Introduction

Not long ago, I posted up a skill deep-dive proposal on Scribing. At the end, I mentioned my next project was Alchemy. And here it is. As always, I tend to be a bit....verbose. So, fair warning, this is a really long post.

The Developers have mentioned that Alchemy is not like the traditional MMO-style alchemy of making piles of potions that restore hitpoints and provide massive drawback-free buffs. They have said that it is more like a mixture of a historical apothecary as well as containing the traditional goal of an alchemist to Transmute materials between forms. So, as I did with the Scribing post, let's dig in.

Basics

What an Alchemist can do.

Alchemists wear many hats, but most of them involve Chemistry of some sort. Alchemists can make poultices, medicines, poisons, dyes, inks, acids, industrial chemicals, volatiles, and may ultimately strive for the holy grail of Alchemy: Transmutation.

Necessary Co-Professions

As with the scribing write-up, I'm not going to try to trace the production tree all the way back. I'm just going to examine the skills that directly interface with Alchemy.

Herbalism/Hunting/Farming - Necessary to provide the materials used in Alchemy. Herbalism would be particularly useful to have as a Co-profession as it would allow the Alchemist to readily identify the herbs and plant matter in storage, even if they are not labeled (or labeled incorrectly)

Carpenter/Mason - Create varying qualities of Mortar and Pestle, and crucibles (Mason only)

Glassblower - Alembics, vials, retorts, distillers, and many other tools used an Alchemist are made of glass

Tinker/Smith - Making the stands and racks needed to hold their glassware - Components in making an Alchemy Workstation.

Chandler - Candles are a good steady source for fire, which you may need to heat mixtures.

Gatherers in General - Needed to acquire whatever is needed for Transmutation.

Specializations/Actions

Basic Alchemy Skill

Improving your skill in Alchemy improves your efficiency and safety while performing Alchemical actions. Many compounds used in Alchemy are hazardous, either in intermediate states, or even in their final form. A higher skill in Alchemy means that, even if you mess up, you are less likely to harm yourself in the process.

Processing

Processing is the act of taking raw ingredients brought to you by gatherers, and turning them into something you can use. This could involve simply grinding roots into a powder, or boiling leaves to extract a valuable compound from them, or any number of other methods needed to prepare and isolate the parts of your raw ingredients that you actually need in order to work, and change them into a form suitable for what you are trying to do. For example, White Willow Bark can be chewed to serve as a painkiller and anti-inflammatory, but if you are trying to create a painkilling tincture, you'll need to grind it to dust so you can suspend it in an alcohol

Improved skill at Processing allows you to work faster, more efficiently, and effectively process things that are harder to be successful at. At first, you'd likely start grinding things, or squeezing sap from stems. At higher skill you'd start Macerating, and eventually move on to Distillation, chemical separation, and other advanced techniques for getting purer and harder to prepare raw materials.

It is important to note that Processing can be a job in and of itself...Alchemists aren't the only ones who use these processed raw materials. For instance, distilling can produce acids that are used by Blacksmithing for etching purposes, or Alcohols for artists and scribes to clean their tools. Grinding and separating may be necessary to process raw mined Salt into usable table salt for a cook. And so on.

Dyer

This branch of Alchemy revolves around creating materials necessary to color or mark other things. This encompasses paints, stains, dyes, and inks. At the most basic level, this would involve taking prepared materials, such as berries, and mixing them into some form of staining, but controllable liquid.

Increased skill would allow you to make coloring agents that were more durable, made of more exotic compounds, and of more difficult to create colors (for example, it takes a lot of work to make Purple using historical dye-creation methods). They can also create higher quality coloring agents that are less likely to run or mix when you don't want them to, allowing the end user to be more precise with them.

Obviously, the biggest customers of a Dyer would be artists and scribes, but anyone who wants to change the color of something that they own would seek out a dyer in order to buy an appropriate coloring agent. Dyes for soft materials like cloth, Stain for durable colors on wood and other harder, but porous materials, and paint for brighter colors on rigid materials.

Chemistry

This branch of Alchemy encompasses a very large variety of tasks, but generally involves the creation of industrial compounds used by other professions. A Chemist could produce flux for a blacksmith, tanning oils for a tanner, fertilizers for a farmer, and (naturally) more complicated raw ingredients for the other branches of Alchemy. This also includes the creation of volatiles...highly flammable or unstable substances suitable for warfare. If/when it is discovered, this will be the skill that produces black powder.

Another important skill of the Chemist is chemical testing. If a chemist is brought a sample of something made by an Alchemist, they can perform tests on it to assess its quality. This is an important step of quality control for an up and coming Alchemist...to be able to test samples of what they have made to make sure that it was made correctly.

Increased skill as a Chemist would allow you to use more complex processes and to create more complicated compounds.

Having a chemist in town is going to be important to other professions as a source of materials they need to do their jobs.

Transmutation

This is a sub-skill of Chemistry and is oft considered the Holy Grail of the Alchemical Chemist. Where chemistry is the science of mixing elements and other materials to create different compounds, Transmutation is the science of transforming one element into another. However, there's a bit of a ramp up before you reach an actual, honest to goodness transmutation.

At base level, Transmutation allows you to create alloys that you normally couldn't create in a lab. For example, it would allow you to take Carbon and Iron and meld them into steel, without the use of a Smelter. In this form, Transmutation has the advantage of being more precise than the traditional forms of creating these materials...with the drawback of being tremendously less efficient. And a skilled Refiner may easily be able to produce steel of equivalent quality, much faster than you. At this point, Transmutation is basically a curiosity, rather than a truly profitable profession.

At increased skill, you finally take the step to true Transmutation and start being able to convert base materials into something else. For this...I would say we should ignore the Periodic Table and focus on physical attributes...and perhaps even ignore the requirement that you must start with an element and end with an element. In this way, the more similar two materials are, the easier it is to convert from one to the other. For example, Lead and Gold seem like they are pretty similar materials at first glance...soft, heavy metals with a low melting point. Thus, one of the traditional goals of Alchemy was the transmutation of Lead to Gold...despite the fact that they are not neighbors on the Periodic Table, nor are they in the same Group.

So, with true Transmutation, you start being able to convert amounts of materials into an entirely different kind of material. The more dissimilar (or valuable) the materials are, the harder it is to perform the transmutation and convert them. At the very pinnacle of Transmutation is the ability to transform organic, renewable materials into inorganic, non-renewable materials.

Unfortunately, Transmutation is not something suitable to being done on a grand scale, but it is no less valuable due to the fact that it can provide a region with materials that they might otherwise not have access to, by consuming materials they have in ready supply.

I want to emphasize here that Transmutation is a child of Chemistry, and is performed much the same way. It is not an arcane art drawing complex circles and arrays with runes and flashy lights and the like...that is the domain of magic. Transmutation is a science, like the rest of alchemy, and looks much like the rest of Alchemy when in practice.

Perfumer

This is the skill of a chemist specialized in making scents intended to be worn by people. They mix scented compounds together to create fine perfumes and colognes. The primary clientele of a Perfumer is generally the wealthy of the world, as those are the ones who have the spare cash to spend on such a luxury as smelling nice.

Increased skill allows for finer and more complex perfumes to be created, including capturing scents that are harder to preserve. A higher skill perfumer can also create more unique scents (particularly, unique mixtures of scents), potentially allowing someone to have a specific scent crafted for them, and contracting the Alchemist to not produce that scent for anyone else. Naturally, a more skilled perfumer will create scents that last longer before having to be reapplied as well.

I am planning a more detailed write-up on this in the future, but I should address this in brief here. Perfume will fall under the same umbrella as Art in terms of its utility. In short, ‘arts’ and related things (like perfume) contribute to reputation and renown within the game’s system. Think on the fact that in The Witcher series, Yennefer was oft remembered as ‘the woman who smelled of lilac and gooseberries.’ Scent is a powerful memory trigger, and if you want your character to be memorable, having a perfume that you wear can help with this. In short, perfume increases the chances that someone will remember you after the fact...while this is definitely bad for a criminal, someone seeking to gain renown may seek this as a way to make themselves more memorable.

As mentioned, a Perfumer is primarily useful to the wealthy, or to those seeking to integrate themselves with the wealthy...so you are unlikely to find a successful Perfumer anywhere except in a city.

Apothecary

The Apothecary skill is the branch of Alchemy dedicated to the production of medicine. I specifically chose the name to reinforce the fact that Alchemists will not be churning out "Potions of Lesser Healing" that restore your character's HP. They produce medicine, not miracles...though with enough skill and the right materials, they may get close.

In general, the things that Apothecaries produce can be categorized as Salves, Poultices, Tinctures, and Decoctions...or the precursors to any of those, such as making a powder that is to be mixed with alcohol at a later point to create a Tincture. Different sorts of medicines would be used for different things, ranging from a poultice that staunches bleeding, to a Decoction that reduces pain, to Tinctures designed to fight disease and infection. This also covers the production of various sorts of what we would, today, consider a drug. Opium, after all, was first a painkiller.

Depending on how the game pans out, this may include the creation of drugs that can boost performance in some ways...possibly with a drawback when you come down from the effects of the drug, and with possible addiction issues (if that is a mechanic they add). But, if any sort of enhancing drug was added, apothecary would cover its production

Increased skill allows you to mix up more complex medicines and compounds, and prepare them in such a way that they remain stable for longer. A not-uncommon practice for Apothecaries may be to mix up large doses of stable medical compounds in dry form...then delegate down to their apprentices the act of actually mixing them up with their carrier substances (Alcohol, water, oil, or some manner of absorbent plant material) when the actual medicines are needed.

This has a very obvious usefulness, I really don't think I need to go into it.

Poisoner

This is a sub-skill of Apothecary...simply because that which heals, if provided in too high of a dose, can often kill. In fact, that is what many early poisons were, simply an overdose of something that was helpful in a lower concentration. For example, Atropa Belladonna has long been used in small doses as a pain killer, muscle relaxer, and anti-inflammatory. But, you may have heard of it by its common name: Deadly Nightshade. A moderate dose will inflict hallucinations, loss of balance, headaches, and delirium among other awful effects. A large dose will disrupt your nervous system and shut your heart off.

This is not, however, a profession that is strictly for doing harm to other humans. Poisons can be useful in dealing with vermin, animals too dangerous to engage directly, and someone with a deep knowledge of poisons can help you identify which poison someone have been impacted with, and thus be able to help them. Or, perhaps, in the case of a siege situation when a well has been poisoned, identify the poison used and work to neutralize it to make the well safe again.

Increased skill improves the potency and variety of poisons you can create, as well as improving how good you are at identifying poisons when you encounter them.

Naturally, a Poisoner is useful to any Deviant types, and perhaps to farmers needing to deal with a vermin (or possibly monster) problem. Any sort of ruler would also likely want someone with at least some skill in Poisoning handy, just in case they need something tested for poisons, or in case they are poisoned themselves.

It is perhaps important to note that Poisoners are specialized in making things that are specifically designed to be a poison...but other branches of Alchemy can produce things that are poisonous. For example, an Alchemist doing processing may produce Wood Alcohol for a Scribe to use in cleaning their pens, Wood Alcohol is unquestionably poisonous, but also has a strong smell that is distinct from alcohol suitable for drinking, requires a rather large dose to inflict serious harm, and produces symptoms that are easy to identify as Wood Alcohol poisoning. Thus, it is not something a Poisoner would focus on, though they would be able to recognize Wood Alcohol poisoning if they saw it.

Considerations

Equipment

An Alchemist is very equipment dependent. There are certain procedures used in Alchemy that simply cannot be done without the right sort of equipment. Distillation is best done with a Retort or an Alembic, and is very difficult to do without one. Furthermore, high quality equipment will have a significant impact on the outcome of your work.

The way this is handled is that an Alchemy Workstation has ‘slots’ where different equipment (such as Alembics, Crucibles, Beakers, Candles, etc) can be ‘installed.’ In order to perform different Alchemical actions, you must have the right equipment installed on your workstation, and the quality of that equipment can impact the outcome.

Most of an Alchemist’s equipment is best made by a glassblower, though Earthen vessels (as made by a Potter) serve as a lower-quality alternative that are much more affordable for an entry-level Alchemist--or perhaps useful as disposable containers such as packing an ointment into a clay container for easy transportation.

Materials

Unlike some other professions, Alchemists have to be very picky about what materials they use. A Carpenter may be able to use multiple kinds of wood for the same project, a Smith could use multiple kinds of metal. But if an Alchemist needs the bark of a White Pine...substituting in the bark of another sort of tree, even if it’s another type of pine tree simply won’t work.

In terms of quality...an Alchemist mostly cares about freshness (for organic compounds) and purity. Freshness mostly determines how much of the ingredient is still suitable for use, the spoiled portions of it needing to be discarded; Purity is generally a matter of how good the Alchemist is at Preparation, as even a tainted compound can eventually be refined and purified. But, the fresher and purer ingredients are to start with, the larger amount of usable ingredients an Alchemist will be able to make out of them.

Material Identification

Refer to this proposal post I wrote on inventory labeling. Alchemy involves a lot of difficult to identify materials, so this would come up a lot.

Safety

Alchemy can be a very dangerous profession, both to the Alchemist and to their customers. Not only is the Alchemist at risk of the effects of working with potentially toxic chemicals and fumes, with a risk of violent chemical reactions...but if an Alchemist messes up, they may produce something hazardous to their customers.

Obviously, not all Alchemical processes are dangerous...distilling Wood Alcohol is quite safe as long as you don’t do something stupid like drink the result. But if you are working with acids, combustibles, or reactions that release toxic fumes you are running a risk of harming yourself and your lab if you mess up.

As was mentioned above, for stronger medicines the difference between Apothecary and Poisoner is largely one of dosage. If an Apothecary is trying to make a strong painkiller and messes up, they may produce something too weak to be effective, or so strong that it harms the one who drinks it. Naturally, higher skill means you will make fewer such mistakes, but when starting out...it is probably wise for an apprentice Apothecary to pass their results by a skilled Alchemist to make sure that their concoction is safe for human consumption.

And, as I will get to in the Skill Challenge section, it is also possible for an Alchemist to make mistakes unrelated to dosage, such as adding in the wrong ingredients, or making a mistake along the way to creating any component of the final mixture.

Skill Challenges

I’m not going to dig too deep on this one, because we don’t really have a standard (apart from one screengrab) to give us an idea of how involved and, indeed, how time consuming Skill Challenges should be. So, rather than lay out the exact mechanics, I’ll instead put down how I wish it would pan out.

It should not be reflex-based. Chemistry, and thus Alchemy, is a careful process rooted in precision and patience, not reflexes. Thus, I think the skill challenges connected to Alchemy should reflect this. I would rather see things like requiring you to actually select the correct ingredients in the right amounts. Perhaps adjusting how high you position a vial above a flame to ensure you get a proper amount of heat, or issues of timing where you watch a reaction happening and wait for a specific sign to tell you to perform the next step (though even that shouldn’t be something like a bouncing ball that you have to stop when it’s on the exact right spot). Or even making sure your alchemical setup is configured correctly for a more complex reaction.

And higher skill, rather than doing something like ‘making the path around the axe head wider, so it’s easier to trace,’ provide information on screen to represent your character knowing when something needs to happen or what they need next, or even having the system catch you when you’re about to make a mistake. Like, if you are portioning opium latex for a painkiller, you’d see a warning pop on screen that is your character realizing they are just about to add too much.

Mishaps

As was mentioned in the safety section, if you mess up while performing Alchemy, several things could happen. You could suffer a spill, wasting your materials and potentially exposing you to hazardous compounds. You could break equipment, forcing you to replace what you damaged. You could deal with a more dramatic event such as an explosion, cloud of toxic fumes, or other hazardous event. Or, you could produce a faulty product.

Generally, it is the faulty products that are the worst form of mishap, because those are the ones that can harm your customers. There will always be some indication that something went wrong, or a way to test and make sure what you made is ‘good.’ But if you (or your character) doesn’t know what they are looking for, it can slip past you.

Some of these things are very easy to test. If you created a volatile compound, separating out a small amount of it and seeing if it explodes or burns properly is test enough. Some chemicals have very distinctive smells, and your character will recognize that it doesn’t smell right. And, of course, if the compound is medicinal in nature, you could always try it on yourself to see if it’s right...though that may not always be a good idea, as was mentioned with the Deadly Nightshade...sometimes a ‘faulty medicine’ could turn out to be poison instead.

Other things may be more difficult to tell. A medicine may turn out slightly the wrong color, the wrong consistency, or may not taste ‘quite right.’ If your character isn’t skilled enough yet, and you (the player) can’t recognize it yourself, then you may not be able to tell that something went wrong. In this case, you have three approaches you can take, only two of which are actually good ideas.

One: Hope for the best. Sell your product without knowing for sure if it will actually perform as advertised. This is not a good plan, in general

Two: Take it to someone better than you. Most players who are learning Alchemy will be learning under a Master of some sort. They will have a senior Alchemist working above them until they reach sufficient skill to strike out on their own. A more experienced alchemist will be better able to assess the quality of what you just made and determine if it was made correctly or not.

Three: Chemistry. The Chemistry branch includes the ability to test your outputs and see if they are what you think they are. Naturally, the possibility exists of having a mishap during the testing as well, but you can always run the tests again. Just, bear in mind that testing your outputs consumes a quantity of what you made. So, the more you test something, the less of it you have left to sell.

Naturally, as your skill increases, mishaps will become less common.

Wrap-up

So, those are my thoughts on the Alchemy profession for Chronicles of Elyria. As always, feedback is welcome! I’m debating which profession to work on next, so if you have a request for one you’d like to see me tackle, let me know.

~GB