External Alchemist (Apath)

Unofficial rules compendium

External alchemists focus on the alchemy of the outer world, outside their own bodies. This makes them similar to other mages in what they do. Tough their magic comes from powders and compounds, the magical effects they create are very similar to those of magi.

Class Information

This is a alchemist archetype

Hit Die: d8.

Class Abilities

The external alchemist has all the class abilities of the alchemist, except as noted below.

External Alchemy (Ex)

When using Craft (alchemy) to create an alchemical item, an alchemist gains a competence bonus equal to his class level on the Craft (alchemy) check. External alchemists are not only masters of creating mundane alchemical substances such as alchemist's fire and smokesticks, they can create two special types of magical items—compounds and bombs. Both are detailed in their own sections. This replaces brew potion.

Compounds

Compounds works like magus spellcasing except as noted here. This includes cantrips and spellbook. Compounds replace alchemy and mutagen.

External alchemists fashion compounds in which they can store spells. In effect, an alchemist prepares his spells by mixing ingredients into a number of compounds, and then casts his spell by activating the compound. This works just like ordinary magus spellcasting except that external alchemist spells have the compound as an additional material component. Spells cast using compounds do not suffer the risk of arcane spell failure.

Creating a compound takes 1 minute of work with an alchemist's lab. The alchemist need not rest beforehand, and compounds can be created at any time as long as the external alchemist has remaining spells per day of that level. The external alchemist's spells per day is restored after 8 hours of rest.

When an external alchemist creates a compound, he infuses the concoction with a tiny fraction of his own magical power—this enables the creation of powerful effects, but also binds the effects to the creator. Only the external alchemist who prepared them can use compounds to cast spells. External alchemists cannot use the infusion discovery.

Alchemical Weapon (Su)

At second level an external alchemist can infuse a weapon or piece of ammunition with a single harmful alchemical liquid or powder, such as alchemist’s fire or sneezing powder, as a move action. This action consumes the alchemical item, but transfers its effect to the weapon in question.

The alchemical item takes full effect on the next creature struck by the weapon, but does not splash, spread, or otherwise affect additional targets. Any extra damage added is bonus dice of damage, and is not multiplied on a critical hit. The alchemical treatment causes no harm to the weapon treated, and wears off 1 minute after application if no blow is struck. At 8th level, a external alchemist can use her alchemical weapon ability as a swift action. At 14th level, this ability becomes a free action that can be used any number of times per round. This replaces poison resistance and poison immunity.

Discovery (Su)

Gained at 2nd level, this is the same as the alchemist ability of the same name except as noted below. External alchemist levels count as alchemist levels for discoveries. An external alchemist has access to the following special discoveries.

• Bomb Blade: An alchemist with this discovery can expend one daily bomb use to apply the bomb reagents to his weapon as a swift action. A weapon treated this way deals fire damage as if it had the flaming weapon special ability. At 10th level, the weapon is treated as if it had the flaming burst weapon special ability. The bomb reagents continue burning for 1 minute or until extinguished by dousing the weapon in water. If the alchemist knows how to make bombs that do acid, cold, or electric damage, he can chose to let his weapon do that kind of extra damage instead. An alchemist can use this ability with natural weapons, but he takes 1d6 points of fire damage per round for each natural weapon treated.

• Directed Blast: The external alchemist can detonate a bomb so that it splashes in a 20-foot cone rather than affecting a radius. The cone starts at the external alchemist and extends away from her in the direction she chooses. The alchemist designates one creature in the squares affected by the cone to be the target of the bomb and makes her attack roll against that creature; all other squares in the cone take splash damage. If the external alchemist has the explosive bomb discovery and uses an explosive directed blast, the cone of splash damage is 30 feet long instead of 20 feet.

• Extra Bombs: The external alchemist can select the Extra Bombs feat as a discovery. This discovery can be selected multiple times.

• Magus Arcana: An external alchemist can pick a magus arcana in lieu of a discovery. Count external alchemist levels as magus levels when using these arcana. Arcana that use points from the arcane pool to function instead consume the same number of daily bomb uses. This discovery can be picked multiple times, applying to a different magus arcana each time.

An external alchemist has access to only a limited range of discoveries. He can chose among the following discoveries available to other alchemists.

Discovery	Prerequisites	Description	Source
Acid Bomb*	—	Deal acid damage with your bombs	APG
Anarchic Bombs	Alchemist 8	Create bombs which deal chaotic divine damage, possibly staggering lawful creatures on their next turn if they take a direct hit. Anarchic bombs deal 1/2 damage vs. neutral creatures and such targets are not affected by the staggering effect. Anarchic bombs have no effect on chaotic-aligned creatures.	CoB
Axiomatic Bombs	Alchemist 8	Create bombs which deal lawful divine damage, possibly staggering chaotic creatures on their next turn if they take a direct hit. Axiomatic bombs deal 1/2 damage vs. neutral creatures and such targets are not affected by the staggering effect. Axiomatic bombs have no effect on lawful-aligned creatures.	CoB
Blinding Bomb*	Alchemist 8	Blind enemies with your bombs	UM
Bottled Ooze	Alchemist 6	Preserve an ooze so it can be summoned later	UM
Breath Weapon Bomb*	Alchemist 6	You can use a bomb as a breath weapon	UC
Concussive Bomb*	Alchemist 6	Deal sonic damage with your bombs	APG
Confusion Bomb*	Alchemist 8	Cause confusion with your bombs	UM
Cursed Bomb*	Alchemist 12	Deliver a curse with a bomb attack.	CoC
Defoliant Bomb	—	You can create a bomb that deals extra damage to plant creatures	ARG
Delayed Bomb	Alchemist 8	You can choose to delay the explosion of your bombs	APG
Demolition Charge*	Alchemist 8	When you create a bomb, you can choose to have it deal damage to an object as if by a sunder combat maneuver.	DHB
Directed Bomb	—	Cause bombs to splash in a 15-ft. cone instead of a 5-foot burst	MM
Dispelling Bomb	Alchemist 6	Dispel magic with your bombs	APG
Ectoplasmic Bomb*	—	Bombs damage incorporeal creatures and reveal presence of hidden undead creatures in the area.	USH
Explosive Bomb*	—	Your bombs gain an increased area of effect	APG
Explosive Missile	Alchemist 4	Infuse a piece of ammunition with a bomb	UC
Fast Bombs	Alchemist 8	You can throw multiple bombs in a round	APG
Force Bomb*	Alchemist 8	Deal force damage with your bombs	APG
Frost Bomb*	—	Deal cold damage with your bombs	APG
Grease Bomb*	Alchemist 6	When you create a bomb, you can choose to have it create a grease slick upon detonation.	DHB
Holy Bombs*	Alchemist 8	Bombs you create can deal good divine damage.	CoP
Immolation Bomb*	Alchemist 3	Deal damage over time with your bombs	UC
Inferno Bomb*	Alchemist 16, smoke bomb	Create an incendiary cloud effect with your bombs	APG
Madness Bomb	Alchemist 12	Deal Wisdom damage with your bombs	APG
Poison Bomb*	Alchemist 12, smoke bomb	Duplicate the effects of cloudkill with your bombs	APG
Precise Bombs	—	Choose which squares are missed by your bomb's splash damage	APG
Profane Bomb*	Alchemist 8	You can have your bomb deal evil divine damage. Good creatures that take a direct hit from a profane bomb must make a Fort save or be staggered on their next turn. Against a neutral creature, a profane bomb deals half damage, and the target is not affected by the bomb's staggering effect. A profane bomb has no effect against evil-aligned creatures.	CoC
Ranged Baptism	Alchemist 4	You can use holy water as a splash weapon and any squares subject to its effects (including creatures affected by splash damage) or that contain creatures subject to its effects are also affected as if by the consecrate spell.	CoP
Rocket Bomb	Goblin, Alchemist 6th	Create bombs with less accuracy but more ka-boom!	ARG
Sandstone Solution	—	Use a potion to make sand or dirt as hard as stone.	PoS
Scrap Bomb	Goblin	Your bombs create shrapnel and cause bleed damage	ARG
Shock Bomb*	—	Deal electricity damage with your bombs	APG
Siege Bomb*	Alchemist 12, explosive bomb	Deal bomb damage with siege weapons	UC
Smoke Bomb*	—	Create a fog cloud effect with your bombs	APG
Sticky Bomb	Alchemist 10	Deal splash damage one extra round	APG
Stink Bomb*	Smoke bomb	Create a stinking cloud effect with your bombs	APG
Strafe Bomb	—	Your bomb splash damage affects a line	UM
Sunlight Bomb*	Alchemist 10, blinding bomb	Create a bright sunlight effect with your bombs	UM
Tanglefoot Bomb*	—	Entangle foes with your bombs	UM
Underwater Demolition	—	You can create and throw bombs underwater	ARG

Bomb Discoveries

Discoveries marked with an asterisk (*) do not stack—only one such discovery may be applied to a single bomb.

Swift Alchemy (Su)

At 3rd level, an external alchemist can create alchemical items with astounding speed. It takes an external alchemist half the normal amount of time to create alchemical items. This is a modification of the alchemist class feature of the same name.

Spellstrike (Su)

An external alchemist gains the spellstrike ability at 5th level. This is the same as the magus class feature of the same name. Spellstrike replaces persistent mutagen.

Instant Alchemy (Ex)

At 18th level, an alchemist can create alchemical items with almost supernatural speed. He can create any alchemical item as a full-round action if he succeeds at the Craft (alchemy) check and has the appropriate resources at hand to fund the creation. This is a modification of the alchemist ability of the same name.

Limitless Bombs (Su)

At 20th level, the external alchemist can throw any number of bombs in a day. When he gains this ability, the external alchemist automatically retrains all feats and discoveries spent on Extra Bombs. This replaces grand discovery.

Table: External Alchemist

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Spells per Day
						0	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
1st	+0	+0	+2	+2	Bomb 1d6, compounds, external alchemy, throw anything	3	1	—	—	—	—	—
2nd	+1	+0	+3	+3	Alchemical weapon, discovery	4	2	—	—	—	—	—
3rd	+2	+1	+3	+3	Bomb 2d6, swift alchemy	4	3	—	—	—	—	—
4th	+3	+1	+4	+4	Discovery	4	3	1	—	—	—	—
5th	+3	+1	+4	+4	Bomb 3d6, spellstrike	4	4	2	—	—	—	—
6th	+4	+2	+5	+5	Discovery	5	4	3	—	—	—	—
7th	+5	+2	+5	+5	Bomb 4d6	5	4	3	1	—	—	—
8th	+6/+1	+2	+6	+6	Alchemical weapon (swift), discovery	5	4	4	2	—	—	—
9th	+6/+1	+3	+6	+6	Bomb 5d6	5	5	4	3	—	—	—
10th	+7/+2	+3	+7	+7	Discovery	5	5	4	3	1	—	—
11th	+8/+3	+3	+7	+7	Bomb 6d6	5	5	4	4	2	—	—
12th	+9/+4	+4	+8	+8	Discovery	5	5	5	4	3	—	—
13th	+9/+4	+4	+8	+8	Bomb 7d6	5	5	5	4	3	1	—
14th	+10/+5	+4	+9	+9	Alchemical weapon (free), discovery	5	5	5	4	4	2	—
15th	+11/+6/+1	+5	+9	+9	Bomb 8d6	5	5	5	5	4	3	—
16th	+12/+7/+2	+5	+10	+10	Discovery	5	5	5	5	4	3	1
17th	+12/+7/+2	+5	+10	+10	Bomb 9d6	5	5	5	5	4	4	2
18th	+13/+8/+3	+6	+11	+11	Discovery, instant alchemy	5	5	5	5	5	4	3
19th	+14/+9/+4	+6	+11	+11	Bomb 10d6	5	5	5	5	5	5	4
20th	+15/+10/+5	+6	+12	+12	Limitless bombs	5	5	5	5	5	5	5

Summary of Lost Class Abilities

These abilities of the original class are lost or modified in this archetype:

• Alchemy
• Brew Potion
• Mutagen
• Poison Resistance
• Discovery
• Swift Alchemy
• Instant Alchemy
• Grand Discovery

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