[Lyinginbedmon]

Because Craft is an untrained skill, and alchemy only needs even 1 piddling level of spellcasting, I'm trying to put together a laboratory that any old Adept or other spellcaster could walk into and start producing whatever alchemical item they want, based on equipment and scrolls/wands.

So far, this is what I have:

• +2 Alchemist's Laboratory itself (500 GP){Superfluous, but integral to the concept}
• +2 Headband of Intellect +4 (16,000 GP)
• +10 Command Word Wand of Improvisation (36,000 GP)
• +15 Command Word Wand of Divine Insight (54,000 GP)
• +30 Magic item of +30 competence (90,000 GP)

Total bonus: +57
Total cost: 196,000 GP (15th level wealth)

So, with that, we can now make Liquid Mortality with a 185% success rate, in 4.385 weeks. Anything we can add?

Alchemy DCs

Spoiler

DC	Item
15	Acid, Daystrider capsule, Vodare, Weeping flask
20	Alchemist’s fire, Antitoxin capsule, Baccaran, Blend cream, Brittlebone, Catstink, Crackle powder, Devilweed, Embalming Fire, Endurance elixir, Fareye oil, Fast torch, Ferrous aqua, Forger's paper, Freeglide, Gravedust, Healer's balm, Ironman capsule, Keenear powder, Lockslip grease, Mordayn Vapor, Powdered silver, Sannish, Smokestick, Softfoot, Stability capsule, Suregrip, Tindertwig, or Trail bar
22	Alchemist's frost, Alchemist's lightning, Bloodwine, Festering bomb
25	Acidic Fire, Agony, Antitoxin, Auran Mask, Feather powder, Flash Pellet, Focusing Candle, Ghostoil, Hawk's Ointment, Leap capsule, Liquid nightMushroom Powder, Nature's Draught, Nerv, Noxious Smokestick, Quickflame, Quickfrost, Quickspark, Screaming flask, Sunrod, Tanglefoot bag, Thunderstone, Toxic tooth, Weeping flask, or Weeping stone
26	Boneshard paste
27	Redflower leaves
28	Celestial essence
30	Clearwater tablet, Liquid light, Luhix, Terran brandy, Quicksilver, Rust Cube
32	Sunlight oil
34	Lichbane
35	Ghostblight, Strongarm capsule, Swiftstride capsule
40	Liquid mortality

DAVE: Difficult Alchemy & Venom Expert

Spoiler

Gnome Rogue 6/Ninja 3/Spellthief 10/Exemplar 1

158 +23Int skill points, poison use*, spells, steal spell, and skill mastery.
Max out Craft (alchemy), with at least 8 Craft (poisonmaking) ranks for the Poison Ex/Ma feats, he also needs 6 ranks in Diplomacy to qualify for Exemplar.

Assuming max ranks and a modest Int of 23, plus Skill Focus, we get:

+33

Added to HAL's +57, that's a total of +90. We can make a dose of Liquid Mortality in 1.543 weeks with a 225% success rate. I'm not sure if Take 10 should be allowed when crafting something, but that doesn't matter because of Skill Mastery.

*Using Poison Expert and Poison Master, Dave can make even better poisons than most people, and he could potentially cheat some extra cash with this. For example, he has enough ranks to max out Bluff, so he makes some poison and uses it on a test subject infront of a prospective buyer. He announces the effectiveness of the poison (When he uses it) to them and bluffs that it works like that all the time.

Now, of course, this isn't the most optimised build (There must be dozens of skillmonkey threads on these boards, none of which I've looked at), and it's nowhere near the records (As listed here in '04) of other skills, but at present it does appear to be the highest (known to me) bonus to Craft (alchemy). I'm certain it can go higher.