Ideas for a physics- or engineering- based alchemist subclass/archetype

[petermcleod117]

Hello!

I'm working on a modern pathfinder 1e setting in which science is the primary force in the world, with magic being forgotten and dismissed. Most wielders of "magic" in the setting are actually just scientists, and openly claim to be so. This means that the dominant spellcasting class in the setting is the Alchemist, by a lot.

The issue comes in with fields of study. The alchemist works great for representing the fields of chemistry, biology, and medicine, but not very well for representing physics and engineering. Unfortunately, I can't really think of a good way of fixing this, which is particularly problematic because one of the most important organizations in the setting is primarily composed of physicists. Potions just don't give off the physics or engineering vibe.

Is there an archetype or class already in existence which can represent this concept?

[pabelfly]

Physics and engineering? What about a gunner?

[Ramza00]

Just reflavor the standard action to drink an item on you as a potion as something iron man-y with engineering

[petermcleod117]

Physics and engineering? What about a gunner?

Gun Chemist? I can see how that might work. Using fire, electricity, and gravity-based alchemical ordinance, it could effectively produce the appearance of being a sort of multi-purpose "physics gun".

The question would then be what to do with the other class features. Re-contextualizing the Extracts and Mutagens, or replacing them entirely, would be a priority.

Edit: I'm a goober. I should just combine the Gun Chemist and Tinkerer archetypes.

[vasilidor]

Take a look at Spheres of Guile and Spheres of Might.

[SangoProduction]

Define "physics-based," as that can mean basically anything.
Anyway, here's my archetype recommendations: Spheres Alchemist, and Combat Engineer.


As for what you would take as a Spheres Alchemist, let's go with a portal gun concept. You'd want the ability to teleport, so the Warp sphere from Spheres of Power is useful.
For a tractor beam, you'd want telekinesis. Admittedly, Telekinesis sphere as presented in Spheres of Power, is weak as hell, but I do have an adaptation (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?654016-Telekinesis-Sphere-(Adapting-5e-Spheres))of my own for it.

If you want to be able to just jimmy rig any ol' object, go with the Creation sphere, with Exquisite Detail. Take Skilled Casting as your casting tradition, which means you need to make a craft (engineering) check in order to cast anything. Plenty of traits which boost your craft / allow you to always take 10.

Destruction sphere is good for literally anything you want, as long as what you want is damage. Fluff it however you want. Opening up rifts to the plane of fire, levitating rocks into the enemy, anything.

And... the rest would really be determined by what exactly you were wanting. The Nature and Weather spheres aren't a bad pick for this kind of general concept (though Weather is much less...generally applicable). Divination can literally be you creating specialized radar systems. Light sphere... should go without saying, but I don't know if that's what you meant by physics.