Talk:Alchemist, FMA (5e Class)

Thoughts from the Original Creator

Hi, I made the original so when I saw this in the recent changes my interest was piqued. I see a lot of interesting changes and I figured I'd give my two cents:

The stuff I like (most of these have been ported over to the original):

• The addition of Tiny Circles should've been obvious, I can't believe I didn't have that in the original.
• Decreasing the drawing and casting time of a Gargantuan Circle makes a ton of sense, spending 2 hours on a single effect would suck.
• Favorite Specialization is a fun feature that incentivizes player character identity. I don't think there's room for it in the supplement, but that's not a bad thing.
• Be Thou for the People having its cost decreased is a very fair change, letting players use their features in more situations without spending 10d6 damage-worth of resources.

The stuff I'm unsure of (not necessarily dislike):

• Rapier and firearm proficiency stood out to me at first, but it's not that big of a deal (basically the same as bard proficiencies).
• This seems to be for base 5e, so I'm not sure why this grants the supplement handgun instead of the DMG handgun (or even just a hand crossbow).
• Adding your Intelligence modifier to your Alchemic Stamina maximum was done so as to allow conversion between Alchemist and Homunculus resources, were it not for that I would have made this change and it's a great change for a non-supplement version.
• Locking transmutation weight, DC, and attack bonus to Intelligence alongside Alchemic Stamina makes this class a little SAD, but that's not as bad if this is being used alongside more classes than in the supplement.
• Granting Alchemic Recovery uses equal to your proficiency bonus is a change I really don't like, since at the level you get it at it effectively doubles your Alchemic Stamina, and by 17th level it triples your Alchemic Stamina. I'm all for players being able to use their abilities, but this seems like too much.
• The point of Combat Alchemy was to allow for an Attack action followed by a transmutation, adding the ability to make an attack as part of the transmutation makes me worry about multiclass potential, since being able to get off three attacks with your attack action, dealing 5d6 with a transmutation, then making another attack at least feels like a lot for the action economy, I'd have to play with this change to see how it really affects things.
• Be Thou for the People having its cost decreased seems at odds with the huge increase in Alchemic Stamina from Alchemic Recovery.
• Transmutation Tattoo dealing damage to the user was an intentional carryover from canon, in which Scar gets occasional jolts of pain from overusing his transmutation tattoo.
• Combining Rebound and Exhaustion Alchemy into a single option does make Human Transmutation and Ultimate Transmutation a little too easy to get for my liking.
• Shouldn't references to body part hit points in Exhausting Alchemy be removed, since this version is intended for base 5e where that variant rule can't be assumed (as an aside, this wouldn't necessarily apply to references to free actions, since that's just codification of 5e's item interaction rules)?
• Fire Alchemy was created to reflect the fact that Berthold Hawkeye's Flame Alchemy is stated to be Flame Alchemy in its strongest form, thus there must be forms weaker and more common than what Mustang uses.
• Making Dragon's Pulse grant Alkahestry is choice I don't understand. Why not either keep them entirely separate or fully combine them like Flame Alchemy?

I know the list of unsures ended up being longer than the likes, but I really do like this version, and I'm interested in seeing how the two diverge.--Ref3rence (talk) 22:34, 17 January 2024 (MST)

Answering the topics

Hey, first of all I want to thank you for making this class, as it is one of the most creative ones I've seen in this site with the Transmutation Circles and everything. So to start, the reason I made this variant is because I didn't understand some things of the original class, so I thought of making up another and changing it to what I thought was an alternative. So to answer your "unsure" questions:

• The rapier proficiency is because Olivier Armstrong has a sword that I think fits most as a rapier as her signature weapon in the series. I know she isn't an alchemist, but given this class wasn't made to play in your supplement I thought that this would give an option for players to make more interesting characters.
• The handgun is there just for flavor, I'll put in the hand crossbow as an option for people who aren't playing in such a setting.
• The change of trasmutation weight to Intelligence was made because I don't think it makes too much sense for it to use Constitution right? That sounds more like your prowess as an alchemist if anything and therefore Intelligence. Also I don't think it's "locked" behind Int given this is your main stat for the class. The same can be said for the DC and attack modifier, which were changed so that it had more to do with your character's alchemy prowess, and also because this way you don't need to invest in 4 atributtes to play the class which would be painful.
• The Alchemic Recovery and the addition of Intelligence modifier to Alchemic Stamina changes were made because in the anime people don't seem to get tired of performing alchemy even after a long day, but yeah now that you said that it almost doubles/triples I'm gonna at least nerf it a little.
• For Combat Alchemy, I think this won't be as bad as it seems in practice solely because this class doesn't get an Extra Attack, otherwise it would be a real problem. This way you still need to spend both Action and Bonus Action to make two attacks, but can still use your signature circles.
• Be Thou for the People cost decrease was solely made because it doesn't seem like something that would be all that expensive resourceful wise, especially for a high level alchemist such as someone at 13th level.
• Transmutation Tatto was something I didn't know and I'm gonna change back if that was really something in the anime.
• Human Transmutation is now only achievable at 10th level, which is in my opinion fair given what you need to pay back. That also goes for Ultimate Transmutation, which is 14th level and well, has an even worse drawback. Another reason for this is that I didn't like to think of kid Edward as a 10th level alchemist, and that kind of comparisons have their share of importance when you make a class based on existing fiction in my opinion.
• You're right I need to remove the "body part hit points" thing (by the way I liked your system for automail + this rule very fun)
• I don't remember this statement and also couldn't find any other type of weaker Fire or Flame alchemy, so I thought of just adding them together, also because that allows you to start with Flame Alchemy (which let's be honest is probably going to be one of the main reasons anyone will play this class, to cosplay Mustang) instead of waiting until level 6.
• This change was made so that if you want to make a Xing build you don't need to invest into Wisdom but wait until 6th level to only then have your stats actually work. But yeah I will merge them into one thing like I did to Fire and Flame.