Retrograde Revision 8: Bogborn Alchemist
(art by Tara-bleArt on DeviantArt)
The idea of racial archetypes, or perhaps ancestral archetypes, was that they offered options tied to the culture or anatomy of the creatures that invented them. In my experience though, only a rare few of them could reasonably be truly limited to only one ancestry, and only because of either the anatomy or natural magical abilities of the ancestry that said archetypes tap into.
There is an argument for today’s archetype to be limited only to grippli, but the alchemist class by it’s very nature is at least one third all about inducing strange and perhaps unnatural changes in one’s body with the power of quasi-magical alchemy. So honestly I don’t see why one couldn’t use it with any ancestry.
In any case, today’s subject is our revised take on the bogborn alchemist, representing grippli (and other) alchemists that use the seclusion of wetlands to perform their experiments, both on themselves and on the wildlife.
Now obviously trying to do science in a dirty environment is next to impossible. I mean, sure, you can still mix the concoctions, but the chances of getting replicable results is pretty much nil from all the cross-contamination. Whether your alchemist strives to create a clean space in their domicile or answers the problem by leaning into the element of magic in true alchemy is up to you.
What these alchemists are known for, however, is some useful alterations to their mutagen to make traversing their watery homes that much easier, not to mention leveraging certain advantages of the grippli/tripkee species.
Straight from the get-go, these alchemists learn how to modify their mutagen to develop amphibious traits, altering the limbs to be better at swimming (albeit a bit ungainly) and allow them to properly respirate oxygen from the water through their skin.
Additionally, they can choose to acquire the grippli racial trait of toxic skin if they don’t have it already as an alchemist discovery, likely using an alchemical injection to activate or develop that genetic trait in themselves.
The archetype also has a list of recommended discoveries to take. In this case, most of them have to do with modifying and improving poisons, altering their skin to blend in, creating especially sticky bombs, growing a mutant tentacle, and even bottling quick-growing ooze minions.
This is an exceedingly simple archetype, but it does offer a fun bonus to someone who expects to have to move in and out of aquatic environments regularly. The recommended discovery list lends itself to a build that balances the mutagen, bomb, and poison aspects of the class, but you don’t necessarily have to do that. I do recommend extracts that improve underwater action and poisons though.
For a gripli/tripkee, this path can definitely feel like an alchemist trying to tap into the genetic legacy of their people. Perhaps they see the advantages of their anuran ancestors as just out of reach and seek to put those advantages back into their hands, if not the rest of their species. Perhaps they are a little bit mad and believe their kind should have never left the water. Either way, there is a genetic legacy that they attempt to tap into, for good or ill. Other ancestries lack this connection of course, and no matter their demeanor or intentions do come across as the weird guy who lives in the swamp and wants to be a frog. This isn’t a bad thing, but it will color how others view them.
Boggards are not known for their mastery of science or medicine, preferring to rely on prayers to their dark gods. However, with stolen secrets, the Murkcaller clan has begun a conquest of the marshlands, drinking foul extracts and mutagens to return to more powerful, primeval states, with which they can match their vodyanoi rival’s mystic might. Its only a matter of time before their newfound power gives them the courage to raid the stilt villages near the border of swamp and river.
Cervin Dunwillow has always been a foul, disgusting individual, his ugly, toadlike body mirroring his lecherous, wicked disposition, his money and alchemical concoctions the only reason he is tolerated in the village. No one has seen the man for days, however, some claiming his obsession with amphibians having gone too far.
Not all swamps can be found connected to rivers and lakes. Mosshome is a massive bog formed from the stagnant water collected in a hollow near the base of the world tree. There, grippli chemists patrol their kingdom, crawling up walls like spiders and raining toxic attacks down on their foes from above.
