I'd like to see an alchemist.

[silverclawgrizzly]

I think an alchemist would be an interesting mage to enter the arena. You could make him either Arcane representing the years of magical study they'd have had to of endured or War if you wanted to make them part tinkerer/engineer. There's certainly plenty of RPGs and fantasy settings with alchemist type classes in them.

Ideas for this mage:
-Potions that could put up temporary smoke clouds.
-Poison removal.
-Golems and other homunculi. Maybe a weird patch work man type thing.
-Acid attacks galore! Maybe even an acid wand?
-Wall dissolve.

I get that a lot of this stuff is covered partially(or even fully) with other schools but it's just an idea I had. random musing really.

[avalanche]

I agree an Alchemist would be really fun to play as.

[Gizzu]

Maybe Arcane and Lvl 1 Dark School in order to produce homunculi...

[Laddinfance]

Maybe Arcane and Lvl 1 Dark School in order to produce homunculi...

Thats more FMA style alchemy.

[silverclawgrizzly]

I don't know if Dark is the best option for homunculi. Maybe Earth.

[barriecritzer]

An alchemist could be very interesting and fun to play

[Gizzu]

I don't know if Dark is the best option for homunculi. Maybe Earth.

Warlord has already Earth as primary school. Dark school remembers me Doktor Frankestein with his familiar Igor...

CYA,
G.

[silverclawgrizzly]

I think it'd be a bad idea for anyone to be trained in two of the primary schools mainly.

[Artemus Maximus]

ok here's my thoughts fwiw:

Alchemy's roots were founded historically in ancient greek philosophy, developed by Aristotle, who contended that there were 4 primary elements of the universe (which happen to be the 4 elements we have in the game . Historically, all the other schools could be justified, but i'd like lvl 1-2 of each element and level 1-2 of arcane. not sure what the triple penalty should be in that case though....

Enchantment-heavy mage (alchemists often worked in secret, after all), prefers to turtle (always in the lab!), with a BIG spellbook (more than 120 pts?!?!). some initial ideas for spells:

Philosopher's Stone: epic equipment (hand slot) - turns metals (ingredient spells, see below) into gold or silver (uses tokens). Used to distract (bribe!) soldiers (i.e. stun), or used for alchemical spells that require gold or silver.

Elixir of Life: epic potion enchantment - heals and increases life by a decent amount. discarded after use.

Panacea/Tar Water: epic potion enchantment - removes poison curses, poision conditions, increases life. discarded after use.

Ingredients: ingredient enchantment type - for alchemical recipes, often Cantrip, very low cost (2/0?), do nothing on their own usually. These are things like Mercury, Sulfur, Salt, Magnesium, Sea Water, Darkfenne Bat Blood, Eye of Newt, etc...

Potions: potion enchantment type - powerful spells that grant things that most other enchantments do but stronger and different things, requires 2 or more ingredients, when revealed discard the ingredients listed to activate the effect, sometimes the potion remains permanently or on timer, sometimes is discarded.

e.g. Potion of Sleep (instant Sleep condition), Crippling Potion (instant Cripple condition), Potion of Hiding (invisibility marker), Potion of Insane Rage (Bloodthirsty + attack creature in zone including your own), Delirium Potion (gets a Daze condition beginning of  activation), etc etc

Caduceus (serpent-shaped staff - the icon of alchemy, later medicine) - its critical attack can give the sleep condition (or removes it) if a  certain ingredient(which?) is revealed on the mage. Possibly reanimates the dead if (x ingredients are revealed).

"Lab": Conjuration. Ingredient and Potion spawnpoint. When Mage begins a round in this zone, he may prepare 3 spells no increase in actions). Mage or Apprentice may spend an action when in its zone to place a token, when X tokens, all ingredients and potions gain the Cantrip trait and Lab may cast an addition spell each deployment.

Apprentices: familiar - may cast Ingredient or lvl 1 Potion enchantments.

Master Apprentice: legendary familiar - may cast any Ingredient, Potion enchantment, so your mage can stay out of harm's way.

and of course, lots of Acid spells, smoke, and creatures like Devouring Jelly, as said above!

[Sailor Vulcan]

Hmm...

The vast majority of the elements on the periodic table are metals. The ones that aren't are usually gases, and there are only two liquids.

Water is the most common compound from what I remember. Used as the solvent for almost all solutions.

Fire is used to heat your chemical concoctions.

Earth is where you get most of your ingredients from. It also can weaken or enhance air, depending on the quality of the Earthy material.

Air provides a few of your ingredients. It's also a good source of lightning.

Arcane/Water/Air for Potions masters.

Arcane/Fire/Earth for Smiths and conjuration builders.

Additionally, why not be able to get some ingredients from killed creatures and conjurations?

You could grind up a mana flower, for instance, to create a potion that restores your mana.

[silverclawgrizzly]

It's bad enough my Mana flowers get utterly nuked in half the games I played lol. Now you want to start snorting them?

[Zuberi]

You could grind up a mana flower, for instance, to create a potion that restores your mana.

It might be interesting if the game introduced some sort of transmutation, where you could turn one object into a different object. Other games have such effects (Pokémon and Yugioh for instance) and it is riddled throughout other sources of fantasy such as D&D. It might be a nightmare to balance though. I'm not a game designer, so I'm not sure if that's true or not, but it would introduce something very different to the game.

You'd have to consider the cost in mana and spell points of the object being sacrificed, as well as the potential that the player may have seen some use out of it. Then the new object has to be worth that sacrifice, but not too powerful to upset game balance. Seems like it would be complicated. But definitely an interesting idea!

I like the idea of an alchemist being trained in both the elements and Arcane. They shouldn't get to choose their elemental training though, that would be too similar to the Wizard. They need to be locked into something. I also think they might be weak in Nature, seeing how they seek to change the world around them. They meddle with the natural order of things.

[Artemus Maximus]

Would certainly be hard to make the resouce & action cost similar to other mages' if you have transmutation mechanics. Zombies are close though...But im confident that the designers are up to that challenge if they so choose  what i like about it is that it inherently can make it less attractive for other mages to implement the alchemist's spells, especially if the ingredients belong to different elemental schools - even affects the wizard if thats done.

Maybe his spellbook cost penalty could be non-arcane creatures cost triple? I dont know much about alchemists in fantasy fiction apart from the ones in game of thrones with the dragon fire (can see aligned with War there). Chinese alchemists focused more on herbal-based things (Nature). Became aligned with religion in India and post-roman Europe (Holy), and im sure there was the opposite (Dark). Mind might not fit. The elements and knowledge and esoteric nature of the Arcane seem to be a foindation for all of them however. Less arcane though when it entered the arab world and developed into chemistry...With that in mind, it would be a great opportunity to make duel-school potions that WOULD be attractive for other mages to borrow...like a Potion of Shadows, lvl 1 arcane + lvl 1 dark, requires fire, sulfur, bat blood for ex. Grants Obscure trait for X turns.

Another transmutation idea: turning Iron and/or Steel into Mercury! Weapons and Wall of Steel liquify, Iron in the blood poisions and kills :-D