Trading Witch spellcasting for alchemy?

[Dr_Dinosaur]

As far as I know there’s no published way to do this, but what would it take to make this work as an archetype?

It would probably be easiest to say “lose spellcasting and Patron spells, gain Alchemy (use Alchemist extract list) and Brew Potion,” but would this pose a balance problem?

[Recherché]

Witch spellcasting is much more powerful and the alchemist extract list synergizes much better with alchemist class abilities than witch. Alchemist is largely focused on self buffing then wading into combat with their decent BAB and hit dice. Witches generally want to avoid being in close combat with their bad BAB and hit dice, they instead largely use their spells for buffing other people and debuffing/controlling the battlefield. If you were going to give witches a relatively cheap way to get the discovery that let's other people use your extracts this is a fairly severe debuffer to a powerful class. Without a way to give your buffs to someone else you're a 6th level caster on a chassis meant for the power of a 9th level caster with a spell list that doesn't work well with your class and no way to give those spells to anyone who could utilize them.

[stack]

Might be easier to give an alchemist a familiar and hexes (trading out a number of discoveries. Or bombs, depending on what you are looking for).

[Gnaeus]

As far as I know there’s no published way to do this, but what would it take to make this work as an archetype?

It would probably be easiest to say “lose spellcasting and Patron spells, gain Alchemy (use Alchemist extract list) and Brew Potion,” but would this pose a balance problem?

Not really. Hexes are better than discoveries for the most part. Pretty sure a witch with alchemist casting would still come out as a decent tier 3.

I say not really because balance is only a thing when balanced against something else. Compared with wizards or unmodified witches it’s unbalanced (weak). Compared with Fighter it is unbalanced (strong) but less so than the original witch. I’d expect it to balance ok in tier 2-4 groups.

To be more specific, it lacks bombs, and the alchemist list is heavy on buffs and heals, but the witch chassis isn’t good for a combatant. I’d expect to see hex use as a primary combat contribution. Maybe the familiar with some infusions helping out. But covering a lot of utility, a passable backup healer and a solid debuffer.

[ShurikVch]

No, you can't: To make an item using Craft (alchemy), you must have alchemical equipment and be a spellcaster. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/craft.htm) Thus, no spellcasting - no alchemy.

[Dr_Dinosaur]

I would be allowing the Witch to take Infusion, yes. The idea was to stack it with Gingerbread Witch and have all the character’s magic come from magical food and potions