Lamest terminology change?
Craft (Alchemy) sticks out head and shoulders.
Look at it: what probem where they trying to solve? The fact that a few newbies got confused with the line "use the rules for making things found in the Craft skill description". Their solution: just lump it in with the rest of the Craft skills, which means that now everyone and his mother can learn Alchemy as a class skill! Oops... so they decided to require a level of spellcaster to actually *use* the damn thing.
"But I thought we weren't going to have exclusive skills anymore?"
"Ah, but it's not really exclusive, see? Anyone can learn the skill, if they want it, we're just not gonna let them use it!"
Of course, now they've officially made Alchemy a magical effect, rather than an entirely separate pseudo-chemistry, which removes 90% of its cool flavor. It'd be kinda like saying you can only use Psionics if you're a spellcaster.
"Uhh... ya know, now that anyone can learn Alchemy, I guess anyone can indentify potions as well, right? After all, that's not actually *crafting* anything, so you don't need to be a spellcaster."
"Hm... Let's just nerf that and put it in Spellcraft instead. After all, it's not as if we intended Alchemy to be anything more than a flavor skill anyway."
"What about Identify Poison then?"
"Duhhh....."
It'd be funny, if it wasn't so sad...
PS: just so it doesn't sound like all I do is bitch without offereing any concrete solutions... here's my solution to the original problem:
"Creating an alchemical item using the Alchemy skill follows a similar mechanic as described under the Craft skill in terms of determining how much time and money it takes to make an item."
Now was that so hard?
