Talk:Transmutation Alchemist, Variant (5e Class)

D&D doesn't have a "Intellect modifer" or a "water damage" type. Marasmusine (talk) 02:02, 11 December 2016 (MST)

Bio-Alchemy 2 isn't listed in the feats, 9th level study feature is non-existant, and at philo stones 4 soul version there is a random 't' at the end. 05:27, 30 March 2017 (UTC-7)

There's more.

• Needs a better feature spread. There are levels with no features, and yet levels were you get an ability score improvement and a feature.
• Prerequisite for multiclassing should be odd-numbered (probably Intelligence 13)
• The homunculi's statistics are ridiculous. If the host has average ability scores, this gives the homunculi 30 in every score. There's no limit to how many you can have. They regain hit points on taking damage, so you can very quickly top them back up to their maximum hit points by punching them.
• Chimera similarly is overpowered. You add the ability scores together then double them? I combine a crocodile, a giant owl and a killer whale, and I get a gargantuan chimeria with Str 94 and Int 26? Is this Immortal Handbook: Ascension?
• Missing details everywhere. For example, Flame Cloak, it lasts for 1 minute and requires no action, and has no recharge: so it is effectively permanent. Marasmusine (talk) 07:23, 7 April 2017 (UTC)

I saw this and got excited, because I found the Animated Armor race (which, with a little tweaking was accepted by my DM) and wanted to play Al. But then this entire class seems to be a cluster fornication of bad. The features that are not immensely overpowered are either flavor or highly situational at best. The features that are overpowered are so much so as to be completely ridiculous. The chimeras, as Marasmusine pointed out, is extremely broken and not at all in line with how they are portrayed in the anime/manga. There should only be two creatures being fused, and the resulting creature should have the base stats of one of them and perhaps add the modifiers of the other to those? And when fusing a humanoid and a beast, you should effectively give them lycanthrophy without the involuntary transformations or curse (they can't pass it along). The homunculi are similarly broken and you reference 'host bodies' which are not fully explained - you have to provide a living humanoid (singular), so what of the other(s) of the 'host bodies'(plural)? Or should 'bodies' be "body's"? If that's the case, then it's more explained than I thought at first. But the ability scores and hit points are still way to high. I'm not entirely sure what the best way to fix them would be, but to be more in line with the anime, they aren't nearly as powerful as you have them here. Perhaps add a d4 or d6 to each ability score with a max of 22 or 24(the homunculi are definitely super-human)? As far as HP, they should just have regenerative abilities instead of many hit points, like an automatic resurrection upon death a number of times equal to the number of souls they have. The 'Father' ability is just bad. You are pretty much giving the class god-hood at 20th level, which is not an acceptable capstone ability.

In my opinion, the Chimera, Homunculi, and Father features should just be removed. The Philosophers' Stone feature should be the capstone. Or 'Truth' which would pretty much be the same thing without the human sacrifices. The Soul Bonding feature, I think, should just replace the target's race with the Animated Armor race (or something equivalent, if you don't like how that race is designed). It shouldn't change the target's stats, beyond the racial modifiers, and shouldn't change hit points, again beyond the racial modifiers. The Transmutation Tattoo feature says you take '3d6 necrotic damage' and then gain a permanent advantage. Should this be a permanent HP drain? Because otherwise it shouldn't do damage. The Human Transmutation feature seems good, except the creature affected shouldn't be charmed. And, if the Philosophers' Stone is moved to the capstone feature (or replaced with Truth), it would need something other than a philosophers' stone as a component. Personally, I think the first and third ability should be removed, in keeping with the source material, and the remaining one should probably have the same cost as a raise dead or resurrection.

For the Study options: Fire Elemental - spending 1 hour gives you a permanent Fire Elemental slave. And, as it's written, you can do it as many times as you want. That's reasonably 8 large Fire Elementals a day, which is just ridiculous. Perhaps change it to Conjure Elementals (fire only) 1/long rest? Explosive Alchemy - 4d10 extra damage and knockback (no save) is quite a bit, when you get to do it every turn. And that's on top of 8d4 extra from Burning Flames. Perhaps make Explosive Alchemy 3/long rest? Maybe even 3/short rest. Water Alchemy seems pretty powerful compared to PBH class archetypes, but compared to Fire Alchemy is pretty underpowered. The first two abilities are good. The third, I would change it to reduce speed by 10ft, no save. The fourth, make it activate either on criticals or 3/long (or short, keep it the same as Explosive Alchemy) rest. Earthy Shelter - It should be similar to Wall of Stone, which has hit points and can be broken through. As it is, it's an impenetrable barrier for a full minute. Sticky Earth - give it a number of times per short or long rest it can be used. Following the other three, there should be a metal Study path (It's FullMETAL Alchemist, after all), but I'm not sure what you'd put in it.

Personally, I think the current Study paths should be replaced with more generic things, like 'Destructive Alchemy' (think Mustang or Kimblee), 'Enhancing Alchemy' (This path has been handed down the Armstrong family for GENERATIONS!), and 'Manipulative Alchemy' (Ed and Al). Perhaps at first level give a choice of damage types and you get a bonus using that type (similar to the current Study options).

You'd also need more features, since several of them are getting removed. Possibly give them a bit of monkish abilities, since they all seem to do that sort of stuff in the anime.

But all this is just my two cents. Do with it as you will. I think I'm going to borrow the concept and work on an FMA Alchemist class of my own, based on this and the feedback I gave.

P.S. Sorry for the massive wall of text.--Dorlon (talk) 08:42, 9 April 2017 (UTC)

Dont worry about it. it needed to be said. I look forward to playtesting your take on the class. Bannanameds (talk) 16:34, 14 April 2017 (UTC)

Haha, that might take a while. But I'll try my best.--Dorlon (talk) 01:58, 15 April 2017 (UTC)

In my defense ive only seen the first maybe 10 episodesBannanameds (talk) 17:01, 15 April 2017 (UTC)

I have several questions about how this class works:

• What is the range of 'Alchemy'? Is it melee, 30ft, etc.?
• For 'Equivalent Exchange', how do you expect us to calculate the amount of necessary moles they manipulate? Considering the Periodic table uses grams and not pounds, it makes it so that we need to do a immense amount of calculation for someone to play this class. Along with the necessary amount of knowledge in Chemistry to know the chemical composition of the thing they're trying to make. E.g. Fire needs a reaction using oxygen, and then we need to calculate the amount of oxygen in the air. It's simply too much work.
• Also, since it's 100 x Alchemist Level x Proficiency Bonus, at 1st level, this would already enable them to manipulate 200 moles. That's about 3200 grams of oxygen, which because D&D uses pounds, that's about 7.05 pounds. How do we know this is enough to make a big enough fire to do Fire Alchemy?
• For Alchemical Deconstruction are we considering how volatile their base elements could be? Take deconstructing water to pure oxygen and pure hydrogen for example. Considering Hydrogen's reactivity in air, it'll immediately blow up, creating dangerous explosions.
• For "Alchemical Reconstruction* which they get at 7th level, wouldn't this allow the player to reconstruct the hostile creature's bodies and rend them completely useless? Furthermore, there's no limits on how and what this can be used to do.
• Is Chimera supposed to work as stated? For 'Chimera' it doesn't have any limits or restrictions especially with a philosopher stone. From it's wording, it implies that you can also fuse Chimeras together. Since ability scores are added and then divided, you can stat climb to max 30 to all ability scores, which then allows you to create a super Chimera with 30 all stat and potentially infinite hp. Furthermore, since it can also be used with humanoids using a philosopher's stone, you can potentially fuse players and potentially any enemy you find. Without any limits such as a requirement for them to be willing, you can instantly end any encounter by fusing them with your chimera.
• When and how does 'Frightful Homunculi' trigger? If it's always on, then even the Transmutation Alchemist who made the Homunculi must flee from their Homunculi.
• For 'Creative Alchemy' in 'Human Transmutation', since there's no limit, and you can use yourself as a target multiple times, does this imply you can make infinite clones of yourself and other players?

Pretty sure I'll have loads more questions about this class soon. --Alearori (talk) 10:53, 29 October 2017 (MDT)

I have attempted to fix some glaring errors in the class as well as address some of the issues. IF it seems not fitting to the original intent, please feel free to revert my changes.

Firstly, I attempted to fix the chimera class by making it so that the max you can have is 2, you can't combine chimera's and they must be corpses as well as making it combining only 2 animals to make it not too powerful.

Secondly, I have added additional lines explaining the 'Frightful Homunculi' to express it may be turned on and off, and that it doesn't you. *May want to cap the number of time it does this though*

Thirdly, I limited the 'Creative Alchemy' in 'Human Transmutation' so you can only have a few floating around and you cannot copy you.

While this may not fix all the problems, this should be a good start. Also, would making it pounds provide a distinct advantage to transmuting lighter elements?