[3.5] Augment Alchemy and Augment Poison

[liquidformat]

So I have been playing around with pulling epic feats down into non epic range that help keep mundanes relevant and one I have been looking at recently is Augment Alchemy (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/feats.htm#augmentedAlchemy). So here are my Questions,

1)if I were to pull this down to pre epic how many skill ranks seem reasonable for Augment Alchemy as written?
- I was thinking something in the 12-18 range.
2)If I was going to make a similar feat for crafting poison what would that same 12-18 rankes be reasonable for doubling the DC?

3) Has anyone made any house rules that would bypass the need for this feat tax by increasing the craft DC and cost in order to change these like area of affect, damage, save DC?

[Eldariel]

Remember, spellcasters are the ones who can craft alchemical items and Wizards in particular are the ones likely to actually have the stats to take the feat and make the skill check. So if you bring it in early enough that it'll matter (it really doesn't matter in epic), it'll primarily be a caster buff (having a set of relatively cheap repeatable mundane attacks to complement your spells when you don't feel like wasting a slot can actually be fairly valuable).

That said, haven't made the houserules but I've thought about it. Never cared enough to bother but it seems kinda natural; tied to ranks in the skill though, rather, just to ensure that you need to actually invest to benefit of it (otherwise Wizard with tons of Int, 1 rank and some access to like Guidance of the Avatar and Divine Insight would again get free benefits while mundanes work hard without getting even a half of that). I definitely think the lack of such a system is a failing in the skill system (one of the countless) and it probably should be addressed, but one has to be careful how one goes about it unless one changes many of the other fundamentals about the skill system that make it so easy for casters to reach ridiculous numbers and mundanes to not.

As for Craft: Poisonmaking, it already has some feat support to increase the DCs and duration and what-not.

[liquidformat]

Since when is Craft (alchemy) tied to being a spell caster? Any character can take Craft (alchemy) and make any alchemical substance as long as they can hit the dc and pay the crafting cost for it.

[Eldariel]

Since when is Craft (alchemy) tied to being a spell caster? Any character can take Craft (alchemy) and make any alchemical substance as long as they can hit the dc and pay the crafting cost for it.

Craft (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/craft.htm):
"1. You must be a spellcaster to craft any of these items."

[liquidformat]

hmm I had never noticed that note before, well that is lame and kind of dumb, I get why they did it but still lame...