Here There Be Monsters

Alchemists

Karl Bocher is an example Alchemist.

Jonas Mailer is an example Alchemist that has focused on Innate abilities.

In ancient times Alchemy was sometimes called Pharmakeia, an Alchemist was called a Pharmakon, and a group of Alchemists were called Pharmakeus.

Instead of Spells or similar casted / activated abilities Alchemists know Recipes that enable them to brew or create Alchemical substances without actually being able to cast a corresponding Spell or activate a magical effect at will.

Alchemists have a powerful, though indirect, tradition of magic with two basic sorts of abilities:

Creation of Alchemical substances: Alchemists primary means to power is the creation of Alchemical substances that lock magical effects into various compounds and liquids. Potions, poultices, and poisons for instance.
- Recipes: Alchemists know Recipes for every Alchemical substance they can create; this is the secret of their power.
Innate Abilities: Alchemists sometimes slowly but surely begin to transform their own bodies into something more than merely mundane.

Creation of Alchemical substances can be a little bit time consuming, but given sufficient lead time and raw materials an industrious Alchemist can churn out quite an array of goodies. Alchemical substances never cost character points to create; they do cost money and or materials and time to make.

RESTRICTIONS

In a Here There Be Monsters campaign, Alchemists have the following restrictions:

Alchemical substance Active Points cannot exceed:
- Alchemist's INT + ((KS: Alchemy - 8) * 10)
The total Real Cost of Innate abilities cannot exceed:
- Alchemist's ((Base Points + Max Complications + Experience Points) / 2)

Example: Karl Bocher is a bright and skilled Alchemist; his Alchemy skill is 14-, and his Intelligence is 15. He can understand Recipes that describe effects with up to 15 + ((14-8 = 6) * 10) = 75 Active Points.

Example: Karl Bocher has 75 Base Points, 50 points Max Complications, and no Experience; he can have up to (125 / 2) = 63 points worth of Innate abilities.

KS: Alchemical Lore

Alchemists must have a Knowledge Skill called Alchemical Lore. In addition to providing information regarding Alchemical traditions, capabilities, notable history, and to make educated guesses as to the nature of Alchemical compounds (which even non-Alchemists can take the skill for), it is also used to learn Recipes and create Alchemical substances, and to judge the Alchemical value of various raw materials. This is a Knowledge Skill, thus standard pricing options apply, the Scholar enhancer reduces it's cost, and so forth.

3/1
2/1

KS: Alchemical Lore: This skill provides information regarding Alchemical traditions, capabilities, notable history, and sufficient recognition to allow a character to make educated guesses as to the nature of Alchemical compounds.

ALCHEMICAL SUBSTANCES

Alchemical substances can be just about any sort of compound or inert substance; common examples include potions, elixirs, salves, powders, explosives, agents and reagents, glues, solvents, and poisons.

The modern era's proliferation of portable drinks is particularly favorable to Alchemists, and many disguise their substances in sports drink bottles, traveling coffee mugs, and even camelbacks. Tins full of Alchemical substances masquerading as breath mints are another favorite dodge (and you thought Altoids packed a punch).

Mechanically each Alchemical substance is represented by a Power construct with a defined effect.

While different forms of Alchemical substances might be represented by minor modifiers upon the underlying Power construct and what must be done in game to activate the substance (potions are drunk, powders are dispersed, poultices are applied), the form of a given Alchemical substance is mostly just part of its SFX or a differentiating factor, functionally it is largely unimportant.

CREATING AN ALCHEMICAL SUBSTANCE

Assuming an Alchemist knows the appropriate Recipe, it's a relatively straightforward function of time and material to create a new batch of an Alchemical substance as described below.

Alchemical Substance Restrictions

There are a number of restrictions which apply to creating Alchemical substances, as follows.

Power Design:
- Active Point Limit: Alchemists (INT + (KS: Alchemy - 8) * 10)
- Must Have Non-Recoverable Charges
- Must Take the Restrainable (Only To Activate, -1/4) Limitation
- May Not Take the Foci Limitation
- Cannot be Independent
- Cannot be defined as a Power Framework
- Can be defined as a Compound Power
Other Requirements:
- Knowledge of the Recipe
- Available raw materials (GM's discretion)
- 1 minute per point of Real Cost of the Power construct the Recipe represents
- A successful KS: Alchemy Skill Roll at -1/10 Real Cost
  - If the required KS: Alchemy Skill Roll is failed, the attempt fails and any raw materials used are wasted.

PORTABILITY

Once created, Alchemical substances are treated as Equipment, and are considered to be portable gear that any character of any Origin (including the Alchemist themselves) can use in an Equipment Pool. In the case of a character that does not have an Equipment Pool a GM might make an occasional exception or allow the character to use the Alchemical substance immediately upon gaining it, but characters that want to use gear on a regular basis should seed their Equipment Pool accordingly.

Thus an Alchemist can create potions (and similar consumables) and sell or distribute them, and characters of non-Mystic background can use them.

NON-RECOVERABLE CHARGES

The Non-Recoverable Charge aspect of Alchemical substances indicates that Alchemical substances are expended entirely when used, not that the points of Equipment Pool are themselves permanently gone. However, the Equipment Pool allocated to Alchemical items that have been used are "locked" for the duration of a game day or equivalent period of time, after which time the Pool becomes available again for use. A GM might require that a character also have access to their "Armory" to reset Equipment Pool points previously allocated to expended Alchemical substances for purposes of game balance and common sense.

Example: Karl Bocher creates a single application of a useful solvent that can eat right through locks, handcuffs, and similar devices without harming flesh. Karl gives the solvent to his colleague Jake Donaldson, who is not an Alchemist and has no Mystical ability of his own. Jake "carries" the Alchemical substance in his Equipment Pool, allocating sufficient points to cover the Real Cost of the solvent, and can use it as he sees fit. Once Jake has expended the solvent's charge the Equipment Pool points that were allocated to the solvent are locked until the next day, after which he can use the freed up Equipment Pool for other things he has in his Armory or that he acquires during play.

OPTION: CHARGES PLUS LOCKOUT

Alternately, a GM may allow some Alchemical items to have normal Charges instead of Non-Recoverable Charges if the Lockout Limitation is also taken. As applied here, Lockout "locks" the Equipment Pool points allocated to such Alchemical items that have been used are "locked" in the character's Kit and cannot be swapped out for other equipment. This usually works best for items that have only 1 Charge to avoid logical inconsistencies.

RECIPES

Conceptually a Recipe describes how to make an Alchemical substance such as a potion, ink, dust, cream, salve, unguent, elixir, or similar medium, which can be imbued with magical power by the Alchemist.

Mechanically a Recipe represents a single Power construct that defines what effect the Alchemical substance has in game terms.

Once an Alchemical effect has been defined mechanically, it cannot be changed; to make a similar but different substance an Alchemist must learn a new Recipe corresponding to the altered mechanical definition.

Each distinct Power write up, no matter how similar, requires a separate Recipe. Alchemists must pay for a 1 point Familiarity for each Recipe they know, and Alchemical Recipes can only be purchased in a Mystic Pool.

Recipe: [Name]; Real Cost: 1 point each

Learning and Creating Recipes

The learning and creation of Recipes is left to the GM's discretion on a case by case basis, but learning a Recipe requires the following:

Learning and Creating an Alchemical Recipe:
- Alchemist has a written out copy of the Recipe:
  - 1 day per Real Cost of the Power write up the Recipe represents
- Alchemist does not have a written out copy but has at least one usage of an existing Alchemical substance to reverse engineer from (expending the usage):
  - 1 day per Real Cost of the Power write up the Recipe represents multiplied by 1d3
- Nothing to go off of / brand new effect:
  - 1 day per Real Cost of the Power write up the Recipe represents multiplied by 2d3

Non-consecutive Time

The time spent does not have to be consecutive. For purposes of calculation, each "day" is considered to consist of a minimum of 8 hours spent working in an Alchemical lab or equivalent. A character spending, say, 16 hours per day could reasonably cut the time required to learn or create a Recipe in half at the GM's discretion.

Alchemy Skill Roll

At the end of the relevant amount of time the Alchemist makes a KS: Alchemy Skill Roll at -1 per 20 Active Points in the Power construct the Recipe represents. Failure indicates that the Recipe is not learned at that time or an attempt to create a new Recipe didn't succeed. The Alchemist may try again, however they start the proces over at the beginning.

Similarity Bonus

If the Alchemist already knows a very similar Recipe they may gain a +1 bonus to their KS: Alchemy Skill Roll at the GM's discretion.

Researcher Bonus

If the Alchemist has the Research skill, they may use it as a complementary skill.

Inventive Bonus

If the Alchemist is creating a new Recipe and has the Inventor skill they may use it as a complementary skill.

Rushing

An Alchemist can attempt to rush the process and take xd3 days fewer than normal to learn a new Recipe, but suffers a -1 to the Skill roll for each 1d3 days trimmed off in this fashion. Thus an Alchemist could opt to trim the time by 3d3 days, in which case he would suffer a -3 to his eventual KS: Alchemy Skill roll. The time required can never be reduced to less than 1d3 hours in any event.

Innate Abilities

Alchemists sometimes have or eventually develop subtle abilities stemming from their close contact with magical compounds and pursuit of the philosophical "Internal Alchemy" aspect of their art. Innate Abilities are purchased in an Alchemist's Mystic Pool. A couple of very common Innate abilities are provided below.

Innate Ability: Purified Flesh

Alchemists can take any Life Support option, at any level desired. GM permission is required.

Innate Ability: Insolvent Form

Alchemists can take any amount of Power Defense and Mental Defense.

Distinctive Features: Magi

Unlike Wizards and Occultists, Alchemists are usually much more difficult to detect using Supernatural Awareness and similar abilities as their abilities are more passive.

Alchemical substances themselves are detectible of course, emanating a faint aura of Supernatural potency in their inert form, and a much stronger emanation when the effects of an Alchemical substance are active, and an Alchemist carrying such items can't pass as being entirely mundane. As anyone can use Alchemical substances, this isn't necessarily a dead give away that the Alchemist is themselves a Magi.

However, Alchemists themselves do detect as Supernatural when they are actively in the process of creating Alchemical substances, and for a little while afterwards until the vestiges of power channelled through the Alchemist into their creations has time to fade away (1 Minute per Active Point of the Alchemical substances they recently created).

They also detect as Supernatural if using Innate abilities that cost Endurance to use.

Though it is worth 0 points, an Alchemist should still take the following Distinctive Feature Complication. Alchemists might individually also know some other form of Magi discipline; in such a case they do not take two Distinctive Features: Magi Complications, they take one set to the most severe level applicable.

Distinctive Features: Magi (Easily Concealable; Detectable Only By Special Abilities; Not Distinctive In Some Cultures); -0 points