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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 9276750" data-attributes="member: 2067">The artificer overall looks weaker on paper than I think it is in play. The subclass feature at 3rd level needs to carry the bulk of the playstyle vibe, but none of the subclasses have the power budget to spend on much more than "it's a slightly different weapon attack" and alchemists don't even have that! If they could make an "attack potion" (a grenade!), and didn't have to spend a whole turn delivering their potion (usually, move + action, + maybe another action if you forgot to make your own potions before the fight), I think that'd go a long way. As written, the alchemist does have some power (that +1 AC along with the other artificer stuff can give them the highest AC in the game, the +1d4 to attack rolls that stacks with other buffs is very nice!), it's just all borked by action economy and effects that are kind of easy to forget, IMXP.The alchemist I ran was in a Theros game (Greek myth kind of setting). That setting has a goddess who is basically a snake goddess of poison and medicine and nature, so I played a devotee of that goddess who was kind of a bronze age surgeon, using antivenom and healing with gross bugs and learning about things like "patient consent" for the first time. I was kind of the only INT-focused character in the party, so that ended up being my niche. I buffed the melee martials, and because I had a frankly obscene AC and a healthy CON, I could definitely tank some hits, despite the RP being mostly squishy wizard. I really noticed the damage boost of the LV 5 feature, and it definitely made my standard attacks of poison spray and ray of sickness viable at even the higher levels. I feel like I didn't damage as hard as the bard or the martials, and I didn't buff or heal as well as the cleric, but I was tough to kill, and fairly consistently picking up unconscious party members. I also don't think I used my elixir powers as much as would have been optimal, in part because those effects are so easy to ignore. Though, I think that might have a lot to do with the problem of buffs in D&D overall. Concentration helps that, but part of the cool thing about the alchemist is that they don't need concentration for their buffs, which also goes back to the "oh, yeah, you should've had +1d4 on that attack" problem, and the class overall not feeling "active" in a special or particularly interesting way.</blockquote>

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