I hope, I hope to god that they are not showing all of the artificer levels they have here. And I really don't think they are (tool expertise might be a part of the level 5 feature, along with whatever else they have there). Honestly I don't dislike experimental elixir. It feels more "scientist" than homonculous to me.
Also: arcane weapon is being removed from dnd beyond, but it might come back as an official spell, being removed from UA. Or some other spell that is effectively the same thing. Or they are just doing what they did with the ranger where they focus so much on flavor that they create a class that can only really work in niche circumstances, and everyone who is unhappy because other classes can do everything they can pretty much better, is wrong and playing the class badly according to the team/
WOTC is putting out an underwhelming base version of the Artificer that everyone will be inevitably disappointed in, followed by a sourcebook with a list of alternate features that will fix the class and make it actually enjoyable.
Okay, tinfoil hat off!
(In seriousness though, I sincerely hope there's stuff that's omitted from those sheets, because otherwise some of that stuff just doesn't make any bloody sense...)
I expect there is stuff omitted. In the subclass description they don't mention anything about item crafting. I really think that this is a "summarized" version for the convention, with some of the more chunky aspects removed, because they would not have been used. Maybe tool expertise is there, but they did not put it because they did not see it being used (which would make me think that artificers are not proficient with theives tools inherently anymore)
Why did Right Tool for the Job even show up? It takes one hour to create a set of crafting tools - why include that feature at all if you don't expect players to need tools?
Why include only half the tool proficiencies for each subclass?
Why nix Tool Expertise when an artificer with Tool Expertise is a perfectly valid user of thieves' tools? Disarming traps is NOT a "rogue thing" - it's an "anybody with the intelligence to discern how the trap works and the tools to stop it from working" thing. Usually that's rogues, but artificers are even better at it, by design.
Also? Per the UA document: "You determine the homunculus’s appearance, which includes wings and bits of alchemical equipment. Some alchemists prefer mechanical-looking birds, whereas others like winged vials or miniature cauldrons." A mechanical bird or imp is pretty damn steampunk. I would also point out that this stupid godawful Experimental Elixir thing means the Alcmehist is the only artificer subclass without an effective use of its bonus action. The Artillerist can use its dumb turret-cannon, the Battlesmith can command its Steel Defender, the Alchemist...can fondly remember the days when it had a cool mechanical familiar that fought alongside it and could do three times a day for free what it now needs to sacrifice scant, precious spell slots to do.
This is in no way a buff, dude. Even the people who liked the goddamned Sack of Flingin' Poo aren't going to be happy with this dumbass Wild Chemistry table. The alchemist subclass is the next best thing to non-*******-functional, because Wizards let a brute uneducated mob with no game design experience design their game for them AGAIN.
You keep calling this "Wild Chemistry", why? Yes, the free one is a randomized potion, but it is not like wild magic. It is not like you only find out what it is after you drink it, instead you find out directly after making it. It fits the idea of an alchemist experimenting with compounds during downtime, and being able to create potions, as well as one being created through their experimentation. This is in no way wild magic. Right tool for the job might have just been there to fit as a way to create theives tools for a situation, they might not have proficiency automatically anymore, and these were premade so they might not have had that chosen. I pray that the experimental elixir is seriously buffed somehow in the actual thing (as in, benefits to upcasting spell slots into it, or being able to store actual spells in it). We really have no idea what the artificer is going to be like, I believe this is more of a summary than anything else. I am ok with homunculus being an infusion, I pray to god they don't make arcane armament an infusion, and I hope that they keep arcane weapon (maybe changing how it works a bit, but a spellcasting class should have at least one class specific spell).
And homunculus was not a good idea as a level 3 feature. In any means. You may have liked it, but it was nearly universally hated. It did not feel cool, it felt forced.
It's cute that you think they deployed a playtest version of the class to Gamehole Con not even three entire weeks before the books go live for sale. Everything in the artificer has been locked down for months now, dude. The books are already printed off and being shipped. There may be shit that's not on the sheets, but what was on the sheets stands a superb chance of being exactly what we get.
The homunculus being an infusion is a horrible idea because it means the homunculus can't ******* do anything, due to needing to be featureless and vanilla so it works with all current and future subclasses. It becomes significantly less functional than a basic-ass familiar anyone can get with the Magic Flippin' Initiate feat, and is a complete waste of both ink and bytes. Either bake it into the class proper or just dispense with it - this half-and-halfy "you can make it one of your infusions! Yay!" bullshit is garbage, everybody knows it, so stop feeding people a line on it.
The fact that you want your alchemist to be a potion-flinging nincompoop is awesome. Fling those Acid Splash vials, Bunsen. Fling them as hard and far as the rules of the cantrip allow you to. As I spent dozens of posts explaining in both this thread and the last one, that is a very limited, highly restrictive caricature of an archetype - which has been conclusively demonstrated by the fact that the Gamehole Con Alchemist is objectively worse than both other artificer sub-breeds. No bonus action options, no extra damage or protective companion - instead, a list of Wild Chemistry bullshit that's mostly equivalent to first-level spells nobody takes which costs you a first-level spell slot you could've otherwise used on spells you DID take, and which the homunculus used to be able to do freely for you before it got turned into "Use your infusion to create a three-HP animated teddy bear with the ability to make you pine for when this creature was actually useful to you. it can use its action on its turn to beg your enemies to kill it and end its misery."
This version of the alchemist is not a Cool Scientist Chemical Guy. It is a drunken frigggin' lush that may as well substitute Brewer's tools for Alchemist's supplies, or even better substitutes staying-at-home-while-you--play-your-warlock for being-a-valid-PC.
**** Wizards forever, man. Can they do nothing without ruining it in the final stretch?
Each of the artificer sheets shown have thieve's tools listed under proficiencies, so they still get that.
We'll have to see if tool expertise is actually gone or if it's pushed back to level 5 or higher. I'll have to admit that I kinda cheesed my first artificer by picking a race that got two tool proficiencies and then getting another pair from my background, giving me nine total by level three just to take maximum advantage of tool expertise. It was probably a bit too much.
I don't want an alchemist to be a potion slinging damage dealer. I have never said that I wanted that. Alchemist should be a support subclass. These let it be a support subclass. You have no way of knowing what the entire subclass is, I believe they will get a significant buff at higher levels. You have no knowledge on what the infusion for homunculus will be, you have no idea how powerful it will be, most likely it will be able to be commanded as an attack on a bonus action. How the **** is experimenting with materials to improve potions (and being able to craft potions) mean one is drunk? Is science not about experimentation? You don't the whole class. I don't even think they put the full level abiliteis they had on here. Experimental Elixir is nowhere near as chaotic as wild magic, not even close. A better potion of healing, longstrider without concentration, 1d4 to all ability checks for 10 minutes (without concentration). And you will be able to pass out buff spells on top of this. But hey, if you want to impose your vision as to what this idea is, and only interpret literally any potion ability as a stupid drunk getting lucky with chemicals, be my guest. The rest of us will be planning out serious buff combos with these potions, since they don't require concentration.
Bards get two skill expertise marks by level three. Rogues get two expertise marks at level one. Everyone and their mothers is quick to remind artificer players that tool expertise is less than half as valuable as skill expertise. Even if the artificer has to pick tools to be Expert with rather than getting all of them, they should be able to make that choice before level four.
Tool Expertise is one of those features that, if Wizards pulled it out of the class, anyone with any sense should push it right back in. An artificer that can't use tools is an artificer that shouldn't exist.
I do think artificers should have tool expertise. I believe they didn't print that with it because they were trying to save space. or they get it at a higher level.
Alter self is a second level spell, with significant benefits, and you can choose the one when you drink it. It is not a common potion of healing, you add your INT modifier, it is an optimized cure wounds. The longstrider one is bad on its own, but it can stack with others, and the spell longstrider (since it isn't the spell), so with that and a casting of it, you could give someone +20 speed. Bless without concentration, could stack with bless, giving you 2d4 on every ability check. Bouyancy is flight, its situational but could come in handy in some situations. +1AC without concentration, could be useful when stacked with shield of faith or mage armor.
This is not wild magic. Prepare your spells to fit around the potion you roll, or make your own potions to allow them to stack with spells, or just to be used (considering some of them are straight up better than first level spells). Putting some first level spells into the optimized cure wounds, or better potion of healing, could allow you to have more spells prepared (sacrificing cure wounds), or make you a better healer overall. Yes, it is not as powerful, and I hope they also got a crafting potion buff, but it is still decently powerful if you plan ahead instead of treating it like wild magic. And I think it is going to get plenty of buffs as the alchemist levels up.
Alter Self is a second-level spell whose 'significant benefits' are generally only significant when the original one-hour duration is considered. Ten minutes of water adaptation does nobody any good, ten minutes of altered physical appearance is not long enough to accomplish any significant sneakery. Ten minutes of 1d6 magic claws is enough for a fight, but the artificer lost the ability to make weapon attacks so it doesn't matter that you can give yourself magic claws, you can't fight worth a shit anyways.
2d4+2 is a basic, common Potion of Healing, which the alchemist used to be able to make in two hours for thirteen gold. Without having to pray to the gods of Wild Chemistry, or cart around forty pounds of empty flasks. Adding an extra point or two to the healing of your basic, common Potion of Healing is nice, but hardly a Class Defining Superpower and hardly "better Cure Wounds" consider CW can be upcast and this dumb thing cannot.
Chuggable Longstrider theoretically stacks with other movement boosts. Movement boosts no one takes, because individually they suck ass and collectively they take too long to set up to be useful in an encounter. Nobody ever has regular Longstrider. Only those classes that get innate enhanced movement and stack it with the Mobile feat might want Chuggable Longstrider, but at that point it hardly matters if they get it.
The d4 thing is not Bless. You roll the d4 once, then add that number to every applicable roll you make thereafter. Which is weird and kinda stupid, but eh. Like I said before, the laws of the universe guarantee that roll will always be a 1, so take it with a grain of salt.
People hated on Buoyancy when it was freely available three times a day through an awesome steampunk mechanical familiar. I figured it was a cool way to aid in exploration or get a shooter away from a melee scrum when they needed it, but clearly I was mistaken because everybody hated the awesome steampunk mechanical familiar and wanted the ability to throw acid moar instead. As it stands, you get either a one in six chance of having Buoyancy on you on any given day, or you burn a first-level spell slot on doing something once that you used to be able to do for freebies three times a day if you needed it. Yaaaaaay.
+1AC is just about the only thing in the entire list that might provide the slightest realistic benefit (that you couldn't previously do three times a day for free with an awesome steampunk mechanical familiar), but even then you have to be nigh-psychic to use it correctly since it's not worth killing an action on in actual combat. You need to drink it immediately before fighting. Not during, not after, not 'some time' before - right-the-****-ass on the cusp of battle. The duration is too short and the effect is too weak to justify its use at any other time, or ever if you have to burn a first-level spell slot on it.
I absolutely refuse to believe that I am intended to base my entire play for the entire adventuring day around one dumbass Wild Chemistry potion I roll for while the rest of my party is preparing their spells and weapons and companions and other actually-useful things for the hunt. There is absolutely no indication whatsoever that this incredibly disappointing and lackluster feature - which, I remind you, used to be an awesome steampunk mechanical familiar that could attack your enemies, aid your allies, and deliver most of the better amongst these six options freely, three times a day, on your bonus action instead of your main action - will be even slightly improved by the time you hit twentieth level.
It is a garbage-ass feature that renders the alchemist not any better in any practical terms than simply not bothering to select an artificer subclass at all, and Wizards should feel bad about it. As should everybody who *****ed and moaned about the homunculus not being as potion-y as the Sack of Flingin' Poo. This is your fault as much as Wizards, since Wizards has decided that a headless faceless mindless Internet mob makes a better game designer than trained, experienced Actual Game Designers.
Just gotta wait for the official release and homebrew subclass capability, I suppose. Since the official alchemist is a nonstarter, just gonna have to make my own. Hopefully DDB finishes their Homebrew Overhaul sometime before the heat death of the universe so homebrew subclasses can actually be functional.
How has the artificer lost the ability to make weapon attacks? Alter self potion can also be used as a potion of disguise, or to breathe in water. I still think they are going to replace arcane weapon with something similar. Again, I don't think that they included any crafting based rules in this because it would never have come up at a convention, and there are so many variant rules for crafting that no one knows which to do anyways. Chuggable longstrider is situational, i agree with you there. "laws of the universe" doesn't mean shit, you are not going to roll a 1 every time. Again, there is nothing in here about "throwing acid moar", where do you see that? +1 ac requires some preperation, but not every encounter is a sudden jump into combat. again, you keep refering to this as "wild chemistry". That could not be more wrong. You do not know what they will be getting at higher levels. You have no knowledge about any of this. You are projecting your pessimistic assumptions onto an incomplete leak.
Hey, I left my computer for a bit and came back, I'm sorry I got so heated back there. Honestly, you have a point about the Experimental Elixir being underwhelming at it's level, and I do hope that it get a significant buff at higher levels. And that they did not include features for this convention that would not come up. I do think there is a way to make experimental elixir work, and to capitalize on it (potentially leading to some CoDzilla style shenanigans). I personally hope that the alchemist gets the ability to put spells with a range of touch or self into the potion, and make it so that it does not require concentration or something like that, allowing you to be a great supporter with spells like Arcane Weapon (or a replacement to it, I refuse to believe they simply removed the spell from the game and did not replace it with something similar), Haste, Absorb Elements, Disguise Self, Detect Magic, and the like.
Also, a homonculous is not steampunk, it is candlepunk at best.
I hope, I hope to god that they are not showing all of the artificer levels they have here. And I really don't think they are (tool expertise might be a part of the level 5 feature, along with whatever else they have there). Honestly I don't dislike experimental elixir. It feels more "scientist" than homonculous to me.
We really don't know what it is going to be like, this is a couple features, sure, but we don't know what kind of spells or infusions or anything.
Also: arcane weapon is being removed from dnd beyond, but it might come back as an official spell, being removed from UA. Or some other spell that is effectively the same thing. Or they are just doing what they did with the ranger where they focus so much on flavor that they create a class that can only really work in niche circumstances, and everyone who is unhappy because other classes can do everything they can pretty much better, is wrong and playing the class badly according to the team/
Tinfoil hat time!
WOTC is putting out an underwhelming base version of the Artificer that everyone will be inevitably disappointed in, followed by a sourcebook with a list of alternate features that will fix the class and make it actually enjoyable.
Okay, tinfoil hat off!
(In seriousness though, I sincerely hope there's stuff that's omitted from those sheets, because otherwise some of that stuff just doesn't make any bloody sense...)
I expect there is stuff omitted. In the subclass description they don't mention anything about item crafting. I really think that this is a "summarized" version for the convention, with some of the more chunky aspects removed, because they would not have been used. Maybe tool expertise is there, but they did not put it because they did not see it being used (which would make me think that artificers are not proficient with theives tools inherently anymore)
If there's Stuff Omitted, Bunsen...
Why did Right Tool for the Job even show up? It takes one hour to create a set of crafting tools - why include that feature at all if you don't expect players to need tools?
Why include only half the tool proficiencies for each subclass?
Why nix Tool Expertise when an artificer with Tool Expertise is a perfectly valid user of thieves' tools? Disarming traps is NOT a "rogue thing" - it's an "anybody with the intelligence to discern how the trap works and the tools to stop it from working" thing. Usually that's rogues, but artificers are even better at it, by design.
Also? Per the UA document: "You determine the homunculus’s appearance, which includes wings and bits of alchemical equipment. Some alchemists prefer mechanical-looking birds, whereas others like winged vials or miniature cauldrons." A mechanical bird or imp is pretty damn steampunk. I would also point out that this stupid godawful Experimental Elixir thing means the Alcmehist is the only artificer subclass without an effective use of its bonus action. The Artillerist can use its dumb turret-cannon, the Battlesmith can command its Steel Defender, the Alchemist...can fondly remember the days when it had a cool mechanical familiar that fought alongside it and could do three times a day for free what it now needs to sacrifice scant, precious spell slots to do.
This is in no way a buff, dude. Even the people who liked the goddamned Sack of Flingin' Poo aren't going to be happy with this dumbass Wild Chemistry table. The alchemist subclass is the next best thing to non-*******-functional, because Wizards let a brute uneducated mob with no game design experience design their game for them AGAIN.
-_-
Please do not contact or message me.
You keep calling this "Wild Chemistry", why? Yes, the free one is a randomized potion, but it is not like wild magic. It is not like you only find out what it is after you drink it, instead you find out directly after making it. It fits the idea of an alchemist experimenting with compounds during downtime, and being able to create potions, as well as one being created through their experimentation. This is in no way wild magic. Right tool for the job might have just been there to fit as a way to create theives tools for a situation, they might not have proficiency automatically anymore, and these were premade so they might not have had that chosen. I pray that the experimental elixir is seriously buffed somehow in the actual thing (as in, benefits to upcasting spell slots into it, or being able to store actual spells in it). We really have no idea what the artificer is going to be like, I believe this is more of a summary than anything else. I am ok with homunculus being an infusion, I pray to god they don't make arcane armament an infusion, and I hope that they keep arcane weapon (maybe changing how it works a bit, but a spellcasting class should have at least one class specific spell).
And homunculus was not a good idea as a level 3 feature. In any means. You may have liked it, but it was nearly universally hated. It did not feel cool, it felt forced.
It's cute that you think they deployed a playtest version of the class to Gamehole Con not even three entire weeks before the books go live for sale. Everything in the artificer has been locked down for months now, dude. The books are already printed off and being shipped. There may be shit that's not on the sheets, but what was on the sheets stands a superb chance of being exactly what we get.
The homunculus being an infusion is a horrible idea because it means the homunculus can't ******* do anything, due to needing to be featureless and vanilla so it works with all current and future subclasses. It becomes significantly less functional than a basic-ass familiar anyone can get with the Magic Flippin' Initiate feat, and is a complete waste of both ink and bytes. Either bake it into the class proper or just dispense with it - this half-and-halfy "you can make it one of your infusions! Yay!" bullshit is garbage, everybody knows it, so stop feeding people a line on it.
The fact that you want your alchemist to be a potion-flinging nincompoop is awesome. Fling those Acid Splash vials, Bunsen. Fling them as hard and far as the rules of the cantrip allow you to. As I spent dozens of posts explaining in both this thread and the last one, that is a very limited, highly restrictive caricature of an archetype - which has been conclusively demonstrated by the fact that the Gamehole Con Alchemist is objectively worse than both other artificer sub-breeds. No bonus action options, no extra damage or protective companion - instead, a list of Wild Chemistry bullshit that's mostly equivalent to first-level spells nobody takes which costs you a first-level spell slot you could've otherwise used on spells you DID take, and which the homunculus used to be able to do freely for you before it got turned into "Use your infusion to create a three-HP animated teddy bear with the ability to make you pine for when this creature was actually useful to you. it can use its action on its turn to beg your enemies to kill it and end its misery."
This version of the alchemist is not a Cool Scientist Chemical Guy. It is a drunken frigggin' lush that may as well substitute Brewer's tools for Alchemist's supplies, or even better substitutes staying-at-home-while-you--play-your-warlock for being-a-valid-PC.
**** Wizards forever, man. Can they do nothing without ruining it in the final stretch?
Please do not contact or message me.
Each of the artificer sheets shown have thieve's tools listed under proficiencies, so they still get that.
We'll have to see if tool expertise is actually gone or if it's pushed back to level 5 or higher. I'll have to admit that I kinda cheesed my first artificer by picking a race that got two tool proficiencies and then getting another pair from my background, giving me nine total by level three just to take maximum advantage of tool expertise. It was probably a bit too much.
I don't want an alchemist to be a potion slinging damage dealer. I have never said that I wanted that. Alchemist should be a support subclass. These let it be a support subclass. You have no way of knowing what the entire subclass is, I believe they will get a significant buff at higher levels. You have no knowledge on what the infusion for homunculus will be, you have no idea how powerful it will be, most likely it will be able to be commanded as an attack on a bonus action. How the **** is experimenting with materials to improve potions (and being able to craft potions) mean one is drunk? Is science not about experimentation? You don't the whole class. I don't even think they put the full level abiliteis they had on here. Experimental Elixir is nowhere near as chaotic as wild magic, not even close. A better potion of healing, longstrider without concentration, 1d4 to all ability checks for 10 minutes (without concentration). And you will be able to pass out buff spells on top of this. But hey, if you want to impose your vision as to what this idea is, and only interpret literally any potion ability as a stupid drunk getting lucky with chemicals, be my guest. The rest of us will be planning out serious buff combos with these potions, since they don't require concentration.
Bards get two skill expertise marks by level three. Rogues get two expertise marks at level one. Everyone and their mothers is quick to remind artificer players that tool expertise is less than half as valuable as skill expertise. Even if the artificer has to pick tools to be Expert with rather than getting all of them, they should be able to make that choice before level four.
Tool Expertise is one of those features that, if Wizards pulled it out of the class, anyone with any sense should push it right back in. An artificer that can't use tools is an artificer that shouldn't exist.
Please do not contact or message me.
I do think artificers should have tool expertise. I believe they didn't print that with it because they were trying to save space. or they get it at a higher level.
Alter self is a second level spell, with significant benefits, and you can choose the one when you drink it. It is not a common potion of healing, you add your INT modifier, it is an optimized cure wounds. The longstrider one is bad on its own, but it can stack with others, and the spell longstrider (since it isn't the spell), so with that and a casting of it, you could give someone +20 speed. Bless without concentration, could stack with bless, giving you 2d4 on every ability check. Bouyancy is flight, its situational but could come in handy in some situations. +1AC without concentration, could be useful when stacked with shield of faith or mage armor.
This is not wild magic. Prepare your spells to fit around the potion you roll, or make your own potions to allow them to stack with spells, or just to be used (considering some of them are straight up better than first level spells). Putting some first level spells into the optimized cure wounds, or better potion of healing, could allow you to have more spells prepared (sacrificing cure wounds), or make you a better healer overall. Yes, it is not as powerful, and I hope they also got a crafting potion buff, but it is still decently powerful if you plan ahead instead of treating it like wild magic. And I think it is going to get plenty of buffs as the alchemist levels up.
Alter Self is a second-level spell whose 'significant benefits' are generally only significant when the original one-hour duration is considered. Ten minutes of water adaptation does nobody any good, ten minutes of altered physical appearance is not long enough to accomplish any significant sneakery. Ten minutes of 1d6 magic claws is enough for a fight, but the artificer lost the ability to make weapon attacks so it doesn't matter that you can give yourself magic claws, you can't fight worth a shit anyways.
2d4+2 is a basic, common Potion of Healing, which the alchemist used to be able to make in two hours for thirteen gold. Without having to pray to the gods of Wild Chemistry, or cart around forty pounds of empty flasks. Adding an extra point or two to the healing of your basic, common Potion of Healing is nice, but hardly a Class Defining Superpower and hardly "better Cure Wounds" consider CW can be upcast and this dumb thing cannot.
Chuggable Longstrider theoretically stacks with other movement boosts. Movement boosts no one takes, because individually they suck ass and collectively they take too long to set up to be useful in an encounter. Nobody ever has regular Longstrider. Only those classes that get innate enhanced movement and stack it with the Mobile feat might want Chuggable Longstrider, but at that point it hardly matters if they get it.
The d4 thing is not Bless. You roll the d4 once, then add that number to every applicable roll you make thereafter. Which is weird and kinda stupid, but eh. Like I said before, the laws of the universe guarantee that roll will always be a 1, so take it with a grain of salt.
People hated on Buoyancy when it was freely available three times a day through an awesome steampunk mechanical familiar. I figured it was a cool way to aid in exploration or get a shooter away from a melee scrum when they needed it, but clearly I was mistaken because everybody hated the awesome steampunk mechanical familiar and wanted the ability to throw acid moar instead. As it stands, you get either a one in six chance of having Buoyancy on you on any given day, or you burn a first-level spell slot on doing something once that you used to be able to do for freebies three times a day if you needed it. Yaaaaaay.
+1AC is just about the only thing in the entire list that might provide the slightest realistic benefit (that you couldn't previously do three times a day for free with an awesome steampunk mechanical familiar), but even then you have to be nigh-psychic to use it correctly since it's not worth killing an action on in actual combat. You need to drink it immediately before fighting. Not during, not after, not 'some time' before - right-the-****-ass on the cusp of battle. The duration is too short and the effect is too weak to justify its use at any other time, or ever if you have to burn a first-level spell slot on it.
I absolutely refuse to believe that I am intended to base my entire play for the entire adventuring day around one dumbass Wild Chemistry potion I roll for while the rest of my party is preparing their spells and weapons and companions and other actually-useful things for the hunt. There is absolutely no indication whatsoever that this incredibly disappointing and lackluster feature - which, I remind you, used to be an awesome steampunk mechanical familiar that could attack your enemies, aid your allies, and deliver most of the better amongst these six options freely, three times a day, on your bonus action instead of your main action - will be even slightly improved by the time you hit twentieth level.
It is a garbage-ass feature that renders the alchemist not any better in any practical terms than simply not bothering to select an artificer subclass at all, and Wizards should feel bad about it. As should everybody who *****ed and moaned about the homunculus not being as potion-y as the Sack of Flingin' Poo. This is your fault as much as Wizards, since Wizards has decided that a headless faceless mindless Internet mob makes a better game designer than trained, experienced Actual Game Designers.
Just gotta wait for the official release and homebrew subclass capability, I suppose. Since the official alchemist is a nonstarter, just gonna have to make my own. Hopefully DDB finishes their Homebrew Overhaul sometime before the heat death of the universe so homebrew subclasses can actually be functional.
Please do not contact or message me.
How has the artificer lost the ability to make weapon attacks? Alter self potion can also be used as a potion of disguise, or to breathe in water. I still think they are going to replace arcane weapon with something similar. Again, I don't think that they included any crafting based rules in this because it would never have come up at a convention, and there are so many variant rules for crafting that no one knows which to do anyways. Chuggable longstrider is situational, i agree with you there. "laws of the universe" doesn't mean shit, you are not going to roll a 1 every time. Again, there is nothing in here about "throwing acid moar", where do you see that? +1 ac requires some preperation, but not every encounter is a sudden jump into combat. again, you keep refering to this as "wild chemistry". That could not be more wrong. You do not know what they will be getting at higher levels. You have no knowledge about any of this. You are projecting your pessimistic assumptions onto an incomplete leak.
And, if a homunculus was steampunk, alchemist should not get it. And it was not steampunk in any way, if it was it was not a homunculus.
Hey, I left my computer for a bit and came back, I'm sorry I got so heated back there. Honestly, you have a point about the Experimental Elixir being underwhelming at it's level, and I do hope that it get a significant buff at higher levels. And that they did not include features for this convention that would not come up. I do think there is a way to make experimental elixir work, and to capitalize on it (potentially leading to some CoDzilla style shenanigans). I personally hope that the alchemist gets the ability to put spells with a range of touch or self into the potion, and make it so that it does not require concentration or something like that, allowing you to be a great supporter with spells like Arcane Weapon (or a replacement to it, I refuse to believe they simply removed the spell from the game and did not replace it with something similar), Haste, Absorb Elements, Disguise Self, Detect Magic, and the like.