Hello Community.
As the title.
You know how to prepare fast-acting chemicals into versatile vials, special items that can be used as bombs and be turned into other alchemical items by introducing special reagents. During your daily preparations, you can create a number of versatile vials up to 2 + your Intelligence modifier, which is also your maximum number of vials. If you're below your maximum number, you can gather reagents from the environment around you. For every 10 minutes you spend in exploration mode, you regain 2 vials; this doesn't prevent you from participating in other exploration activities.
While you're traveling and exploring, tell the GM what you'd generally like to do along the way. If you do nothing more than make steady progress toward your goal, you move at the full travel speeds given in the table.
So, how would you rule it?
Does "For every 10 minutes you spend in exploration mode, you regain 2 vials; this doesn't prevent you from participating in other exploration activities" interfere with "If you do nothing more than make steady progress toward your goal, you move at the full travel speeds given in the table"?
Options
a) zero impact on overland speed
b) some impact on overland speed (perhaps 25%)
c) significant impact on overland speed (perhaps 50%)
d) something else?
RAW vs RAI - which one applies and why?
And yes "Ask your GM" but how would you rule it?
=)
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
As a GM? A for both RAW and RAI. For RAW, This is the key part of the Exploration rules:
Some exploration activities limit how fast you can travel and be effective.
Looking through the list of Exploration activities, quite a few do mention that they reduce your speed, such as Repeat a Spell.
Alchemist says no such thing about Versatile Vials. That means that RAW recovering them has no effect on speed. How fast you go is determined by what Exploration Activity you pick as normal, and recovering VV simply happens at the same time (which is also why recovering VVs is itself not listed as an Exploration Activity).
RAI it works this way because VVs are required for remaster Alchemist to really function given the significantly reduced daily Advanced Alchemy and the fact that all Additive abilities require a VV (they do not work as part of daily prep anymore). Without this, the Alchemist would either not get to do Exploration Activities quite a lot or would drastically slow a group down by requiring 30 minutes of recovery time every combat.
Effectively this would be as if a spellcasting class was burning 3 focus points every fight but also didn't have a whole pile of spell slots to fall back on if they can't get those focus points back... and lacked a feat option to get them back faster (which casters have).
The class just isn't strong enough for that to make sense as a thing to do IMO.
Yes, definitely A.
An ability that doesn't slow you down while doing other stuff also doesn't have a reason to slow you down when doing nothing.
While you're traveling and exploring, tell the GM what you'd generally like to do along the way. If you do nothing more than make steady progress toward your goal, you move at the full travel speeds given in the table.
So, for those that think "a" is the best approach (see OP), what do you make of the bolded text?
Just ignore it?
Why?
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
While you're traveling and exploring, tell the GM what you'd generally like to do along the way. If you do nothing more than make steady progress toward your goal, you move at the full travel speeds given in the table.So, for those that think "a" is the best approach (see OP), what do you make of the bolded text?
Just ignore it?
Why?
Because you're making more out of it than is reasonable.
It just says that the base overland speed is based on your speed, assuming nothing else special is going on. It then goes on to give a list of special things that could be going on that have a specific impact on your speed. Most of them slow you down by half (Avoid Notice, Search), some by more than that (Squeeze) and some actually speed you up (Hustle).
But an alchemist gathering materials doesn't have any text saying it changes your speed, just that it doesn't take so much effort that it gets in the way of doing anything else. Likewise, a sorcerer doesn't need to do anything special to Refocus, so could also be doing that while just walking along at normal speed.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
You don't ignore it. Regenerating vials is part of the Alchemist's 'do nothing' activity. It literally happens automatically regardless of whatever else you're doing.
|
A
Regenerating your vials aren't an exploration activity, you don't need to declare you're doing it, and in narrative you are picking plants or mixing vials every now and again. There's no reason that would significantly slow you down. It is no different to other abilites that naturally return over time.
We're not "ignoring" the bolded text, it just doesn't apply here.
In addition, there's no reason to limit it, and limiting it is a massive nerf to alchemsists that just isn't warrented. This would also make having an alchemist in the party painful, and actively punish the party for it.
While you're traveling and exploring, tell the GM what you'd generally like to do along the way. If you do nothing more than make steady progress toward your goal, you move at the full travel speeds given in the table.So, for those that think "a" is the best approach (see OP), what do you make of the bolded text?
Just ignore it?
Why?
Because recovering VVs is not an activity and does not take significant effort. It simply happens as part of doing something else.
The ones that slow you down say that they slow you down. VV does not say that, so it doesn't. You're reading more into that sentence than is actually there.
That sentence is relevant in a case where a player wants to do an exploration activity that isn't in the rules and you're inventing a new one. It's guidance for you in terms of how that would likely impact their progress. If they're doing something that is already in the rulebook, the rulebook says if it slows them down or not.
While you're traveling and exploring, tell the GM what you'd generally like to do along the way. If you do nothing more than make steady progress toward your goal, you move at the full travel speeds given in the table.So, for those that think "a" is the best approach (see OP), what do you make of the bolded text?
Just ignore it?
Why?
I propose a more precise wording of that bolded sentence:
"If you do nothing that interferes with making steady progress toward your goal, you move at the full travel speeds given in the table."
The intent of the rule isn't to force characters to not be able to walk and chew bubble gum at the same time.
Alchemist isn't the only class that has things like this. Sorcerer can also regain focus points while traveling at full speed. Arguably depending on what the Refocus activity is, so can a lot of other focus point caster characters. A Cleric can probably walk and pray at the same time, for example.