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Alchemy is the fusion of science and magic. Through the use of science, it draws out the inherent magical properties within items and distills them to their purest form. The most well-known form turns out to be a tolerable, if not palatable, liquid or potion, but others such as powders and oils also exist. To produce these items a successful alchemist must have the rare ingredients and the delicate equipment that each potion requires. Also, he must have a fair amount of skill and luck because alchemy is not an exact science due to the inconsistencies of magic. Yet, when everything works out right the potions that an alchemist creates can mean the difference between life and death. The power the potions provide makes the alchemist a respected member of any town. Often his skill provides him with great wealth as well. Adventurers will offer much gold to gain the extra edge that potions give them in a battle. Since an alchemist’s potions are worth so much, he will guard his recipes with the same secrecy as wizard’s guard their spells. Alchemy does have its pitfalls. The equipment is expensive to purchase and maintain. The ingredients for the potions are sometimes extremely difficult to come by. However, the most daunting aspect of alchemy is the risk of injury that the mixture of the volatile components can produce. It is not uncommon that a town’s alchemist will have a colorful nickname like: Three Finger Jake, Blind Bob, or Dead Dan. Still the risks involved rarely dissuade an intrepid alchemist as he pursues the building blocks of science and magic. What this means in game terms: A character can apply his skill points to the Alchemy skill. To make the skill more accessable it will be available as a class skill to all spellcsters, divine and arcane. Characters that take the Brew Potion feat will gain a significant bonus to their Alchemy skill, +10. This skill does not immediately allow him to create potions and such. He must first get himself a lab and the ingredients for the potions and then he must have the recipe for mixture. Once all that is in place, there is still no guarantee that the potion will come out properly, but usually there is no danger. The danger comes into play if the alchemist does not have a recipe for a potion. The alchemist must then experiment to gain the recipe. This experimentation can go two ways. The alchemist can experiment with ingredients to try and make a potion or he can experiment with a potion to try and deduce the ingredients. Either way this can be a frustrating, costly, and perilous endeavor, which will rely greatly on the alchemist’s skill. An alchemist will be able to make, distill, or research one potion per week for every 5 ranks of alchemy; One potion at rank 1, two and rank 6, and so on. For the purposes of the game, the difficulty of making or distilling a potion will depend on the relative spell level for the potion. Thus a potion of jump would be a level 1 potion, while a potion of fly would be level 3. Each potion or item will require many available ingredients, but some will also require a rare KEY ingredient. There is however more than one way to make each potion, that maybe more difficult or easy as the case maybe. Good luck to all those who try!
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