Using Alchemy in RP

[Mortiegama]

I've been looking for a good class to give my character in his RP and I was thinking that Alchemy might be just the profession to use. I figure things like Blacksmithing and Engineering, while cool, can be easily purchased or configured for the right price. As an Alchemist however, I feel like there's a greater scale of ability to the potions he would keep only for himself.

I'm just lost on how to be an alchemist in RP though. Would I be able to come up with my own types of potions (as long as they were possible and not gmodding) or how would I adapt currently available potions into RP. Just looking for some tips on the topic.

[Temp name]

Making your own potions would be possible I would think (just keep out the OP stuff like making you faster than flying mounts, or invincibilty)
Most potions are very easy to transfer, healing potions work like healing magic, it closes off your wounds and takes away the pain. Invisibility potions could be useful (if allowed) since they'd allow you to move around without having to stick to the shadows. Are there any potions in particular you'd want to know about?

[Nonfictionless]

Potions are a delicate subject. You obivously can't make them too powerful. Mixing them in combat (save for a veteran dark apothecarist) is impractical if not impossible and so it limits your capabilities. But the one brilliant thing about them is you can literally do almost anything with them. From tailoring them for healing certain diseases and poisons or making them cause unique poisons and diseases to stump healers all the way to using them to melt solid elementium like a seasoned Magi in a flash.

Detail is key here though. I haven't met many and so far I am the only one I have seen to actually RP (half-way) the actual crafting of them but I like to stick the princples of this herb does that and that herb does this. I try to stick close to what they are used for in game but that is a very limited view. For extra inspiration I like browse Wikipedia for different actual potions, poisons, viruses and really anything that does something special that can grow organically. I have several of the WoW RPG books that go into other potions as well.

For example from Lands of Conflict:

Potion of Racial Confusion:
--Description: One of the few things remaining to people in the lands ravaged by frequent wars is a sense of self. One will usually know where one stands as a human, orc, or half-elf, whether this knowledge brings happiness or sorrow. This potion was designed by the Royal Apothecary Soceity to cause confusion within the tanks of mortals (particularly humans), taking away their sense of self and replacing it with complete confidence that the target is a member of another race, usually a hostile one. Inevitably, the new orc, for example, will find himself surronded by hated humans and elves, and attack.
--Powers: This potion must be taken internally, although it can enter the body through a wound, such as a dart or arrow. The target must make a DC 14 Fortitude save, else he will think himself of a race other than his fellows, often an enemy race (this is the Gm's choice). He will feel a great compulsion ro attack his former friends and get free of their presence.

Still waiting for a good RP to use this little baby and several others I have cooked up.



Really in the end I think the KEY to RPing as an Alchemist (much like any bow wielder) is to limit yourself. When you go into an RP get in mind what you want to bring. What potions, how many vials, how many herbs, what half completed potions to mix on the fly, what tools (as you can't just smash roots with your fist you need certain tools) and then stick too it. Add it in the RP in the begining when you first set out. Set it in stone. I find this helps a lot with keeping it a good realistic RP.

[dangelo37]

I had a very similar question to this but you;ve answered it perfectly! Limiting what you have from the get-go will make you strategize more thoroughly. Good advice!