Designing classes is not easy!
I can almost hear the chorus of "Oh really? No shit, Sherlock!" going on as people read that opening line, but the difficulty is in the small things. Some things I was able to 'hand wave' away, like, why can an Alchemist only create so many concoctions in a single day. (Because they're extremely volatile chemicals, and you don't have the skill to manage too many at once.)
The hard part is getting the balance between fire power and staying power. First, I decided to have a d6 for the hit die, just like a mage. This makes the Alchemist a bit flimsy in terms of taking a hit, but when I put it up to a d8, they became a bit too tough at lower levels. (Huff!)
Then there was the problem with just how powerful an Alchemist's damaging extracts should be. I tried following the spell damage table in the DMG, but as there are no spell levels to 'level up' the hit effect (without simply making a bottle mage), the fire power gets a bit low. No problem, just up the level a little, or give on-going damage, right? Oh, Hell no. That makes them just too powerful.
I'm toying with the idea of on-going damage again, limited by the level of the Alchemist, and I'll let you know how that goes, but for now, WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE SO HARD?!
An outreach of thestaggeringgiant.org
Wednesday 27 May 2015
Saturday 9 May 2015
Never a Dull Moment
Well, I apologise for not having a post out this week and just wanted to explain why. One of the aspects of medieval life that always fascinated me was the problematic relationship between science and religion. Fears of witchcraft may well have been responsible for delays in forwarding medicine, chemistry and biology by centuries, a delay only overcome once the age of enlightenment began.
I can understand why. Let's face it: the only way to really learn about the how the human body works is to cut them up. In societies where the body is a vessel for a soul that becomes an issue. People who want to cut up bodies to learn how they work become abominations. The entire premise to Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus was the interference of science in natural order. Even using the title "The Modern Prometheus" puts the moral message in its full context: Prometheus was punished by the gods for his 'stolen' knowledge of fire. His pride/hubris was his downfall, whereas, in reality, his only crime was helping his fellow man and removing their dependency on the gods themselves. Arguably, this was a similar situation for medieval scientists.
The most fascinating aspect of science in this age was the position of the alchemist. Alchemy was the first attempt at proper science, with practitioners attempting to properly quantify the nature and substance of what made up the world around us. Few would argue that alchemy was the basis of modern scientific investigation, but the fear of persecution led to a strange mixture of knowledge, faith and superstition that could possibly be seen as an attempt to stay 'in favour' with the church.
This doesn't seem to have any place in the D&D universe: priests follow many and various gods, demons and spirits. Magic users are, while not a 'day-to-day' experience, not either an anomaly, despised and mistrusted by their peers. They can mix with ordinary people and are often called upon to help communities.
The mage who best fits the position of alchemist is the Transmuter. He gets some abilities to alter properties for a short time (Minor Alchemy), the Transmuter's Stone (a poor man's philosopher's stone), and then, at 14th level, Master Transmuter, which comes with a panoply of abilities that match some of the Cliff Notes version of true alchemy.
Pathfinder has an alchemist class, favoured among goblins, that is effectively little more than a reskinned mage with bombs. The idea of an alchemist class is difficult to envision. It shouldn't, to my mind, just be a reskinned mage, but should reflect the essence of alchemy from a historical perspective. Naturally, to be useful in a party and attractive to players, the alchemist needs to have a bit of a wow factor and be able to hold its own in a fight, so some kind of chemical explosiveness is required. That's where the day-to-day stuff comes in, but she should also be able to discover deeper secrets than just what is handy in a tight corner.
So that's where I'm at. I'm trying to design an alchemist that is historical in context, but still useful to a party, and independent of other classes already in D&D. It's in testing, and I'll release it to the world when I can.
I can understand why. Let's face it: the only way to really learn about the how the human body works is to cut them up. In societies where the body is a vessel for a soul that becomes an issue. People who want to cut up bodies to learn how they work become abominations. The entire premise to Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus was the interference of science in natural order. Even using the title "The Modern Prometheus" puts the moral message in its full context: Prometheus was punished by the gods for his 'stolen' knowledge of fire. His pride/hubris was his downfall, whereas, in reality, his only crime was helping his fellow man and removing their dependency on the gods themselves. Arguably, this was a similar situation for medieval scientists.
The most fascinating aspect of science in this age was the position of the alchemist. Alchemy was the first attempt at proper science, with practitioners attempting to properly quantify the nature and substance of what made up the world around us. Few would argue that alchemy was the basis of modern scientific investigation, but the fear of persecution led to a strange mixture of knowledge, faith and superstition that could possibly be seen as an attempt to stay 'in favour' with the church.
This doesn't seem to have any place in the D&D universe: priests follow many and various gods, demons and spirits. Magic users are, while not a 'day-to-day' experience, not either an anomaly, despised and mistrusted by their peers. They can mix with ordinary people and are often called upon to help communities.
The mage who best fits the position of alchemist is the Transmuter. He gets some abilities to alter properties for a short time (Minor Alchemy), the Transmuter's Stone (a poor man's philosopher's stone), and then, at 14th level, Master Transmuter, which comes with a panoply of abilities that match some of the Cliff Notes version of true alchemy.
Pathfinder has an alchemist class, favoured among goblins, that is effectively little more than a reskinned mage with bombs. The idea of an alchemist class is difficult to envision. It shouldn't, to my mind, just be a reskinned mage, but should reflect the essence of alchemy from a historical perspective. Naturally, to be useful in a party and attractive to players, the alchemist needs to have a bit of a wow factor and be able to hold its own in a fight, so some kind of chemical explosiveness is required. That's where the day-to-day stuff comes in, but she should also be able to discover deeper secrets than just what is handy in a tight corner.
So that's where I'm at. I'm trying to design an alchemist that is historical in context, but still useful to a party, and independent of other classes already in D&D. It's in testing, and I'll release it to the world when I can.
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