Whether secreted away in a smoky basement laboratory or gleefully experimenting in a well-respected school of magic, the alchemist Pathfinder is often regarded as being just as unstable, unpredictable, and dangerous as the concoctions he brews.
While some creators of alchemical items content themselves with sedentary lives as merchants, providing tindertwigs and smokesticks, the true alchemist answers a deeper calling. Rather than cast magic like a spellcaster, the alchemist captures his own magic potential within liquids and extracts he creates, infusing his chemicals with virulent power to grant him impressive skill with poisons, explosives, and all manner of self-transformative magic.
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Alchemist Pathfinder:
Role: The alchemist’s reputation is not softened by his exuberance (some would say dangerous recklessness) in perfecting his magical extracts and potion-like creations, infusing these substances with magic siphoned from his aura and using his own body as experimental stock. Nor is it mollified by the alchemist’s almost gleeful passion for building explosive bombs and discovering strange new poisons and methods for their use. These traits, while making him a liability and risk for most civilized organizations and institutions of higher learning, seem to fit quite well with most adventuring groups.
Pathfinder Kingmaker Alchemist
Alignment: Any.
Hit Die: d8.
Starting Wealth: 3d6 × 10 gp (average 105gp.) In addition, each character begins play with an outfit worth 10 gp or less.
Class Skills Pathfinder Alchemist
The alchemist’s class skills are Appraise (Int), Craft (any) (Int), Disable Device (Dex), Fly (Dex), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Perception (Wis), Profession (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Survival (Wis), Use Magic Device (Cha).
Skill Ranks per Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Alchemist Fire Pathfinder
The spontaneous alchemy rules allow any characters to dedicate themselves to the art of spontaneous alchemy. Feats that increase one’s prowess in spontaneous alchemy make this path even more potent, allowing both professional and amateur alchemists to craft dozens of different alchemical items in a fraction of the time that would normally be required for the Alchemist Fire Pathfinder.
These optional spontaneous alchemy rules provide an all-new way for characters to rapidly craft alchemical items. This subsystem requires the player to track the individual alchemical reagents her character has on hand, which she can combine in a variety of ways using different processes to create a wide selection of alchemical items. With the GM’s permission, characters with the Eschew Materials feat can assume they have the correct reagents on hand to perform spontaneous alchemy; instead of tracking the quantities of each reagent owned, players can then simply track the number of gold pieces worth of reagents their PCs spend each time they perform an act of spontaneous alchemy. The cost to craft an item with spontaneous alchemy is usually 10% to 20% higher than the item’s market price.
Characters versed in spontaneous alchemy can concoct alchemical items more quickly than through normal use of the Craft (alchemy) skill. However, instead of simply making skill checks and spending the necessary currency for unspecified raw materials, the character must provide specific reagents and combine them according to the recipe for the item she wishes to create. This allows the alchemist to obtain results with less time and effort, but often at greater cost, because of the necessary purity and greater volume of reagents required by alchemical recipes.
Pathfinder 2e Alchemist:
To perform spontaneous alchemy, a character must begin with the reagents and crafting tools required by the recipe of the item she wants to make. The reagents, crafting tools, and length of time required are noted in the recipe. Once the necessary time has passed, the creator attempts a Craft (alchemy) check against the DC to craft the item. If she succeeds, she completes the item. If the creator’s check fails, however, she risks a mishap (see Mishaps).
Reading Recipes
Each alchemical item features a recipe at the bottom of the item stat block that details how to create the item using spontaneous alchemy. Every alchemical recipe adheres to the following format.
Recipe: This lists the names and amounts of the reagents needed for spontaneous alchemy, as well as the alchemical process used to create the item.
Craft: This specifies the DC of the Craft (alchemy) check required to complete the item. The base DC is the same whether the item is being made with conventional crafting techniques or spontaneous alchemy.
Time: This is the amount of time required to create the item using spontaneous alchemy.
Tools: This is the tool required to perform the process (see Crafting Tools). If the creator uses an improvised crafting tool, she takes a –2 penalty on her Craft check.
Type: This entry notes the type of alchemical item to be created—most alchemical items are either alchemical remedies, alchemical tools, alchemical weapons, alcohols, drugs, or poisons.
Processes
Each alchemical process requires a certain length of time and might require one or more alchemical crafting tools. The length of time and the crafting tools required to craft certain alchemical items might sometimes differ from these baselines.
Calcination: This is the process of burning a reagent down to its essential minerals. Time: 1 hour. Tools: Crucible.
Creation: This process calls for adding a liquid (such as water) to a hard, dry, heated reagent to soften it. Time: 10 minutes. Tools: Crucible.
Congelation: Congelation increases the viscosity of a reagent by cooling it, possibly with the addition of another reagent such as urea. Time: 10 minutes. Tools: Alchemist’s lab.
Digestion: In this process, a solution is allowed to rest, usually while being heated, as particles precipitate out of the solution. Time: 1 day. Tools: Heat source.
Distillation: A mixture is placed in a retort and heated, causing the component with the greatest volatility to vaporize, condense in the neck of the retort, and flow down into a second vessel. Time: 1 day. Tools: Retort.
Earth: This process involves letting one or more reagents mingle with fresh earth to absorb its minerals or other essential properties. This process cannot be performed unless a source of fresh soil is available. Time: 10 minutes. Tools: None.
Exposure: This process involves ready airflow. A recipe that requires this process cannot be performed indoors unless a steady air current from outdoors passes through the area (such as a current provided by large open windows on opposite walls). Time: 1 hour. Tools: None.
Fermentation: This process allows a reagent to be digested by yeast or another organism, yielding a new product. Time: 1 day. Tools: None.
Filtration: This process separates one component of a mixture from another by passing the mixture through a filter that catches larger particles. This is sometimes made easier by adding a solvent that dissolves one component but not the other. Time: 10 minutes. Tools: Sieve or filter.
Sublimation: Also known as exaltation, this process calls for a reagent to be heated to a vapor in a vessel so that a pure component crystallizes in the neck of the vessel. Time: 1 day. Tools: Retort.