[PF] Alchemist Archetypes

[Lateral]

How are the archetypes for the Alchemist? Which ones are decent, and which ones aren't worth anything? I've heard things about the Vivisectionist and Mindchemist, but I'm still not really sure if they're any good.

[DaedalusMkV]

Chirugeon is a nice low-impact Archetype for Alchemists who want to be able to provide supplemental healing without giving much up for it (Poison Use is seriously limited in utility). Reanimator is... Okay at high levels, but you give up a lot of Bomb power and are at an absolute loss until level 7. Mindchemist is very poorly written; if your DM allows you to apply normal Mutagen Discoveries to your free Cognatogen, it's decent enough overall. If, as RAW, lacking Mutagens prevents you from improving your Cognatogen, it's pretty much a total waste of time unless you were never planning on using your Mutagen at all. Vivisectionist is solid for building a melee-heavy Alchemist, using poison, mutagens and Rogue-esque backstabbery to put out plentiful melee damage. By and large all you're losing for this is Bombs, so if you were planning on building a melee Alchemist to start with, Vivisectionist is pretty much strictly superior to vanilla. Finally, Grenadier is one of the best Archetypes available, giving you a number of useful benefits for both bomb and melee use in exchange for your Poison-based class features.

As a general rule, when building an Alchemist you want to decide on one or two areas to focus on. The Alchemist base class has four seperate competencies; Bomb for ranged damage and debuffing, Infusions for buffing and healing, Mutagens for melee face-beating (primarily, you can also use it as a minor buff to Bomb-use) and Poison for... Throwing money at the problem and hopting it goes away? You need to spend Discoveries and Feats on these areas or they just won't scale enough to be useful at higher levels, which is why you can only pick two at the most.

[Krazzman]

-snip-...Finally, Grenadier is one of the best Archetypes available, giving you a number of useful benefits for both bomb and melee use in exchange for your Poison-based class features....-snip-


+1

Most often it depends on WHAT do you want to play. The Grenadier is decent if it complements your character concept.