Alchemist builds?

[ferrit]

Having bought the Eberron book and suffered a character death in the same week, I’m inspired to try something new for my ongoing Forgotten Realms campaign. I’ve read the artificer guide on this forum but the amount of options are intimidating! Most seem to be focusing on the Battle Smith or Artillerist.

What are your interesting Alchemist builds?
Which party roles could/should the class focus on?
Any cool multiclass combos worth exploring?

Few ideas I had:
- High Elf wizard investigating the discipline as a purer, more elegant manifestation of transmutation.
- Famous gnome explorer who discovered a new plant on his travels, and is now attempting to determine its various uses while writing a botany book.
- Dwarven brewer ostracised from his society for smuggling rare ingredients, now turning his attention towards developing poisons to sabotage his competitors.

[stoutstien]

They are the support/buffing/healing subclass. Focus on making the party better and it does really well.
What's your party looking like?

[Garresh]

There was an Unearthed Arcana that had some weird feats in it. One of them was literally called Alchemist. TBH it's kind of a bad feat. All it does is let you maximize a hesling potion after a short rest. Only lasts an hour. If your DM allows it though, you could turn your healing elixirs into some insanely strong stuff once you get the temp hp effect. It's definitely a very liberal reading of the rules, but its such a fun idea I'd personally allow it.

[ferrit]

They are the support/buffing/healing subclass. Focus on making the party better and it does really well.
What's your party looking like?

Mixed bag! We have a fighter and a sorcerer. Wizard (me) and our Druid just died so we’re both rerolling; he’s probably going Rogue or Paladin.

[stoutstien]

Mixed bag! We have a fighter and a sorcerer. Wizard (me) and our Druid just died so we’re both rerolling; he’s probably going Rogue or Paladin.

At low levels resilience is a good use of a spell slot for the Paladin or fighter if they are on the front line. later on boldness wins out.
Be generous with your infusions also. Damage avoidance is better than mitigation or recovery anytime.