Alchemy is a very cool concept but the way they implemented it sucked. Unless they are going to fix some of the flaws they might as well leave it to the magic supplement.
I didn't mind how they implemented Alchemy, really. The only thing I would say is that the preparations degrading so quickly was always problematic for me. But, depending on what spells you used in the preparations, you had a great selection of things you could do. Just the 'Heal tags' where you pass out a spell tag with Heal on it to each of the party members, so you could heal them from across the room if you needed to (all while without eating that -2 sustain penalty until it was permanent) was a serious boost. A fire and forget Physical Barrier is a great way to throw off a chase, especially a vehicle chase. And delayed action Fireball spells are the perfect distraction when you're on a run.
You had to think differently than when playing a normal mage, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Especially if you had a good sidearm and armor and made yourself look very much NOT a mage. Spellcasting is more versatile, but it also brings down the Geek the Mage First chant.
