/y of a group of zombies noticed a distraction rod and moved to check it out.
* Healing Vapor:
- Oof. Sorry, but this item is pretty unusable. the L4 vapor heals 20 HP across 10min, spread across 4 creatures. One big issue with the concept is that damage is rarely spread out like that. 4 targets means that all 4 must need that HP, or there is waste for even less eHP per reagent. If the numbers were triple, it might be worth it, sometimes, probably not. Because out of combat healing is typically done without resources thanks to Treat Wounds, Focus Spells, ect. Spending limited reagents on that is already a very rough sell. Alchs need to keep every blank reagent in the pocket that they can, so if they are going to spend on that, it needs to be damn well worth it, like a flat "double the Treat Wounds healing" kind of thing.
- The real already-dead-horse wallop for Healing Vapor is in the comparison:
- L5 Soothing Tonic restores 30 HP in 1 minute to a single creature. Less likely to be wasted due to being single target, 50% more HP recovered, and is a combat buff. VS Vapor's 5HP x 4 creatures. Which item are you going to prep?
- Who could have possibly thought that a 20gp L4 item that heals 20HP at most across 10min was even remotely close to usable? R1 scrolls are 4gp each. You can buy and use FIVE scrolls of Sooth or Heal. The eHP comparison is a joke. I have no freaking clue how this item was released alongside Soothing Tonics.
* Implosion Dust:
- I've also got no idea why this item is getting a good review. Super-duper niche at the very best (you see a Carnivorous Crystal). It's effect is done like a poison affliction. That alone makes it unreliable, if not unusable. You will never get 3 fails before it succeed-nullifies the item. Worse, it does no damage, and only affects size and reach. You are spending actions and reagents to target their best save, to get an effect that does not make the foe any less of a threat. In fact, it's the opposite. While dramatic, Engulfing is generally a good thing for the party when it comes to oozes/ect (very loose general case, some like C Crystal are non-incap death sentences. Why tf is Crystalize a 1-A that can be done 3x in a row & 2 fails = death?). Engulf costs the creature actions, can fail, does no dmg itself, prevents the PC from being hit, ect. Mainly, it's that every action spend on Engulf is an action not swinging with surprisingly powerful pseudopods. If you DO manage to shrink an ooze enough to disable Engulf, you've just ensured it can only flail it's pods at you.
* Pyronite:
- Quick note that each stick essentially has some fuse built into it, no need for a separate item. If you have a lantern on your hip (or perhaps the Illuminate cantrip) you can light for 1A then throw for 1A. It is also notable for doing a bit of damage without being an attack roll. It is way too low of damage for its level, but if you have 2+ enemy casters in that big burst, providing Deafen on save for 1 round, and 1 min on fail, can be appealing for the flat checks to their casting. If there is an open flame elsewhere, you can just throw for 1A. Technically, you can just light on your hip for 1A, and then drop them. The dmg isn't that big, and the Alch may not care about being deafened. The familiar doing the item relay might not like it though, lol.
* Searing Suture:
- A bit bizarre this rated higher than the Ichthyosis Mutagen. Both are usable, but there's a reason Ichtyosis is Rare locked. Being able to react to a bad bleed, and then also grant automatic bleed recovery for the rest of the fight is amazing. The caveat of mutagen incompatibility is tiny, with the main comparison being that the suture can provide the recovery during that action, while Ichthy will still incur a tick of bleed before closing. Reflex is also the "safest" save to lower, as those effects are the most likely to be naked damage, unlike many save or suck debilitations associated with Will & Fort. I find Ichthy to be the much more general use bleed-solver as removing RNG is super valuable, (and the bit of Fast Healing is a nice bonus).
* Skinstitch Salve:
- This item is not good, but it is sometimes usable with some nasty asterisks. You do note the need to have the item in-hand, which is doubly tricky due to Battle Medicine also needing a free hand. If the GM will allow a Manual Dex familiar to Swap the Salve into your hand, it's not *super* bad. But, that does emphasize that this item is only really usable for those with ways to mitigate the Draw action(s). The biggest reason why it's such a sticking point is that the only benefit of the success upgrade is to add +2d8 to the Battle Medicine, the flat HP is unaffected. Even right when you unlock it at L7, 2d8 healing is not much. 2d8 is not worth doubling the action cost, and if there's yet another Interact after the use to Draw a weapon, forget it. Salve is best used by Chiurgeons or other PCs with an item familiar, while also trying to ration/maximize their Battle Medicines.
- But, as it's the same reagent cost for any other Alch item... it's bad. It must be superior to justify itself. By L7, if they are going to need an action due to hands, every Alch has far better healing options that don't involve Battle Medicine. I gave a pair to a Druid for a few sessions (because he could Swap away a staff for 1, then spend the rest of the combat empty-handed), then retired the item. If you play the hands rules as written, it's nearly unusable.
* Sovereign Glue:
- I've always loved the item. Really hard to find practical uses for it, though. I will at least tease: Doors & doorframes.
* Swamp Lily Quilt:
- While this is certainly a thin niche, the Colorful Coatings should have referenced this item in their parameters. Being able to slap it down in 2A means it works with Quick Alchemy, and the infinite duration means you can do pre-battle prep with it. Even the dreaded "we'll come back tomorrow" type. The main reason I would rate this higher is for non-combat weird uses. Being able to create a mini-swamp wherever desired is super neat. Got a rowdy NPC causing trouble in town? Throw down a quilt and have your Barb challenge them to some mud wrastlin. This is the kind of oddball effect item (with the parameters needed!) that encourages out of the box thinking.
* Toothwort Extract:
- A niche item, but still useful with a specific Inhaled poison. As it's a flat +1 duration and a low level item, it's a match for that Yellow Musk Vial and it's base 2 duration. Main issue is the hands, and that Q-Alch is required. Almost unusable, but Yellow Musk is not incap. Yellow Musk, at only stage 2, is one of the only "hard CCs" in the game, fully rendering the victim unable to fight or defend itself.
It does have the "breaks if you use hostile actions" catch, but if the players use those turns to buff up and set up for the beatdown, it is legitimately scary for GMs. Yellow Musk is also notable as a tool when killing is not the goal, though pf2e is super generous about non-lethal. For scary foes PCs don't want to fight; you might have some players open up a BoH behind the Musked foe, pull the bag down over their head, then shred the bag once the foe's inside...
* Crackling Bubble Gum:
- The damage is 1d4 less than Electric Arc when it's on level, and every H the cantrip gets, that comparison will only be worse. It only is usable for 10min after priming, so just before a door-kick. It is a not friend-safe cone. It will be much, much harder to hit 2 foes and 0 friends with this cone than a zap of EA. When an Alch is L5, their DC will be 21 while the gum is a LAGGING static at 19. If your GM allows a Quick Alch lozenge to persist if you mouth it, your only way to get the DC up is to spend a reagent before a door-kick. I hate this item for being such a trap. I once made a batch, then threw them away. The only potential use is the fail effect's slow being abnormally long lasting, and that's super rarely relevant and depends on a crappy DC. With all the design safeties to make it a once per fight lozenge that doesn't match the Alch's DC, it's a travesty it's so unusable.
- Adding all the catches together, Crackling Bubble Gum is decent side-grade to EA when:
- - Item level is just unlocked or 1 behind
- - & you can manage the unsafe cone
- - & you care about the fail effect's speed minus
- - & you have prep time before a fight
- - & you are willing to spend 1 reagent on Q-Alch
* Galvanic Chew:
- Much better than the gum. Alchemist does not get usable reactions, and the trigger condition is super generous. Still requires spending a full reagent to get the DC to scale, but the 1 hr duration is a lot better for pre-fight prep. A "save or stun" Reaction that would otherwise not be spent at all is a downright good effect, the question is if it's worth the reagent. This item is best used when your group knows it's going to be heading out of danger after one more fight, and you still have a reagent (hopefully 2) left. Pop one in the mouth, and see if you (or an ally) can get a free stun. And note that this is a REACTION stun effect. Meaning, their turn is over and they'll loose 1 action from their next. This is at least a green, and the closest thing to a blue that Lozenge has. There's a reason the item includes a "you can only use 1 per 24 hrs" clause.
* Firefoot Popcorn:
- I've tried to make this work, it's not great but still very fun. The fire damage has a quirk synergy with Pyronite to detonate the sticks, one POP and you'll have a square to toss them into to skip the lighting action (GM willing). More shenanigans involves getting sticks into the fire by unusual means, such as flying familiar dropping. It is fire and area damage for swarms or other weaknesses. And Leaping means avoiding terrain, including your own fire squares. There's also quirky cases where you can temporarily be inside foe squares, but are not allowed to end your turn in them. Meaning, you can Leap/Stride/Tumble in, and POP out to discourage the foe to remain. In general, being able to POP around for 1 action is just great, especially if you can get 30 speed to give you 30 ft Popcorn Leaps. Still usually a "bad" idea due to all reagents being equal, but fun.
* Missive Mint:
- Why is this blue? You can just shove a rolled slip of paper inside a mint, I promise your recipient will notice when they try to eat it. By having a rule to notice the mint with a check, it's WORSE than putting paper inside a mint. It's a meme, and not the kind that can enable or encourage fun things. Useful for troll players trying to harass others by making them think they are crazy for hearing voices when eating a candy. Other players will just pull their hair out trying to force its use.
* Owlbear Egg:
- I personally see a 30' friend un-safe emanation as a rather serious problem. Pair that with a 2A Activation, meaning a 3A routine for Q-Alchemy... Yeah. It DOES inflict frightened 1 on success, but man, those are some serious snags. I've never used one.
I'll read through the ammunition later.
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Your guide is really well organized!
That was one of my goals, so thank you very much!
...the two separate rules about splash damage in the Player Core 1 and the Gamemaster Core are still in conflict and unresolved after the last round of Errata.
Indeed. I agree that should the Player Core version be the final one, it will likely be due to Alchemists getting a proficiency bump. However, I would miss the full Splash on Failed Strike we have now. It's been fantastic for my Bombers.
<stuff on bleed
I don't want to get too into the reeds here. I do, however, mention the Exsanguinating Ammo is a teamwork ammo for the most part.
Possibility of a section on Persistent Damage
I kinda like the idea. Not sure if this Guide is the right place for it though. Might save it for my next project, which I plan to do on Bombers.
Steelscour
Thanks for the catch! Haven't uploaded it yet but I've altered my blurb accordingly.
Soothing Tonics
While Soothing Tonics are not a favourite, (hence not Blue) they are a solid Green. My concern with Soothing Tonics as a healing tool in combat is the possibility of whack-a-moling a character to death. Popping up from Dying with 3 HP is very tricky. That's why I would use an Elixir of Life to bring someone back instead. Yeah, you could get unlucky, but at 5th at least the Elixir is guaranteed to start them off at 9 instead of 3. Every bit helps.
On the downside of the Concealed condition and Most form
I stand by my assessment, but you make a good point. I'll add a note about the potential downside to the entry.
On soothing vs numbing
I tend to look at it this way: you've supposed to be starting a fight at full health. Lesser Numbing Tonic (L5) will prevent 5 HP of damage. Moderate Soothing will heal 3 HP. So Numbing is 66% more effective. So yes, Soothing will work every round where Numbing won't... but it takes 2 rounds to heal what Numbing prevented in one. At 16th Level, Numbing is 400% more effective than the available Soothing. This settles down to 200% when Major Soothing arrives at 17th, before Numbing's lead increases to 250% more effective with True Numbing at 19th.
Ideally of course, you'd have both. That's how I'm planning to go now that my 10th level Mutagenist has Moderate Numbing and Greater Soothing available.
Whoops, almost forgot to finish my read through.
Ammunition:
- Exsanguinating:
- - The main event to this ammo was left entirely unmentioned. In addition to adding a tier-scaling weakness, all forms of the ammo increase the bleed recovery DC by 2. That's a rather unique effect, and a very potent one. Shifting that flat check from 15 to 17 is no joke, and is fully there with the very first L4 version.
Not sure why the "it's all right" Freeze Ammunition is blue, while the "...stronger, a lot stronger" Ooze Ammunition is green.
Bottled Monstrosities:
- not much to say here. The entire item type seems to be to prompt tables to invent their own, I don't really think Paizo expects parties to encounter enough specific corpses to make into items like that. Though, it can lead to some great moments if you roll with it. I did (with consent) use some echoes of
Permanent Items (Tools):
- Alchemical Atomizer:
- - I will stick up for this item, a little. I don't think it's for Alchemists, who are normally going to have to get used to delivering items. I think this is to be handed to a Witch with Cauldron, so they can shoot a potion or oil at someone. Especially the oils, as most require 2-H to apply. Party Archer miss a Strike? The Witch can shoot the fallen arrow with some Serpent Oil and now it's a snake minion. Don't want to cough up the money for a 90gp Potion of Quickness? You can shoot/spray out some 50gp Oil of Swiftness for a discount Haste that's Strike-only.
- Alchemical Chart:
- - Absolutely still trash. But. Might have a use if you double or triple brew items you don't /can't use this turn, and need to activate next turn. The trick is, the first item you Quick Alch is the Chart itself. Now that it is in-hand, the next 1 or 2 items will have their duration extended, and you can drop the soon-to-vanish Chart. No idea when you'd have the extra Reagent to spare, but saving a future action by avoiding Q-Alch next turn is a real thing enabled by the item.
- Coagulant Alembic:
- - Glad to see a sensible take on this. I can say the need to turn off splash damage is not small. I'm really needing one for my SoT Chiurgeon w/ Calc Splash, as I'm doing at least 2x splash damage to my own team as to the foes. We are broke as hell, so even trying to buy the formula is a significant cost.
- Poison Concentrator:
- - Okay, so, this item does have very real use for Toxicologists. While Tox is allowed scaling DC on all prep poisons, many on-level poisons actually have a higher DC than what you can get. This means that all the old poisons, even when scaling to your DC, are going to lag. This item is so that you can keep making Yellow Musk Vials and Clown Monarchs forever, and they still get to be DC + 1. Yes, it does cut down your total resources by a large amount, but you can use it sparingly as needed. There are a lot of tables where they only fight 2ish times per day, and classes like Alch only benefit from the option to reduce their supply in exchange for more potent items.
I only wish there was a generic tool that turned 1 reagent into a DC-scaled prep item.
- Troll Hide:
- - I had previously missed that this was not Fast Healing, and is a generic "gain HP" effect that does stack with it. That said, I've never seen play over L10. Still wonder about an Alchemist that travels between cities, daily prepping 2-4 of these, putting them on patients, and using the rest of their daily elixirs to perform regenerative therapy. The worldly implications of this item are... a little ridiculous.
- Weapon Siphon:
- - There is a neat small oversight with the item that allows it to attach to thrown melee weapons, and still benefit their ranged strikes. In SoT, my Alch "confiscated" a Fulminating Spear and attached a Jolt Coil & Siphon. An extra 2d4 + Str + Clown Monarch on a thrown weapon with a Bomb's ranged increment is... annoyingly good. Makes it hard to justify spending too many reagents on Bombs.
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Overall, I am very surprised by how little I thought was important to add. The guide is a bit slow to read, but very thorough.
I do like to evangelize the Independent Manual Dexterity familiar anywhere Alchemists may be seeking advice, and due to how much it changes the viability of battle consumables like healing elixirs, that may be nice to mention somewhere.
On Soothing Tonics
The danger of the auto-revival leading to PC death is in my opinion a completely phantom fear, albeit one I have experienced and stopped worrying about.
Twice now, I've been in a spot where I could see that someone was about to get knocked dying and used a Soothing. Both times, it was a very good call. Them being able to stand on their own the next round and run away while the party kept up the offensive pressure is a massive help for that ally to get to safety.
As soon as you see a foe attack someone already Dying, any notion of "leaving them down" kinda goes out the window. Not all GMs pull their punches.
Moreover, Alchemists just do not have the big healing needed to let a freshly conscious ally survive any real aggression. If you feed an Elixir of Life instead of a Soothing, you would have to be incredibly lucky for that elixir to let them survive another hit. Fed either before or after someone went down, an Elix o Lf is just not likely to exceed a single incoming Strike.
Soothing vs Numbing is entirely up to how often you will spend rounds without getting hit, and how much you value the other two benefits of Soothing; that Soothing are generally the very best out of combat Alch healing, and the revival effect of Fast Healing.
When I started paying attention, it really does seem like Soothing are always close to the EHP difference of a Numbing, meaning the two other benefits just take it over the top.
Also, you comparing the two tonics right before Soothing clears its missing tier like that's not cool dude. Yes, Soothing inexplicably goes from L10 to L17.
No, comparing the L16 Numbing to the L10 Soothing is not helpful, it just muddies the waters. It's pretty damn close to 1x Fast Healing == 2x THP. Yes, the varying unlock levels tips the math as that happens.