Talk:Alchemist (5e Class)

I’m preemptively starting off this discussion page by saying I’ll gladly take constructive criticism. If you can justify your reasoning for offering changes or offer suggestions, that’s perfectly fine. I don’t claim to be the master of game balance, so any legitimate help is appreciated. PunnyDM12 (talk) 10:45, 19 November 2018 (MST)

The School of the Great Work is a new archetype and is likely subject to change at some point. PunnyDM12 (talk) 00:34, 4 December 2018 (MST)

Question

In the "Create Elixirs" feature it says "If the spell has a casting time of one action or one bonus action, you use whichever action you used to drink the elixir to cast the spell effect." What I don't understand is does it take an action to drink the elixir? Do you get to choose action or bonus action to drink an elixir? or do you use whichever action the spell would use to drink the elixir? Love what of read of this class so far btw. Might add it to my homebrew :) --Tiero (talk) 18:01, 24 September 2019 (MDT)

It uses an action to drink an elixir like with any potion, class feature or not. But under the Brewer archetype it allows an elixir to be imbibed with a bonus action. I suppose I should have been more clear, and it's my mistake for making the assumption that the elixirs function like drinking a potion in terms of action economy. PunnyDM12 (talk) 23:29, 1 October 2019 (MDT)

Spell List

This class has a spell list but does not explicitly say how to use it. I want to add the assay spell I just created to its spell list but I can find a feature focused on the spell list. What spells does the alchemist use? What can they do with them? Is it the same list as the standard alchemist spell list? Arquebus (talk) 12:39, 5 May 2020 (MDT)

There is an "Alchemical Formulae List" at the end of the class description. Those are the spell effects they can use when creating elixirs using the Create Elixirs feature. PunnyDM12 (talk) 15:09, 6 May 2020 (MDT)

Question

Can the mutagen change the size of the drinker or do you need beast transformation for that. Is this something I just talk to the DM about.

I had only planned for the Beast Transformation to allow for different size changes seeing as it effectively just casts polymorph on the drinker. Or do you mean the regular mutagens? PunnyDM12 (talk) 22:37, 19 December 2020 (MST)

Question

What is the inherent advantage to elixirs vs regular spellcasting? Because they're severely disadvantaged by having to be predesignated so what do they have that balances this out?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the elixers just function as regular spellcasting, alike the wizard, but instead of being flavored as wacky hand movements and flashing lights, it's glass and funky liquids. --SwankyPants (talk) 11:36, 12 February 2021 (MST)

Nah, he's right. I had initially designed it in a manner that you had to specify your specific spells and levels for each slot and could change them up if you took a short rest (which could honestly take a while at higher levels if you swap out every slot). If you went School of the Brewer at 3rd level, you could expend a bonus action to change it up on the fly while the other schools kinda delved into other areas of expertise. But yeah, it's far less versatile than basic spellcasting, and I've thought about just changing it to more of the Wizard spell prep but with different flavor but then it just feels kinda plain. I dunno. The only thing I could ever think of that would be an advantage for the class apart from spellcasting would be that you have grenades and they can't be counterspelled or affected by antimagic, so you at least keep that damage and utility in that sense. PunnyDM12 (talk) 00:25, 3 March 2021 (MST)

Just wanted to say this is pretty cool :) MoDuckyMo (talk) 10:15, 28 August 2021 (MDT)

School of Great work, Materia Prima

Hello every one, Sorry for my english, i am french :) I would like to know what it is the interest of the discovery "philosopher stone" to have bonus action to use Materia Prima ? If i understand well, the Materia Prima can only bu used when we prepare elixir. So i don't see the interest of it

A: I could be wrong, but to "create the elixirs" I played it as a player - even if it is actually a bit difficult to understand - when these are used. In practice, like wizards who study spells in the morning but then in order to use them they must "complete them" with the command word, alchemists prepare their elixirs in the morning, and during the day when they have to use them they activate them on the spot to make them functioning. At that moment the effect of the Materia Prima activates without using the Elixir slot, and in the case of the discovery "Philosopher's stone" this happens as a bonus action, thus allowing it to attack or use an additional Elixir in the same turn. p.s. I'm not a native English speaker either, I hope you understand what I meant