Preview The ALCHEMIST Class From A TOUCH OF CLASS For 5E

A Touch of Class, the new 70-page full-color softcover class book for 5E, introduces seven new classes to your 5th Edition games, along with a range of associated subclasses, feats, spells, items, backgrounds, and more. The Kickstarter launches next week, on Monday, 3rd April. Here's a quick preview of a couple of pages of the Alchemist, one of the 7 classes featured (the others are the Cardcaster, Diabolist, Feywalker, Morph, Noble, and Occultist).

UPDATE: THIS KICKSTARTER HAS NOW LAUNCHED!

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[Zardnaar]

I would treat the alchemisy class as outright magical so you could use reasonably mundane ingrediants doing kewl things via class abilities.

 

[ddaley]

I think this is way overcomplicating the situation. These bombs are not that powerful, so I don't see them being abused in this way. I mean, they are d10 damage, but only have a range of 20'. I think most of my group would prefer to use a bow anyways... take the d10 to d8 hit, but get a better range. These bombs might be more powerful if they had splash damage or residual damage or counted as magic in order to damage creatures that can only be damaged my magical weapons.

One advantage that these have over other ranged weapons is that they can do fire/acid/cold damage. However, I still don't see my group abusing these.

We had a pretty big thread about alchemist's powers as NOT as "X per day" or "At will" power, but as ammunition (bombs, potions, charms etc) that could be crafted in advance and stocked up. The advantage of this is that it's very satisfying from a RP point of view and it's a strong differentiation element from other spell-casters.

The problem is that it's *extremely* hard to balance. The thread (which was lost in the database crash) never found a satisfactory solution. Weight/encumbrance? Ok, but what about a bag of holding dis-balancing the class? Cost-based? Sure, but then suddenly the power of a class is related to how much money the party gets? Time to create? Ok, but that makes balancing reliant on the amount of off-time between adventurers. Or an alchemist could "nova" in one fight and then have nothing for the rest of the adventure.

One of the better suggestions I saw was that alchemy required rare resources (as opposed to gold in general), I first came across in an odd book I reviewed (see https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/16/16808.phtml , the chapter on alchemy, for details). The problem with this of course is that it's still hard for the GM to determine how much of this rare resource should the PC have access to. There is no clear guideline here...

So given all that, I'm quite willing to "forgive" wonky bomb creation rules. It gets *reallllly* complicated otherwise.

 

[Zardnaar]

Bomb's only deal damage similar to cantrips and if you want to spam them may as well play a warlock.

Unless they fix that fundamental problem with the class its gonna be weak/suck. Its a half caster that can't fight a'la Paladin/Ranger and its bad at dealing damage vs things like warlocks, invokers, lt clerics etc so its semi pointless to play it and it lacks a nice. d10 bomb short range or just use firebolt+ another cantrip.

You probably want 2 sub classes. One is a half caster built around at will AoE damage that can enhance them via spell slots kinda like a Paladin I suppose and the other is a jekyl and hyde type beat stick I suppose.

When your class is weaker than all the PHB classes and makes the Beastmaster Ranger look good you have a problem. If you lack level 9 spells you need to be dealing Rogue or Warlock level damage to be competitive- and Rogues are not exactly great at damage they just don't suck. Maybe the class will get a heavy revision IDK, I get the update for free off EN5ider. It seems easier to design archetypes than new classes as a lot of the EN5ider class types compare fine with the PHB ones and are not more powerful or to weak (overall some are meh/yay).

You do get a 2nd bomb attack at level 5 (a'la most of the classes) and it seems your bombs scale somehow so it looks to be a big improvement over the original class (which was complete pants). Need to see more.

 

[Davies]

Also, will the extended Advanced Studies from another EN5sider article be included in this kickstarter?

They are further down the table of contents, but yes. Hope your player is having fun with my class.

 

[Ancalagon]

I think this is way overcomplicating the situation. These bombs are not that powerful, so I don't see them being abused in this way. I mean, they are d10 damage, but only have a range of 20'. I think most of my group would prefer to use a bow anyways... take the d10 to d8 hit, but get a better range. These bombs might be more powerful if they had splash damage or residual damage or counted as magic in order to damage creatures that can only be damaged my magical weapons.

One advantage that these have over other ranged weapons is that they can do fire/acid/cold damage. However, I still don't see my group abusing these.

Yes. ONE bomb is not that powerful. Wait until a PC clusters 50 of them together

All I was saying, in response to those not liking the "craft on the spot" system and wishing for the alchemist to brew bombs/etc in advance, is that there are serious balance consequences, even though it's not very satisfying from a role-playing perspective.

 

[Morrus]

This Kickstarter is now live!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/enworld/a-touch-of-class-7-new-classes-for-5th-edition

 

[Garthanos]

Arguably they need a tricky enough firing mechanism that you cannot hand one to some one else and they need to be stable enough to not accidentally go off ...So that might be the thought of keeping them semi disassembled

Sent from my XT1585 using EN World mobile app

 

[Arnwolf666]

There is no logical reason for this class to have armor proficiency or d8 hit points. They are academics and scholars the same as a wizard.

 

[Alchemist's Fire]

I'm glad people are interested in an Alchemist class and go to great lengths to make one. However, I believe being able whip up a concoction for use as a bomb, aim, and throw it at a target all within a few seconds is unrealistic. I agree with some of the other comments that the Alchemist should prepare his/her mixtures during a long rest, much like the magic classes prepare their spells. The Alchemist chooses which ones to prepare, and thus has a set number and type of mixtures on them throughout the day. Then they play similar to spellcasters in regards to spell slots, and the mechanic could be that the mixtures are volatile and thus they go to waste if not used before the Alchemist's next extended rest.

This build is good, and better than what we have, but I would like to see Alchemist treated more like a brewer than another magic class (ergo, no "alchemist spells").