Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 masteraaron Aug 22, 2008 13:14:16	One of my players is in love with alchemy. He's a chemist, and he loves bringing that into the game - mixing up laughing gas grenades and really fun, potent acids, that kind of thing. Over time, we cobbled together some advanced alchemy rules in 3E to handle the things he wanted, which were far more complex than the base system would permit. Now we're looking at starting up a 4E game, and while I haven't had a chance to discuss this with him yet, I know that alchemy is the first thing he'll want to hear about. There's nearly nothing in the rules to support even basic alchemy, but that doesn't really bother me, since I'd be writing a dissertation-length block of house rules if there were a pre-existing framework. Unfortunately, I'm at a loss for how to approach it here. The first thought that I had was to make an Alchemist class for him. He's always wanted that kind of thing anyway, but we felt that it was too restrictive. With the new powers framework, I think that we could make it into whatever we wanted, and then create an Alchemy skill for the brewing of his concoctions. However, every class needs some sort of implement. What would that be for an alchemist? Giving him some sort of sling or flamethrower might work, but that feels a bit ridiculous. Plus, I want to make the alchemical items crafted, not produced by powers, and then let the powers apply to all similar items. In other words, no power that creates and uses Freezing Grenades, but a power that would let you do something cool with a Freezing Grenade or Alchemist's Fire or Thunderstone that you'd created beforehand. Doing it that way, however, would add costs and restrictions to this class that no other class would have to deal with; they'd have to make their items in their spare time, using costly ingredients, and their abilities would rely upon what are essentially consumable items, which could introduce an element of downtime or situational ineffectiveness that is antithetical to the purpose of the power system. Does anyone have an ideas about a way to resolve this?
#2 tyweise Aug 22, 2008 13:24:41	Take a look at this excerpt from the upcoming Adventurer's Vault: http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4ex/20080814b
#3 tgncomics Aug 22, 2008 13:26:43	wotc posted the 'artificer' class which is very much like an alcamist, though probably more of a tinkerer but for alchemy itself you could make it a skill and make several dozen (hundred) formulas that he can collect so he can make all his little toys, making it like the ritual system was what I'm going to. EDIT: ninja'd, and beaten, i forgot about that posting
#4 masteraaron Aug 22, 2008 13:39:31	Ah, excellent! I obviously hadn't heard about that, or it would have solved many of my problems. =P Thank you for the link. I think that I can probably stave off his enthusiasm until Adventurer's Vault hits and we can examine the rules directly. It looks pretty good to me from the excerpt, though.