(PF) Built my first Alchemist. Take a look?

[Roxxy]

Despite it being one of my favorite classes, I haven't actually written one up before. So, I did. I went with a Grenadier, and I'm sure I didn't build her as effective as it could be built. She is meant to be a bomber/swordfighter. So, here she is:

Trinh Hue Pham (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=40801)

25 point buy, 10500 GP, 2 traits.

In her backstory, Merundian refers to a continent, Meinan refers to a nation in the southeast of that continent, Valedonia refers to a nation on a separate continent, and Commonwealth Marshalls refers to an organization within the Valedonian government that is tasked with hunting especially dangerous monsters and rogue mages. Celestial is used as a trade/diplomacy language and is the closest thing to common in the setting, and the other languages are different national languages. Valedonia is an immigrant country, so it lacks its own language and mostly uses Celestial. I'm not much one to use alignment, but I put one in just in case. Other things to note are that Alchemists are the most common spellcaster in her world, and the military considers them important enough to train their own. Any warship would have at least a few, possibly more. Aboard ship, an Alchemist would be an officer and an Alchemist's Mate an enlisted person, but both have levels in the class.

So, what could I do better?

[Psyren]

I assumed you used a feat to get Brew Potion back; is that right?

Your feats, traits and discoveries check out; my main feedback point however is that you seem to be going for a bomber build, but I'm not sure why your Strength is so high in that case or why you picked a Cutlass as your free proficiency from Grenadier. I would go for a ranged weapon like a bow, move that 16 into Dex rather than St; similarly, the 10 should be in Str, the 14 in Con and the other 12 in Wis.

Your point buy doesn't seem to be adding up. Did you start with a 17 in Int, and then put your level 4 bonus and your human racial there to get the 20?
Scratch that last question, I missed the two stat boosting items.

[Roxxy]

I assumed you used a feat to get Brew Potion back; is that right?Yes.


Your feats, traits and discoveries check out; my main feedback point however is that you seem to be going for a bomber build, but I'm not sure why your Strength is so high in that case or why you picked a Cutlass as your free proficiency from Grenadier.I just sort of assumed she'd go melee. Don't know why. Cutlass because she is a former sailor, and a longsword is too unwieldy in such a close environment.
I would go for a ranged weapon like a bow, move that 16 into Dex rather than St; similarly, the 10 should be in Str, the 14 in Con and the other 12 in Wis.Is there a way I can easily get access to a firearm? Can't much imagine her as an archer.

[Roxxy]

Okay, I respecced the character sheet. I dropped Grenadier for Chirurgeon, and picked up a setting-specific item that spans my crossbow for me (grants benefit of rapid reload). How does it look now?

[Psyren]

To be clear, you were fine with Grenadier actually, and even fine wanting to do a melee and bomb hybrid focus. My only concern was that, if you're going to do a melee+bomb build, you should maximize synergy as much as possible, which generally means Dex-based melee (agile weapons, TWF and Piranha Strike, that sort of thing - or maybe a scimitar instead of a cutlass and going for Dervish Dance), going low-Str and avoiding Power Attack.

Chirurgeon isn't bad but it's a step down from Grenadier. Infused Curative doesn't give you anything that plain old Infusion doesn't, save for the ability to turn off all your existing cure infusions every morning, but you can achieve the same effect by having yourself or the party just chug them at night (which you/they will likely be doing anyway.) And you'll want regular Infusion anyway for buffing since, if I'm reading your opening post correctly, you will be the group's primary caster since that is the role alchemists play in your setting. Is that right?

So to sum up, the stats are great now - I would keep those as-is - and then I would go back to the archetype and feats you had originally, except I would personally swap out the cutlass proficiency for scimitar proficiency, and start working towards Dervish Dance.

[Roxxy]

Chirurgeon isn't bad but it's a step down from Grenadier. Infused Curative doesn't give you anything that plain old Infusion doesn't, save for the ability to turn off all your existing cure infusions every morning, but you can achieve the same effect by having yourself or the party just chug them at night (which you/they will likely be doing anyway.) And you'll want regular Infusion anyway for buffing since, if I'm reading your opening post correctly, you will be the group's primary caster since that is the role alchemists play in your setting. Is that right?No. I meant to say that, among the entire population of the setting, Alchemists are the most common casters and play the largest role in society. So, when the military decides it needs to train some recruits into casters, over half of them will end up learning alchemy. If you go to a town, chances are the magical healers are mostly Chirurgeons or standard Alchemists, rather than Clerics, who are one of the rarer spellcasters. So her situation, where she enlisted and got taught alchemy instead of more mundane sailing tasks, is not particularly uncommon. Since the PCs are not normal people, the commonality of spellcasting classes has little effect on what the party makeup is. So, I do not view her as a primary caster.


To be clear, you were fine with Grenadier actually, and even fine wanting to do a melee and bomb hybrid focus. My only concern was that, if you're going to do a melee+bomb build, you should maximize synergy as much as possible, which generally means Dex-based melee (agile weapons, TWF and Piranha Strike, that sort of thing - or maybe a scimitar instead of a cutlass and going for Dervish Dance), going low-Str and avoiding Power Attack.

So to sum up, the stats are great now - I would keep those as-is - and then I would go back to the archetype and feats you had originally, except I would personally swap out the cutlass proficiency for scimitar proficiency, and start working towards Dervish Dance.I'm kind of torn as to whether I want to be a surgeon or melee character now. Now that I've seen Chirurgeon, both it and Grenadier are awesome.

[Psyren]

So, I do not view her as a primary caster.

Then that's fine - so long as the party is getting buffs from somewhere. And to be clear, you'll be fine even with Infused Curative + infusion, since you're giving up something weak to get it anyway... it merely bothers me personally because I see it as being a touch wasteful to have them both when Infusion can already pull double duty :smallbiggrin:


I'm kind of torn as to whether I want to be a surgeon or melee character now. Now that I've seen Chirurgeon, both it and Grenadier are awesome.

If you do go the surgeon route, naturally you'll want vivisectionist, both for the flavor synergy and the combat chops it will give you. Of course, this will come at the cost of your bombs, so you'll need to revisit your discoveries.

[ghanjrho]

Worth noting that according to RAW, Alchemists don't have a caster level to qualify for Item Creation feats. So if you trade away Brew Potion, you can't get it back without going through Master Craftsman.

[Psyren]

Worth noting that according to RAW, Alchemists don't have a caster level to qualify for Item Creation feats. So if you trade away Brew Potion, you can't get it back without going through Master Craftsman.

Counterpoint: The FAQ specifically says "other than potions" which suggests that they qualify for Brew Potion no matter how you get it.

[ghanjrho]

Counterpoint: The FAQ specifically says "other than potions" which suggests that they qualify for Brew Potion no matter how you get it.

Conceded. Still something to clear with your DM, not that I see a reasonable one having a problem.