A Question about Alchemist's for the game I'm planning

[Hopeless]

Unable to look at the previous thread I created from where I am currently but I want to ask your view on an idea I'm currently thinking through.

Now the characters I have created include a barbarian woodsman, a militiaman and a noble, but also a barbarian shaman, a civilised sorceress and a civilised alchemist.

Now I picture the sorceress being able to manipulate the magic inherent in some items she's carrying such that they hold the spell whilst she can boost their effects with her sorcery.

The Shaman I picture as having the Lore and Pact skills but am thinking of adding the Spirit Binding bit to explain her fetch is an animal spirit granting her one of their abilities so that she comes across as either more primitive or barbaric in nature.

The alchemist however is a bit difficult since I'm thinking of making him more of a mad scientist such that his spells are actually technology or for example "flash bangs" such that I'm even thinking of turning his crossbow into the equivalent of a handgun so that he has his Pow equivalent in "spells" but is actually limited by how much resources he is able to gather.

Does that sound okay and if not could you list an example of how to make an alchemist different to a sorceror?

 

[Dan True]

You could use the rules from Deus Vult (Age of Treason also seem to have some, but I haven't got the book). There are described various "Wonder Weapons", such as flash bangs, greek fire etc. and the cost to make them with alchemy - which you could translate to a certain amount of herb gathering etc.

- Dan

 

[Simulacrum]

There are indeed Alchemy rules in Age of Treason, which are more about 'making potions' than the rules published in the old MRQII Arms and Equipment book (which used the notion of philosopher's stone). However for the sort of devices you are thinking of Age of Treason will cover under Artifice in the forthcoming companion.

Meanwhile you could look at Temporary Enchantments in Spellcom which may deliver much the same effect by having a spell effect that is triggered by use of a device.

And what about Dan's Eberron conversion stuff - is there nothing you could use in there?

 

[Dan True]

And what about Dan's Eberron conversion stuff - is there nothing you could use in there?

There might be something in there for you yes, albeit that is focussed on "spells-put-into-liquids"-style potions, like in D&D etc, i.e. Potion of Invisibility, Philter of Glibness etc. in short they are actually enchantment rules, which better fit the D&D-style than the rules from Arms and Equipment.
But if you do choose to use it, you could represent the alchemist as an Artificer who can only make potions - he would then be able to make a certain amount of them depending on his power and resources (represented in silver pieces, but you could make it harvesting instead), and then wait some days until his Magic Reserve can recharge. You could perhaps grab some from this system and make your own changes, to implement more "classic" alchemical products, such as smoke bombs etc.

- Dan

 

[Hopeless]

Finally got past the battlestar galactica game where I discovered it was possible to play characters with no perception or covert skill (read Stealth) unless you spent some spare skill points ignoring we were running colonial marines...

Sorry getting back to the point, finally introduced them to Legend albeit they decided to generate their own characters so we got as far as having a party consisting of a barbarian blacksmith, a barbarian woodsman and a pair of civilised nobles whom have an unusual interest in poison use...

Hopefully next time we meet after Xmas i'll get to run the game I had planned and being along the characters I mentioned above and in another thread in case they need spares since its a low magic setting and they currently have no spellcaster... well okay one player's character has Lore/Alchemy but thats about it!

Anyway I'll post an update following the next session to see whether I could make use of the above alchemy ideas mentioned!

Thanks again.

 

[Greg Smith]

There are alchemy rules in Clockwork & Chivalry. They are RQ specific in the first edition. However the second edition they are OGL and are available to download for free: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=97426&affiliate_id=169435

 

[alex_greene]

The Alchemy rules also turn up in the Renaissance SRD, available for free on the DrivethruRPG site free. Essentially, the same as what is available just about everywhere else - invest magic points in a Philosopher's Stone, create substrates, imbue substrate with Common Magic spell etc.

It needs updating for sorcery. in my reckoning - the caster fixes the Magnitude and Duration of the spell imbued (usually the range is set as the default since it might only affect the consumer of the potion) and the sorcery spell effect's strength depends on the Sorcery (Grimoire) percentage of the caster at the time of imbuing, and hope that the Philosopher's Stone has enough magic points to pay for the spell. Something like that.

Now as for the spells involved ... how about a combined Phantom Odour / Phantom Sound / Phantom Sight that produces a flash and bang with an intensity powerful enough to require an opposed test of Resilience against the caster's Sorcery (Grimoire) at the time of casting?

A cruel one would be Wrack, sprayed onto the victim somehow (Craft skill to create a perfume atomiser?).