Alchemy in your game world

[Tinker Gnome]

Well, the RAW more or less treats Alchemy as a sort of Chemistry in the PHB. But my question is, do you treat it as a sort of Chemistry? If so, do you use the elemenst that make up our world? Or do you use Fire, Earth, Wind, and Water? Or is Alchemy something completely different for your world?

 

[DragonLancer]

I treat it as a chemistry basically, but with some arcane touches thrown in. So more a chemistry catch all type.

 

[Ampolitor]

Chemistry

I also treat it like chemistry in my homebrew world.

 

[Crothian]

I use a little supplement called Alchemy & Herbalists by Bastrion press. It makes it more like whjat I feel is alchemy and not just the chemistry aspect.

 

[DMH]

I use A&H (with a crap more stuff I added) and some ideas from Mongoose's Alchemist Power Class (IMO the best of the whole line, even over the hedge mage).

 

[Ibram]

by itself Alchemy is like chemistry (making blackpowder, acid, ect...)
Alchemy + Knowledge [Herbalism] = drugs (good and bad)
Alchemy + Caster + Spellcraft = low end potions
Alchemy + Caster + Spellcraft + Knowledge [Occult] = crazy bad stuff (like that fellow with the bolts in his neck)

 

[Tonguez]

I use Sal, Sulfur, Mecurius and Aquae
acquired via
Taking a physical substance (earth) and subjecting it to
1. Calcination (by fire) to release the Sal (Body)
2. Sublimation (in water) to release the Sulfur (Soul)
3. Distalation (in Air) to release the Mecurius (Spirit)

At each stage the substance formed (Sal, Aquae or Mecurius) can be used for various purposes it is Mecurious that has magical uses Sal and Aquae are usually mundane (but still spectacular eg Aqua Fortis (acid))

 

[Li Shenron]

I haven't gone very deep in descriptions, but I basically treat it more like chemistry. I prefer the 3.0 skill exactly because it doesn't imply any magic (the 3.5 skill requires spellcasting). I have so far only used it with pre-defined alchemical substances (but you need some extra sources to make alchemy interesting, since the PHB options are too few IMO), I didn't instead expanded it with rules about combining base substances with formulae, although it would be pretty cool.

 

[Conaill]

Fantasy chemistry! Think Flubber, Jeckel & Hyde, etc. Do *not* try to do anything that resembles real world chemistry...

 

[S'mon]

Alchemy = Chemistry IMC, yup.