Want to crap out alchemical items at astronomical rates? Be a dwarf and sock it to all those gnomish wannabes.
Race: Dwarf
Class: Alchemist or Investigator (Or any class/archetype that gains access to Swift Alchemy or similar ability)
Key Abilities & Feats
Alternate Racial Trait: Industrious Urbanite - Dwarves who have adapted to the expectations of their host cities
make double the normal progress on checks to create nonmagical items and gain a +4 bonus on profession checks to earn money. (Heroes of the Street)
Swift Alchemy Class Ability - Takes
half the normal time to craft Alchemical items/poisons
Master Alchemist Feat: When making alchemical items or poisons using Craft (Alchemy),
use the item's gp value as its sp value when determining your progress. (Do not multiply the item's gp cost by 10 to determine its sp cost.)
Signature Skill Feat: Unlocked Unchained skill abilities for Craft Alchemy. Of note:
- 5 Ranks: When determining your weekly progress, double the result of your Craft check before multiplying the result by the item's DC.
- 15 Ranks: When you determine your progress, the result of your check is how much work you complete each day in silver pieces.
If you haven't already begun to realize what we can do lets run some numbers. For the sake of simplicity I will not be taking into account the total bonus to the craft check only that it meets the exact craft DC.
Item: Alchemist Fire | Cost: 20g | Craft DC: 20
Assuming that by taking 10 the crafter can make a DC 20 Craft Alchemy check total.
Crafting Steps @ Level 5 (Level 5 is the first time we can take Master Alchemist feat.)
1. The items price in sp is 20. (Master Alchemist)
2. Take 10 on Craft Alchemy check over a week for a total of 20.
3. Multiply the result by the items DC (20). [20 x 20 = 400] This is our weekly progress result.
4. Double your weekly progress. [400 x 2 = 800] (Industrious Urbanite)
5. Compare your weekly progress (800sp) to the price of the item (20sp).
6. As you can see, we have exceeded the cost of the item by 40 times! Thus the time to create it is reduced to 1/40th the normal time.
7. Reduce the time to create the alchemical item by an additional 1/2. (Swift Alchemy)
- Since these multiples are not applying to an actual dice roll, the stack multiplicatively instead of additively.
This brings our total time reduction on item creation to 0.00625 or 1 /160 the normal speed. When a normal Craft check would take a week, this craft check only takes 0.04375 days.
Converting that into hours our total craft time for comes out to be about 1.05 hours for a single Alchemist Fire.
As you can see, this does NOT include the bonuses for the Unchained Craft skill. Lets see what we can do a few levels later using Unchained Craft skill AND Accelerated Crafting
Crafting Steps @ Level 10 (Now including the Rank 5 Skill Unlock for Craft: Alchemy)
- Assume taking 10 on Craft: Alchemy allows our crafter to hit a DC 30 Craft check.
1. The items price in sp is 20. (Master Alchemist)
2. Take 10 on Craft Alchemy check over a week for a total of 30.
3. Double the Craft Alchemy check for a 60 Craft Alchemy check. (Craft Unchained 5 Ranks)
4. Multiply the result by the items DC (30) [+10 DC for Accelerated Crafting]. [60 x 30 = 1,800] This is our weekly progress result.
5. Double your weekly progress. [1,800 x 2 = 3,600] (Industrious Urbanite)
6. Compare your weekly progress (3,600sp) to the price of the item (20sp).
7. As you can see, we have exceeded the cost of the item by 180 times! Thus the time to create it is reduced to 1/180th the normal time.
8. Reduce the time to create the alchemical item by an additional 1/2. (Swift Alchemy)
- Since these multiples are not applying to an actual dice roll, the stack multiplicatively instead of additively.
This brings our total time reduction on item creation to 0.0028 normal speed. When a normal Craft check would take a week, this craft check only takes 0.0194 days.
Converting that into hours our total craft time for comes out to be about 0.47 hours for a single Alchemist Fire.
So not too big a difference in craft time, but lets see what happens when we hit the Rank 15 Skill Unlock for Craft Alchemy.
Crafting Steps @ Level 15 (Now including the Rank 15 Skill Unlock for Craft: Alchemy)
- Assume taking 10 on Craft: Alchemy allows our crafter to hit a DC 30 Craft check.
1. The items price in sp is 20. (Master Alchemist)
2. Take 10 on Craft Alchemy check over a week for a total of 30.
3. Double the Craft Alchemy check for a 60 Craft Alchemy check. (Craft Unchained 5 Ranks)
4. Multiply the result by the items DC (30) [+10 DC for Accelerated Crafting]. [60 x 30 = 1,800] This is our weekly progress result.
5. Double your weekly progress. [1,800 x 2 = 3,600] (Industrious Urbanite)
6. Compare your daily progress (3,600sp) to the price of the item (20sp). [Unchained Craft Rank 15]
7. As you can see, we have exceeded the cost of the item by 180 times! Thus the time to create it is reduced to 1/180th the normal time.
8. Reduce the time to create the alchemical item by an additional 1/2. (Swift Alchemy)
- Since these multiples are not applying to an actual dice roll, the stack multiplicatively instead of additively.
This brings our total time reduction on item creation to 0.0028 normal speed. When a normal Craft check would take a day, this craft check only takes 0.0194 of a day. Converting that into hours our total craft time for comes out to be about 0.4656 of an hour.
Converting that into minutes we get 27.94 minutes to craft a single Alchemist Fire.
Hell yea! Now we're cooking! 30 minutes to craft versus an entire week? I'll take that.
This gets even more crazy when you consider all the above math was done assuming the minimum Craft DC was met. I did not include Traits, Class Bonuses, Feats, or Spells into these calculations. Even better, if your into Poisons, Master Alchemist lets you craft poisons in batches instead of one at a time. Now you can craft your Int modifier number of poisons per craft check. Go nuts as you literally craft out a poison does EVERY ROUND!
Also, if my math seems off please correct me. My head hurts but even if I am off this is still a nice combination.
