LEB Discussion Thread '09

[elecgraystone]

(boy is ENWorld messed up...)

yes it is! takes forever to switch screens and it eats 1/2 of my posts!

Is there any other benefit to getting the Alchemist feat that I'm missing?

Not really. Not until we get high enough that alchemy items of our level aren't available. And when that happens, we just have to find someone that had a mark of making! they get alchemy making at +2 their level.

 

[ryryguy]

Yeah... in a face-to-face game, it seems more likely you might not have opportunities to buy stuff as often. Even if you're not always away from "civilization", the shops where you go might be in smaller places and not fully stocked. In the PbP you're pretty much always going back to the major metropolis where anything can be purchased, plus it would be a pain to do it any other way - who decides how and when the shops are stocked?

OK, I'll probably just stick with the free rituals then.

 

[ukingsken]

It would be nice if they'd flesh out alchemy more, maybe provide some other character options for that path. Because your right, as it stands not really worth taking.

 

[Vertexx69]

if you don't already have a dragon mark, you might want to consider the mark of making. It give alchemy at n+2 and enchant Magic Item +2 + al ability to learn all creation rituals. Its certainly more bang for your buck a far a feat goes.

 

[ryryguy]

Nah, the character is a gnome wizard... I want her to be a member of the House (not just the feat goodies). It is true, Scribing does seem like one of the weaker dragonmarks, but oh well.

 

[CaBaNa]

scribing is the language feat, without prereq, +1 language.

If you are a wizard...

but ryryguy is right, it makes a huge difference in our characters RP and is a major story element.

[sblock=ryryguy]

If you trained in intimidate, that would be hilarious. You would likely know which language to speak, have a huge charisma, and could possibly cause bloodied enemies to surrender on a regular basis...

That is all your character though, as mine doesn't have near the advantage your's does in that category...

[/sblock]

 

[elecgraystone]

It is true, Scribing does seem like one of the weaker dragonmarks, but oh well.

Actually it's quite strong, as long as you aren't a class that already gets ritual casting. You get 2 full feats worth of power; ritual casting and a buffed up linguist feat [as CaBaNa pointed out].

 

[ryryguy]

Three feats! You forgot the +2 to diplomacy (aka, skill focus - 1)!

It's good point that if you don't already get ritual casting it ends up being a pretty good buy. But if you do, it's linguist + skill focus... which is two feats, true, but two feats that you'd probably not be too likely to choose otherwise.

I was considering choosing Alchemist basically in order to return Scribing to three feat territory, but for reasons already discussed that actually seems to get you less in practice...

 

[ryryguy]

PS - Not to belabor the point, but probably the main reason I said Scribing seems like one of the weaker feats is that it doesn't give you anything that is generally usable in combat. No doubt that's why the designers didn't think this three-feat-equivalent feat is unbalanced...

(How many other dragonmark feats don't give you anything in combat?)

 

[elecgraystone]

(How many other dragonmark feats don't give you anything in combat?)

Mark of detection, mark of hospitality, mark of making and mark of scribing. So 4 mark can't be used in combat. Well, I guess detection could be used in combat but it's not what I'd call a combat ability.