I know this is very much a support class, but the alchemists role is essentially:
Outfit party with Infusions and Experimental Elixirs (pre-combat)
Concentrate on a buff/debuff, throw cantrips, healing word anyone that gets KO'd.
Or at least that's how its been going for me, playing a lvl 10 Alchemist. if i'm missing anything, or you have a way to spice it up a bit, id appreciate you sharing =)
Heat Metal and Flaming Sphere both benefit from Alchemical Savant (on the turn that you cast them). And, they both use bonus actions to maintain. So you can cast one of those spells on your first turn, then use a bonus action on subsequent turns to cause damage. You can use your main action on those turns for Fire Bolt or any other spell/action.
Also, if you have a Homunculus Servant (or Tiny Servant) you can command it to attack with its Force Strike as a bonus action. It’s not a strong attack, but extra damage is always nice. The 30’ range and force damage type are good too.
Edit: don’t forget that you can use an Enhanced Arcane Focus to give yourself +2 to spell attacks. That would make your Cantrips and Ray of Sickness more accurate.
You have flaming sphere, heat metal, web, and levitate as useful combat spells.
TCoE opens up using a feat for basic invocations to hit some of the warlock tricks like darkness / devil's sight. Many classes can do this, including any artificer.
Any artificer can leverage the spell storing item because it uses an item action instead of casting a spell action, which isn't far off for you. That allows for handing it around for more concentration spells for the party at once using it that way, using it on the same turn as a bonus action spell to avoid a forced cantrip on the same turn, or using it to cast a 1st or 2nd-level spell on the special action granted by haste.
Keep in mind it's not always better for the party to buff others. For exam, high AC melees rarely getting hit anyway aren't a better choice for increasing AC if you're taking a lot of hits and costing healing resources. It's worthwhile to build your own AC.
Medium armor plus a shield plus two +1 infusions plus +1 from an elixir plus +2 from haste gives you 24 AC with mobility and action economy while hasted in combat whether healing or more offensive casting.
Flaming sphere is a typical alchemist combat move for bonus action attacks and my advice would be the same as clerics or druids -- just because a character can heal doesn't necessarily mean it's the best use for that action. ;-)
at level 10 the armor and shield +1 infusions become +2 instead.
And I'd like to add onto Ashrym's advice that also applies to clerics and druids. Just because you have Healing Word doesn't mean it is the best choice when you do heal (despite what many tend to claim constantly.)
Specially since Ashrym has given you some other nice possibilities to be using your bonus action on.
Since Artificers are kinda backup I have one spell that I love to use during combat. Grease. You get to make many enemies attempt a Dex save and possibly fall prone. Definitely a good choice for 1st level spells. The potions that Alchemists can make are also very useful because many times we don't buy anything to actually help us. You can just completely drug yourself with the different kinds of elixers.
I find choosing your targets really helps with my combat chemists I've gotten to play in one shots.
Basically I target down the caster with heat metal or an acid arrow.
Depending on what your stats are? A well timed Shove before the big melee guy attacks can make someone's life horrible. (simimlar to the Grease as per above)
I'd suggest looking at that level 6 Infusion for that dreadful flute thing? Thats a good debuff on an aoe item. Pipes of Haunting? Sure DC 15 but in a lot of situations that aoe is fantastic.
Remeber your Homculus (if you have one-they're quite good after that eratta imo) is a creature. It can Attune. so you can craft and give it some items. Wand of Magic Missle is one such light weight item that can really be clutch in the right moment. The new version of HS after the eratta can use any action now basically. Make or get it some great Action us items! Wands, stuff like the pipes I mentioend above. Etc.
Once you get the spell storing item, that becomes a big boost as it can use it btw. Just don't spam it and w aste it.
Also be aware, if it dies you might lose the items depending on where it is. So keep it reasonably placed-or have it usue infusions. It'll have to reattune later too
If you' find one. All Purpose Tools make life al ot more fun because you can pull in any cantrip for a few hours to use. So you could for isntance get Shelleigh and get Int weapon use, or get Primal Savagery. One interesting combination is the fact that you can get Eldritch Blast, and if you dipped Warlock or took the Edlritch invocaiton feat, you could add your Charisma bonus to the damage while using INT to hit. Nothing special really but fun. (Well nothing special unless you're level 6 undead lock level 5 alchemist. Then you get to thunder in some really painful necrotic Alchemy blasts 2d10+int+cha.. but thats a specific build).
BAsically my advice is dont devote yourself to being pure healer, or pure support spell /elixir user. Look for other things you can tur nthe tides with, and you can actually do pretty good damage between cantrip+Savant + HS bonus action attack. Resistences can be a bummer though. I think the best thing that happened to my level 6 Alchemist was getting a ring of spell storing. As that let me store the key emergency spells (Healing Words, Feather Fall, 1 Aid in my case). Once I wasn't restricted on being the healer I found that the toolkit is pretty great. Sort of depends if your'e stuck being the healer though
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I know this is very much a support class, but the alchemists role is essentially:
Outfit party with Infusions and Experimental Elixirs (pre-combat)
Concentrate on a buff/debuff, throw cantrips, healing word anyone that gets KO'd.
Or at least that's how its been going for me, playing a lvl 10 Alchemist. if i'm missing anything, or you have a way to spice it up a bit, id appreciate you sharing =)
Heat Metal and Flaming Sphere both benefit from Alchemical Savant (on the turn that you cast them). And, they both use bonus actions to maintain. So you can cast one of those spells on your first turn, then use a bonus action on subsequent turns to cause damage. You can use your main action on those turns for Fire Bolt or any other spell/action.
Also, if you have a Homunculus Servant (or Tiny Servant) you can command it to attack with its Force Strike as a bonus action. It’s not a strong attack, but extra damage is always nice. The 30’ range and force damage type are good too.
Edit: don’t forget that you can use an Enhanced Arcane Focus to give yourself +2 to spell attacks. That would make your Cantrips and Ray of Sickness more accurate.
You have flaming sphere, heat metal, web, and levitate as useful combat spells.
TCoE opens up using a feat for basic invocations to hit some of the warlock tricks like darkness / devil's sight. Many classes can do this, including any artificer.
Any artificer can leverage the spell storing item because it uses an item action instead of casting a spell action, which isn't far off for you. That allows for handing it around for more concentration spells for the party at once using it that way, using it on the same turn as a bonus action spell to avoid a forced cantrip on the same turn, or using it to cast a 1st or 2nd-level spell on the special action granted by haste.
Keep in mind it's not always better for the party to buff others. For exam, high AC melees rarely getting hit anyway aren't a better choice for increasing AC if you're taking a lot of hits and costing healing resources. It's worthwhile to build your own AC.
Medium armor plus a shield plus two +1 infusions plus +1 from an elixir plus +2 from haste gives you 24 AC with mobility and action economy while hasted in combat whether healing or more offensive casting.
Flaming sphere is a typical alchemist combat move for bonus action attacks and my advice would be the same as clerics or druids -- just because a character can heal doesn't necessarily mean it's the best use for that action. ;-)
at level 10 the armor and shield +1 infusions become +2 instead.
And I'd like to add onto Ashrym's advice that also applies to clerics and druids. Just because you have Healing Word doesn't mean it is the best choice when you do heal (despite what many tend to claim constantly.)
Specially since Ashrym has given you some other nice possibilities to be using your bonus action on.
Since Artificers are kinda backup I have one spell that I love to use during combat. Grease. You get to make many enemies attempt a Dex save and possibly fall prone. Definitely a good choice for 1st level spells. The potions that Alchemists can make are also very useful because many times we don't buy anything to actually help us. You can just completely drug yourself with the different kinds of elixers.
Does a 23 hit?
I find choosing your targets really helps with my combat chemists I've gotten to play in one shots.
If you' find one. All Purpose Tools make life al ot more fun because you can pull in any cantrip for a few hours to use. So you could for isntance get Shelleigh and get Int weapon use, or get Primal Savagery. One interesting combination is the fact that you can get Eldritch Blast, and if you dipped Warlock or took the Edlritch invocaiton feat, you could add your Charisma bonus to the damage while using INT to hit. Nothing special really but fun. (Well nothing special unless you're level 6 undead lock level 5 alchemist. Then you get to thunder in some really painful necrotic Alchemy blasts 2d10+int+cha.. but thats a specific build).
BAsically my advice is dont devote yourself to being pure healer, or pure support spell /elixir user. Look for other things you can tur nthe tides with, and you can actually do pretty good damage between cantrip+Savant + HS bonus action attack. Resistences can be a bummer though.
I think the best thing that happened to my level 6 Alchemist was getting a ring of spell storing. As that let me store the key emergency spells (Healing Words, Feather Fall, 1 Aid in my case). Once I wasn't restricted on being the healer I found that the toolkit is pretty great.
Sort of depends if your'e stuck being the healer though