Trustypeaches
2019-04-30, 12:46 AM
I am considering playing the new UA Artificer (http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/artificer-revisited) in one of my games and the Alchemist subclass catches my fancy, thematically. However, looking it over a couple more times, I do have a few mechanical quibbles I thought I'd get people's input on.
Spell List
The Alchemist's spell list is frankly pretty terrible, especially when compared to the Artillerist's bombastic lineup of excellent crowd control and AoE damage spells like fireball, ice storm, wall of force, and wall of fire. I understand that the Artillerist spell list must have been balanced to compete with their turrets, but the Alchemist doesn't get many spells worth casting.
There are so many spells perfect for an Alchemist that are simply missing: contagion, polymorph, hold person or slow (anesthetic/sedatives), or mass cure wounds. Instead we get purify food and water, create food and water, and melf's acid arrow.
The Homunculus
I think the Homunculus is pretty cool as a meat shield, although I wish it had a listed melee attack so it could perform attacks of opportunity better than an unarmed attack. The Inspiration and Buoyancy Alchemical Salves are pretty useful and should see use through most tiers of play.
Resilience however is really really bad. At first I was favorable to it, because I had thought that you used spell slots to summon new Homunculi (with new Alchemical Salve charges), not revive the old one. Without that, the Salve will only ever (at most) apply 2d6 + 5 which will quickly become irrelevant by Tier II. I really think this should scale like cantrips, acquiring a d6 at 5th, 11th, 17th level.
In addition while the Homunculus gets more health, it's armor class and saves never improve, unlike the Beastmaster's Animal Companion. Having Might of the Master apply to AC and Saves would go a long way.
Alchemical Mastery
The 6th level feature for the subclass lets you add your Intelligence modifier to one roll of a spell that either heals or deals acid or poison damage. In addition, you can cast lesser restoration a number of times equal to your intelligence modifier per day without expending a spell slot.
This sounds really good on paper, but acid and poison are two of the worst damage types, and in practice this only applies to a scarce few mediocre spells:
acid splash
poison spray
cure wounds (the only healing spell the Alchemist or any Artificer gets)
arcane weapon (for the first strike)
ray of sickness
melf's acid arrow
cloudkill
I feel if the alchemist had more healing spells, or perhaps a feature that allowed them to cast healing spells more often than a half-caster otherwise could, then this feature could be neat. Perhaps the bonus applies to any potion you craft with your alchemist's tools that restores hit points or deals acid or poison damage.
Alternatively they could improve the damage side of this feature; maybe you can choose a single additional damage type for the bonus to apply to. Or it could apply the damage bonus to the Homunculus's Acidic spittle.
Chemical Savant
At level 14, you gain an resistance to acid and poison damage and an immunity to the poisoned condition. In addition, you can cast greater restoration once without material components or expending a spell slot between long rests.
This is such a mediocre final feature, especially when compared to the extremely impactful Artillerist level 14 feature. I feel as though the subclass needs a way to bypass acid and poison immunities at this level, so maybe that could be added to this feature so you don't have to spend a feat on it?
Alternatively they could follow the Artillerist's lead and design the level 14 feature around buffing the summon, somehow.
Well those are all my surface thoughts. I have a few quibbles with the base artificer (revisited) class such as the lack of fog cloud on their spell list, but I'm largely really excited to try it out.
What do you guys think about the problems listed above? Are they problems? How might you address them?
Spell List
The Alchemist's spell list is frankly pretty terrible, especially when compared to the Artillerist's bombastic lineup of excellent crowd control and AoE damage spells like fireball, ice storm, wall of force, and wall of fire. I understand that the Artillerist spell list must have been balanced to compete with their turrets, but the Alchemist doesn't get many spells worth casting.
There are so many spells perfect for an Alchemist that are simply missing: contagion, polymorph, hold person or slow (anesthetic/sedatives), or mass cure wounds. Instead we get purify food and water, create food and water, and melf's acid arrow.
The Homunculus
I think the Homunculus is pretty cool as a meat shield, although I wish it had a listed melee attack so it could perform attacks of opportunity better than an unarmed attack. The Inspiration and Buoyancy Alchemical Salves are pretty useful and should see use through most tiers of play.
Resilience however is really really bad. At first I was favorable to it, because I had thought that you used spell slots to summon new Homunculi (with new Alchemical Salve charges), not revive the old one. Without that, the Salve will only ever (at most) apply 2d6 + 5 which will quickly become irrelevant by Tier II. I really think this should scale like cantrips, acquiring a d6 at 5th, 11th, 17th level.
In addition while the Homunculus gets more health, it's armor class and saves never improve, unlike the Beastmaster's Animal Companion. Having Might of the Master apply to AC and Saves would go a long way.
Alchemical Mastery
The 6th level feature for the subclass lets you add your Intelligence modifier to one roll of a spell that either heals or deals acid or poison damage. In addition, you can cast lesser restoration a number of times equal to your intelligence modifier per day without expending a spell slot.
This sounds really good on paper, but acid and poison are two of the worst damage types, and in practice this only applies to a scarce few mediocre spells:
acid splash
poison spray
cure wounds (the only healing spell the Alchemist or any Artificer gets)
arcane weapon (for the first strike)
ray of sickness
melf's acid arrow
cloudkill
I feel if the alchemist had more healing spells, or perhaps a feature that allowed them to cast healing spells more often than a half-caster otherwise could, then this feature could be neat. Perhaps the bonus applies to any potion you craft with your alchemist's tools that restores hit points or deals acid or poison damage.
Alternatively they could improve the damage side of this feature; maybe you can choose a single additional damage type for the bonus to apply to. Or it could apply the damage bonus to the Homunculus's Acidic spittle.
Chemical Savant
At level 14, you gain an resistance to acid and poison damage and an immunity to the poisoned condition. In addition, you can cast greater restoration once without material components or expending a spell slot between long rests.
This is such a mediocre final feature, especially when compared to the extremely impactful Artillerist level 14 feature. I feel as though the subclass needs a way to bypass acid and poison immunities at this level, so maybe that could be added to this feature so you don't have to spend a feat on it?
Alternatively they could follow the Artillerist's lead and design the level 14 feature around buffing the summon, somehow.
Well those are all my surface thoughts. I have a few quibbles with the base artificer (revisited) class such as the lack of fog cloud on their spell list, but I'm largely really excited to try it out.
What do you guys think about the problems listed above? Are they problems? How might you address them?