Mechanical Talk: The Alchemist, All Mixed Up

So, the Alchemist.

yeah...

I think I can safely say there is no class like them, before or since, and I think that's one of the main things that make them fun to play, so I'm going to spend this post talking about the Alchemist and what makes each Alchemist "Subclass" fun to play.

So the Alchemist has 3 core mechanics, Spells, Bombs, and Mutagens, but trying to specialise in all 3 is pretty damned near impossible to do, so you'll find that most Alchemist choose to specialise in 1 or 2 mechanics and throw the last one by the roadside, so lets get started.

Buffer (Spells)

The Alchemists spell list is one of those somewhat strange spell lists, much like the Witch spell list, with lots of healing spells, and buffing spells, alongside things like "Blistering Invective", "Skinsend" and "Transplant Visage", which allow for a Spell based Alchemist to come off as a really creepy, scientific, sociopath.

However, due to the way their spells work, Alchemists cannot cast their spells on their party members without spending one of their discovery slots on "Infusion" which allows other people to drink the extracts you make.

What makes up for this is that the Alchemist automatically gets the "Brew Potion" potion feat, so he can brew any of his extracts as a potion and hand it off to his teammates, for a bit of time and some Gold.

So Pros: Some of the best Buffing spells out of any class, a very flavourful spell list allowing for fun times, and there's no Spell Failure chance due to the way the spells are cast.

And Cons: You can't cast any spells on your allies without either sinking a Discovery into doing so, or by spending money and time on making potions, you only have up to 6th level spells so you miss out on some of the best spells, and occasionally your spells don't make sense.

Bomber (Bombs)

The second main ability of the Alchemist is their ability to mix bombs quickly in combat, before throwing them for Michael Bay Shenanigans, these are seriously fun to use because they deal fire damage straight off the bat, target Touch AC to make up for the Alchemists 15/10/5 BAB progression, and scale to your level along the way.

The main draw to the bombs however is that they are amazingly customisable; with the Alchemist's discoveries, it's possible to deal any type of damage with them, have them inflict any kind of status effect on an opponent, make your bombs deal Holy damage, deal direct Stat damage, or even heal your allies (Healing potion to the FACE!!!).

However one of the main drawbacks to bombs is that you can only throw one a round, without investing a discovery into making you throw faster, and without preparing them earlier in the day, you can only deal fire damage with your bombs, leading to the Wizard problem, where if you prepare the wrong thing, you're either going to be fairly useless, and/or, dead.

Pros: Fairly high damage, Targets Touch AC so rarely miss, can fulfil a large range of damage types, and debuff slots with proper preparation, and a 20 ft range can keep you out of Full Attack counter range.

Cons: Only one throw per round with Discovery investment, each type of Damage or Utility use requires either a feat or a discovery, poor preparation can make you essentially useless, and close combat is going to be fairly deadly to you.

Beast (Mutagens)

The third, and last, main ability of the Alchemist is his Mutagen, which turns him into a Doctor Jekyll, Mister Hyde type fighter, boosting his Physical stats, Natural AC, and general close combat abilities, at the cost of his mental stats.

At the start, the Alchemist can only boost one Stat, by +4 and a +2 to his Nat AC, with a -2 to a corresponding mental stat, however depending on the Discoveries you take, or the Archetype you choose, you can gain multiple bonuses, and abilities with their mutagens as you level up.

However, unlike their spells or bombs, an Alchemist can only have one Mutagen ready to go at one time, without A) a Discovery (I feel like I'm repeating myself at this point) and, B) 1,000 gp, and 2 points of Temporary INT damage, you have to prepare what bonuses your mutagen will give you as you create it, and a mutagen takes 1 hour of in-game time to make so you can't just have another one ready to go immediately.

Pros: Depending on your Discovery and Archetype choices you can have amazingly powerful combat abilities, it is remarkably easy to gain 30+ AC by combining it with some level 1 spells, multiple natural attacks, the ability to shrug off sneak attacks and critical hits, it lasts for a long time, and nobody else can use it without risk.

Cons: It takes time to make one so if your GM keeps throwing fight after fight at you, you may be screwed, it's powerful enough that your party may come to resent you, making more than one at a time is prohibitively expensive, and damaging so you will want (and may actually need) some form of healing stat damage if you plan on making more than 3 at once.

Interesting Sub-Class Combinations

Buffer/Bomber - The Michael Bay Hero

Survive everything exploding while you walk through intensly hazardous experiences without a scratch, bonus points if you buff everyone else on your team to the same point for the full A-Team experience.

Bomber/Beast - The Mad Bomber

So you chose to boost your Dex through the roof, good thing you can avoid all of the splash damage that your bombs do and you now have 8 arms to throw with, well it's a good thing for you. Possibly the most Discovery intensive build.

Buffer/Beast - Doctor Jekyll, Mister Hyde

So your stat bonuses from the Mutagen weren't enough for you? Good thing that you've got Barkskin, Stoneskin, and that your mutagen stacks with Cat's Grace, Bull's Strength, and Bear's Endurance, Shield is another fun addition, alongside anything else you think you can get away with.

Buffer/Beast/Bomber - The GM's Nightmare

Difficult to do, requires a lot of luck in rolling your stats, if you do bring this one out, try to allow for other party members to have their own spots in the limelight before you totally eclipse them.

Campaign Notes: Summoners Era

Okay, this is not actually a character journal, these are my notes so I don't forget what happened in the session before I get to a point where it makes sense to write up a character journal, I've done the same thing with Seltyiel, but the session's I "Skipped" in that game were generally light on content anyways, mostly due to party split shenanigans. So

1: Cleared out bandit camp and started looting, interesting note that neither of our stealthy infiltrator characters can pick locks worth a damn compared to me, who can break anything, a lock is no match for a Masterwork Crowbar and +15 to breaking things.

2; Many Names has very good hearing, this does not help when you are hearing a Harpie's Siren Song, and your Will Save is crap, thank Gygax for Chak's Counter-song ability

3: Trying to talk my way out of an ambush, while not an immediately lethal mistake, doesn't work as well as I'd hoped it would, also Chak knows Vanish.

4: Chak is MVP for stealth, infiltration, and distractions, I'm MVP for breaking shit, and Many Names is MVP for mouthing off and getting the tar beaten out of him.

5: Giving the enemy a chance to sound the alarm is generally frowned upon by your party, apologies are appreciated even if they don't really fix the situation, but saying "I'm just role-playing my character" is not.

6: Monks are decidedly dangerous in the hands of a DM, although Flying Crane Kick is suitably awesome to allow for this

7: Do not allow Victor to cast Pyrotechnics within eye-sight again, I think I value the ability to see

And that's where the session ended, with me blind, our party in decent enough shape, our wizard without his spell-books, and fighting our way out of a Bandit stronghold, the next session should be fun, and I can write up a nice long character Journal for you guys.

Journey Journal, Days 2,3 & 4

I'm sorry to have abandoned you Journey Journal, I've just been in such a bad mood with that sociopathic, mud-blooded, cycle-breaker, Neffarion that I couldn't bring myself to chronicle what has happened so far.

So after I spent the day helping the priests in High Haven try to save as many people as possible, I found out that Neffarion and the others were supposed to heading to Val Nemor, south of my home-town for the yearly Tournament and if I leave them alone there's no telling how much blood they'll shed in the name of Hell-knight "Justice", so I decided to go with them, when the boat arrived the next day.

Morning came, the sun rose, and Neffarion was spotted chasing a distraught looking 12 year old girl down a dark alley with a dagger while half-dressed, or at least that's how I heard it, so that made my morning all the better.

Eventually we headed to the docks outside of town, and waited for our transport, which happened to be a pirate vessel, I could see Neffarion preparing to fight them and make some kind of self-masturbatory pronouncement, so I waited until he opened his mouth and shouted to the Pirates "Hi I'm Seltyiel", and he threw a childish hissy fit, so worth looking like an Idiot to the only members of my race I've ever actually met.

The Pirate captain was nice enough, at least to me, I spent most of the journey talking to him in his cabin, until Neffarion came in and started demanding things and insulting the captain in Abyssal.

Eventually we got to Val Nemor, at Port Zeiduch, and were smuggled into the city in a crate, before the Pirates left us and we met our contact, Melanie, another Hell-knight, who's disguised herself as Astrid, a Ship-Wrights Daughter, and was supposed to get us to the tournament in Dunfarg.

She demanded that we disguise ourselves, so I'm now Glorfindel, a travelling alchemist/healer, however she failed to arrange any transport for us, so I took us to see an old friend, Gregor *Bourbon* Dubrovnik, a travelling merchant, who sells magical knick-knacks. After a little talk he pointed us in the direction of "Umberto" a snake-oil salesman who would be able to get us to Dunfarg in time for the tournament.

It's currently coming on night time, and we're stopped outside Schuteberk, I think we'll be able to get to Dunfarg tomorrow, at the latest, and then I should be able to make some money at the Tournament.

Video Killed: Torchlight II

Or as I like to call it "Hi Guys, I'm totally Diablo 2".

So the holidays have come and gone, with all the grace and subtlety of a brick to the face thrown by a football hooligan, and with them, so has the Winter Steam sale finally ended, and our wallets can finally go back to their corners, weeping and shivering, unable to tell anyone where Gabe Newell touched them.

Being as broke as only a Warhammer 40K player can be I only managed to buy 3 games this year, Valkyria Chronicles, Outlast, and of course Torchlight II, which will be the subject of today's post.

Disclaimer: Despite what I say, it's a fun game, pick it up, play it with friends, it's just inordinately derivative.

Disclaimer 2: My Computer is flat-out obsolete, as such my view of the graphics may be a little skewed.

Story: 6/10, Good, if unimaginative

SPOILERS AHEAD

The game begins with the 3 characters from the last game, the Alchemist has gone insane trying to fix his Ember-Blight, and the Vanquisher and Destroyer get wrecked trying to stop him from taking the Artefact of Evil which then corrupts the world around it, bringing in otherworldly monsters and corruption, in other news, the Unknown Warrior from Diablo stabbed himself with Diablo's Soulshard, thinking it would help contain the Lord of Terror, and was possessed and warped by Diablo, now wherever he goes he brings in chaos, and terror, and otherworldly demons and corruption.

From this point onwards it is the PC's mission try and catch-up to the Dark Alchemist as he travels through, in order, Rainy Foothills, Snowy Mountains, a Corrupted Temple, a Ruin Filled Desert, a Lush, Humid Swamp, and finally a Fiery Pit that leads deep into the earth, before they stop the Dark Alchemist, and the otherworldly forces that were corrupting him, and driving him onwards in his mission to tear the barriers of reality asunder. Or as I like to put it, the Rainy Foothills of Diablo II, The Corrupted Temple of Diablo II, The Ruins Filled Desert of Diablo II, the Lush, Humid Swamp of Diablo II, the Fiery Pits of Hell (in Diablo II), and the Snowy Mountains that lead to a corrupted Temple in Diablo II, Lord of Destruction.

Yeah, the story is remarkably derivative of Diablo II, but that's good, Diablo II had one of the most basic stories of these kind of games, and it handled it well, Lone Hero (or Group of Heroes for you Multiplayers out there) goes out into the world to stop an ancient evil, for reasons, and succeeds. Bish, bash, bosh, done, can't fuck that story up, but Torchlight II doesn't manage to approach the scale of Diablo II, what took me about 2 weeks of solid gaming to complete in Diablo II, took me about 3 days with Torchlight, so the game feels smaller, which in turn makes me think that I'm dealing with a smaller threat, and I don't get as invested in the world as I did when this game was Called Diablo II.

Graphics 5/10, not outstanding, but definitely decent

They accomplish what they set out to do, that's all I can really say about the graphics, you want more? Fine.

Everything has a slightly cartoonish style to it, the characters are brightly coloured to help them stand out against the background, and enemies, and the Magical techniques are easily visible and recognisable without cluttering up the screen. Most enemies have their own somewhat distinct silhouette, allowing for quick identification and threat allocation, and no one dungeon style feels too terribly repeated, which was a problem with Diablo II's isometric view and almost Copy-Paste Dungeon graphics, but at the same time, nothing really popped, or had me standing there, wondering at its design, or miniscule detail, unlike the Dungeons in Diablo II, so it just felt blander, and less real than the 14 year old isometric game.

Sounds 5/10, They work

Seriously people, that's all I can say, the sounds work with the game, it's not like I can make a deep analysis on the raindrop noise they play during the rainy section of the map, you don't notice them, whether for Good or for Evil.

Gameplay 7/10, I Love my Ferret

If you've ever played one of these games you've played them all, kill monsters, do side quests, level up, find loot, run back to town 'cause your inventory's full, sell all the stuff you don't want, lather, rinse, repeat. What do you mean I can load up that pet I chose at the beginning of the game with all the loot I don't want, and get him to sell it, without having to leave the action, best Pet ever, I shall name my Ferret Kodo, and love him, and hug him, and keep him forever. Seriously though, the pet mechanic is about the only thing that sets this game apart from other Hack 'n' Slash RPGs, the fact that ferret is a seriously bad-ass damage dealer is just a side bonus (on a side note, why does the Ferret have more HP and Mana than I do).

The classes are fairly average, you've got the Engineer, who tanks Damage, buffs his allies, and Summons Robots to do his bidding; The Embermage who Mages with the 3 traditional element types, Ice, Fire, and Lightning; the Berserker, who berserks (I haven't actually seen this guy in action yet, he could completely rewrite my opinion of this game); and the Outlander, who shoots things,uses debuffing magic, and turns his dead enemies into allies for a short amount of time. So we have the basic RPG classes, the Tank, the Barbarian, the Nuke, and the Nerfer, so nothing new there, though no class has any particularly big disadvantage to solo play, which is nice if you're a recluse like I am.

Overall 23/40, Just Above Average, but Fun

This game will hardly change anyone's opinion about the genre, but if you like these kind of games then it's a fun ride until the end, when you wonder if you should've ridden in the old car from 2000 that has a comfier suspension, softer seats, more gears, and a better Miles per Gallon ratio.