Alchemist help

[about50heavies]

I have been taking up the hobby of creating characters for future pathfinder campaigns. I am wondering what are some good ways to build an alchemist.

[NamelessNPC]

You have basically 2 ways: battlefield controller bomber or monstruous hulk. They both practically build themselves.

For the controller, get smoke bomb and then stink bomb as soon as possible. Dispelling bomb, confusion bomb and madness bomb are also great.

Choose vivisectionist if you don't plan on using bombs, and stay away of ragechemist because it has a tendency to enter coma. The discoveries that improve your mutagen are nice for this build.

I can give you more extensive advice if you want, what exactly are you thinking of?

[stack]

Add beastmorph to vivisectionist to get pounce (eventually).

[Axier]

IF you enjoy being a support character, you can also build a healer with a focus in potion making. But then again, most people want to be "useful".

Frankly, I enjoy my Vivisectionist Churgeon Internal Alchemist, who can hold his breath for hours on end, regularly, and stab people accurately through his years of medical research. He can even heal people, which is fun. Also, playing dead is useful sometimes. And most of this he can do at level one!

[about50heavies]

I want to be a mad scientist sort of guy that prefers to be behind the front line but is capable of going to the front if needed

[koboldish]

I haven't played Pathfinder yet, so I'm sorry for not answering your question. Instead, I was wondering how easy this would be to use in 3.5? My crazy gnome inventor is waiting to be built :smallbiggrin:.

[about50heavies]

Any general tips for the class

[White_Drake]

If you can get the DM to houserule that you can sneak attack with splash weapons (big if, I know) then grabbing vivisectionist and loading up on alchemical items and splash weapons so you can pretend to be Batman's kid brother is fun.

[about50heavies]

What is good about viviksectionist?

[Bhaakon]

Vivisectionist trades away their bombs for sneak attack progression like a rogue. If you're going for a melee-alchemist, it's a pretty nice trade (particularly with feral mutagen, which nets you three full-BAB attacks at low level).

[Dr.Epic]

I have been taking up the hobby of creating characters for future pathfinder campaigns. I am wondering what are some good ways to build an alchemist.

-Be approximately 5 feet tall
-have a younger brother trapped in a suit of armor
-have two artificial limbs
-join the state military
-be voiced by Vic Mignogna

:smallwink:
:smalltongue:

[avr]

If you want to be in the back rank much of the time, you probably do want bombs which means you don't want vivisectionist.

You also need to decide whether you want to use poison or not. If not, you can trade in the alchemist abilities to use poison with the grenadier archetype, which boosts bombs and to a lesser extent your melee abilities.

[koboldish]

-Be approximately 5 feet tall
-have a younger brother trapped in a suit of armor
-have two artificial limbs
-join the state military
-be voiced by Vic Mignogna

:smallwink:
:smalltongue:

Hahaha! I had a DM who actually ran a campaign in that setting. Too bad it fell apart.

[about50heavies]

Aren't alchemist bombs sorta meh in terms if effectiveness

[Bhaakon]

Aren't alchemist bombs sorta meh in terms if effectiveness

Vanilla, yes. 1/2 level d6 + INT mod damage once per turn isn't much. With the right discoveries, though, they can have very useful battle control and debuffing effects,

[avr]

You get discoveries at even numbered levels. If you take Smoke bomb, Stink bomb, Dispelling bomb, Fast bombs and Confusion bomb in that order you have solid battlefield control from 4th level onwards. There are other fun things you can do with discoveries (especially from 8th level onwards when you can get simulacrums) but that's what I'd choose for a mad bomber.

[about50heavies]

Can you give examples

[about50heavies]

Are there any feats that are must take for alchemist

[Roncorps]

The Grenadier (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/alchemist/archetypes/paizo---alchemist-archetypes/grenadier) archetype is a great one if you want to use bomb but don't want to lose much. You only lose Brew Potion (could be retaken with a feat) and poison use/immunity.

And Gnome get + 1/2 bomb per level with their favored class option from APG. Not much, but at level 10 it is +5 bomb + INT mod + level, so something like 5 + 4 (or 6) + 10 = 19 bombs.

Splash Weapon Mastery (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/splash-weapon-mastery) from the Adventurer Armory is a great feat to get for using bomb. It give auto Far Shot with bomb for free, you can select another tile that get full damage from splash (normally, only the tile you hit get it) AND you can adjust the miss direction by +1 or -1. And it qualify as having Far Shot for any other feat, but only for splash weapons.

[about50heavies]

Has the alchemist been fun as a class for you

[Dr.Epic]

Hahaha! I had a DM who actually ran a campaign in that setting. Too bad it fell apart.

Don't feed the homunculus (especially if their name is Gluttony).

[catsora]

If you want a mad science/melee brute take some inspiration from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. A large dose of roleplaying can help with the mad science bit along with using the usual alchemist stuff (bombs & infusions) then when need be go beast form and run wild. With vivisectionist you lose bombs but could just be an insane surgeon. As for feats, furious focus + power attack can help keep a higher attack bonus while boosting damage. If you have the dexterity, two weapon fighting and the associated tree can let you run wild with damage.

[about50heavies]

Can someon write up a sample build for melee alchemist and a generic alchemisy

[avr]

Your initial post said that you were taking up the hobby of creating PF characters ... with the help offered so far here you should be able to make a start at least.

Even without that, you need to make some calls to define the problem. Poison/no poison & what starting level, what likely maximum level are essential to know what sort of character to create.

[WhatBigTeeth]

If you're asking these kinds of general questions, you might just check out a handbook. (http://pathfinder.ogrehut.com/2010/07/alchemist-build-guide/)

That guide is a bit out of date and doesn't have any formal builds (but you could just google those if you wanted them), but if you read that and come back with more specific questions, you'll probably get more solid responses.