2e:Alchemeister

Not content to train their abilities and hone the powers granted to them by their spiritual passengers, some maiesta burn with the drive to truly understand the nature of their gravs. Whether out of curiosity, a desire to bond, or simply as a method to cope with the often overwhelming situation of a maiesta, they push the boundaries of conventional alchemy to their limits and beyond. Often mistaken for mundane alchemists by the uninformed, alchemeisters combine that discipline's standard methods with the brain-bolstering powers of their gravs, empowering their thoughts in the same way that many other maiesta do their bodies. For all their more academic methodology, however, alchemeisters find themselves swept up in adventure as often as any maiesta, questing to the ends of Prognora and back in search of hidden knowledge.

How to play an Alchemeister
Alchemeisters can be many things, and what their exact role is can be shaped as much by the delivery method of their options as the options themselves. An Alchemy build that relies on Sympathy Tonic plays much differently from one that prefers Alchemical Release, for instance, and both of them play differently from one using Elixir Toss, even if the Alchemy effect they are using is the same.

Having said that, there are a few consistent trends they do follow. Alchemy-type Alchemeisters weigh the benefits and drawbacks of constantly increasing size, trading more and more of their mobility for a powerful gravitas engine and stronger Alchemy effects only to burn it off in one massive burst with Catalyst effects when the moment feels right. When that moment is, if ever, varies with the build and situation, but the option remains available if it is desired.

Insight-type Alchemeisters, meanwhile, tend to specialize in manipulation of the action economy, granting actions to others where they feel it may do the most good or even conjuring them out of thin air through their Insight resource. This manipulation is not to be underestimated — granting an ally free movement, for instance, might not sound like much, but if it means they don’t have to spend their own Utility action doing so and can use it for something else (like, say, Dragon's Brawn after the Rage Bearer has been moved into a crowd of enemies in order to crush them all at once), it can be very much worth it.

Tinkers are also an option available to Alchemeisters, though their nature means they are very difficult to make an entire build around, instead existing to supplement those that already exist. They are not actions, but rather weapons bearing unique properties. While they do not count against the Alchemeister's limit on carried weapons and tools, they can also be lent out to allies that might be able to make more use of them. Few of them carry substantially more raw power than conventional weapons, but the esoteric effects they offer allow for a wide range of builds to make use of them to perform combos that would not be possible otherwise.

How to hybridize an Alchemeister
Alchemeisters are a solid class when it comes to hybridization. As a primary, they have good raw stats and strong Basics for managing fatigue, Gravitas, Vitality, and even action economy, all of which are useful to nearly every build, and their versatile in-class options, even if somewhat tied to their Basics, allow them to have something that synergizes with most possibilities. As a secondary, they are unfortunately forced to choose only one of their Basic passives at most, and the one that isn’t chosen locks off most of the power of that branch of abilities, but even just one of Living Refinery or Tactical Insight can be a huge boon on their respective fronts and can help shape a build immensely.

As noted, Alchemeister benefits classes that would like some help with either fatigue and Gravitas management or with their action economy; to a more limited degree, it also benefits builds that have a particular Tinker weapon in mind and the party lacks another Alchemeister that could get it for them. Rage Bearer is a prime example of all of these cases: it is a class that is very prone to hovering somewhat over Capacity and constantly clearing that fatigue with Thrill of Battle triggers, does not naturally restore Gravitas within its own kit, has many strong Utility options for augmenting attacks or even just attacking outright, benefits from making additional attacks by any means, and can use its wide arsenal of weapon-attack-based abilities to do all sorts of things with the weird and wacky weapons that Tinkers have to offer.

In turn, Alchemeister's varied arsenal makes what it wants out of a hybridization depend heavily on what kind of build it's trying to be to begin with, but whatever the build is, some class will likely have something to offer it. Extreme Alchemy size builds might appreciate Shield Mother for its Heavy Breathing and Mountain Bearer abilities, since it wasn't going to be using that Utility for anything else anyway and thus would very much appreciate the additional sustain and condition cleansing, not to mention the fatigue purge in order to keep Living Refinery going. Collaborate-based builds might like something that offers options to use with Collaborate, whether that means Hunter's Eye from Predator to drop a bunch of free scanning on enemies, Rage Strike with a staff while in Focused mode from Rage Bearer for gravitas management that an Insight-type build normally lacks in compared to an Alchemy one, Revitalize from Gravimancer to add some healing and potential mobility to ally-targeting actions, or numerous other options besides. Alchemeister is incredibly varied, so think about the build you'd like to make with it, and what that build would really like to have.

Attribute Advances
Any maiesta can purchase the following abilities. Additionally, they gain one of their choice for free upon reaching thresholds of 200, 500, 1000, and 2000 total XP spent on advances.

Basic Abilities
The rage bearer begins the game with these abilities, without requiring the expenditure of any XP.

Novice Abilities
Any alchemeister can purchase the following abilities.