[falar]

I just read that there's a spell in Hard Targets to recharge the potency of a preparation. Have you looked into that?

It's lacklustre. High drain value and only useful after your preparation has basically worn off.

So, personally, I was expecting Alchemy to be kind of like Wizards in DnD. You have to choose your spells at the beginning of the day and you take the drain then, but then you're good. As it is, spellcasting is basically Sorcerers, so it made sense in my mind.

[Strill]

It's lacklustre. High drain value and only useful after your preparation has basically worn off.

But is it not effective?

So, personally, I was expecting Alchemy to be kind of like Wizards in DnD. You have to choose your spells at the beginning of the day and you take the drain then, but then you're good. As it is, spellcasting is basically Sorcerers, so it made sense in my mind.

I read your alchemy homebrew. I think it's actually on the overpowered side. Yes alchemy rolls are weaker than equivalent sorcery rolls, but that's not the whole story. Command-triggered preparations only need a simple action to cast, compared to Complex-action Sorcery. With so many ways to preserve preparations in your system, a character could be pumping out double-fireballs all day long. They may be weaker, but getting two per turn instead of one makes up for it.

Furthermore, by removing Force as an opposed roll, you created a loophole. Choose Force 14, and use reagents to set the limit to 4. Now your prepared fireball has a 15+ dice pool, and a base DV and AP of 14. Take a nap afterwards, and you're ready to go. With so many ways to store preparations, you can easily build up an arsenal of these monsters and blow every other spellcaster out of the water.

I did like the preservation focus though. I think the rules are convoluted, but the idea is great. The one problem is that you're best off with a bunch of separate Force 1 foci, each for a specific spell. That doesn't really mesh with the focus crafting rules, which assume that higher-force foci are more valuable than multiple low-force foci. Not sure how to deal with that other than say it can store preparations equal to Force * Force, but that seems a bit OP. Then again, the other foci are pretty darn strong too, so perhaps not.

[falar]

If we're going to talk about my proposed system changes, we should probably take this to PM so as not to derail the thread. I'll PM you my responses.

[falar]

It's lacklustre. High drain value and only useful after your preparation has basically worn off.

But is it not effective?

It's effective enough, I guess, but it's not helpful to the archetype that needs it most - Alchemists. If Alchemists could learn it as a spell and cast it using Alchemy, I think it might be worth having.

[Marcus]

Hardtargets went out of its way to attempt to fix what was broken by SG, did it work? Maybe. It's certainly viable as a contact. I'm not sure I would call it viable for PCs. But progress has been made.

[Hobbes]

It's lacklustre. High drain value and only useful after your preparation has basically worn off.

But is it not effective?

It's effective enough, I guess, but it's not helpful to the archetype that needs it most - Alchemists. If Alchemists could learn it as a spell and cast it using Alchemy, I think it might be worth having.

IMO it's not worth the spell slot.  There are so many other things you can take instead of something that can give you another couple hours of something that costs you nothing to create.

Alchemy is not as good as Sorcery or Conjuring or Spell Defense for that matter.  If, as a mage, you've got a couple spare skill points at chargen it's not bad to throw a couple points into Alchemy and a specialization of some sort and pick up one or two small buffs.  Increase Intuition, Deflection, Improved Invisibility, all good choices.  What you want are spells that provide a buff even with a few hits, are useful at a low force, and have low enough drain that can be dealt with during the run.  Bonus points for picking spells that your Mentor spirit buffs. 

To the OP's strategy of summing Spirits of Man to sustain Drain buff spells.  Force 5 or 6 Spirits will likely cause as much drain as whatever Preparation you're creating, I would instead recommend things like the Positive Quality Focused Concentration, Adept power Heightened Concern, Sustaining Foci, or Metamagic Quickening.  If you've taken an Increase Drain stat Spell, you'll want to have it on as much as possible, there are lots of ways to do it that don't tie up your Spirits or cost you drain.  If you've taken multiple sustaining buffs with the intention of only using them to create Alchemical Preparations you're doing it wrong.

IMO, Alchemy is worth a minor investment.  Few extra skill points, one or two Spells, and you get a very good return on that, especially if you're willing to share with the team.  Unfortunately additional investment doesn't get you much more IMO.  Alchemy 6 vs. Alchemy 3 just isn't a big deal, on average it's one less dice your Potency gets to throw.  And you've only got so much time to create Preparations before a run, weather it's 10 of these spells, or 10 of these other spells isn't really even a consideration.

[Facemage]

My current build have Alchemy 6 (+2 Contact). Later with Power focus 5 I can easily create increase intuition preparations which give on average +4 to the stat. The alchemy pool is 21 and if the force is 7 or 8 (depending your magic and grade), I get what I want. More is not needed.

Moreover, I think that ball lightning (ice sheet and so on) preparations might start to work. If the releasing pool is 10, and the force is 5, they are not useless anymore.

[Hobbes]

Well, to be fair, any magic test made with a Power Focus of 5 is going to be impressive.  If you've invested equally in Sorcery and Conjuring you're pulling Force 8 Spirits on the fly with multiple services and throwing around 20 dice on Spellcasting tests as well. 

[Facemage]

True, but for example improved invisibility preparation created with normal dice pool (1-2 hits on release) is almost useless because even basic mook can see through the illusion. But if the releasing pool is 12 dices, it is much more difficult. Even in prime rinner level the pools to see through the illusion are max 12 dices (mundane character), and typically ~ 8 dices.

I think that on prime runner level alchemy offers high utility options.

[Hobbes]

Force 4ish Physical Invisibility Preparation should have somewhere between 6 and 8 dice when activated.  2 or 3 hits puts you in 50/50 area for threat 3 mooks.  More of a boost to stealth rather than a replacement.  If half the team doesn't even need to make a stealth check....