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6E-Preparations

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SDTroll

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« Reply #15 on: <11-20-19/0641:49> »
The preparation rules seemed cool when I read them, but most of the best ideas I had were lost when there was no way to sustain spells. That was the biggest bummer for me. Still interesting, but not nearly as useful.

Finstersang

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« Reply #16 on: <11-20-19/0832:24> »
IMO, Enchanting/Alchemy should have gotten a major overhaul. And besides that, it shouldn´t have been crammed in the Core Book (just like ritual spellcasting, btw). This is clearly advanced stuff that many newcomers will skip anyways. But alas...

If you want a quick fix to Alchemy, consider this:
  • Actually, keep 6th Editions increased prep time.
  • When finishing a Preparation, the enchanter can choose to spend reagents to increase the Potency of the Preparation. 1 Dram of reagents increases the potency by 1,  with a maximum increase equal to the initial potency of the preparation.
  • Preparations with a sustained spell will automatically sustain the spell for [Potency] minutes after being set off (like in 5th Edition)

There are multiple other suggestions and solutions out there, but this works best for me. It adds a better use for reagents, which fits the flavor and allows alchemists to buff up the dice pool of the finished preparation so they can compete with regular spellcasting (with a little price tag added, though). The increased prep time in 6th Edition is quite a nerf, but it would have been justified if the actual preparations would turn out better in turn. I rather have alchemists with a handfull of actually usefull preparations (and only a handfull of dice rolls in prep time!) than alchemists with 2 Dozens of semi-useless cantrips.


PS: Want a really good laugh about the absolute state of Alchemy in 6th Edition? Look at the Fixation Metamagic  ::)
« Last Edit: <11-20-19/0837:36> by Finstersang »

Noble Drake

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« Reply #17 on: <11-20-19/1020:32> »
"advanced stuff that many newcomers will skip anyways" is kinda irrelevant given how many of the folks that bought the core rule-book are returning and long-term players rather than newcomers though.

easl

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« Reply #18 on: <11-20-19/1550:49> »
This is clearly advanced stuff that many newcomers will skip anyways. But alas...

I consider myself a newcomer but loved the idea of playing an alchemist.
Alas...

Putting my GM hat on, I would've gone with something much simpler.
    1. Have items go off with a dicepool of Magic+Enchanting. Have them resisted just like spells. Have them use reagents just like spells (though spent at the time of making the preparation). You know...make them work using the same standard mechanic as spells.
    2. Have type of trigger and extra effects lower this dice pool
    3. Keep time to prepare long. Ignore drain altogether because of this.
    4. Allow 'on the shelf' preparations to last forever...but limit the number a mage can have prepared at one time to their Magic to balance that.

Shinobi Killfist

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« Reply #19 on: <11-21-19/1829:43> »
The only thing I can guess is that the rebalance happened with the Vault of Ages and other advanced alchemy boosts in mind.

6th Edition is sounding more and more like a 5th edition update.
No more so than SR5 was an update of SR4: A lot of mechanics stayed similar, but a lot of things significantly changed as well.

As for Alchemy, I can imagine someone looking at Preparations in SR5 and going 'well, the creation time is too little because with the Vault of Ages you can just stack tons', which is what I built SWAT teams around actually. However, I'd have at least increased the time a Preparation lasts without such a tool, since that tool is not yet present.

Or they could like change the vault of ages so it can’t be exploited like that. Keep it at minutes so alchemist can function.  Because whether minutes or hours if the vault comes back as is your swat teams can still do this. It just more time consuming on their downtime.

Both alchemy and ritual magic need a full rewrite to be functional for players. That may be the intent though. They could be meant as pure NPC mechanics. 

Typhus

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« Reply #20 on: <11-22-19/1647:41> »
I don't think 6E uses Alchemical formulae as separate things anymore.  Not that I've seen so far anyway. If you know the spell, you know the spell.  Rituals and Foci are still different formulae though.