I'm happy to hear that the Alchemist has been playing well at your table. Our experience with the Alchemist hasn't been as positive.
The Alchemist in question is relatively optimized (Bomber specialty, Dex 16 and Int 18, Half-Elf for shortbow access), played from levels 1-3 in Extinction Curse, with three other pretty optimized PCs (Giant Barbarian, Maestro Bard, Animal Druid).
PROs: The Alchemist has made a substantial contribution in three situations:
- 1. In one combat with a nasty wasp swarm which the party was warned about (they could see it through a window), the Alchemist handed out bombs to everyone before combat. The guaranteed splash damage, combined with its weakness to splash damage, helped a lot with this encounter.
- 2. Right after the fight with the wasp swarm, the Alchemist was able to give the Barbarian an Antidote to help with some terrifying poison saves, which helped the Barbarian survive. (But as one of the party members noted later, it seems like a good idea for any party to buy a couple lesser Antidotes to carry around, and not something one needs an Alchemist for.)
- 3. The Alchemist gave the Infiltrator's Elixir to the Bard in several places to allow them to impersonate one of the enemies they'd defeated. In a couple places this (and some good Impersonate checks) allowed the party to bypass a few tough encounters, and gain some valuable information. (This was pretty cool. It's too bad that there don't seem to be many other "utility" elixirs of this sort in the CRB.)
- 1. With the exception of the encounter described above, the Alchemist's bombs haven't done much. In an earlier encounter with a swarm, the Alchemist's bombs did far less damage than the Barbarian, even though the creature had a weakness to splash damage and a resistance to physical damage. Damage aside, the Alchemist had hoped to help out with the lightning bomb's ability to make a creature flat-footed. But since the Druid, their companion and the Barbarian would quickly move to flank opponents, it never made a difference.
- 2. The Alchemist generally has had a hard time finding something to do with their third action after spending their first turn Recalling Knowledge. While the other PCs are demoralizing, commanding animal companions, inspiring courage, moving to flank, raising shields, etc., the Alchemist often has little to do but make three ranged attacks.
- 3. The Alchemist had hoped to hand out helpful elixirs or things to other party members during battles, but the opportunity has never come up. The other PCs generally didn't want to use mutagens during combat given their drawbacks. The Bard and Druid quickly take care of any emergency healing needs. And in any case, as a ranged combatant who tries to stay back a bit, the Alchemist is generally poorly placed to deliver elixirs to the other PCs.
- 4. Out of combat, the Alchemist did hand out a few mutagens to buff skill checks at various points. But these small boosts never ended up making a difference, and they quickly depleted the Alchemist's reagents.
