D&D 5e Base Class Contest III Chat Thread

[MoleMage]

MoleMage, regarding your alchemist...

Having worked on my own version of the alchemist a full class, I can certainly appreciate what you have done here. In fact, the catalyst feature is a thing of beauty --- so much so that I now have to redesign my own alchemist to incorporate it.

I actually don’t have a lot of comments in regards to your class, it is very solid. Great job! I look forward to seeing the completed version (if you’d like, I can share my own alchemist with you – there may be some ideas there for additional formulae).

Here are the few thoughts I do have…

• The core class is really bereft of fluff/ribbon features. I’m guessing the intent is to pack most of those into the Houses, but I feel that there should be at least a couple skill/social/exploration features (aside from Toxin Immunity) as part of the basic kit.
• I’d guess the intent is to somewhat replicate an Int-based caster with readied spells. That being said, I don’t feel that the requirement for ‘Formulae Readied’ adds a lot to the class. It’s another (small) layer of administrative management for little gain/reason. I personally don’t think it would impact the power curve too much if this was removed an alchemist could prepare up to their maximum number of formulaes chosen from any of the formulae that they know.
• Catalysts. Did I tell you how much I love this? Ha.
• The Houses are certainly find and fill their niches (with some nice touches – Auric transmutation is very flavorful, a great reskin of flesh to stone). I’ve not quite warmed up yet to the House of Astrology but I can see that it fills a niche and is well flavored (it’s just hard for me to make the mental jump from alchemy to astrology).

Again, great job! Lots of good stuff here so, for the sake of providing things for me to plagiarize, please finish this class.

My GMBinder version now has base effects for about half of the Journeyman formula (no catalyst effects yet), so I am still working on it slowly. I am on the road for about a week coming up but will have my laptop so I should be able to work on it.

The intent with readied formula was indeed to limit their in the moment flexibility, but given that unlike 5e prepared casters they don't keep their creations after consumption I can see your point. Trimming that also will give me room to add more flavor features like you said (though a lot of skill bonuses are/will be tied up in formulae like spellcasters have theirs tied up in spells, I can give them some built-in ability to recognize codes at level 1 for sure, and come up with something else probably for the mid-teens).

I was pretty proud of the catalyst feature when I came up with it so I am glad you like it. I'd be happy to hear about any formula or catalyst ideas you have to fill in my gaps also, just send me a message.

Thanks for the feedback!

While I am here, some more unorthodox "element" ideas:

The cardinal directions (north, south, east, west)
The phases of the moon (anywhere from 2 with just new and full to 8 with waxing and waning crescent, gibbous, and the first and third quarter could be justified)