JellyPooga
2009-09-30, 02:28 PM
This is by no means finished in any way yet. I just wanted to get some opinions on the idea and suggestions on how this could work and balance. So, without further ado, here's my notes so far; have a read and I'll do some explaining after...
The Alchemist
HD: d4
Skill Points per Level: 4+Int mod (4x(4+Int mod) at 1st level)
Class Skills: Appraise, Concentration, Craft, Heal, Knowledge (All), Profession, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device
{table]Lvl|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special|Sparks Known
1|+0|+0|+2|+2|Rank 1 (Apprentice)|1
2|+1|+0|+3|+3||1
3|+1|+1|+3| +3||1
4|+2|+1|+4| +4||1
5|+2|+1|+4| +4||2
6|+3|+2|+5| +5|Rank 2 (Adept)|2
7|+3|+2|+5| +5||2
8|+4|+2|+6| +6||2
9|+4|+3|+6| +6||3
10|+5|+3|+7| +7||3
11|+5|+3 |+7| +7|Rank 3 (Master)|3
12|+6|+4 |+8| +8||3
13|+6|+4 |+8| +8||4
14|+7|+4 |+9| +9||4
15|+7|+5 |+9| +9||4
16|+8|+5 |+10| +10|Rank 4 (Grand Master)|4
17|+8|+5 |+10| +10||5
18|+9|+6 |+11| +11||5
19|+9|+6 |+11| +11||5
20|+10|+6|+12| +12||5[/table]
Alchemy
Like spellcasting except there is no limit to number of times you can use it per day and that the only component for all Reactions is a Costly Material Component.
Bases: Bases are the basic ‘building blocks’ of a Reaction. They are inert, readily available and can vary from Alchemist to Alchemist. Whilst one Alchemist might use a small ingot of lead for his Earth Base, another might use ground granite or a sliver of oak. The primary distinction between Bases is their relation to the basic elements and energies that permeate the world; Earth, Air, Fire and Water as well as Positive and Negative. Very high level Alchemists even learn to manipulate the energy from the coterminous planes of the Astral, Ethereal and Shadow.
Reagents: If Bases are the building blocks of a Reaction, then Reagents are the mortar. They are what make the Reaction happen at all. These are always rare and/or costly and are often dangerous to handle without taking appropriate precautions. Some examples of Reagents include concentrated acids, rare (and often toxic) plants and expensive mineral compounds (such as perfect electrum dust).
Catalysts: To continue the analogy, if Bases are the blocks and Reagents the mortar, Catalysts are the flowered border, the white picket fence and the post-box at the end of the drive. They are not neccesary for the Reaction to occur, but they augment the effect in some way. Catalysts are usually even rarer and more expensive than Reagents (though this is not always the case) and are often magical in nature, such as a demons eye, the salt from a litre of blessed sea-water or a flower picked from the shade of a mountain on a sunny winter afternoon using a golden pair of tweezers held in the left hand.
Sparks Known – To facilitate their Reactions in the field, Alchemists have developed a method of creating a small ‘spark’ of the elemental energies at will. When he is an apprentice, an Alchemist learns to produce just one type of spark, but as he grows in power he learns to create other sparks and to combine them in order to infuse his Reactions with more complex energies. At 1st level, an Alchemist may choose one Spark to know from the Apprentice list (see below). At 5th level, and every 4 levels thereafter, an Alchemist may choose another Spark Known (as shown on the table above). An Alchemist may only choose Sparks from the lists appropriate to his Rank.
Apprentice/Adept : Earth, Air, Fire, Water
Master : Positive, Negative
Grand-Master : Astral, Ethereal, Shadow
Rank – The path of the Alchemist is not a strictly ordered one; there are many different ways to achieve the same results and most Alchemists would be hard pressed to make head or tail of the notebooks of their contemporaries. However, Alchemist do order themselves by stages of mastery and that heirarchy is based on how complex a Reaction they are capable of achieving. An Apprentice, Rank 1, is capable of infusing his Reactions with only one type of energy. This produces only the most simple effectrs. As an Alchemists Rank increases, so does his mastery of the elemental energies he wields. He can combine a number of elemental sparks into his Reactions equal to his Rank, so an Adept can fuse 2 energies together, a Master 3 and a Grand Master 4, producing the most complex energy matrices.
FEATS
Extra Spark Known
Prerequisites: Alchemist Rank 2
Benefit: You gain a Spark Known. You may choose any Spark appropriate to your Rank.
Right then. Read it? Still interested? Good. The idea came about because of a rather heated argument that arose over in Gaming about material components in spellcasting and their effectiveness in helping to rebalance caster classes. This is not intended to ressurect that argument but rather to present a workable system in which material components could give rise to the kind of Wizard you see in games like the MB/GW Heroquest (and Advanced Heroquest), who can cast as much as he likes, but only has so many components to cast with.
Enter the Alchemist. For obvious reasons having absolutely everything he does have a gold piece cost is not going to work; you can only get so much money. To that end, I've come up with the three components for a Reaction (which is what I'm currently calling an Alchemists "spells"); Bases, Reagents and Catalysts.
Certain Reactions (which, like a Wizard, the Alchemist will keep a Recipe Book to keep track of which ones he knows) will require Bases, whilst others need Bases and Reagents. Catalysts will work something like the Psionics idea of augmentation...making your simple Reactions you learned at 1st level still useful at 20th.
Bases will be adjudicated much like a Wizards Spell Component Pouch. So long as you aren't completely unprepared, you are assumed to have sufficient Bases to cover anything you need to do. These Simple Reactions will scale based on your level. At 1st level your Simple Reactions (those that require only a Base) will be the equivalent of Cantrips. As you rise in level through the Ranks, your Simple Reactions will get more powerful, but I doubt they'll be anything more than the equivalent of 3rd or 4th level spells.
Reagents must be tracked and are required for Complex Reactions. Complex Reactions will range from 1st to 9th spell level equivalency (with the option of augmenting them with Catalysts). I plan on having only a few Reagents that can combine to produce the relevent spell, somewher in the region of 10 to 20 different Reagents. Some of these will only be needed at higher levels of play, so I expect a typical Alchemist to need track about 1 Reagent per level. By combining these Reagents in different ways, a vast number of possibilties are available. One idea I'm toying with (thought of as I'm writing!) is requireing one Reagent per spell level equivalency (e.g. a Fireball Reaction would require 3 Reagents).
Catalysts will act in a couple of ways. The first is to duplicate Metamagic effects. The second is closer to Psionic Augmentations; boosts to the Reactions on an individual basis. I would like Catalysts to be specific to each Reaction plus one for each Metamagic feat. Typically these would be very expensive.
That's pretty much the low-down. Tell me what you think and hit me with suggestions, criticism or anything else you care to mention!
Cheers,
JP
The Alchemist
HD: d4
Skill Points per Level: 4+Int mod (4x(4+Int mod) at 1st level)
Class Skills: Appraise, Concentration, Craft, Heal, Knowledge (All), Profession, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device
{table]Lvl|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special|Sparks Known
1|+0|+0|+2|+2|Rank 1 (Apprentice)|1
2|+1|+0|+3|+3||1
3|+1|+1|+3| +3||1
4|+2|+1|+4| +4||1
5|+2|+1|+4| +4||2
6|+3|+2|+5| +5|Rank 2 (Adept)|2
7|+3|+2|+5| +5||2
8|+4|+2|+6| +6||2
9|+4|+3|+6| +6||3
10|+5|+3|+7| +7||3
11|+5|+3 |+7| +7|Rank 3 (Master)|3
12|+6|+4 |+8| +8||3
13|+6|+4 |+8| +8||4
14|+7|+4 |+9| +9||4
15|+7|+5 |+9| +9||4
16|+8|+5 |+10| +10|Rank 4 (Grand Master)|4
17|+8|+5 |+10| +10||5
18|+9|+6 |+11| +11||5
19|+9|+6 |+11| +11||5
20|+10|+6|+12| +12||5[/table]
Alchemy
Like spellcasting except there is no limit to number of times you can use it per day and that the only component for all Reactions is a Costly Material Component.
Bases: Bases are the basic ‘building blocks’ of a Reaction. They are inert, readily available and can vary from Alchemist to Alchemist. Whilst one Alchemist might use a small ingot of lead for his Earth Base, another might use ground granite or a sliver of oak. The primary distinction between Bases is their relation to the basic elements and energies that permeate the world; Earth, Air, Fire and Water as well as Positive and Negative. Very high level Alchemists even learn to manipulate the energy from the coterminous planes of the Astral, Ethereal and Shadow.
Reagents: If Bases are the building blocks of a Reaction, then Reagents are the mortar. They are what make the Reaction happen at all. These are always rare and/or costly and are often dangerous to handle without taking appropriate precautions. Some examples of Reagents include concentrated acids, rare (and often toxic) plants and expensive mineral compounds (such as perfect electrum dust).
Catalysts: To continue the analogy, if Bases are the blocks and Reagents the mortar, Catalysts are the flowered border, the white picket fence and the post-box at the end of the drive. They are not neccesary for the Reaction to occur, but they augment the effect in some way. Catalysts are usually even rarer and more expensive than Reagents (though this is not always the case) and are often magical in nature, such as a demons eye, the salt from a litre of blessed sea-water or a flower picked from the shade of a mountain on a sunny winter afternoon using a golden pair of tweezers held in the left hand.
Sparks Known – To facilitate their Reactions in the field, Alchemists have developed a method of creating a small ‘spark’ of the elemental energies at will. When he is an apprentice, an Alchemist learns to produce just one type of spark, but as he grows in power he learns to create other sparks and to combine them in order to infuse his Reactions with more complex energies. At 1st level, an Alchemist may choose one Spark to know from the Apprentice list (see below). At 5th level, and every 4 levels thereafter, an Alchemist may choose another Spark Known (as shown on the table above). An Alchemist may only choose Sparks from the lists appropriate to his Rank.
Apprentice/Adept : Earth, Air, Fire, Water
Master : Positive, Negative
Grand-Master : Astral, Ethereal, Shadow
Rank – The path of the Alchemist is not a strictly ordered one; there are many different ways to achieve the same results and most Alchemists would be hard pressed to make head or tail of the notebooks of their contemporaries. However, Alchemist do order themselves by stages of mastery and that heirarchy is based on how complex a Reaction they are capable of achieving. An Apprentice, Rank 1, is capable of infusing his Reactions with only one type of energy. This produces only the most simple effectrs. As an Alchemists Rank increases, so does his mastery of the elemental energies he wields. He can combine a number of elemental sparks into his Reactions equal to his Rank, so an Adept can fuse 2 energies together, a Master 3 and a Grand Master 4, producing the most complex energy matrices.
FEATS
Extra Spark Known
Prerequisites: Alchemist Rank 2
Benefit: You gain a Spark Known. You may choose any Spark appropriate to your Rank.
Right then. Read it? Still interested? Good. The idea came about because of a rather heated argument that arose over in Gaming about material components in spellcasting and their effectiveness in helping to rebalance caster classes. This is not intended to ressurect that argument but rather to present a workable system in which material components could give rise to the kind of Wizard you see in games like the MB/GW Heroquest (and Advanced Heroquest), who can cast as much as he likes, but only has so many components to cast with.
Enter the Alchemist. For obvious reasons having absolutely everything he does have a gold piece cost is not going to work; you can only get so much money. To that end, I've come up with the three components for a Reaction (which is what I'm currently calling an Alchemists "spells"); Bases, Reagents and Catalysts.
Certain Reactions (which, like a Wizard, the Alchemist will keep a Recipe Book to keep track of which ones he knows) will require Bases, whilst others need Bases and Reagents. Catalysts will work something like the Psionics idea of augmentation...making your simple Reactions you learned at 1st level still useful at 20th.
Bases will be adjudicated much like a Wizards Spell Component Pouch. So long as you aren't completely unprepared, you are assumed to have sufficient Bases to cover anything you need to do. These Simple Reactions will scale based on your level. At 1st level your Simple Reactions (those that require only a Base) will be the equivalent of Cantrips. As you rise in level through the Ranks, your Simple Reactions will get more powerful, but I doubt they'll be anything more than the equivalent of 3rd or 4th level spells.
Reagents must be tracked and are required for Complex Reactions. Complex Reactions will range from 1st to 9th spell level equivalency (with the option of augmenting them with Catalysts). I plan on having only a few Reagents that can combine to produce the relevent spell, somewher in the region of 10 to 20 different Reagents. Some of these will only be needed at higher levels of play, so I expect a typical Alchemist to need track about 1 Reagent per level. By combining these Reagents in different ways, a vast number of possibilties are available. One idea I'm toying with (thought of as I'm writing!) is requireing one Reagent per spell level equivalency (e.g. a Fireball Reaction would require 3 Reagents).
Catalysts will act in a couple of ways. The first is to duplicate Metamagic effects. The second is closer to Psionic Augmentations; boosts to the Reactions on an individual basis. I would like Catalysts to be specific to each Reaction plus one for each Metamagic feat. Typically these would be very expensive.
That's pretty much the low-down. Tell me what you think and hit me with suggestions, criticism or anything else you care to mention!
Cheers,
JP