In my previous review, I tried to look at the Artificer class and subclasses as if they were brand-new. While I think I'm warming up more and more to the revamped version of the class the more I think about its possibilities, after a somewhat disheartened initial reaction, I'm generally pretty sanguine on the revamps to the subclasses.
The Alchemist, though, gave me a pretty sour taste. This is a subclass that I think has always suffered from over-conservative design, afraid to let it really excel in any of its presented roles. Are we the chemical-throwing spellcasters, are we the half-caster who can be a full healer?
Let's take a look at all the differences and compare and contrast.
Alchemist Spells:
The only change here is that Blight was replaced with Vitriolic Sphere. This is a buff, as Blight is doesn't do nearly enough damage for a single-target spell of its level. Vitriolic Sphere is actually pretty good.
Level 3:
Tools of the Trade now grants Herbalism Kit proficiency along with Alchemist's Supplies, which is nice (and solves any issues you might have determining if healing potions are only crafted with the former - you have both, so you can for sure craft them.) Also added in here is the Potion Crafting bonus, which replaces an old base class feature that came much later. While limited to potions and no longer saving you gold, this now halves the crafting time for any kind of potion, which means that if you can craft a legendary potion, this feature is still helping you.
Naturally, any kind of crafting will require some downtime, which is a bit campaign-dependent. But this is technically a new feature for the subclass, so I guess it's a buff.
Now, let's talk Experimental Elixir.
The first change is that you now create two free Experimental Elixirs per day, and you gain additional free elixirs at certain levels. While the old version capped out at 3 at level 15, now you'll have 5 per day by level 15.
As before, you can spend a spell slot to make an elixir of your choice (rather than a randomized one).
One big change here is that, like the broader change to potions in 2024, a creature can consume an elixir as a bonus action, rather than an action now. They can even administer an elixir as a bonus action as well.
So, let's compare the elixirs:
Healing now does 2d8+Int rather than 2d4+Int, and it also gets more powerful as you level up, growing to 3d8 at level 9 and 4d8 at level 15. A pure buff.
Swiftness starts off the same, granting 10 extra feet of movement for an hour, but like Healing (this will be a pattern) we see it improve as you reach higher levels, going to 15 feet at level 9 and 20 feet at level 15. Again, pure buff.
Resilience is the same at level 3, but the duration of the AC bonus increases at higher levels, going from 10 minutes at level 3 to 1 hour at level 9 and then 8 hours at level 15.
Boldness follows the same structure as Resilience, extending the buff longer at higher levels. It goes from 1 minute at 3 to 10 minutes at 9 to an hour at 15.
Fly now increases its fly speed from 10 feet at level 3 to 20 feet at level 9 to 30 feet at level 15.
Transformation is gone, but instead, if you roll a 6 when determining what your free Experimental Elixirs do, you just get to pick.
With one exception, this feature has received purely buffs. The only possible argument for a nerf is if you liked being able to get the Transformation option. Alter Self, while not an amazing spell, can be very useful if you find yourself fighting underwater, so spending a spell slot to select it and give the Paladin a swim speed could be very good in such a situation. That said, every other element of these changes is an unambiguous improvement (and you could argue that in most situations, the new "pick one of the other 5 of your choice" option is better.
Level 5:
Alchemical Savant works almost the same, except that it no longer increases the Necrotic damage you do. This is a nerf, right? Well... none of our Alchemist spells deal Necrotic damage now that we replaced Blight with Vitriolic Sphere, and that was literally the only spell we could have gotten at all that did Necrotic damage. Now, it's possible that we might get one via, like, a Dragonmark feat that would then count as an Artificer spell for us, but even if this is a "nerf" it's basically not, and just removes a damage type that would be baffling if one didn't know about the older version of the subclass. (I will say that I feel like necrotic spells do make sense for an Alchemist, but I guess between Poison and Acid, we've got enough stuff to corrode and corrupt our enemies' flesh.)
Level 9:
Here, though, we start to see some true nerfs. While we still get to cast Lesser Restoration for free a few times each day, our Experimental Elixir no longer grants any Temporary Hit Points. Even if the base feature has gotten a near-perfect buff, the loss of this is a pure nerf. Do they balance? Eh... I'm not sure. I do think that the elixirs are a lot better (especially healing) but they're now effectively weaker in this way, so...
I don't know why they got rid of this, or at least why they didn't replace it with something cooler.
Level 15:
Ok, here's where there are the biggest changes, even if the feature is called Chemical Mastery. This is a mix, I think, of buffs and nerfs.
The one non-changed thing is the resistances to acid and poison damage and the immunity to the poisoned condition.
Here's what we lose:
The old version let us cast both Greater Restoration and Heal each once for free per day, without needing material components. This was, I think, a really great way to let the Alchemist slot in as at least a partial substitute for a true dedicated healer like a Cleric or Druid. Heal, being a 6th level spell, was one we'd never be able to cast anyway, and we were actually getting it before we even got 5th level spells.
In terms of spells, we now gain Tasha's Bubbling Cauldron. This is also a 6th level spell, and again, it's once free per day with no material components required. TBC is a perfectly flavorful spell, but it requires a lot of parsing to see how best to use it. The potions are limited to Common or Uncommon quality. In terms of pure healing capabilities, 5 Potions of Greater Healing will get you 70 hit points, like Heal, but one of the major strengths of that spell is getting to put all of that healing into a single action.
This is, undoubtedly, a more versatile option than what we got before, but the two spells we lose are both effects that more or less every party is going to really want to have.
Fully added in the new version, though, is Alchemical Eruption. This lets us deal an extra 2d8 force damage to one creature we damage with a spell that does Acid, Fire, or Poison damage. 9 average damage at level 15 is maybe not enormous, and unlike Alchemical Savant, which might be adding 5 extra damage to some AoE spell like Vitriolic Sphere (I think only its initial damage) spread across all of its targets, this is going to be a one-time thing against a single enemy. I think it's going to feel the most notable when we hit a target with Acid Splash, Poison Spray, or Fire Bolt, buffing our cantrips to respectable levels (a Fire Bolt at this level is hitting for 3d10+2d8+5, or around 30.5, which is respectable for a cantrip).
Thoughts:
So, I do think that the subclass has gotten an overall buff, but only a fairly minor one, and losing some of the higher-level stuff is pretty nasty. I think the added effects to Chemical Mastery are debatable, but I think this will continue to be in competition for least powerful Artificer subclass, which is a shame given that it's also one of the only subclasses that really fits in just about every setting (though I'll maintain you can certainly flavor the more steampunk subclasses to work in pre-industrial settings - like flavoring your Armorer as carving giant runes into stone armor, or a Artillerist just going all in on magic wands and animated wooden cannons).
Philosophically, I think that the designers decided to move the Alchemist into more of a damage-dealing role, though I think they're going to still fall well behind the Artillerist as the spell-casting focused damage dealer.
I honestly think you could have given the subclass nothing but buffs and it would have been good for the game. This is still playable, but I'm not inclined to play it.
No comments:
Post a Comment