Welcome to the release version of the Alchemist, a brand new class for Baldur's Gate 3.

Featuring:

• A class built around managing resources, leveraging the game's existing Alchemy system, as well as its own mechanics for acquiring Alchemical Items, with support for Level 20.
• 3 Subclasses: The Doctrines of Destruction, Preservation, and Cruelty, each representing a unique set of beliefs Alchemists may hold.
• A hidden quest to create the Alchemical Magnum Opus: The Philosopher's Stone.
  

Author Update: 1.0.1.34

My mod development is currently on hiatus while I focus my time on studying and diversifying my Game Dev portfolio. As bug reports continue to come in, I am keeping an eye on this, and will start working on fixes and patch 8 compatibility in July!

And now for the nitty-gritty:

Class Mechanics

The Alchemist is an Intelligence based 'martial' class, with the ability to create Alchemical Items, which encompasses grenades (Acid Vial, Alchemist's Fire, etc.), and potions (Healing Draught, Antitoxin), as well as other miscellaneous items (Alchemically enhanced Soap). To do so, they are given a number of Catalysis Points, a special resource that enables use of two abilities: Alchemy, and Catalyze. Alchemy allows for the creation of Alchemical items out of combat, with the items lasting until the Alchemist's next Long Rest. Catalyze, on the other hand, is for use in combat. Due to the 'rushed' nature of items created via Catalyze, they last for only 5 rounds.

Equally important to the Alchemist is the ability Alchemical Throw, which allows Alchemists to throw Grenades and Potions to a greater level of effect than other classes.

Finally, the ability First Matter Synthesis allows for Alchemists to receive a special Alchemical Extract at the start of each day: the Prima Materia. This was inspired by real Alchemical concepts, and has a number of functions:

-It can be combined with any Alchemical Extract to immediately create the corresponding formula. (Alchemists will need to double click the item for the combination menu to open, other characters can right click as normal)
-It can be consumed by Alchemists to restore a Catalysis Point.
-It may have another function, that will only be revealed to the most dedicated of Alchemists...

At level 2, Alchemists choose their 'Doctrine', a kind of philosophy that represents their beliefs, and approach to the practice of Alchemy. Currently, there are three: The Doctrine of Destruction, the Doctrine of Preservation, and the Doctrine of Cruelty; representing the Grenadier, Herbalist, and Mutagenist archetypes, respectively. More subclasses may also be released in future. Subclasses grant Alchemists a number of 'Theories' - a kind of toggleable passive that can be switched between as a bonus action, each with unique effects.

As your Alchemist levels up, you'll learn more formulae, and make Alchemical 'discoveries', which grant Alchemists passives to other aspects of gameplay outside of Alchemy, all of which scale with Intelligence.

It is important to note that this is not a Spellcaster class. It was important for me from the outset of this mod that Alchemists are individuals who have chosen to use their Intellect to unlock the secrets of matter, not magic. If you're looking for an Alchemist that has the ability to learn/cast spells, I highly recommend checking out the other Alchemist options available here and on Mod.io.


The Subclasses
These Alchemists are those who believe that Life, above all else, is to be protected, and cherished. They are the most in tune with the natural world, and are generally expert foragers, healers, and herbalists. Their abilities reflect this, allowing them to forage for bonus Catalysis Points, grant their allies Temporary Hit Points and Resistances, reflexively protect their allies when they are damaged, and imbibe a small amount of any healing potion they create, steadily healing themselves over time.
These Alchemists are those who believe that destruction is no mere act of vandalism. Though Alchemy is steeped in the philosophy of creating things more than the sum of their parts, those who subscribe to the Doctrine of Destruction realise that those parts must come from somewhere. Experts at throwing destructive creations, these Alchemists are generally demolitionists, viewing the world through an adrenaline-filled lens. As such, their class abilities allow them to throw more explosives, receive adrenaline rushes when they create explosives, and deal greater damage to structures and constructs.
These Alchemists are feared by all. Driven by a sociopathic need to push the boundaries of medicine and knowledge, Alchemists who adhere to the Doctrine of Cruelty are ruthless on the battlefield. Poisoners and experimenters, their class abilities reflect this; they are able to empower their poisonous Alchemical Throws, piercing even the toughest resistances, and are the only Alchemists to have discovered the Midnight formula - an elixir that transforms even the most brilliant of minds into monstrous, hulking beasts.

What else is new?
In addition to the new class and its abilities, a number of new Alchemical Items have been created. Some examples include the Needler, a vicious grenade that causes enemies to bleed, and the Tanglefoot Bag, that stops enemies in their tracks. Hidden within the game, numerous items have been added, that only Alchemists can receive, and that will lend themselves to the completion of the Great Work, the Alchemical Magnum Opus:

This item is difficult to create, but provides powerful effects. Because of the process involved, this is considered a secret class quest, but should not be too daunting to complete. There is a book located in Ilyn Toth's Basement that will provide hints to help you accomplish this goal (the chest near the Necromancy of Thay), but this book is not required to complete the quest, so don't stress if you haven't found it, just play the game as you normally would, and the necessary ingredients will reveal themselves to you in time.


Flavour

The concept of Alchemy is not steeped in magic, but cultivated from a desire to understand the world around us, and to break down the structure of this world to its basest components, to create something greater. Due to the restrictions on story editing in the Toolkit, I elected to use the Ranger dialogue tag. This unintentionally gave Alchemists some dialogue options that indicate they are experienced fighters, but the affinity for nature and the healing dialogue options lended themselves nicely to the class, so I chose to leave it.

Many of the abilities/new items have flavour text included. These reference a combination of real Alchemical concepts, characters from the wider world of Faerun (even some from Baldur's Gate 3), and some of my own characters that I felt deserved a little spotlight. Additionally, I brought together inspiration from several different sources, listed below.

-Pathologic 2 (The main character, Artemy Burakh, in particular)

-Potion Craft - Alchemist Simulator, a brilliant game that first got me hooked on the character concept.

-Indestructoboy's Alchemist for DnD 5th edition, which is a fantastic and fun class that I had initially set out to recreate with this mod, but had to modify it to such a great extent that I decided to make it its own entity. You can find his work here: https://www.dmsguild.com/product/401361/The-Alchemist-Class


Why this Alchemist?

You may have noticed multiple other Alchemists available on Mod.io and Nexus, and will likely be wondering which to choose. All of them interpret the class in very different ways, and I highly recommend trying each to see which is right for you. Both Rella_mod and ComfortablyBrum (the authors of the other Alchemist class mods) have done an awesome job.

Because Alchemist has never managed to find an official home in D&D 5e, it's hard to gauge where on the spectrum between Martial and Caster class it should fall. As such, everyone has different ideas about how it should be implemented. I took pains to ensure that playing an Alchemist did not feel like playing a flavoured spellcaster; it was designed to be centred around creating items, not casting spells, as well as providing incentives to use and bonuses to the existing Alchemy system of Baldur's Gate 3. If that doesn't sound like the Alchemist you want, I encourage you to check out the other options available on the various modding sites.


Roadmap

This is the official release of the Alchemist, but I will perform bugfixes here and there. At the moment, the mod is undergoing some code refactoring that will hopefully help to eliminate certain issues some players have reported. That said, there is always the potential for:
-Additional Alchemical Formulae to learn
-Additional Alchemical Discoveries to further augment your Alchemist.
-Alchemist Armour scattered through the world.
-Custom Animations for Class Selection/Abilities (this one's a MAYBE, depending on the success of the mod and the development of the BG3 modding scene).


Additional Thanks

This mod would not have been possible without some help from some very talented, and very special people:

Lunisole best sole (Discord), LostSoul (Discord), and DpH Kraken (Discord) for scripting and stat editing help.
DPh Kraken (Discord) and Ttano (Nexus Mods) for Icon resources.
thestarpest for Action/Spell Background resources.
KiderionLykon for AI model for icon generation.
Shadowheart for having countless alchemical items thrown at her during testing.
IndestructoBoy, for graciously allowing me to use some of his concepts and ideas in the flavouring and mechanics of this class.
Ohfor F*ksake (Youtube) and I'm A Doctor Not A (Youtube) for their incredible guides, which helped me with stat editing and Item Combination.
My friends Ben & George, for helping me discover my love of Alchemy, and for telling endless stories in DnD with me. George gets additional thanks for being my first ever tester. 
My partner, Jordan, for pushing me to follow this passion of mine, for listening to me think out loud (yap), and for helping me figure out the path forward whenever I got stuck or disheartened.

If you helped me in the various modding Discord channels and I forgot to give you a shoutout, please feel free to DM me to let me know and I'll include you.


Found a bug?

I'm sure it'll happen, this affects a lot of the game for a class mod, it required overwriting many of the in-game throwables, creating new ones, creating trajectories, yadda yadda... there's bound to be something I missed. Please leave a comment or send me a message and I'll look into it when I can.


Trouble Installing?

This is my first Nexus upload, so there's the possibility I've messed this up somehow. The simplest way to install is to get it through the in-game MM, but the .PAK you get from here is identical. Simply install the same way you would any other .PAK mod.

Known Issues

Uninstalling this mod mid-playthrough will corrupt the save. This is because of the way the mod handles unlocking Alchemical Throws, which requires an overwrite of Alchemical Items' stats. It is also highly recommended you start a new save to play an Alchemist, though it is certainly possible to install mid-playthrough. I am planning a refactoring of this, so items do not need to be overwritten, but this will take time.

Other

Please do not reupload any files of this mod without my express written permission. You are welcome to create 'auxhiliary' mods that augment the way it functions (i.e. 'Feat every Level'), but please list this as a dependency. Translation mods are more than welcome, and can be made without requesting permission.

This mod will likely be incompatible with other mods that utilise the same class name, or mods that affect the Object stats for any throwable objects, because of the way Alchemical Throw works.

If you have any suggestions regarding balance or features, please leave a comment! This has been an incredibly fun project, and I'm excited to be bringing it to a wider audience.

Note on use of AI: This mod is tagged 'AI-generated content'. AI models were used to generate icons for the class, subclasses, and abilities. If more resources were available to me, I would have preferred to commission these; as a student, however, I wanted to do this as financially viably as possible. Thank you for understanding.

To those of you who've read this far, thank you for your support and interest in the mod.


Support
This mod took close to 350 hours to complete (not counting time outside the Toolkit), and was done as a passion project. However, if you enjoy the mod and would like to say thanks, please consider endorsing the mod/leaving a comment. I'm also open to suggestions

However, if you're in a position to, feel you got a decent amount of value out of this mod, and would like to support me in future modding/game development endeavours, please consider shouting me a coffee at the below link:
https://ko-fi.com/thelightkeeper