Idea for a Class - The Alchemist

[Kire]

Hey guys and gals. I've been organizing my ideas for this fan-class idea I have called the Alchemist. I think it would be interesting class to play that fills the role of buffer/debuffer. The problem I'm having right now is that I can't figure out the proper balancing for the skills. It looks like in D3 there will be alot of spell boosting: passives, items, skill runes, etc. What's more, it seems like alot of passives in D3 boost character damage, attack rating, defence, attributes, and so on.

Alot of the Alchemist spells focus on buffs/debuffs along with direct damage and area of effect spells. I would list all of the skills here, but there's already a lot of them. Everything I have so far on the Alchemist is on diablowiki at: http://www.diablowiki.net/Fan_class:Alchemist

I think the Potion and Phenomenon Skills trees need the most work as far as which spells to balance. If anybody has any ideas on what I should do about better balancing, please let me know.

Also, I am a really bad artist. So If anyone would be interested in perhaps doing some artwork for the Alchemist, you are more then welcome!:thumbup:

Sometimes I wonder how weak the spells must be or how strong the enemies must be if we need all of those spell boosts. Hopefully it will lead to innovative and varied gamplay.

[Kire]

Huh, doesn't seem like the diablowiki site wants to pull up...anyone know what's up?

[Phidias]

Hmm, not sure, I got a look at it before, though, I had just neglected to reply. I was a little disappointed that I didn't see any skills that had to do with the Magnum Opus.

but whatever, I'm going to see what I can do about maybe a few sketches for this done, not making any promises, though. Right now I'm envisioning it as somewhere between a buddhist monk and a mid-easternish (Thinking of Drognan and Lysander) fellow.
What were you thinking of for weapons and general playstyle? Ranged? Melee? Staff? Daggers? Crossbow?

Does he just throw potions about (like the Exploding and Poison potions which I never actually used in D2) or does he run up and force feed them to his foes?

[Mad Mantis]

Huh, doesn't seem like the diablowiki site wants to pull up...anyone know what's up?

There are some problems with some of the URL's. The site doesn't forward the old forums.diabloii.net addresses anymore and the wiki can't be reached. They are working on it but for the time being the wiki is out.

[Kire]

Lol never thought of the WD that way...but kinda true. And to Phidias, the choice of weapon is something I wanted to leave up to the individual -I'm not sure if I will have to specialize or not. I personally always pictured my image of the Alchemist with a yataghan. Lysander and Drognan were the style I was thinking of too, so no problems there. THe potions I thought of as a lobbing effect, good at any range.

And as for the Magnum Opus, I was under the impression that the creation of the Philosopher's Stone and the Sanctum Moleculae were such goals of the process. But the Magnum Opus is a VERY big part of being an alchemist, so it is definitely part of the culture. I didn't want to get too philosophical or indepth and leave everyone confused about what the skills mean.

And any ideas you have for art, skills, etc is definitely welcome.

[Phidias]

Well what I meant about the Magnum Opus was the stages of it, Nigredo, Albedo, Citrinitas, and Rubedo, which are essential to obtaining the things you mention.
I do understand what you mean about confusing the players, but the philosophy could be explained in the skill descriptions. Then again, that might result in a buttload of reading just to end with "Increases lightning resistance" or whatever.
As far as implementing the stages of the Great Work, I'd probably put them in as Auras, since passive skills could represent them well enough philosophically, but since some contradict each other (IE: Albedo purifying from the Nigredo process) It would probably make more sense to only be able to use one at a time.
As far as weapons are concerned, I guess it would be nice to let personal choice come in, to allow for more diverse playstyles. Didn't you put down an "Aqua Regia" skill or something that basically could lower enemy defense rating or make your own weapon acidic but eat away at durability? Something to that effect? Could be interesting to see how that would play differently with a crossbow&bolts as opposed to a sword.
What do you think of alchemist-specific items? Like D2 had Scepters for paladin and wands and shrunken heads for Necro? Maybe just random alchemy tools or special flasks for the offhand?

[Kire]

It's amazing how you pinpointed all the topics that I've been working on. First, I think maybe the four stages of the Magnum Opus could be used as passives or auras like you said. THe article on Wikipedia got me thinking about that. And it's funny that you mentioned Aqua Regia because I created two Alchemist sets (like in D2) and one involves a potion weapon named "Aqua Regia." It basically is an Alkahest potion that anyone can use and self-replenishes. The skill that eats at your weapon's durability in exchange for increased damage is called "Muriatic Acid", and it can apply to any kind of weapon, so it WOULD be interesting to see it used with a bow/crossbow. And as for Alchemist-specific items, I settled on helms in the end because I couldn't find enough factual items to use anywhere else. I thought it would be interesting to style your alchemist with a turban or a fez or a conical hat, etc. If diablowiki comes back up, I might post the 2 sets and the alchemist-specific hats. I get the impression that you know a good bit about alchemy too.

[Kire]

Yeah!!! Diablowiki's back! I got a lot of revisions to do :)