Pathfinder's Vivisectionist: Worth it?

[Rossebay]

Just what the title says. In a party with a Magus and a Grenadier (focusing on bomb damage and self-buffing), would a combat-medic type of Alchemist be a good addition?
Also, as they're both melee, would vivisectionist play a decent role?
I plan on taking the spontaneous healing line, and feral mutagen as well as mutagen improvements.

Any suggestions?

Edit: Just noticed that this is in the incorrect section. My bad!

[nyarlathotep]

Vivisectionist can be good especially with the extra arms discovery, and multiweapon fighting.

[Kulture]

Vivisectionist is good for pseudo-roguing, but medic duty is better left for Chirurgeons, mainly due to them getting breath of life (the mid-combat arse saver) at 10th level.

A vivisectionist can kick out nasty damage, since it has the best poison abilities in pathfinder as well as full SA progression and stat boosts.

Sadly vestigial arm discoveries don't give additional attacks, but you could argue you gain bonus ones from MWF feats and in any case you can dual wield 2 handers or operate a double hackbut on the move without negatives and have a free loading hand.

Another alchemist build to consider is firearms, a double hackbut, the bomb shot discovery at 6th/8th level and explosive shot. Suddenly You're doing 2D12 damage plus bomb damage and the target is on fire at a range of 50ft per increment. 3rd party ammo types will double that range with flechette rounds.

Essentially your alchemist gains a payload rifle.
With the right feat selection you'll be out sniping rangers and rogues alike.

[Psyren]

Vivisectionist is good for pseudo-roguing, but medic duty is better left for Chirurgeons, mainly due to them getting breath of life (the mid-combat arse saver) at 10th level.

Why not both? You can combine vivisectionist and chirurgeon, getting you some kind of... ninja doctor. (http://drmcninja.com/newreaders.php) :smallsmile:

[Novawurmson]

Why not both? You can combine vivisectionist and chirurgeon, getting you some kind of... ninja doctor. (http://drmcninja.com/newreaders.php) :smallsmile:

Or, for LoL fans (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_L78zEKWCMII/TSep2eW8KgI/AAAAAAAABTI/Mk58-joheBw/s1600/Shen_Surgeon.jpg)...

[Rossebay]

Why not both? You can combine vivisectionist and chirurgeon, getting you some kind of... ninja doctor. (http://drmcninja.com/newreaders.php) :smallsmile:

Bahaha. Awesome.

[Ravens_cry]

Vivisectionist is certainly one kind of doctor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Island_of_Doctor_Moreau). I own that book and, gah, it creeps me out to this day.
Sure, it gets things wrong, things no one knew about then, but it is still a very sinister piece of work.
I believe, correct me if I am wrong Playground, Chirurgeon and Vivisectionist can indeed in fact be mixed by the rules of double archetypes.

[Psyren]

I believe, correct me if I am wrong Playground, Chirurgeon and Vivisectionist can indeed in fact be mixed by the rules of double archetypes.

Yep, you're correct, they can be combined as neither archetype replaces the same things. (Chirurgeon replaces the poison-stuff, and Vivisectionist doesn't touch any of those.) I'm sure this was intentional, because the guy who's good with a scalpel being good with sneak attacks is a pretty sweet concept.

The easy way to determine legality is with the PFSRD - each paizo base class has a table of all the ACFs underneath, all you have to do is find two rows in which neither contains an X in the same column and those can be combined.

For instance, just by looking at Barbarian (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/barbarian) I can see that the Wild Rager and Savage Barbarian archetypes can be combined, into something truly feral. (Not that I would recommend this, but it can be done.)

[stack]

Combining them raises an inefficiency though. You get skill focus heal from chirgeon, but viv can use know: nature in place of heal. If your dm is nice, you might get to switch the skill focus.

[Flayerman]

My friend is running a Ragechemist Vivisectionist in a game, and it's hilarious how ludicrous his damage output is when he's got ideal situations.

[The Glyphstone]

Vivisectionist combos nicely with the Master Chymist PrC, because MC advances bomb damage (and thus SA), but doesn't give extra bombs/day.

[Ravens_cry]

Vivisectionist combos nicely with the Master Chymist PrC, because MC advances bomb damage (and thus SA), but doesn't give extra bombs/day.

I'm not sure if that works.

[Psyren]

I'm not sure if that works.

It doesn't; the upside though is that classes that stack with sneak attack (like Assassin) do work with a vivisectionist, so you can use those instead.

[The Glyphstone]

I'm not sure if that works.


It doesn't; the upside though is that classes that stack with sneak attack (like Assassin) do work with a vivisectionist, so you can use those instead.

Huh, I guess you're right. Not a bad houserule though if you can get your DM to go for it.