Pathfinder 1E The Dark Knight....somethings?

[Summer-Knight925]

This is actually a dialogue that occurred when a player was looking at the Alchemist class.


Player A: So the Alchemist is kinda cool? I like the master chymst PrC, it reminds me of Dr. Jackyl and Mr Hyde.

Player B: I feel like with the bombs I would wind up just pulling a joker and give our enemies 'presents'

Player C: Why not make a scarecrow-ish character? use the extracs to make a fear formula, like...scare and confusion..or phantasmal killer, something like that

Player D: Why not make bane? just create a buff extract, make it powerful, counter-act its power with it being addictive? Or just create enough of the extract to have it hooked into you like...at all times

DM: *grabs Player B's elf thief miniature and pretends to (but doesn't actually) break it in two* When Golarion is in ashed, you have my permission to die.





The obvious question now is....how do you make a Bane-like character out of the alchemist?
And this is the comic version, the one using Venom, not the one from the movie.

 

[SteelDraco]

I'd probably fluff Bane as a barbarian, not an alchemist, with his Venom use modeled by rage rounds per day - when he rages is when he supercharges the flow of the stuff through his body. He suffers from withdrawal when he stops using (the fatigue from the rage ending), and I believe there are rage powers out there that let you become large, or at least an archetype that does it (I haven't looked at barbarians extensively). While he's on Venom, Bane is much larger than a normal human, easily into the Large size category.

That said, you could certainly do him justice with an alchemist, you'll just have a lot of class features you're not using, which usually sucks. He doesn't use anything like bombs, and doesn't have the command of anatomy implied by a vivisectionist's sneak attack (which is the go-to powergamer alchemist archetype). He also won't have the BAB or hit points to do the job of tank very well, though extracts can help with that. At a base, he'd have access to the Enlarge Person extract and the feral mutagen discovery, which you could change to granting slam attacks rather than claws (bludgeoning damage is usually a little better than slashing, but if you drop the bite attack it's clearly a decrease in power). The Master Chymist prestige class grants better access to the mutagen class feature, which would be important. All his extracts would be described via Venom, variations or specialized application of the drug he's using. Not sure what'd I'd alter to reflect the addiction he suffers without the stuff - presumably you'd use the affliction mechanics for that.

Of course, you could go with a multiclassed barbarian/alchemist. That'd model him pretty well, though there's a lot of stuff about him being a genius criminal that wouldn't be in there. I don't think he's all that knowledgeable about the Venom drug itself - I'm pretty sure he didn't invent the stuff. You also have to deal with the fact that Pathfinder always assumes unarmed combat is just for specialized people, which not the assumption that superhero comics make. He'd have to get slam attacks or monk (martial artist) levels somehow.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Suddenly, I find myself wanting to use the alchemist.

For Bane, there is a ragechemist archetype that seems a logical fit.

 

[SteelDraco]

Ragechemist is kind of a sucky archetype, in that you can get into a death spiral pretty easily if you fail the Will save to take penalties to Intelligence and Will saves. Once you've started failing, it's going to get worse and worse, and you'll end up comatose by the end of the fight. You'd have to invest in stuff to boost your Will saves to make it at all worthwhile, and the benefits you get out of it aren't that great.